Anyone hitting the dove field on the 1st? I am having the same issue of what sxs to take afield. I have it narrowed down to one of my AYAs, just not sure what gauge.. 410 or 28. Decisions decisions

Rich

Oh yeah, baby. Barring the rapture, or an earthquake that opens a fissure in the earth which swallows our sunflower field, or death, I'll be there. We will have a big cookout under the shed for lunch, sit around in the shade for a couple hours, then hit the field about 3:00 p.m., shoot for a couple hours or until a limit is reached, then pull out and leave them to feed for the rest of the afternoon.

The .410 FAIR Iside Tartaruga Gold that is being built in Italy will not have arrived, so my gun will be the Dickinson .410, posed here with some of last year's quail.



8 days and a wake-up .............

https://www.timeanddate.com/countdown/ge...mp;font=cursive

SRH

BSS Sidelock or Darne V-19. Been practicing with both of them. Twelve ga. No toys/no prisoners...Geo

Stan,
Very nice! I am leaning towards my AYA# 2 .410 I do have that new to me, that little 3/4 scale flint lock fowler in 28 gage by Ken Netting that I'll take out during the season. Now I just need to remember to take some pictures.

How about a wager, Geo?

$10 a shell, for every shell I shoot with my "toy gun", above the number you shoot with your 12, that is required for each of us to take a limit. If one of us does not get a limit we'll do the math to make it equal.

Gentleman's honor, and the check will be written to Dave for the upkeep of this site.

SRH

Stan, do the deacons know you're a gamblin' man? Then again, maybe you don't consider that a gamble...

To the OP, I will be there the 1st, but will prolly only bring one gun for gray rockets:

Sounds like a fair wager with proceeds going to a good cause. Don't think the GOD would not mind that.

As for me I think I will. Still be trying to gather the corn crop. This rain has delayed us buy a couple of weeks.

No sure fire shoot on the horizon anyway.

If one comes up and weather permitting, I will carry my grade III Browning Superposed, fighting Cocks, as I want to shoot it some before I head to Montana late September.

Yep.............. they all know I farm for a living.

SRH

I am having the same problem deciding on my Ruger 28 or my Savage .410 for doves this year. Never shot either at them. This will be a first.

Winchester 42 High grade first day. Second day will be my late uncles .410 Crescent double as a tribute to his memory. After that its back to the 42 until I run out of dove, shells or days.

Starting with a .410, just not sure which one. Then switching to my late 1800s Brummie Lacey hammer 12 with ChamberMates, shooting old Gamebore 20ga 2-1/2" black powder shells. Just found the ChamberMates and they seem to drop right into the short chambers on the Lacey. Surprised me.

Our season doesn't start until the 8th, but I will be somewhere after them. Planning to use the 425 with the ugly rib on it, unless I like the new gun better.

The day after I ordered the rib and decided to really fix the 425 so it would fit me, I found a DT 625 with 28" barrels, and it was cheap. So cheap it scared me. Pics look ok; gonna pick it up today. I have been looking for one like this for years.

Never knew or heard of Browning making a 625, or any of the Citori-based o/u's, with double triggers.
JR

Couldn't find a shoot for the 1st but will be there Labor Day. Usually shoot one of my 12 ga. hammer guns but this year want to try a Browning Mod. 42. See if that .410 works. I have had the 42 over a year and haven't shot anything with it except a few clays.

Dennis

No...Geo

A smart move Geo. Those shooting farmers can be tough to keep up with. I use to host a dove shoot where people put up 50 dollars each to see who could harvest 12 Dove, the legal limit back then, using the fewest shells. Money was split half to the winner and half to the farmer who tended our field. Also had a Lewis purse. Best I ever did was 15 shells for 12 birds. Most years the winning score was 12-13. Couple fellows figured out that if the could kill two birds with one shell they gained a huge advantage. The few times I did that myself I promptly missed another bird. Everyone watched the other fellow and we never had any problems. You could only enter the field with one box of shells. If you needed more you knew and everybody else knew you were shooting your second box. Just about every year the fellow who won was a farmer.

I think I bet Stan he could not shoot a limit opening day one year back when he first got on to this .410 kick of his. I even specified he couldn't shoot a water hole or a roost. I lost that bet.

I don't know how good Stan really is, but I am completely aware of how terrible I can shoot. I have the shell bills from Argentina to prove it. That's why I shoot a 12ga!...Geo

All in fun, Geo. Secretly, I was a bit relieved when you said "No". I got to thinking about it and was afraid I had let my bulldog mouth overload my hummingbird ---. Gil has seen me shoot .................... and miss, and miss, and miss, ad nauseam.

