doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com America's Fantasy with Magnums

I had to hide this post from my Skimin and Wood. It might have hurt the big guy's feelings.

And most have never shot a wild quail....

Yes, it's a magnum for the gauge, absolutely. I also believe Destry's experience makes him an exception in the use of magnums. He's almost a full-time gunner chasing birds wherever they are. I doubt magnums are "fantasy" to him.

Anybody who lives West of ABQ hunts only wild birds and animals as there are no game farms or pen raised animals/birds that I know of......

jOe, Instead of shooting the B-52's you like to stack from behind a tree......, you need to travel West and try the fastest flushing wild game bird in North America......a bird that really knows how to motor and flush......and requires a nice 5-10 mile jaunt over hill and dale at altitudes Easterner's can only dream of.........and do it all without a dog and see how smart and good a hunter you really are..............

It would test your speed, agility and swing in short order......and your fitness........oh ya, and your gun, choke and gauge choices........

I shoot light small-bore guns at wild Bobwhite over Brittanys. Usually a 5-1/2 pound sixteen gauge. I also have some down to 4-1/2 pounds. When I get into a discussion of sport and gauge here it is usually after someone has disparaged the use of small gauges and they usually state that a 12 gauge should be used from pointed Bobwhite up through pheasant.

The point of being out watching the pointing dogs is sport. The point of using a small gauge is sport. The rational choice is to get your Gallinaceous bird at drive-up window at Kentucky Fried Chicken and be done with it.

One of my customers has a 200,000 acre ranch. He is an avid Bobwhite hunter and has been for decades and spends huge sums of money on habitat and hunting each year. He has studied both the birds and the hunting. I get to go with him now and then. He has a rule that no 12 gauges are allowed - and no shot smaller than #8. It is his opinion that the 42% increase in shot of 12ga over 20ga inadverdently wounds and kills birds besides the intended to a greater extent than a smaller shot charge.

I was in Montana in September. I took an old beat-up eight pound Parker 12 bore because I shoot it well. A pointed covey of Huns flushed and I knocked down four birds with one shot. 1-1/8 ounce of 8s out of a cylinder choke. I only intended to hit one and the rest were behind the targeted bird. I shot several more inadverdent "doubles" on that trip, usually on Sharptails.

My current thinking is that 3/4 ounces of #9 shot out of a modified or full choke might be the optimum combination when trying to limit "collateral" Bobwhite damage. The lighter shot load means few pellets, the #9 shots runs out of energy in a shorter distance, and the full choke lowers the area of the pattern.

Best,

Mike

Our thinking certainly changes over the years. When wild bobwhites were all we hunted around here in South GA, I was thrilled with any "collateral damage" I was lucky enough to get on a covey rise...Geo

Pa I hunted all around Grand Junction Tennessee when we had wild quail with some of the finest dogs in the land.....quail hunting without a dog is stupid at best.

Might be if you didn't intend to eat them.

jOe....I guess if you hunt in the dense leafy woody woods of humidville America, then you need the help......F.Y.I., as an example, about 85% + of Arizona/Southern Utah Gambel's quail hunters do NOT use dogs..............in fact, read some of Jack O'Conner's old quail stories from AZ or Mexico and look for a dog anywhere in his many quail stories, and you will see this is nothing new...............

I know you've never experienced this or seen it or understand it, but it's always been that way in the Southwest........if you walked the land, understood the birds habits and manuevered around the Cholla jumping cactus you would know why...........this is why "we still have" wild native quail........

Since quail nest on the ground, Roadrunners eat their fair share of quail eggs in the Southwest during nesting, as do some other pests.......

I lived in Southern Arizona for over 25 years and there was no whistle blowing going on during either of the two quail seasons......FYI.....some of the open grass valleys around Patagonia along the border with Mexico accomodates dogs o.k., but the native desert country is NOT dog friendly............this is not Tennesse, Georgia or Kansas....

Good grief, how did you get that I endorse short range crippling?
My point is: Know what is coming out of your barrel(s) and how effective it is at the distances you shoot; all of which can be accomplished by pattern and penetration tests.
When you know your barrel(s)/loads and their effective ranges, crippling can be held to a minimum.