When Pam Prepura saw the man with no arms and legs running down the street with a shotgun, she knew she was home.

Prepura, 50, lost her arm in a car accident in Chicago a decade ago. Still devastated 11 months later, she went to the one-armed dove hunt in Olney, Texas.

That’s where she met Doug Davis, who lost his arms and legs to a blood infection in 1994. He now uses prosthetic limbs.

“I just couldn’t stop smiling,” Prepura said. “It was weird. It was strange to see two-armed people.”

For almost 40 years, people have descended on the small town in the north of Texas to hunt doves and swap stories about life without limbs. They call it a family reunion.

“I can go months without seeing another amputee, and you go down there, and there’s 100,” said Davis from his home in Wisconsin. “Down there you’re not treated like you’ve lost an arm, they’ll pretty well tease you no matter what.”

The hunt began in 1972, when Jack Northrup and Jack Bishop started spinning tales about one-armed men and shot guns for out-of-towners who were eavesdropping at the local drugstore. When the people left, they realized the idea was actually a good one. They had 17 people show up that first year.

Nowadays, they expect 100 people at their September event.

“They learn more here than medical science can tell them what to do,” Northrup said.

People talk about gadgets they’ve made to help them do little tasks, like spreading jam on a piece of toast. There is also a golf tournament, a 10-cents-a-finger breakfast, and horseshoes. Dena Foster, who lost her arm in a propeller incident, won a shotgun from a raffle a few years back but is not interested in hunting.

“She couldn’t stop laughing,” said Prepura, who still lives outside Chicago. “She said, ‘What am I going to do with this?’ ”

A retired city planner, Northrup lost his arm in a vehicle accident when he was serving in the army in 1956. Many of the other participants have lost limbs in farming or oilfield injuries. A few were born without limbs.

When he hunts doves, Northrup brings his gun to his shoulder “right quick,” puts his head down to the sight field, and fires.

Davis steadies his gun with a patch of Velcro on his shoulder.

Prepura doesn’t hunt.

“I’m always happy when I hear they don’t expect it to be a good hunt,” she said.

September is dove hunting season in Texas. U.S. officials estimate there are 400 million mourning doves in the fall migration across North America. Because of their abundance, mourning doves are hunted in 40 states during certain seasons. But the hunt is not without controversy. In 2006, the citizens of Michigan voted to stop the hunt of official Michigan state bird of peace.

But in Texas, dove hunting is a popular pastime and a pretty good meal.

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Davis likes his wrapped in bacon and stuffed with jalapenos.

This year, there will be a man from Australia. A few years ago, there was a guy from Vancouver. Prepura hopes that some day, someone from Toronto might come.

“Maybe someone that’s hurting will go to the dove hunt next year,” she said. “Because when you go there, it rejuvenates you.”