"I love shooting doves near a young guy who shoots at them too far. If he and I shoot at the same dove and I kill him, I will sometimes holler to him "Your bird ..... good shot!!".
Stan
When I was an 11 year old kid trying to learn dove shooting with a single shot bolt action .410 and folded my "first" dove, I ran out to retrieve my prize never realizing that the man I shared the blind with had fired at the bird simultaneously. I was so elated that I never realized till much later in the afternoon that it was this gentleman who'd most likely killed that bird. But I never forget the lesson I learned that day which was, in the opinion of this individual it was far more important that he allow a kid to believe he'd bagged that bird than it was to claim it himself. That lesson has remained with me to this day; and anytime another shooter, and especially a young shooter, believes he's bagged a dove at which we've fired at simultaneously, it's always the other guys bird. I observe this "rule" even when there's a split second difference in the sound of the shot and I know the bird actually folded when I fired. For me it's just the right thing to do; but I've also experienced the same sportsmanship from others on a fair number of occasions when a bird dropped as I fired jointly with another shooter and the other guy insisted that he'd missed; that it was I who'd made the kill.
Good shooting in the clays event; and may you enjoy another great dove season. Tom
