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Forums10
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Mar 29th, 2024
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Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 7,708 Likes: 471
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 7,708 Likes: 471 |
My dad and I did a lot of dove shooting for 40 years with a variety of individuals. The best were those who consistently managed to knock down a lot of doves regardless of conditions.
Charles R. was a guy who drove a pulpwood truck and favored heavy 12ga autoloaders. He inherited a lot of land and he could have retired before he hit 40, but driving a truck was what he did, so he kept driving. My dad also was a fine shot, again he favored heavy autoloaders with long barrels. We shot in any weather, high wind, wet, cold, didn't matter. Charles and my dad always put birds on the ground.
I'll admit to being a little discouraged in the past few years as far as thinking of those I considered outstanding shots. When I've read accounts of dove shooters lately, there have been a fairly large percentage who claim to have killed one bird with one shot or thereabouts, and have gotten their limit with barely more than a half box of shells. I think about those blustery days with the wind howling, the birds coming in high with a tailwind, twisting and turning over the field. If those shooters can average close to one bird per shell in those conditions, my hat is off to them. Maybe we weren't such good shots after all back in the day. I love late season Dove hunting above anything else. Big birds, strong fliers, educated by weeks of hunting and tail winds to make their flights a true adventure. For those I leave the .410 home and break out a 32 Sterlingworth. But my shell ratio still goes way up. I dont look for high percentage shots. What do you learn from taking them? Nothing. If I want safe shots Ill take my 42 to the Sporting Clays range. Be proud of knowing the difference between safe, easy, and much harder, more frustrating it also more rewarding hunting.
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Joined: Jun 2015
Posts: 390 Likes: 8
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jun 2015
Posts: 390 Likes: 8 |
Stan,
Best wing shooter I ever ran across was our shooting coach on the Air Force Trap team. When it came to dove shooting, Sandy only shot a 410 o/u kriegoff, limit was 10 birds and he would shot 10 to 11 shells. A bad day was 12 shots.
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 13,143 Likes: 1143
Sidelock
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OP
Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 13,143 Likes: 1143 |
Some interesting responses. Thanks to all who have. That is how you take a high percentage but doubt you'll become a better shot. You may be right. But nobody says you have to spend a whole season shooting like that. There are days I try to stretch my "perimeters", and other days I decide to cull all shots, except those I think I have a high percentage on, and shoot for a high average. It's all much fun, but I really prefer to hone my skills on long shots on the sporting clays field. Cripples don't matter there, and what you learn carries over to the dove field very well. If the speed, distance and angle are the same, the lead will be the same, whether it's a clay bird or a gray rocket. SRH
May God bless America and those who defend her.
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 869 Likes: 2
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 869 Likes: 2 |
My friend and hunting partner introduced me to wingshooting. Through some hard times he guided on a large NYS preserve. Conservatively, he killed 10k phez. His gun was a 1300 Win XTR slug gun with 24" bbl and rifle sights.
He averaged well over 70% through all the years we hunted together. Truthfully, it was closer to 80%, and he did not pick his shots or worry about his kill % as do some folks. Witnessed too many kills at what I still consider "ridiculous" distances to recount. He used factory #7.5 trap loads almost exclusively. He'd call his shots, eg. "head shot", and was nearly always right. I know this b/c I cleaned birds. He'd even tell me I hadn't killed a bird we both fired at. Most always he was right about that too, b/c I usually used B&P small #6s shot size. Again, I was the one cleaning birds.
One occasion he forgot to bring shells and I had a box of fiber wad high-brass RP in #7.5s. That was the only time I saw him have trouble killing stuff.
Near the end of our times at the place I'd improved to the point a 16 ga M-12 "full" was useful in my hands. One day, after killing stuff out to and beyond 50 yds with B&P #5s, he said "nice shooting Pasty" (his term of endearment). To this day, that is the most meaningful compliment I've ever received.
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Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 135
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 135 |
My dad was the best shot on doves that I have ever seen. He grew up on a farm near Buena Vista, GA. He and his brothers shared an old Belgian clunker hammer double growing up. They would flip a coin to see who shot first. If the first one eventually missed a shot they would have to hand it over to the next one until he missed. They would carry the gun to school on the bus and walk home hunting on the way (This was in the 30's). By the time I came along Daddy shot a 12 ga. Remington 1100 26" barrel IMP CYL for doves. He always took 4 boxes of shells. One cold late season day with the wind howling I saw him kill 98 with that 4 boxes. Many of his shots were birds that others had passed up because they were too tall. I was his retriever in those days (about 7 years old). He was a pretty good skeet shot as well- shooting on a civilian team from Ft. Benning. Unfortunately he suffered a stroke in 1969 that left his right arm paralyzed and that ended most of his shooting.
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