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1 Sept 2022

Charles Daly O/U 410 3" #7 1/2 reloads
15 doves near Amarillo, Texas

DO NOT ask how many shells I shot, but towards the last
half of the limit I was shooting well

Mike

Good number of birds the first two days. Son, daughter in law and I had easy limits. Again I had locals try to shoot one of my fields opening day. Thanks to a local game warden, who is a friend and was asked to swing by that field, that was stopped quickly. He did give out several citations for them to remember the event by and a fine to pay later. Some of these Billy-Bobs feel like they should hunt where every they want without permission or consequences. I think this will get the word around this year. Posting it did not deter them enough. Knowing the game warden is watching ought to help.

First day I used my uncles Crescent .410, and thought about him often as I shot my limit. Son used a Ruger 28 and daughter used a Sterlingworth 20. She struggled with two triggers at first but figured it out by the end. Second day she took the Ruger 28 and son and I shot model 42’s. She beat him easily in lower number of shells used. Today we go to the field that got poached. Then rotate back to the first field tomorrow. Should get five to six good days shooting before opening things up for anyone who asks. Already have two fields being hunted by local kids next weekend. While the birds won’t be opening day dumb they should be in good numbers still and I want local kids to have a good hunt with their dads if possible. Seems it is easy to find a dozen kids still who want to hunt with their dads. Does my heart good.

I am even taking the liberal couple across the street from my house hunting Monday. It will be their first time hunting ever. It appears I am corrupting them as I got them interested in home defense, then clay shooting and now dove shooting. It has been interesting seeing them go from near anti gun, to trying a gun and then a gun owner, to clay target shooter, to now new hunter. Bacon wrapped dove breast did the final trick. Now I will let my dog do all the retrieving to seal the deal. It is so much fun to watch a dog who loves to retrieve dove in her glory. My black Lab just loves dove like I do. I just hope Sandy out shoots her husband, again.

Young Nic and I are just in the house after dressing two limits shot on birds passing to a waterhole behind our stands. Sporty shooting was on offer. Birds had height and speed enroute to their destination. I shot approximately half as well as yesterday's outing.
Oh well, now I have a "reason" to try a SxS tomorrow. This first Woodford Reserve he poured me is already helping erase the memory of some poorly pointed Misses.
I know..... at this stage in Life, I should just be content that I had a nice outing. But..... this missing thing..... I still can't get comfortable with it.
Best in sport to You

First man on the field to limit. Only gun on the field that wasn't a jammamatic.

Parker DHE two gauge set, today with the 32" set in 20 gauge. The 32" set of 16 ga. barrels will get used during the late season. RST 20 ga. LITE shells. Chokes F and F.

The persistent Drought conditions had pretty well dimmed the expectations for a good Dove season here on the lower Rolling Plains. NO wheat cut this year, no native sunflower production to speak of. Usual strong native nesting population hatched well. Doves feeding in pastures on widely scattered weed seeds but not concentrated in numbers to afford a shoot. Hence it was evident that the conditions set up a scenario where water hole shooting would be the tactic that put shootable numbers in front of my gun. Intermittent (very welcome) rains over the past 10 days kicked that idea in the head. Doves would as soon water in a convenient cow track as any reservoir. Plans changed.

I have not fared well in this rain event (4-6 inches nearby in 4 directions , inch and a quarter on this ranch.) Shot yesterday and Thursdays opener pass shooting birds returning to roost in some of my Mesquite "Forrest".
20 ga. Fabbri SxS once , Perazzi 20 MX8 yesterday, limits in 30-45 minutes 7/8 oz. AA 8's ( my favorite Dove load of all time ) Today I will gun with my annual return to my younger days choice. 20 ga Remington 870 plain (matted bbl) , 7 diamond checkered ADL model , first year , 1950, production. Truth being told , I will probably average higher with it than any gun I shoot. Always have been pretty poisonous with those early Remington repeaters.

Results around the area are quite poor according to all reports.
I have not heard of a single limit being taken by anyone on one of the numerous "Party shoots" held around our area.

Good shooting to all who get to open the season this Holiday weekend.

Shot the mowed grain field on Sunday afternoon alone. Birds were present but hardly abundant. Shot the chances that came rather well, missed two with both barrels during the flight and picked up the remaining 15 without a hitch.
Shot a different waterhole with Nic yesterday afternoon and had a great outing. Plentiful birds, and lots of opportunities for me to down numerous birds in the water. Gave the Keen little Cocker a full afternoon of water retrieves to break the heat.
Two limits in short order.....Shooting the 20 Bore Browning so well I can't bring myself to drag something else out of the safe.

