It’s been said that the largest armed force on earth convenes on grain fields each September to shoot doves. Under the hot sun, around barbecue pits, iced drinks and panting dogs, camo-clad hunters usher in the real new year pursuing birds.

Fireworks erupt at the legal shooting time. Shotguns blast salutations at diminutive gray gamebirds that streak overhead, barrel-rolling like Top-Gun cadets, some falling in a feathery poof. That’s how my own indoctrination into hunting humbly began under the watchful eye of my grandfather. But the world’s one helluva lot bigger than a dusty Mississippi Delta dove field.

I found out that doves were plentiful in South Texas when I was working there in my college days. I also hunted bobwhite and scaled quail there. They preferred running to holding tight, but they were no match for my energetic springer spaniel. The behavior of those birds was an eve-opener for both of us.

We returned home with our hunting world expanded. We then pursued the migratory woodcocks  in bottomland hardwood thickets, Wilson’s snipe on the drained-field mudflats, and moved on to pheasant in corn fields of the Midwest.

SCI Game Birds of the World Awards helps hunters learn about the many opportunities for wingshooting around the world and rewards their efforts. The platform is relatively new and stands alone from SCI existing game species awards.

Registration is as simple as completing a SCI Gamebirds of the World Photo Entry Form and submitting a grip-and-grin photo showing the distinguishing feather characteristics of your prized game bird.

My upland journey continued with deep-woods ruffed grouse, open-prairie sharp-tails and all the overseas birds: black grouse, capercaillie and an entire world’s worth of beautiful gamebirds. It was then on to Argentina, which is renowned for ducks and doves, but where hunting perdiz over pointers speaks to their own traditional heartbeat. Likewise, in South Africa, hunting guineafowl, rock pigeons, sand grouse and myriad francolin species have been elevated to near art form via orchestrated drives and deployed German short- haired pointers.

The world is full of amazing gamebirds. The awards program helps ensure hunters on their journeys know of these many opportunities for sport and conservation around the world. Check out safariclub.org/game-birds-of-the-world to get your journey jumpstarted.

And to think that my journey with the gamebirds of the world all started on a dove field in Mississippi.

Ramsey Russell