SRH

Miss, miss and what Stan? Come on. We know most people who select .410 are not doing it because they have a flinching problem like I did. They do so because bigger bore are, well boring at their skill level. You only lack the YouTube video. The rest of us keep the shell makers in high profit levels.

On my new bucket list is to shoot a limit of Dove with the 20 percussion double I just bought. After that I hope to take shooting lesions, from a GA farmer. Perhaps we can shoot your new custom made .410 and I’ll shoot my 42. Ought to be fun for all. I’ll buy the shells.

I'll admit I did start shooting doubles almost exclusively about 25 years ago because of boredom making the limits come too fast with the jam-o-matics. Lucky for me I guess I haven't ever reached the point of 12ga boredom...Geo

I think I'm safe now because I've reached the age where I'm not getting better at anything at all

Sauer Model 8 ca 1911 if I can see them.....eye surgery tomorrow.

At the top of my bucket list is to kill a limit of doves with fifteen .410 shells. Hey, you know what Arnie Palmer used to preach ............... "Never up, never in". Or, if you don't putt hard enough to get to the hole it'll never drop in. Never stop trying to improve .................never.

Hint, keep a look out for the last segment of the story "Full Circle".

SRH

I was too busy missing to notice any of your misses... Gil

What I know about hitting doves might fill a few lines. What I don't know about hitting woodcock would fill volumes.

SRH

Guys, I hate to say that I will miss the dove opener this year. I am recovering from C4-C5 fusion and in a hard collar until October 1 at least. My body surfing days are officially over. My hunting companions are sending me photos of the doves feeding in our field and it is painful not to be a part of the action this year. Someone shoot a limit for me.

I am talking about sxs Beretta guns. And I picked up the 625 today and it is very good working condition. Got some scratches and such, but still a fine gun. I shot it at the pattern board and it shoots true to the rib, though it's f/m and patterns were very tight. It doesn't have enough drop to fit me without some sort of adjusting, so I will be using the 425 on the opener. Good luck to all the dove hunters.

(laughing quietly to myself...)

Ouch. Hope you have a speedy recovery.

Yes, best wishes from me too, Owen. Hoping the surgery was 100% successful.

SRH

Go anyway Owen, without gun and gear, and enjoy the experience if not the shooting. Be in amongst 'em...
JR

Thanks for the good wishes and prayers. It is a slow recovery, but every day is better. I suppose I will go and maybe I can convince my daughter to shoot on my peg while I spot them.

I have not completely decided, but probably taking a c. 1920 Parker GH 12 gauge I recently acquired.

Bird prospects where I've looked have not been good this week. Oh well, if the dove shoots puke out I'll be spending the Labor Day weekend at a place where the fishing is good and the arrowhead hunting is the best in GA. A country boy will survive!..Geo

That would be a great day. I hope we can make that happen. P.M. me about it.

SRH

Going to take most recent sxs acquisition.A 20ga Lefever DSE. Refurbished by a friend in Illinois who out-bid me for it at auction last year.
Helped getting local sunflower field ready today. Can't wait for Sept 1.

I will be taking my 2 12 gauge Remington DEO’s. Normally like to shoot a 28 gauge opening day but I am really itching to shoot these.

AyA 4/53 12 gauge, Husqvarna 12 gauge Hammergun and quite possibly either the 10 gauge 1894 Remington or Lefever G grade.
Doves in the morning and snipe in the afternoon.

Still planning to try the little Savage .410 O/U on doves, but I may have just picked up my official dove assassination tool from Cabela's: a Dickinson 28 gauge SxS with 30 inch tubes and English stock with decent although not spectacular wood. Comes in a pretty slick little zippered leather / Sueded case with snap caps and five choke tubes. Pretty slick looking little piece. Anybody have any experience with this particular gun? I made a trade, got a good deal, and it sure is mighty pretty!! I hope I can shoot it as good as it looks!!!

Perry, that's exactly what mine is, except in .410. A 28 should be absolutely perfect, and a much more forgiving mistress than the .410. When I shoot sub gauge competition with my Verona 30" barreled 28/.410 two barreled set, I always shoot several birds higher score with the 28. The 28 just amazes me how it hammers clays, but I've never used it on birds. Probably will this year.

