I can't make up my mind.

The little Fox 16 with 30" barrels choked mod and mod?

The Parker 12 with the long full and full 32" tubes?

Perhaps the Parker Reproduction 28 gauge with 28" barrels, choked full and fuller?

The Fox 12 with 30" barrels? Again, full and full.

I have four French Brittanys. Two males, Red and Buddy, and two females, Molly and Ginger. Red is the best retriever but he and Buddy have never caught on that dove hunting is an ambush sport. They sprint around out to two or three hundred yards trying to find a dove to point and then come barreling back in when they hear the shot. The girls are much smarter. They sit patiently beside me, watching for birds. Sometimes they spot them before I do and I see them tense up. But Molly delights in racing to my neighbor's downed bird, snatching it out from under their dog's nose, and retrieving it to me. So then I have to hike over to return their bird. Ginger is my best dove dog I think.

I called my friend and outfitter Dane and made reservations for me and my shooting student Joe Wood. Joe later informed me he couldn't go. That is a real let down as Joe splits expenses and then I get to shoot his birds for him. Twice the birds for half the money, so to speak.

Mike, between snakes, high humidity and temps, Abby stays home until it's cooler. Here's the smart girl on a cold windy, early morning dove shoot last January.

same gun, E. C. Ogden 12 bore. Only Lucy remains ready for the field(under my right arm), I lost my old Gal Maggie(far left) 2 years ago at age 14 and Briar is now 13 and enjoying his retirement.

A good dog last longer than most bad marriages. Plus they are cheaper and tend to be more fun. A lot to be said for having a few good dogs.

This is a picture from 2009 and I think David cheated that year and used a 32 or 24 gauge instead of our normal 410s
David is a pretty fair retriever

Hi, I'll be using my D. Gotobed 16b, 2 1/2", 30" damascus bbls choked loose IC and tight Lt Mod. She's served me well in the past and sure she'll do the same this year.

Nice pics of the rest of you!

Good Luck to all of you!

Greg

I will probably be going with a W.W. Greener L50, 12 gauge.

30 inch barrels, choked about a quarter and full.

I may be doing my own retrieving on doves.

A. Given we haven't been droughted out and some whitewings are left, I prolly use my AYA 28 Gauge with both GSPs.

B. If the birds are flying high it'll be my 16 gauge Parker.



The last really good dove year around here: 2007



Opening day last year about 530PM. It was 102 deg F in the shade and Reba and I had enough and hopped into the truck, fired it up, turned on the AC and went home. 2 hours of 100 deg + temperatures is just no fun.

I will be going with my 12 year old Black Lab, Mandy. She will retrieve anything I shoot. I may use a Padrone o/u .410 with 29.5" barrels or an AH FOX CE 12 gauge with 32" barrels.
Jim

No dog, probably my 12 ga. Win./CSMC hybrid 21, 30" m/im.
JR

I'll be along a few days later with my old Greener. Will use AmarilloMike's car, gas, and let his dogs retrieve my birds. All I have to do is sit on my stool and do the shooting.

Hey Mike, take the girl dogs. I figure it's mostly about the hunt, and it sounds like they're hunting along with you. Better hunt when a dog gets birdie in the blind and helps you spot 'em.

I'll be in Colorado bow hunting for elk. Trying to redeem myself from last years mmmmmmmiss!

The doves are going to have to wait 'til after the 15th.

Tunes, I would bet that tree was tasty !!
Mike who grew up in Whitewater, Wisconsin and loved it!!

No dog, but taking as many different guns as I can fit into the locking drawer in the back of the truck. Will probably shoot at least six guns on eight or nine hunt days, from .410 SxS to 12ga BP muzzleloader.

Craig you are probably right. Here are the girls:

Ginger is the red one in the middle, Molly the black one on the right.

And here is a picture of a Fox 16 A grade that may be my opening day gun:

I'll probably leave my yellow lab Stella home opening day. Heat, crowd, snakes.

I'm still debating which gun. Probably the 12ga Fox pin gun Steve Bertram just back bored to remove some awful pitting and then re-choked to ic/mod. The 30" barrels and more open chokes seem to improve my shooting!...Geo

Well, I'll be out after Goosanders along the river that take the trout. Licensed period starts on 1st. September. Gun most likely is a Doumoulin 12 bore; as per picture, and my Chesapeakes. Great for retrieving off the river. Lagopus.....

I'll be goose hunting in the salt marshes behind the house. Taking a inexpensive late MF Robust that I just acquired, bought it for parts and it was nice enough to repair and not worry about it and salt. Of course Trooper will be doing the wet work, he thinks retrieving is better than anything else even if he is superb in the uplands, retrieving is his goal in life.

