An overcast sky, a temperature in the low 30s and a week-old snow that was anything other than pristine made for the ideal conditions for an early-winter pheasant hunt. For the two Labrador retrievers ...

FREEMAN, S.D. - Dogs bound through the switchgrass, hunters in orange caps advance in a row behind them. The sun shines, and even if there aren't many pheasants to shoot, all is right with the world.

It was a big dove shoot, maybe 100 gunners, a typical Middle Georgia affair with a midday barbecue, then shooters heading afield in early afternoon. There was an early flurry of opening-day birds, and ...