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Most Online1,344 Apr 29th, 2024
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Joined: Jun 2015
Posts: 390 Likes: 8
Sidelock
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OP
Sidelock
Joined: Jun 2015
Posts: 390 Likes: 8 |
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
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Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 5,534 Likes: 169
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 5,534 Likes: 169 |
Got my license, got the hunting area all arranged, got the decoys out and fixing them up. Shot a Charles Daly Superior grade and a Rem 3200, both with 410 barrels today at Crazy. Have loaded about 2000 rounds of 410 in the last month, Life is good,
USAF RET 1971-95
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 348 Likes: 21
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 348 Likes: 21 |
Due to our drought here in central Texas any place with water will work.
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 13,160 Likes: 1154
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 13,160 Likes: 1154 |
It'll be a 30" .410 for sure. Either the FAIR Verona 30", or the Dickinson 30", or the FAIR Iside Tartaruga Gold 30". I'll shoot .410s on the opener and Labor day, then gradually move up through the 28 and 20s. After the birds are more mature, and the big migratory birds get here, I'll move to the 16s. I do, in the late season, occasionally use a 12, but never with more than 1 oz. of shot. If I cannot kill a bird that weighs from 4 to 6 oz. with 1 oz. of shot it may go it's merry way, with my blessing.
May God bless America and those who defend her.
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Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 356 Likes: 51
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 356 Likes: 51 |
About 40 years ago( I can't believe it has been that long) there was a good population of doves in my area. You could easily go through two or three boxes of shells in an evening. Now there are birds but not enough to interest hunters. A few might go out the first day just to see if the doves have returned but that's it.
Our Game Commission sells us a stamp to hunt them. The money was supposed to find how to improve dove numbers. That program began as the bird numbers dwindled and no one has ever heard a thing about what that study discovered. We still have the stamp though.
I think I know why the doves disappeared around here. The state instituted a program to reclaim all the old strip mine lands and coke ash dumps. These areas were overgrown with goldenrod, foxtail grass, and nettle weed. There were plenty of water puddles too. These were the places I found doves. I burned up a good many 20 gauge shells on them.
Last edited by liverwort; 08/16/22 09:37 PM.
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Joined: Feb 2016
Posts: 148 Likes: 108
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Feb 2016
Posts: 148 Likes: 108 |
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.
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1 member likes this:
Stanton Hillis |
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,490 Likes: 82
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,490 Likes: 82 |
I am in.
Arrieta 28 ga gold line gun.
Taking two guns so second is garbi 20 ga
John Boyd
John Boyd Quality Arms Inc Houston, TX 713-818-2971
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Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 7,724 Likes: 481
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 7,724 Likes: 481 |
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.
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7 members like this:
Tom Findrick, graybeardtmm3, FallCreekFan, mc, Run With The Fox, Stanton Hillis |
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 13,160 Likes: 1154
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 13,160 Likes: 1154 |
Due to our drought here in central Texas any place with water will work. One thing on my bucket list is to shoot doves over a stock tank. I have fancied doing that ever since reading Bob Brister's short story entitled A Small Wager Among Gentlemen in his fine book Moss, Mallards and Mules. Closest thing to that I ever get to do is shoot over a little waterhole when it gets really dry around here in the fall. Your comment about drought there reminded me of the last lines in the story ........... "By all means," the Colonel said graciously. "you're welcome at the ranch any time." "And by the way," he added, glancing at Morgan, "please bring money. As you know, that's about the only way we have of keeping this miserable country green." Great story.
May God bless America and those who defend her.
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Joined: Feb 2019
Posts: 312 Likes: 73
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Feb 2019
Posts: 312 Likes: 73 |
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.
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1 member likes this:
mc |
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