doublegunshop.com - home Forums Thread Like Summary - Two weeks till Dove season!

Surprised this has not been posted as of yet. What is everyone packing to the Dove Field opening day? I got Lucky and picked up the first and second day Ohio controlled dove hunts. Which over the past years of being picked up have been birds every where you look.

I'll be packing my new inverness opening day. If I shot it as well as did first time out on the SC course. Mr dove beware! LOL!, second day I'll pack the little Aya #2 410. Picked up 75 rounds of 2 1/2 inch rounds, with 1/2 oz of 8's

Am looking forward in hunting those little speed darts!

Rich

42 .410pigeon grade or my late uncles Crescent .410. I know a big difference but the more I think about it the more I am thinking that I ought to take the Crescent. The Crescent is not gem to look at and I do not shoot it that well. The left barrel is choked so tight that anything under 25 yards can be crushed. My kids can not figure out why I keep it. They never hunted with my uncle. The most humble, happy man, I ever knew who never complained in my hearing.

A man who overcame setbacks his entire life. Rheumatic fever and Polio as a child, crippling arthritis as an adult, heart problems from the Rheumatic fever as an adult. I never knew him as a boy but I watched him go from being a strong young man, able to farm, to having to work in an farm store lifting bags of grain, feed and fertilizer, to a man who wen to college to become an accountant as his body betrayed him and in the end a man who struggled to walk and do the simplest task of life. But he was also a man who loved to hunt and fish, loved to sit and listen to a quail call or a whip-poor-will, loved to talk with his nephews and loved that Crescent .410. He had better, fancier guns, but he could handle that cheap, store band double like a maestro conducting a fine symphony. Many is the time that I watched him drop a pair on a covey flush. Often when he only shot once on the flush I would ask him why he had not shot a second bird? His reply was he only saw hens after his first shot. And I rarely recall him taking a female bird. Maybe he did only see hens, maybe he just wanted them to get away so he could come back again. Yeah, I think it will be Uncle Juniors gun on day one. He would like that and I think I will as well.

Our unusually wet monsoon summer rains have produced an extraordinary dove hatch! As I've been setting on my tractor haying (very behind as the fields stayed wet) I see dove flying all day long on the horizon and about the farm and ranch. Scores of birds on my gravel road in the late afternoon! Lots of fun!!

I had two of my girls (dove guns) "sorted out" by the late Jim Kelly, since last season ......... my 16 ga. LC Smith FWE with 32" barrels (Susie) and my Parker DHE 16/20 two gauge gun with 32" barrels (Maddie). Both needed minor, but important, maintenance. Now, I can enjoy being with them in the later two seasons. I dearly love them both, and am anxious to take them afield again.

Susie.........





And Maddie..........



Susie's the kind of good lookin' country gal that will be ready to ride the dirt roads with you to have fun in the field, anytime, rain or shine. Madeline is a bit more classy, is comfortable in refined company, but will deliver the goods anytime required.

Watching a 50 acre center pivot corn field right now to see where I might hunt. It usually gets picked by now, allowing me to plant milo through the middle of it in time for it to make by the first freeze. It hasn't yet been picked, so I'm now hoping the pick day will be as late as possible, which could set up well for the first week of dove season.
I did have another dry land field of corn picked in late July which now has a great stand of milo coming up in it; should be ideal for the later seasons. No matter what, I suspect I'll have an English 20 SxS with me.

The farm water tank has a handful of Whitewing doves but they have had their nesting crowded out by the Ringed Collered doves. I bet over 100 moving about in the mornings. Easier to hit and they make a "thud" when the hit the ground! Our VERY wet monsoon summer rains look to have been kind to the wildlife.

There is not any bag limits or season (always open) on the Ringed Collored dove here in AZ. I heard they came from Texas not England? My grandsons call them Teradactyls because of there call (growl). They cook up OK, we will shoot a 5 gallon bucket full!

True, but the other options are too expensive to be practical, except for maybe the once-a-year hunters. The non-lead requirement was phased in over a few years, and when the stuff finally hit the fan a few years ago, Yuma was overrun with CA "hunters," many of whom were and are just shooters. The situation is further complicated by the current ammo availability problems, and because one can no longer buy ammo online and have it shipped to home in CA. It has to go to an FFL, who has to do a background check (for a fee), and then transfer the ammo to the purchaser. If one is not in the "DOJ system," the cost of the background check is $19 and the check is not instant. You might have to come back in a week or two to pick up your ammo. Purchasers are regularly declined for no apparent reason, and it is impossible to get any details from CA DOJ. There are numerous reports of on-duty police officers, in uniform and wearing their duty weapon, being declined by the DOJ instant check, no reason given. One of my friends was buying ammo just last week, and the cop in front of him in line was declined. Oh yeah, at most stores you get to take a number and wait in line for an hour or more to buy ammo because it now has to be kept behind the counter where you can't get at it until there is staff available to "help" you. The situation sucks, the CA government sucks, and that is part of why AZ is overrun with CA hunters. AZ is simple, just buy some lead loads and go hunt. But if you have AZ ammo left at the end of your hunt, you can't legally bring it back into CA if you are a CA resident. The state government is out of control.

I'm still waiting on my invitation, hint hint

We did. I fell asleep with Susie in my arms and ......... we bonded. 🤭

The Eurasian Collared dove is what we refer to as the ringnecked dove. They much prefer to stay around dwellings and other outbuildings, much more so than a mourning dove. They do fly slower, but dress the palate in much the same way as a mourning. On a dove shoot they are considered "bonus birds", as they don't count against your limit of mourning doves. They are easy to miss if you shoot a lot of mourning doves, as their slower flight will cause you to over lead them, when one appears suddenly. They have a good deal more meat on the breast than a mourning dove. I can only imagine how much fun it must be to shoot them out west, around dairies and feedlots, as there is no limit on them anywhere that I am aware of.

Come to think of it, there are three species of doves that show up on most of our shoots. The other one not mentioned in this thread is the Common Ground Dove. We call them the $1000 dove, because it is speculated that's how much the fine will cost you if you are caught with a dead one in your bag. Though I don't really know how much the fine would be, they are cute little fellows that never seem to fly much over 20 ft. high. I see them in the fields we tend all the time, usually in small groups of two or three. Tiny little things.

https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/common-ground-dove

I well remember when you bought that 32" 16 ga. Elsie at the Fall Southern SxS years ago, Stan. Long-range puffer.
JR

If it has a plug, which most likely it does, it has been shaved down to allow a extra shell if 2 1/2” I expect. Easy to fix. Knew fellows who used short shells in a gun which had a plug for 2 3/4” shells. Those mini shells would allow three up the magazine instead of just two 2 3/4” shells. Game warden would try shoving a third “regular” shell in the gun and it would not go. Fad did not last long when one fellow was seen shooting a fourth shell at a dove without reloading. Got his ticket from the game warden and a lot of ribbing for needing four shells to miss a single bird. Heck, most could miss any bird with only one or two shells. Even game wardens can count to three, all the way up to 15 these days. When I as young they only had to count to 12. Inflation.

Any shotgunners that are in my area please contact me and stop by! It should be pretty good till it gets cold.
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