The Dickinson is a great value, and easy on the eyes. This will be mine's third year in the bird fields, and I've been nothing but impressed with it. My biggest concerns when ordering it from Cabela's was (1) regulation, and (2) trigger pulls. Both were fine, once I found which load it liked best.

How are the triggers on yours? So far, all comments I've heard on Dickinson triggers have been good.

SRH

I picked it up only yesterday and have not had a chance to fire it yet. However, in the case was two separate targets showing pattern with a couple of different chokes with I think the modified choke. It appeared that a dove could not have flown through either. Also with #7 shot at 25 yards. Looks good so far. More on the triggers once I try them. I have read other reports that some of the heavier ones lighten up after wearing in with a box of so of rounds fired.

Just got back from shooting a round of skeet with my little #2 410 with 1/2 oz loads of 8s. I started to panic dropped station 2 both birds then one on 3, so overall 22 doves beware of little guns!!

Stan,
Checked triggers today. They are really good, at far less than the 6+ lbs I have seen talked about here. Question: I am considering using modified in the right barrel and improved modified in the left for doves with 7.5 shot. Haven't patterned it yet but the combination of chokes sounds better to me than IC and Mod or Mod and IC depending upon whether you shoot far outs first or as incomings. Comments? Anyone. I am new to 28 having only used my Red Label 28 on quail with either skeet and skeet or IC and modified from right to left. Suggestions from any and all are appreciated.

Perry,
I love my 28s, dove I/c, Mod, you won't be disappointed. Mod and full fit the bill a little later in the season on doves, early season, i found myself destroying doves with mod and full.
Good shooting
Rich

Thanks!!

My dove guns, especially the .410s and 28s) are always set up with Mod & Full, except for one Beretta that is IM/F. We shoot 'em far out.

What choke to use for doves is determined by the situation, i.e., whether you're in the middle of a sunflower field where they are coming to feed, or whether you're pass shooting them as they pass over a hedgerow on their way back to the roost, etc. No choke combination will fill the bill for all situations. It also is determined by how you take the shot. If you tend to wait, patiently, for close shots you could get by fine with IC or even SK, in one barrel. This will be my 58th season chasing them with a shotgun, and my style of shooting has led me to favor a combination of IM and LM most of the time. I will admit to being overchoked on a few shots each shoot, but almost never so much as to render the bird inedible. I love to try for a double, with my two barrels, which means I will try to take the first incomer as far out as I can make myself hit the trigger on the IM barrel, then take the other bird , still approaching, with the LM barrel. There is nothing in dove shooting more satisfying than that to me.

I use 8s in the earlier part of the season, then 7 1/2s later, but would not argue against 7 1/2s for all season. I bought 5 flats of 7 1/2s for my 28 just recently.

Glad to hear the triggers are good. That's another to add to the list that confirms that AKUS, in Turkey, has their act together. Best of luck with it on the birds!

I should add that many of my guns are fixed choke guns. With such, it is imperative to learn the range limitations of them and use them properly. I think I could get along with most any combination of chokes and not destroy the bird for the table. Not all combinations would be ideal, by any means, but I can't think of any that would be unusable, either.

All my best, SRH

Yep, I have been shooting doves now for about 61 years. And I still cant hit them!!! Actually, I can, but they are still tough birds to shoot, especially the Eurasian Collared doves that have invaded NM and taken over. I have actually knocked them out of the sky and waited a few minutes till they stopped coming in to walk out and get them just to have them fly away as I am about to pick them up. Those are some truly hearty birds. But, they also taste good!!

61 years ..............well done! You'll do well with the M and IM, I feel sure. We've got the ECDs here, too, but they mostly hang around buildings on the farm, venturing into the fields to feed, then returning. They are much less afraid of humans than mourning doves. Do you get whitewings in huntable numbers?

I look forward to dove season more now than I did as a kid and an adolescent. The guns just add so much more dimension to the sport, understanding choke and loads, and how they work together, and matching the gun to the game and circumstances. Knowing some of the history of the old ones gives it all even greater allure. What a treat it is to take a limit with a gun on it's 100th birthday!

It's almost time to resurrect the hunting pic thread that Greg began many years ago.

Hot dog! SRH

Yes it is! My favorite thread on Doublegun...Geo

Oh, and Stan even though I did not take the bet, we'd like to see a picture of your opening day limit with the gun and oh maybe any expended shells you might have saved; all of'em...Geo

You'll get that, Bro. Geo., for better or for worse................prolly on the new hunting pic thread.

