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Forums10
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Most Online1,131 Jan 21st, 2024
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Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 5,522 Likes: 167
Sidelock
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OP
Sidelock
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 5,522 Likes: 167 |
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
USAF RET 1971-95
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1 member likes this:
Stanton Hillis |
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 9,718 Likes: 94
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 9,718 Likes: 94 |
now thats some fine eatin...quarter erm, brown erm, then stew erm in ant rubys brown gravy, till the meat is falllin oft the bones...
an while they cookin, you can whistle dixie and the bonnie blue flag...an specially fur you texas boys, there is the yaller rose...
Last edited by ed good; 09/02/22 09:17 AM.
keep it simple and keep it safe...
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Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 5,522 Likes: 167
Sidelock
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OP
Sidelock
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 5,522 Likes: 167 |
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
Last edited by skeettx; 09/03/22 09:44 PM.
USAF RET 1971-95
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1 member likes this:
Stanton Hillis |
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 13,127 Likes: 1126
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 13,127 Likes: 1126 |
You go, Mike.
Tomorrow is my big day. Lunch with all the buds, cooked on site, then according to the weather conditions, we will take the field and strive. I'll be lucky to sleep tonight.
May God bless America and those who defend her.
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Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 353 Likes: 50
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 353 Likes: 50 |
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.
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Stanton Hillis |
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 13,127 Likes: 1126
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 13,127 Likes: 1126 |
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.
May God bless America and those who defend her.
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1 member likes this:
liverwort |
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Joined: Feb 2009
Posts: 1,552 Likes: 86
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Feb 2009
Posts: 1,552 Likes: 86 |
Desert sunrise outside of Yuma.
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John Roberts |
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Joined: Oct 2009
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Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Oct 2009
Posts: 301 Likes: 76 |
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.
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3 members like this:
Run With The Fox, Stanton Hillis, eeb |
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Joined: May 2008
Posts: 8,158 Likes: 114
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: May 2008
Posts: 8,158 Likes: 114 |
senesced?? Humm- Stan, best of luck with the Doves in Jawja. See quite a few in the mown winter wheat fields, where we have used shell goose decoys to hopefully bring a few Canadas in pass shooting range- way hot and humid now, but by Mon Labor Day, supposed to cool down and get some wind. Doves, like their bigger cousins pigeons, seem to have sensors in their feet, they detect vibrations in the ground of oncoming predators-darn near impossible to stalk, and old Mr. Nash also commented on how their feather colorations blend in with the soil-one tip he gave out was to look for body feathers from a dropped bird in the leafy verdure.. RWTF
"The field is the touchstone of the man"..
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Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 7,693 Likes: 450
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 7,693 Likes: 450 |
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.
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Geo. Newbern, John Roberts, FallCreekFan, Stanton Hillis, Parabola |
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