Will have my "new" Verona 30" .410 in hand.



And my 9 year old retriever, Lane, by my side.



Couldn't ask for more.

SRH

Lagopus, Looks like the Chessie could take care of 'bidness quite nicely. To the market hunters of old in the US, those dogs did more than retrieve. They would sleep in the duck boats guarding the rig. No one dared step on board other than the owner. I suspect your home is quite safe with your Chessie around.
Stan, it won't be long before Lane takes over with the other .410 like your older grandson/ dove shooter. Gil

buzz,

I've got two .410 S x Ss, and have used one on opening day for the last three years. But, you show me a S x S with 30" barrel sets, 28 and .410, with ejectors, and the quality of that Verona for $1500 and I will buy 'em all up. Ain't no such animal, and it makes no sense.

Gil,

I know I will lose my retriever eventually, but I'm not hurrying it. All these boys are different. When Jackson was Lane's age he was holding his own in his "corner" of the field, but Lane seems perfectly content to just be with us and pick up right now. When he's ready to shoot, I'm sure ready for him to. He killed his first deer at age 8 with a .30-06, before his older brother killed his first. That was almost the making of a family feud.

It's Sept. 6 for us here, Mike.

27 DAYS AND A WAKE-UP!!!

All my best, SRH

I'm going to shoot my newest Fox Sterlingworth 16g and take my 14 year old, blind and near deaf ECS, Elmo, out on a leash and walk him out for a few more retrieves in the winter of his life. He'll be totally pissed if I miss.

GLS, very true. That one was a cracking deer tracker too. We would hire a cottage to go deer stalking from and whatever chair I chose to sit in first was then MY chair and no one was allowed near it. Funny dogs but I wouldn't change now. Lagopus.....

I'll be starting off with Bella and a Sandro Lucchini 20g hammer gun. We found four grouse broods in the last two weeks, hopefully,there will be a few left in two months.
terc

Nice gun choice- late production Model 12 field gun- 12 gauge??

No dove season in MI- but we get a early bonus 15 day season on Canadian geese- Se[pt 1- to Sept 15, five birds daily limit- and this year the Feds have added an early teal season in MI from Sept 1 to Sept 7--like I'm gonna shoot a few dinky ducks" with the 1948 era Model 12 3" Mag- 30" Imp Mod solid rib field grade pump-gun that is my Numero Uno "Goose-folder-upper" with No. 2 Fed steel loads-

No dog- Khartoum died from cancer at age 11 this past April- I'll sprinkle his ashes on the pond at the Nuggie Farm where I usually go first morning of the Sept season-- Great dog indeed, as was Dixie and Brillig and Danube--all Black Labs-- best duck/goose dog and companion Dog (dog spelled backwards ypou know) ever built.. IMO anyway

Nice gun choice- late production Model 12 field gun- 12 gauge?? [/quote]
It's a 1957 28" Modified 16 gauge M-12.
Gil

Gil, I believe my M12 16 gauge field 28" modified is from 1957 as well.

Now, that is a nice gun!!! I am in the process of buying a Felix Sarasqueta hammer 20 with 32" barrels. Not in the same league as the Lucchini, but those long barrels make it irresistible for pass shooting doves. Should have it by the tail end of the season.

Replacement, 32" sounds great for doves, but maybe a little much in the grouse covert.

According to the seller, the Sarasqueta weighs 6-3/4, same as my 20ga 686 with 28" barrels, so it should swing nicely. Plus, it has factory 3" chambers and I have a couple cases of 20 ga bismuth duck loads that need to get burned up.

Replacement, I think 6 3/4 lbs is about the perfect weight, it should make a great gun.

Something in a 16 gauge......probably this 21 with 28" IC&M barrels. No way I'll be able to leave the house Sept. 1st without Bella climbing in the jeep with me.

Were I going, my 16 SLE and my English Setter. My opener is early prairie chicken season not dove season (don't like eating them and the dog hates to retrieve them)

Were I going, my 16 SLE and my English Setter. My opener is early prairie chicken season not dove season (don't like eating them and the dog hates to retrieve them)

Few dogs really like to retrieve doves. But they do it anyway if trained properly and have a great desire to please you.

My grandson, Lane, didn't like the feathers sticking all in his mouth, so I relented and allow him to use his hands.

