doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Excessive loads for doves

My pastor and his wife had lunch with my wife and I today after church. He told me about seeing a couple guys on a dove shoot last year using store bought loads that were a mixture of 7 1/2s and 9s. He asked me who marketed them. I told him I didn't know but would find out.

A bit of searching resulted in my finding "Winchester Heavy Dove" loads. They are 1 1/4 oz. loads of 7 1/2 and 9 shot, at 1400 fps!!!!

What????

I've shot tens of thousands of doves in the last 68 years and have determined pretty well what it takes to get the job done. No less than 80%, probably more, of the doves I've taken have been with 7/8 oz. loads of 7 1/2s or 8s. This at ranges out to and exceedingly 50 yards, even out to 65 yards.

Once in Argentina I was placed on a stand where approaching doves were gaining altitude to clear very tall eucalyptus trees. My bird boy, who had me 7/8 oz. twenty gauge loads every previous shoot, had brought out 1 oz. loads. I immediately noticed it and told him to take them back and bring me 7/8 oz. loads.

I put light-modified and modified chokes in my O/U and proceeded to wipe some very high doves down. The bird boy was clearly surprised, and he did this everyday.

This "obsession " with magnum and super high velocity loads has reached the extreme, IMO. They are, for 99% of hunting, unnecessary, and the recoil only serves to hurt most people's shooting anyway.

Question for you Stan, How Many of those friendly ''SONG BIRDS'' , I mean Doves, did you ''EAT'', OR DID YOU JUST THROW THEM AWAY ?

Dirty Harry

Holy cow, that's a nuts load for doves.

Do you have to work hard at being so abrasive, or does it just come naturally to you?

I'll answer your question, IF you do a better job of asking it and not being accusatory. Want to give it a try, HG?

Thanks Stan, I do not need to give it another ''Try'', your answer to my ''First Try'' answered my question.

Dirty Harry

Don't respond to Dirty Harry, Stan. He offers nothing but dirt, as his screen name indicates.
JR

No thanks necessary. I wasn't doing you a "favor", just offering you the opportunity to be a gentleman instead of a butthole.

I have not shot “tens of thousands of doves” but I have spent a fair amount of time shooting them in Argentina as well as in the US. At times shooting well over 1000 per day.

I’ve also shot a lot of pigeons, both barn pigeons, wood pigeons and whatever they have in central and South America.

I’ve also shot huge numbers of starlings, crows and grackles.

I completely agree about high and ultra high velocity. It’s detrimental to patterns, detrimental to guns, detrimental to hearing and detrimental to the shooter’s well being. Utterly nothing to recommend it.

I enjoy long range shooting with a tightly choked 12 bore. Not at all opposed to 1 1/8 oz or even 1 1/4 oz hard #6 or 7 shot. Velocity about 1180 to 1200 FPS.

In July I spent a few days shooting wood pigeons with a 12 bore 32” Purdey pigeon gun. The standard load in the UK is 1 1/16 oz #5 which is equivalent to a US #6. Velocity was unmarked but modest. I’d guess just 1200 FPS. I shot 3 pigeons dead in air with 3 consecutive shots They were crossing a rock wall just beyond a gate. The guide was the Scottish National sporting Clays champion. He came out with a laser and ranged the gate at 85 yards. The pigeons were 5-10 yards beyond it. Choke in the left barrel is .046. I don’t think those patterns would have held together at 1400 FPS. Probably some luck involved yet a decent pattern must have been part of it.

I’m not opposed to shooting a tightly choked 20 bore at doves but see no need for velocity over 1220 FPS. The further you are shooting the less velocity you want.

it doesn't surprise me at all that I agree with you Stan. I haven't shot thousands of doves, but more than a few and certainly thousands of clays with nothing more than 7/8 oz and more recently 3/4 oz.

I refer to this as Americans magnum mentality. Just about everything has to be Magnum-Magnum-Magnum or it won't bring the game down. Guns, loads you name it has to be close to howitzer capability, or it just won't cut-it. This applies to American branded pick-ups as well.

I'm old enough to remember when you looked forward to the Sept.1st dove opener because usually in the last couple of weeks in August the gun dealers & discount stores were running big sales on cheap dove loads and it was a good time to stock up while the price was right. Many of those loads weren't the best, but they sure brought a bunch of doves to the bag and busted a crap-load of clays for reasonable money.