doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Countdown to dove season opener

Tristar Brittany 410 SXS

My middle son today decided his opening day gun will be a Fox A grade 16 gauge, my late father used at age 90, to kill 15 birds with 23 shells. Both my younger sons were there that day and watched my father's last hunt. Dad used the Fox I loaned him and I used his late brothers little Crescent .410 to take my limit. I used more than a box of shells to take my limit. Dove hunting holds a very special place in my heart and life. Hope everyone as a great opening day and gets a chance to reconnect with friends and family.

Amen, brother. Dove shooting is just part of who I am, taught and instilled in me by my Grandad, and encouraged by my Dad. This opener will "mark" my first dove shoot 64 years ago at age 8, and I remember it vividly.

A toast (black coffee) ...............to long barrels and little grey rockets.

I remember my first dove hunt as well. I may have been 8 or maybe just 6, but I recall we met up with the crowd at a honkeytonk south of Thomaston and hunted somewhere close to the Flint River. That was the first time I had ever entered a honkeytonk, but I knew what one was. The lady inside was nice to me and offered me a coke. I've noticed that women in places like that all seem to be quite nice.

I sat first with my Dad and searched in the woods until I found a dove he had shot. Then after the shoot my Granddaddy relented to my desire to shoot a real gun. He handed me his 16ga A-5 Browning and told me to aim it up in the air toward the river. He had to show me how to release the military style safety on it. I did as told and when I shot it kicked me, the gun that is, flat on my back in the middle GA red clay. It was an autoloader of course and I never saw my Grandfather move so quick when he realized I was still holding the gun and it had self loaded a second shell. No problem there, I certainly wasn't going to fire it again!

I inherited that shotgun as well as his love of dove hunting, as passed both along to one of my sons. I passed the love of dove shooting along to all three of my boys and I'm working on two sons-in law as well...Geo

I will be shooting either my 28 or 20 gauge B Rizzini. I suppose at some point that day I will bring out the 410 Perazzi

That's of course totally up to you Mike, but I find I shoot the. 410s better if I dedicate myself to it for the entire shoot. Swapping guns during a shoot doesn't work for me. But good luck! If I had a . 410 Perazzi I'd prolly just be ruint for anything else.

Hello Stan.
I thought about you this morning while scouting along the California Aqueduct in the Antelope Valley in SoCal.
While not quite Yuma, there were plenty of opportunity to bag some dove.
The most amazing thing were the coveys of Quail (big coveys of Quail) that we jumped.
Here was the last of about 2 dozen that stuck around while I fumbled my phone to snap an image.
Biggest covey maybe 4 dozen.



Opening day Dove will be great. Opening day Quail should be spectacular.
I’ll be shooting a little Browning 28 gauge.
Bismuth or steel as lead is no longer allowed on public land.

Wow!, four dozen in a covey! Those appear be Gambel's.(?) Thanks for resurrecting the thread with that picture.

I've hunted them in AZ and had a glorious time. If I lived out West I'd be an inveterate chaser of them, and the other quail species. How something with wings as little as they have can take flight and get out of range so fast is amazing. I thought wild Bobs were fast but the Gambel's take the cake.

I envy you all. I have a great place to hunt dove, but a side effect of my heart issues is a total inability to tolerate heat. And heat definitely goes with the opener in SC/NC. It’s a season I always anticipated with great pleasure. So y’all shoot one for me.

Most of what we see are Valley Quail.
Last evening in my yard