SRH

Finding doves to hunt is kind of tricky here in WA, so I'll probably head up after blue and ruffed grouse with my setter Briar and a new Lefever DS 16 I'm still working on, choked ic/im after Kody Kearcher is done opening it up. Here is Briar from a few years ago, as a two year old, and me looking pretty rough after going on about three hours sleep. Briar wasn't tired, just bashful. That is a belgian 16 hammer gun in the photo.

You are a kind grandfather. <g> It's hilarious watching a dog pick up a dove the first time, dropping it and trying to spit out feathers. They aren't ready for the loose feathers, but as you say, they do it anyway.

I guess I am lucky with my Black Lab, Mandy. She loves retrieving doves!
Jim

Our English Wood Pigeon are very loose feathered. After taking the retrieve the dogs know the word 'feathers' and they come to have them removed from around their mouths. It is surprising how quickly they learn this word. There's no close season here for either woodpigeon or collared doves but I do most of my shooting from February through to April shooting as they come in to roost. There is some winter decoying over crops but that can only really take place if the land isn't used for pheasant shooting. After pheasant close season on 1st. February then that's when I really get going. Lagopus.....

Jim,

My Labs grew to like it too, but they were very reluctant the first few times. As I said, wanting to please you is their greatest goal, and it usually overrides their distaste for doves.

How old is Mandy, now?

SRH

Mark,

Great picture of you and the llewellen.

Vernal

Jim I am lucky too. My Molly and Ginger are joyful retrievers of dove. Molly is an especially exuberant dove retriever when she can snatch it up just before someone else's dog gets it.

Lagopus I will try teaching my dogs the "feathers" command. Never heard of it till your post. I clean the feathers out of their mouths but have never given the command.

Stan, Mandy was 12 years old June 2nd. I am currently throwing bumpers into the water for her to retrieve to get her in shape for all the upcoming hunting seasons.

I wish dove shooters would trouble themselves to condition their retrievers to the heat that is to come when dove season opens here. Sadly, many do not, and the poor dogs suffer greatly in the heat and humidity. I would always take mine out for a run alongside my golf cart in the early evenings for about a month before the season. Many dogs die each year in the South during the early season due to their misfortune at having dumb and lazy owners. When the dog becomes inanimate and dies from heat exhaustion they always claim rattlesnake bite.

SRH

I wish each of you a safe and productive season and for your dogs, as well.

I will have to sit this one out and be content in handling my dogs for friends, for water retrieves as after they pass shoot over some of the sloughs around here.

If I could gun the opener, I would use one of the hammer guns. I acquired a little Thomas Wild a while back that would be fun to take afield.

One thing we rarely have to worry about in England is the heat. Anywhere near 80 degrees is considered very hot. My two are lucky in that they get a minimum of five miles a day plus swimming throughout the year. Two very fit Chesapeakes. Lagopus.....

Well Bob, it does look like you'll have to watch the balloon go up from the confines of that recliner, but we would rather see you sit this one out and have some more to enjoy. So I will miss a few (OK, so maybe not a few) of the gray rockets in your honor, and we shall re-spin our yarns of halcyon days of young legs and young dogs, hammerguns and home.

This Sept. 1 will find me afield again with Cocoa, now five, and my Manufrance Ideal 16, tossing 3/4 oz reloads at the feathered fighters on afterburner.

I will be taking 2 guns and one yellow lab. One gun will be a CZ Ringneck 20ga I have had for a few yrs, the other will be a new Fabarm Classis 12ga. Got the Fabarm out and patterned it yesterday. Dog was all excited about going shooting with me, torqued that there was nothing to retrieve.
photobucket

photobucket

I will be somewhere in the Rockies chasing dusky grouse with:

this knucklehead




and this sweet wand




hoping to do this again

Wingshooter, what year and model Ideal? Gil

Just picked up a new Beretta SP III sporting 20/28 bore W/30" barrels from Joel Etchen two weeks ago. So I'll start out missing them with that one.

Vern

It is a 314 made in 1937. I found a set of barrels in the white in France, and Kirk Merrington has agreed to fit them up to the gun. The chokes will be opened to .000 and .007. The original barrels are at about .028 in the right and OMG Boston Strangler tight in the left, but pattern beautifully with my 3/4 oz loads. Thus the second set of barrels. May be the only Ideal in North America with two sets of barrels. Looking forward to my grade 5 getting here, but that's prolly still a ways off: 1925, full coverage engraving, straight English stock, 16 of course. It looks swift and sexy just resting on a table, can't wait to see how she handles. Will prolly have that one opened to .005 and .015.

This my mountain grouse combo.

