Stan
The best dove shot I've ever seen shot a Polychoked (set on modified as I recall) 20-gauge Remington Sportsman 58 loaded with #6 shot. As a kid I was amazed at his skill; things such as consistently having three birds dead in the air simultaneously, and timing the shooting of incomers so that he caught the dead bird before it hit the ground. Although I never came close to Tyson's skill, Tyson was my dove shooting idol and I tried hard to match his skill and ability at dove shooting to include using #6 shot exclusively. From personal experience I can testify that, with #6 shot, one can certainly make the very tall and very wide shots if one can figure the correct lead; and I can also tell you from experience that a single #6 pellet to the body of a dove will nearly always put that bird on the ground; whereas the same pellet strike with a #7 1/2 or #8 shot will often fail to penetrate deep enough, or have the energy to bring a bird down. I've made some amazing kills using #6 shot over the years, the most amazing being on a running cottontail. The wind was blowing a gale that morning; we couldn't hear a thing past 25 yards, and the dogs had chased that old bunny for almost three hours when I finally kinda/sorta figured out his routine. I was hurrying to the other end of the pasture in an effort to cut him off, when the bunny broke from thick cover and ran across an open corner of the field. Outsmarted again, I was ticked; and just for kicks and giggles, pointed the barrels of my 20 gauge GH Parker what seemed like 6 feet above and 20 feet in front of my quarry and touched off the 3/4 oz of sixes in the cylinder bore right-side barrel. The bunny took 3-4 more long strides; then to my amazement began tumbling head over heals. My old huntin' bud thought I was crazy (he was correct); but when he saw the bunny rolling head over heels said, My gosh almighty, I've been huntin' 60 years and I ain't never seen a shot like that; that's over a 100 yards! I never did measure that shot, figured no one would ever believe it happened anyway; but that rabbit was a loooong ways across that field. When I got to the bunny, it wasn't dead; but was definitely going nowhere. An autopsy revealed that a single lucky (total luck!) #6 pellet had struck the bunny just in front of the left side kidney, traveled across the body nicking the bottom portion of the spine; then lodging under the hide on the far side. Obviously the damage to the spine had stopped the rabbit; but the fact that this pellet had penetrated the rabbit's body at that distance certainly left an impression on me! So again, you get the lead picture correct and you will be amazed at height and distance at which you can pull down a dove with #6 shot.
