doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Dove season

Ed,
My wife is from souther Vermont, I talked to her cousin couple weeks back he said the grouse is down but you can always fly a few walking down the old logging roads. He mentioned a lot of grouse hunters from mass has been putting the hurt to the population of grouse. nY has a good population still. Wisconsin is still a hot spot along with upper Michigan. My hunting buddies grind them up every year. I have read that Minnesota has a good hunting for grouse. I'll be in Canada in a couple weeks for salmon and grouse up on the grand rivier as a guest of the tribe. So as with dove I am counting the weeks till I am in Canada. More to come.

Here is a smattering of years for opening dove season, who know which gun will yell the loudest this year, still 8 days

01 Sept 04 American Arms 20 Brittany with Savage 410er Tubes/3 inch 410s
01 Sept 06 Rem 1100 20 gauge Cutts spreader
01 Sept 08 Browning Citori 16 gauge,
01 Sept 10 TriStar Brittany 28 on 410frame
01 Sept 11 Tristar 410/2 � ammo
01 Sept 13 Charles Daly 410/3� ammo
01 Sept 14 Miroku 410 3"reloads

So far my Browning 410 Superposed is in the lead position

Mike

Skeettx
Have you ever handled a 32 gauge.? Would be neat to play with but the 410 2 1/2" is basically about the same.

Yes, and I load for 32 and 24 gauge American Arms O/Us made by the Fausti's.

The factory ammo is quite wimpy and the new hulls are only 2 1/2 inches in length so loading is a challenge.

For the 32 gauge I load a 9/16 load of hard #8s

For the 24 gauge I load a 13/16 load of hard #8 or #7 1/2

Mike

Breast out your doves, put one larger size pepper of your choice stuffed with cream cheese in the breast, wrap breast with thick sliced pepper bacon. Cook on outdoor grill until done. Enjoy with extremely cold beer, or a good chilled white wine. Mix with hunting friends. Remember to think of all the excuses of the flying rockets that you missed.

On cooking mourning dove [white wing & Eurasians as well], it depends on how they were cleaned, at least that's my starting criteria.

If you have birds that were simply 'breasted' I like one of two methods:

1) Make incision next to breast bone on both sides & insert thin onion slice in each incision. Next place one half of a large jalapeno [cut length wise] that has been seeded and the pith removed over the breast skin side out. Lastly wrap a piece of bacon around and over pepper and breast and secure with tooth pick(s). Roast breasts over coals until bacon is just beginning to crisp or tooth pick is charred.

2) Filet breast meat away from bones using sharp paring knife w/thin flexible blade. Then using wooden skewer sticks that have been pre-soaked in water alternate dove breast fillets w/ pieces of red and green bell peppers, onions [white, yellow & red], poblano and bacon chunks that one gets from a package of 'ends & pieces'. I use game shears to snip nearly all of the white or fat from the bacon & only skewer the meat. Cook them over a gas grill until the peppers are slightly blackened on their edges & charred and the ends of the wooden skewers are also. You can lightly salt & pepper the loaded skewers to taste before cooking, if you like.

For birds that have been picked and the spines cut out and nipped at the knees & elbows I like to place them breast up in a deep iron skillet [you could use a Dutch oven as well] then put enough water in to not quite cover the birds and add about six beef bullion cubes. Bring it up to a strong roil, then back it off to a slow simmer and cover and let the birds cook until the broth is reduced by about half or a bit more. No other seasoning is used. Prepare rice of your liking and place three to four birds per plate breast up over a bed of rice and ladle the broth reduction over both birds and rice.

Enjoy!

Note: On rice, my pref. for the above is to use a par-boiled long grain white rice from TX or LA. Also works well w/brown, wild or Jasmine rice. I would avoid using a 'sticky' rice or a Mexican or short grained variety. Just a personal taste thing learnt by doin' over a few decades, thanks.

TW
excellent recipes. September 1 is opening day here in Ohio.

Right now there are hunt-able numbers of dove flying around the ranch. They rarely stay for the Sept. 1 opening day, but I'm ready if they don't fly south. If they leave, Annie, my French Britt and I will pursue Ruff and Blue grouse.

My 28 GA 2-barrel set Parker Repro.

Sept 1st is opening day here and most years they've already left the area. We've had record heat and a persistent drought here this year, so I'm sure there would have been some around for the opener, but they'll probably all be dead from wildfire smoke inhalation!

Actually I can't get too excited about the opener with what's going on around here and E WA, with the wildfires, and the thick smoke we've been experiencing for the past 7-10 days. I can't take the time off anyway, since I work for the State of ID Dept of Lands Fire Bureau. So until we get some serious precipitation, my days off for hunting will be few and far between, which bums me out!

I'm envious of all the posters whose seasons open Sept. 1. Ours does not open until Sept. 5, and not a moment too soon!! Post pics please, it'll help me ease the waiting pains.

Sorry you're having to fight fires so much right now, Cameron, and I hope ya'll get some big rains that puts them all out soon.

SRH