doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com How Do You Set Up For Incomers With A Double?

I agree with the posters. Don't track this target from far out and most importantly dont let your gun get in the danger zone of 65 degrees or greater. If you do, your gun will have a tendency to slow down due to restricted motion. If the target(s) are straight in, start from the feet and pull through and fire as the gun passes the head. Follow through is very important or you will tail feathers for supper.

If you expect to kill both birds while they are still coming toward you the answer is obvious(or should be), tighter choke first and more open choke for the second bird, which will then be closer.

Jaycee, the expression may be the local vernacular. We often refer to "wheeling" when birds make that sweet turn to descend or come into the decoys. Yesterday they showed no interest flying almost directly overhead.

Thank you KB; must confess I had to look up toller. Had you written "wheeling over our dogs" I wouldn't have been as confused, :-)

JC(AL)

JayCee,
Your natural use of English never ceases to amaze me, I wouldn't know you from a native speaker if not for your address. You must have gone to school here. I must admit 'tollers' is a new one to me as well.

I think tollers are decoys, no?

If the pair can be taken both in front, then I shoot tight barrel first then open second. If they have to be taken one in front and the second going away I shoot open first the tight second but I wait until the first is as close as possible before I shoot, even if this makes the second shot harder. Better to make one good shot than miss two bad shots. If both have to be shot as going away I shoot the closet one first with the open choke and most likely not shoot at the second bird. I hate going away shots that are at a great distance. It is a very hard angle to kill a bird and I see too much cripling from such shots. Of course my hunting partner might point out that I rarely hit both birds in such a pair but since his paws are too big to type I have to admit it myself.

It gets more copmplex when you load two different size shots. Have to remember which is large and which is smaller. I have hunted areas that you could put up a pheasant or quail just depend on luck of the day. Late season I tend to load two differnt shell types to cover as many possible needs as possible.

The incoming overhead shot is one of the most fun. The basic idea is to cover the bird with the barrel. Swing up from behind, and when the bird disappears, shoot and follow through. For a better description, see 'The Better Shot' by Ken Davies.

One often overlooked point is that a shotgun has a little built in lead when fired at high elevation at an incomer.

Wycamp Lake Club here in northern Michigan has such a shot set up on the SC course. You are down in a genuine English style 'butt'. The window is pretty darn small, and the targets must be taken nearly directly overhead, certainly not less than 70 degrees elevation for even the quickest of shots. It's really fun, and doesn't take long to master.

Novia Scotia Duck Tollers. Not spelled correctly I think. Very interesting breed that is often confused with a under sized Golden. Strated to get one a few years ago just before I left the east coast. No Chesapeake Bay here to hunt ducks and geese.

They are a very nice size dog to hunt with and display an ability to attract ducks by running up and down the shoreline. Hard to explain but it works well most days. Most Goldens are about 50 - 100 % larger than the standard calls for. I use to have a 45 pound Golden female that was a joy to hunt with and carry in any boat. Now I see 80+ pound females and 100 + pound males that are a real pain to hunt with. Like sending a Clydesdale out to get a bird. Just about as easy to get back into the boat as a horse also.

You're pretty close, KY Jon. There's the tolling dog, the Nova Scotia Toller registered by the American Kennel Club, a sprightly ginger-coloured dog still used to entice birds on bays and harbours to come close to shore. Toller is the word used for decoys all along the Eastern Shore.

A few years back my buddy and I tolled a flock of a hundred bluebills with a Nova Scotia Toller, also called a Litttle River Duck Dog from the area where it was bred in Yarmouth County along the South Shore. Just toss a stick for the dog to fetch and the birds stream in like iron filings to a magnet.

I've also tolled bluebills almost dry ashore with my Lab, and the trick is to keep him retrieving after he sees them so close to shore. The Toller breed is on hard times now because so many wanted them for pets but some of the fierce gunners around Cape Sable Island still use them to toll and retrieve.

If tolling works here it works anywhere. Next time you see a raft of ducks out in a lake , harbour or bay conceal yourself behind a rock or in cattails and toss a stick along the shore for your dog to retrieve. Bluebills are attracted most easily---sometimes from a quarter-mile---but blacks fall for it, too.

I don't know how much truth there's to the story that the reddish-brown Tolling Dog was bred to look like a fox by oldtimers who saw Renard catching ducks along the shore. I think the reddish-brown colour has something to do with it, though, because I have tolled blacks by waving a handful of dead ferns above the bushes.

The trick is to be well concealed in the bushes and to have patience. Wave the stalk of ferns for only three or four seconds and bring it down. Wait for five minutes and do it again. I've brought up to six blacks within range after a half-hour or so on those bluebird days when little is flying.