2-piper you are quite right. Shoot what you want. Shoot it well and enjoy. The size of a mans gun does not increase the size of a man. But early season Dove are very straight forwards most times. A good shooter can take 15 birds with 20 or fewer shells if he uses just a bit of restraint. Most get too excited and shoot too soon or at birds out of their high percentage range. They think I need to shoot now instead of letting marginal birds past to get better shots later. Close, incomes with a open choked 12 bore are near a certain thing.
Now birds a few days later can be much more educated. Diving at any motion or gunfire nearby. One of the most fun ten minutes I had last year was trying to kill my last four birds on a limit while a thunderstorm hit. Winds were 30-40 with gust and birds were everywhere. Their flight path was ever changing with wind gust and those with a tail wind were almost impossible to shoot in front of. It took 17 shells to get four birds and the misses were by a mile not a inch.
National average is almost 7 shells per bird killed. Sales heaviest favor 12s but I dont see most small bore shooters using more shells per bird. I expect if they did theyd go back to their 12s. People dont like to miss a lot in front of other hunters or friends.
I favor late season birds. Fully feathered, big adult birds, with a good tail wind behind them and with weeks of being hunted behind them. For those, I leave the .410 home and take a long barreled Sterlingworth 12 bore. Few shots inside 30 yards but many fast moving, challenging birds at distance. Any bird taken is a fine bird as they are much more difficult to harvest. My shell rate starts to climb towards the average and Im not too proud to admit it.
