On the question of 2 1/2" vs 3" shells, I use both. For short distance quail shooting over a pointer, 2 1/2" is fine. Over a flushing dog 3". Dove down low, the AA Sporting 2 1/2" load at 1300 fps is deadly.
The alien Eurasian Dove is different game bird. These birds are half again bigger than a Morning Dove and the high flyers are tough as a pigeon to bring down. I switched to 3" #6 410 shells for these and I was dropping them out of the stratosphere. On one hunt in Yuma, we encountered more Eurasians than all others.
They were all very high flying past a small grove of trees we had decided to defend. My 410 mentor was using his usual 1300 fps AA load of #8s. I had several flats of different loads and after being somewhat disappointed in the performance of the #7 1/2 3" load, I went to the #6 3" load just to see whats what. The high flying Eurasians started dropping reliably. I was having so much success that my friend came over to see what I was doing to kill so many. I finally shared that I was using #6 3" shells.
