It all began on the second Saturday in September during a dove hunt with fellow officer Paul Wilson. On that hot, cloudy day, Paul had made arrangements with Martha Lott to take a look-see at her water softener. Martha invited Paul to shoot a few dove while he was out there and Paul needed a "consultant" so he invited me to tag along.
Paul and I had agreed to meet at the MMTW Clinic at 6:00 AM. Of course, I was my usual five minutes late; mainly due to my Jeep deciding that Saturday was a good day to die. Fortunately, the Jeep croaked about 100 feet from the entrance to the clinic and I was able to push it into the parking lot. However, when I arrived, there was no white truck or Paul. As I waited for Paul, dozens of dove flew overhead. At 6:30 I began to think that Paul had arrived and 6:00 AM, and not finding me there, had left for Martha's. At 6:45 AM I walked over to a phone and called Paul, only to find out that he had been dreaming about dove hunting until the phone interrupted him. Paul made it to the clinic in record time and we were soon off to our rendezvous with the gray darters.
As Paul took Exchange Blvd. to get to the highway, we passed a father and son, both dressed in camo, which were in the process of getting guns and gear out of a car. The vehicle was parked next to a field behind Roadway Freight Company. This spurred a discussion between Paul and I on the ramifications of hunting in the city limits as we drove to Martha's. When we got to the field I quickly forgot about the man and his boy.
The next day, my son and I drove to the clinic and waited on a wrecker to come and take the jeep to Jimmy Wade's repair shop. As we waited, we listened to shotgun blast after shotgun blast in the distance. After the wrecker left I played a hunch and drove over to Exchange Blvd. We were rewarded with not one but seven vehicles parked along the road and at least 20 hunters blasting at dove in the field. I called the Police.
I was informed by the Police Officer that Exchange Blvd. was the city limits. Roadway (on the east side of the street) was in the city limits but the field (on the west side of the street) was out of the city limits. I verified this information with a Travis County Sheriff's Deputy and a Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife Game Warden. The Sheriff's Deputy that I spoke to informed me that the land was owned by the Hardin Corporation and that they allowed hunters to hunt there without written permission. He went on to say that hunters have hunted there for as long as he had been on the force (eight years). I now looked upon the field, and the hunters who hunted there, in a different light.
Later, during a conversation with Bill Smith, I related to him what I had learned. We decided to give the field a try. We hunted there the next Saturday afternoon but were rewarded with only about six shots and one bird. We decided to try a morning hunt on the next Saturday. The results were not a significant improvement. Believing that the place had been hunted out I quickly forgot about it. However, about a week later, Bill informed me that he had gone to the field on a solo morning hunt and bagged seven birds and fired about a box and a half of shells. Bill and I made plans to hunt again the next Saturday morning.
Bill arrived at his usual 6:15 AM on that eventful October morning. It was cool and the air was crisp as we waited what seemed like hours for the sky to lighten. As soon as it was light enough to see a dove that must have been flying at least 50 MPH nearly flew into me. For about ten minutes the action was fast and furious but then it died down.
During a lull in the action we notice a white pickup drive by. The driver slowed down and looked us over before he sped away. More dove came in and I quickly forgot about the truck. A short time later, the truck returned from the opposite direction, slowed down, then hit the curb as it sped away from us. Thinking that what we saw was an early morning drunk, I again turned my attention to hunting. However, about five minutes later, I heard a vehicle driving down the road, turned and saw one of Austin's distinctive blue and white Police cruisers.
Trying to not act alarmed, I turned to my original position and tried to divert Bill's attention (he was 75 yards away) to the fact that we had a visitor. Of course, as fate would have it, a large flock of dove flew over Bill and he promptly blasted away at them. This flock was followed by a flock of at least 20 birds that flew directly over me. However, I did not shoot because I figured that one of us would need to bail the other out of jail. Immediately after the flock flew over me, we heard the words that I will never forget as long as I live; "Gentlemen put your guns down, come over hear, and put your hands up where I can see them!"
We put our guns down, raised our hands, and turned to discover that we were being confronted with the most dangerous creature on the face of the earth - a woman with a gun. The officer had her hand on the butt and trigger of her service revolver but had not drawn it. She had positioned herself behind her car. Bill and I walked quietly over to her, thinking all the while - We're going to die!
Instructing us to keep our hands on our heads, she went behind us and removed our wallets from our pants pockets. She asked the usual questions that you hear on television police shows - what are we doing here, why do we think we can hunt in the city, etc. While she was questioning us, she was joined by a second officer (a man) and the man from the white truck - who turned out to be a security guard working for Roadway. We apparently scared the guard as he drove by and he called the police.
I won't bore you will all the questions they asked and our responses. They checked out my story and found it to be accurate. We were told that although we were not doing anything illegal we could be charged with being public nuisances and that maybe we should find somewhere not so close to the city to hunt. Relieved that we were not going to jail, we did not argue the point too much. We packed our guns and gear and left.
Although Bill and I had every right to hunt where we were, there were several things that made me believe that it would not be wise to continue to hunt there: 1. The road is a city of Austin public street and anyone who is driving that street could have an accident when they were startled by a shotgun blast less than a hundred yards from them, especially at dawn or sunset, 2. Employees of Roadway reported to the security guard that they, their cars, and Roadway vehicles had been shot by hunters from the field (although this was probably only the experience of being "rained on" due to the fact that the field is at least 100 yards away), and 3. The field was littered with empty shotshells, shell boxes, and assorted other trash. Although Bill and I did not partake of points 2 & 3 the mere fact that we were hunting in the field was enough for the security guard to accuse us of shooting employees of Roadway the week before (which, as we pointed out could not have been us because we were not there a week before).
Neither of us ever returned.
Whenever we’ve brought up the experience since then, Bill and I always laugh and joke about it. There are now several businesses located on the hunting spot, including a Louis Shanks furniture warehouse. Looking back at this experience now, in 11/03, I’m more than a little bit embarrassed by it. We didn’t do anything illegal but we sure lacked wisdom in spades. I include it on the Website now only in the hopes that others might learn from our folly.