doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Dove Season!

The best advice I could give, to any newbie dove shooter, is to not be tempted to take long shots. Even on opening day you will encounter some older, mature birds, which take a lot more killing than juveniles often seen early season. As Frank said, #7 steel is not great, but might do okay if you limit your range to very close birds. Pretend you're shooting a .410 (as far as range) with 1/2 oz. lead, and you should do alright.

SRH

I have banana clips for my dubs! My philosophy is make it hard for the little rockets to get through the lead cloud!

I used to worry about my shooting percentage. Nowadays my shooting is so bad I just try to make it up on volume. Only way to kill one is to have lead in the air!...Geo

Hardest thing to do is convince shooters to not sky bust. Only way I found to do it was limit the number of shells a shooter was allowed to take out into the field. If they have four boxes they will burn through them and want more. I limit shooters to two boxes. After that they can walk back to their truck and get one more box of shells. We call it the �walk of shame�. But after we did this the number of dove taken per shell went up almost 50%. Not 50% hit rate, but from the low teens, sometimes the very low teens to about 25%. Some did a lot better. Also I have them walk out 25 paces and see what that distance looks like. That�s a decent kill zone for most.

Some shooters will double their number of dead birds if they just let birds come in ten yards closer. Inside 20 yards I�m a 95% shooter. Others might be a 50% shooter. Plus the number of lost dead birds goes down the closer they fall to the shooter. Some shooters don�t shoot enough to hit much more than 20% of what they shoot at any distance. So I tell them if you want a limit you must hit 20% or more. That�s not a high bar on early season Doves.

What I really like to do is sit next to a young shooter. Explain to him what�s too far. Coach him until he starts hitting birds about half the time. Their smile, when they hit one, make it all worthwhile. I think, hooked another hunter.

If the lead ain't flyin, the meat ain't dyin

Mike

p.s. My average shot is about 30 yards

It will be a 16 gauge for sure.....maybe

Look like the Georgia pecan crop is in for some serious trouble as well as the doves.

The nuts are set on the trees and at their most vulnerable if the hurricane does come this way. Here's hoping it doesn't...Geo

Our corn is the most vulnerable thing here to a hurricane. We are combining everyday, but won't be through by the time Dorian arrives ............ if it arrives. The winds will abate after landfall, and maybe they will be low enough, by the time it reaches us, that it won't blow it all down. Flattened corn is a nightmare to try to combine. The longer a hurricane stays over land the weaker it gets.

Our doves won't leave, this time of year, because of a hurricane. They will hunker down, ride it out, and be back feeding as soon as the bad weather passes through.

SRH

I woke up this morning and saw where Dorian is predicted to landfall at the coastal Georgia/SC border on Thursday which is where I live. I expect to wake up tomorrow and see different news with the cone of uncertainty centered somewhere else. Coastal residents will wear this cone of uncertainty like a dog wearing a plastic cone of misery after visiting the vet. It's what we go through this time of the year, year after year and more so the last three. As long as Jim Cantore doesn't show up we'll be fine. A couple of years ago a tropical depression mowed down our field before the season opened and the doves never came back. That will be the least of the worries. The local TV stations will gin up the hysteria before long. Gil