doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Tell me about the best wing shot........

............you ever knew. I'm referring to the shooter, not an individual instance of making a superb shot, but just what seems like a God-given ability.

Back in the 70s I was shooting doves a lot, and occasionally with my BIL, whose Dad owned a farm near ours. In those days there was a lot of dryland corn grown. Dove shoots could be spectacular at times. The limit was 12, but I confess that almost nobody abided by it. Not a brag, just being honest. Most accepted that it was worth paying the small fine if you were caught over the limit.

I knew this one fellow, probably 6-8 years older than me, who was an arrogant boor, loud and profane, self-aggrandizing, and just generally someone decent people avoided. He took up with my BIL's older brother. He hunted and fished a great deal, wherever and wherever he was allowed, and some places he wasn't allowed, like when he would slip into the warm water ponds across the river from us and shoot ducks on the Savannah River Site. The ponds were cooling off reservoirs for the coolant water from the nuclear reactors, and flowed on into the Savannah River after cooling. You could get a small boat up into the ponds from the river, shoot ducks and get out before site security heard you and arrived. He would kill big ducks by the scores in those warm ponds, during cold weather.

Anyway, back to his wingshooting ability. We were on a cornfield dove shoot one afternoon at my BIL's, and he was there. He had shown up without a gun or shells, for some crazy reason or another. Someone loaned him an "automatic" and shells. Never shot the gun before, but he proceeded to wear the doves out with it. He looked like he killed every bird that came within range of him, and lots that didn't. He didn't have a belt bag, and would walk out to pick up a dove, bend over and get him in his left hand, and someone would holler "Behind you, Bobby!". He would spin around, spot the bird streaking over, raise the gun to his shoulder with one hand and tumble the bird out of the sky, left hand never touching the gun and still holding the previous bird. This wasn't just once, he did it off and on all afternoon. He was a killing machine.

He's still living, but has had some serious health issues and probably can't shoot now like he could then. As I said, he was a "pill" to be around, but giving the devil his due, he was the most phenomenal wing shot I've ever been in the field with. Shame it was "wasted" on such a poor personality.

SRH

I thought it was you ?

Was "Bobby" one of those that used to fish Par Pond for the Friday night fish fry?

Personally, I never knowingly ate anything that came off the SRS or downstream of it. But there was a lot of game in that country for certain. And I've always wondered how many of the hogs that were cooked at the Carolina BBQ were from the Site.

I prefer to remember the gentlemanly great shots that I have known.
Unfortunate, isn't it, that so many loud mouth braggarts have some innate shooting talent. I never hunt twice with their kind.

Stan's story about bag limits rings true for me also, "back in the day". I started my wingshooting in the early '60's tagging along with some older guys. One of them was Billy Dabbs, Jr. His dad, "Mr. Billy" as everyone knew him, was one of the finest fellows from my own Dad's age group that I ever knew.

He grew watermelons, selling them downtown, hunted and fished within 2 miles of the city limits. His exploits on the Chickasawhay River running trot lines were always talked about in the barbershop. Mr. Billy was our Little League organizer and umpire. He carried us around to our ballgames in the back of his stepside Chevrolet pickups he wore out on a pretty regular basis. He was rougher on a vehicle than anyone I've ever known. I've seen his pickup squatted to near the pavement loaded down with watermelons.

He loved "bird" hunting for Bobwhite quail and always had a couple of bird dogs, though I never got to go with him. I think he probably wore completely out two Win. Model 12's, that he treated like a shovel or axe, laying them in the bed of his pickup to rattle around with whatever else was back there. I always marveled at two things: those guns always worked, and the big 20-box case of Western "Xpert" #8's he had sitting in the truck bed, when it was all I could muster to buy a couple of boxes

But he was death on doves. He was a great baseball player as a boy and later as a young man in a local semi-pro league, and had superb hand-to-eye coordination, that carried over into his shotgunning. He would just snap shoot and the doves would fall. Watched him knock down doubles many, many times. I always tried to find a spot in the field away from him a ways, because he dang near got everything that came by. We all loved him.
JR

Gee, when you are as bad a shot as me then that could be a lot of people.
I suppose one person would be my brother. Back in the 70's we did a lot of wild quail hunting. It was not impossible to find a dozen or more coveys a day. He always used a L.C. Smith field grade with a single trigger and 26" barrels that he paid $165 for at a local gunshop. He was death on a covey getting off the ground.
Another was a young guy that would always come to our gun club when we would shoot ZZ Birds. Now there were a lot of big time pigeon shooters that would show up and bring some very nice guns. I remember Purdey pigeon guns, Woodward's and Watson Brothers, Boss as well a fine assortment of over and unders.
I personally shot a SC3 Perazzi and a 32" Model 21. I would spend hours deciding what shells to use and how I would place them in my barrels to optimize the second shot.
This young boy would show up almost every shoot with a Beretta 391 auto and cheap Wall Mart shells and whip all us old guys every time.

"Best" shot is a small group of men in my case. Best rifle and pistol shot could have been an exhibition shooter but he was just very good with a shotgun. With a pistol, rifle with iron sights or even a scope he was precise to say the least. Watched him put five shots into the end of a coke can off hand at 100 yards, using iron sights, as fast as he could shoot with a Colt Woodsman .22. Then shoot another can at 200 yards off hand with his Winchester model 70 .300 H&H just a fast as he could. Open sights were nothing to him. He said he thought scopes were bad for shooting as shooters relied on magnification to offset lack of ability to aim. Then again he had the ability to tell the difference and make the difference.

Best clay target shooter was a many time All American Skeet shooter. He was great at Skeet or Trap. He could embarrass you from the hip. Never saw him hunt.

Best quail hunter I ever saw was my uncle. With a cheap Crescent double he could take doubles on every covey flush. Often he would take three birds with two shot. Take a pair with the first barrel and a single with the second. He was a quail killing machine, with cat like reflexes, trapped in a body which became hobbled by a boyhood case of Polio, Rheumatic fever and arthritis. Best dove shooter might have been my father. Never got to hunt with him until he was well into his 80's. Last time he shot 15 dove with 23 shells using a 16 gauge Fox AE I lent him at age 90. Still have the last two shell from that box.

I know there have been some other extremely good shots over the years. I'm decent but not in their league. In fact I wonder if they enjoy it as much as I do since it seem to come so effortlessly.

Not even close, jOe!

The best shotgunner I ever knew, I still know. But, I've never seen him shoot game. I know that he does, but I'm limiting my claims to what I've witnessed. However, I have witnessed him, John Michael Morris of Georgetown, SC, do some things you probably wouldn't believe without seeing it yourself. For example.........

I've seen him shoot a round of "regulation skeet" with his extended magazine Beretta from the hip, smoke all 25 birds, in 60 seconds without a miss. That's right, shooting and reloading on the run, timed with a stopwatch.

I've seen him shoot a perfect 25 straight on the skeet field while riding a bicycle, steering with his left hand and shooting from the hip with his right.

I have little doubt he would be the best shot on doves I've ever shot with, but I haven't, so I can't say so.

SRH

I kinda doubt it. He fished Par Pond many times for big bass, usually at night, but he snuck in and out, from the river. I assume the fish fry was something that was held on the site?

SRH

Not on site. In New Ellenton I think, but it's not something I attended. Sneaking into Par Pond from the River is a hell of a hike and a worse boat ride.