A covey of Grey’s in the front stubbles.
I don’t know the proper syntax to do a video embedded link.

[img]https://imgur.com/a/Ka7YTag[/img]

Friday 2 Sept

15 doves

Browning Superposed LTRK 20 gauge chiseled stock IC/MOD

My reloads and hand cast shot about 7 1/2

Mike

I thought I would give the doves a try. I posted previously that the numbers around here aren't what they used to be but I remembered flushing a pair out of some foxtail grass along a cornfield, so I thought that would be my tactic. I walked the edge of the corn and was surprised to flush probably fifty birds overall. I missed the first one and dropped the next three. That was it. I used my Fox Sterlingworth and some 3/4-ounce loads I had made up a while back. I took them because I didn't expect much and so was pleasantly surprised. I had the birds as an addition to my supper this evening. Tender and quite good.

Jump shooting doves is a little practiced way of hunting them, anymore. There used to be a weed that grew in cotton fields around here named croton. There are several species of it but the one the doves seemed to prefer the seeds from was wooly croton. It is almost never seen in cotton fields now but when it was I would walk the rows of cotton flushing doves, usually one at a time. Hitting them wasn't as hard as finding them once they were down. By that time of year many of the cotton plant's leaves had senesced and dropped off and a dove falling into them, on the grey soil surface, was perfectly camouflaged. If you don't use a retriever for doves, you soon learn to mark them down carefully.

Good sport, liverwort.

Shot the sunflower field this afternoon. We didn't go to the field until nearly 3 pm. Rains were popping up around us but we only got light sprinkles. It was a bit windy because of the impending storm clouds, which had the doves flying pretty sporty, for opening day. As I almost always do I opened the season with a .410, today the FAIR Iside 30" barreled ejector gun. I shot poorly but managed 13. No excuse for not getting the limit. Just poor shooting, that's all. So nice to be back in the field with a gun.

gjw has already started Favourite Game/Gun Pictures 2022

Gil, that is a little like my hunt with my 12 gauge Beretta 626. I hit the first 3 shots and 4 of the first 5, but went downhill from there. Finally got my 15 and will blame the poor shooting on the hot weather that really tired me out.

I converted the gun from single trigger to DT in the off-season and it surely was enjoyable to be able to instantly select the choke that I wanted.

Pump gun reminiscences, satisfied (I am not the young gunner I used to be). Shot it for the first 5 birds, 9 shells. Not as adept as I was once upon a time. That tradition satisfied, I broke out a 20 bore Browning O/U choked 1/4 and 3/4 and ran out the remaining 10 with 12 shells....Birds scarcer at this waterhole than previous days. Stepson Nic and his bride got to put their Wonderful little English Cocker to work on plenty of water retrieves. She is a Crackerjack....
Got a field with some waste grain mowed between showers last week. Going to shoot it this afternoon. there appeared to be enough birds working it yesterday afternoon to put a couple of limits of shooting in front of us.
Great to get out with my Favorite ( and usually only) shooting companion and a young dog.
Good Luck to all as your season unfolds.

Monday

05 Sept 22 15 Doves, Daly Superior Grade Skeet 20 gauge.

Reloads with homemade shot

Browning Superposed 20 bores are special guns. Perfect really. Taking mine to Michigan next month in search of the Ruffed Grouse.

Desert sunrise outside of Yuma.

We be kindred spirits, my friend.

Someone once said “If you could hit them all it wouldn’t be fun”.

I’m not convinced, but suspect I will never be able to find out.

First time I ever went to a pigeon shoot I bought five practice birds to "see what this was all about". With my old MX-8 I proceeded to drop all five dead inside the ring. As I walked out a buddy looked at me and said "This may well be the worst thing that has ever happened to you". However, I found my success to be very short lived when, awhile later that morning, I shot my first crank.

My life shotgunning could be described as being long periods of mediocrity interspersed with brief flashes of brilliance. Very few flashes, I might add.

Monday

12 Sept 22 15 Doves, Browning 16 gauge Citori

Tuesday

13 Sept 22 15 Doves,
Geco Belgium SXS 1923 proofed
Federal #8 Game Loads