Pardon me, the powers that be have decided that there will NOT be a special Texas South Zone Dove season this year, so I will sitting at home with a cold ice tea. The regular South Zone season begins 19 Sept by which time 75% of the time a cold front with rain has come through and there are no dove left.
Or perhaps I will be shooting sporting clays at the National Shooting Complex, having decided not to get a Texas license at all.

Opening morning of Dove season is 9/1 here in Missouri, will be out with a single shot 16ga hammer gun my Dad bought when he was in high school. Goes off about 75% of the time, doesn't eject and has to be disassembled to remove the fired shell. This will be the 5th opening day with this gun, inherited it when my Father passed. Best way to take my Dad's memories hunting with me every year....

8 yr old yellow female lab may or may not go depending on temp, but she will be out 9/6 for the Teal opener!!!

Good luck to all and be safe!

shinbone....... Love the dog, gun and beautiful country.

First morning will be with a Manufrance Simplex single shot sixteen, to test my theory that I will shoot half as many shells. From there a Simson 20.

Postoak, you could make that same test by loading only one round or using only one trigger in a TT doublegun, no? That Simplex sounds cool; is it hammerless?

Joe Wood tells me that having a gun w/o hammers is like having a dog with no ears.

Being fair bent toward being mostly deaf, I find myself playing the earless dog role rather well these days, not so far removed from the old RCA "his masters voice"....

"Wot in heck does he mean "fetch" when I'm stuck in a parlor w/a confounded machine. Go pick that dove up yerself, like Stan's grandson!" ;-) ;-)

I'd hope all you old cusses have a fine opener, irrespective of the game sought or taken to hand.

Great pics, Shinbone. That dog looks like a good feller to hang with.

temps have been in the triple digits here in Tx...am I the only one loathe to take out a fine gun if it means sweating all over it?

All you Southern boys better buy or load up extra ammunition.

There are literally hundreds of the little gray rockets along every section line road, on every power line and in every snaggle tree in this country.

When they head south you all are in for high times.

Thanks! Nothing like Fall in the Rockies.

My old five-foot ultra-light Ugly-Stick and a tiny Pixie on some Kodiak Island stream.

CSMC Inverness, 20ga., 30" barrels along with a GSP.

As I type this, I'm looking out my window at a dozen or so FAT doves eating the seed that spills from the feeders. Because this is NJ--there is NO opening day on doves and I will shoo them on their way to PA, DE, or MD. Shoot well my friends!

Bill, with no opening day that means you can shoot them year round, doesn't it? Redneck rules.

All you dove hunters with lifetime licenses don't forget to download the free federal HIP migratory license. Gil

103* F as I get ready to go.....The Setters stay home today......Just too hot, might use them if I was shooting in the front yard of the ranch with plenty of close water, but not for the field...

Not many other hunters around today for the North Zone Texas opener...

Worlds of Birds, both Whitewings and Mourners ( a much preferred target in my opinion) on the field yesterday afternoon.....

Carrying the 28 bore SCO grade MX28 with 30" Full and full stoked with 3/4 oz. STS 8's

Early in the season, the Dusky Grouse are still in their family groups, and point and flush like a covey of big quail. This was one bird out of about six, and was taken at 10,200' in open forest. Great fun!

Flushed a couple of dusky grouse yesterday at 8600 ft in the thick stuff and predictably missed.....I'll keep trying.

HOT Hot HOT 101 and NO SHADE while hunting

1 Sept 14 15 doves Hunted Section 99, Daly 410 O/U 3" reloaded ammo, birds at 3:00, 15 doves with 27 shots

Did I mention HOT

Wife took picture of David, Bruce and Me as we were cleaning the birds
IN THE Shade behind my hunting truck.

Flushed a single and covey tonight after work. The dog put the single up within 20 yards but it flushed on the other side of the aspens and I never saw it. More luck with the covey. Lucy was pretty close to me when they got up. The first bird to rise was the farthest away, a good 40 yards and I was lucky enough to break a wing. The remainder of the birds rose closer of course and my gun was empty. Lucy saved the day by finding the Juvenal I knocked down. All in all a great hunt close to home.

Sorry we were late to the party.

Thanks to a recent thread on rust preventives, I obtained some of the new wd 40 specialist, and despite sweating it out in the high 90's was able to use a fine drilling on doves without any damage to the finish. Boy, that Funk sure swings sweet...Steve

My hunting partner managed to put a nice big male in the bag this afternoon. Shortly afterwards things got real exciting and not with birds. I saw a very large black bear sitting in the middle of clearing. After several minutes of yelling screaming on my part trying to let Dave know about the bear she began to move and then I figured out why it took her so long head out, she was waiting for her cubs. No harm done but it did add some excitement to the day.