SRH

To be fair, I'll try to do the same with my 12ga. Still no bet, but you've piqued my curiosity. If my shell pile is too embarrassing to post, I may just disappear for a little while...Geo

Good news from the dove club. "The fields are both still wet in the low areas but they are loaded with the birds. " I will be getting gear ready tonight.

On Saturday, it will be dog drive in the morning (NID Mag 10) and dove shoot in the afternoon (Win 21 12g)and listening to the Clemson Tigers football while driving from the dog drive to the dove shoot.

Now, I only need to figure out how to cram a teal shoot in before the dog drive when the teal season opens on the 15th. A Lowcountry September McNab. (please note that marsh hens may be substituted for teal, if the tides are right.)

Nice life in South Carolina...Geo

Stan: weren't you experimenting with planting some wild sunflowers the deer weren't supposed to eat? If yes, how did that work?

I got a terrible stand, just as the Texas seedman told me I probably would in my soil type. Some came up and made multiple heads. I'm going to mow them down this week to help prevent the little songbirds from eating all the seeds out of the heads. They are supposed to repopulate themselves each year if you ever get a good stand. I saved half of the seed I bought and will overseed the same field this October/November to try one more time to get them established. But ..............big disappointment............ deer will eat them. They ate the tops out of many of my plants, but they don't eat them nearly as bad as the perodovik type that we normally plant.

I'm of the conclusion that the deer population here is so much denser than most of the country that there is nothing I can grow that they won't eat. Given a choice between getting totally rid of either deer or wild hogs I would keep the hogs in a heartbeat. I can handle them ...............I can't handle the deer.

SRH

Few things worse than illiterate deer who don’t read the seed bags which clearly state not to be eaten by deer. When you have extreme high density in deer populations they will eat everything in my experience. Just wish I liked shooting them more. If they put a bounty on them I’d stay poor. The advantage with hogs is year round hunting but hogs are smart. Deer you either need crop deprivation permits or real aggressive in season culling shall we say.

The deer hunt clubs who lease deer hunting rights on my farms are given clear quotas for each farm. Harvest so many deer each year, check them in or show the farmer or their lease will not be renewed. Had one group who would only shoot anything with antlers. All those does were like rabbits breeding. Populations went from too many to way too many. Size of deer decreased as number soared. Health also I’m sure went down. The crop damage they did was hard to explain. Beans and even corn were impossible to raise within 50 yards of any wood line. It took three years of culling the heard to get things back into balance. It was so bad every branch, vine or shoot in the woods was eaten back. You could see for 50-75 yards in every direction in the woods with nothing in the way. Not a single leaf. Vowed to never let things get that far out of control.

Here in Florida the season doesn't kick in until Sept. 22. Virginia's season used to open on the first Sat. in Sept. and was always so much fun shooting with friends.

Stan, I understand about the deer. I own some farm land in Virginia that is covered up in deer. I can remember as a kid there were no deer anywhere around where our farm was located - you actually had to travel a couple of hours to find sustainable deer to hunt. Now they are everywhere.

Back to dove, I shot some in FL last year and the birds were high flying, and the shooting was pass shooting. I used a sidelock Greener 12 gauge, 28 inch barrels, choked tight IC and IM. RST shells, 3/4 & 7/8 loads with #7 and #8 shot. I would have preferred to use a smaller gauge gun but the distances and flight paths dictated a 12 gauge for me.

I shoot them all summer long with deprivation permits. I have friends who hunt them on my place all season. My grandsons hunt them. Killing one is like dipping a thimbleful of water out of the ocean. It ain't missed. I have a field of peanuts that comes to within 40 feet of my little back porch and patio. I've killed seven does this summer while kneeling on my porch, all within 180 yards of the porch, during the afternoon. It's hopeless.

I've got close friends with a big packs of hog dogs, that will go every night if they've got hogs to put them on. They kill a lot of them, but the important thing for me is that if you put the dogs on the same group of hogs two or three times in a few days, they will leave that part of the country for weeks, sometimes months. Not deer. Kill one, the rest run out of the field .....................for maybe an hour. Then they're right back eating.

SRH

Stan, you guys could always hire Dr. Gary Alt to be in charge of deer management in Georgia. After several years of his "expertise" in Pennsylvania, deer populations fell so dramatically that he quit his job and left the state due to numerous death threats from pissed off deer hunters.

I'd fund his benefit package myself if he would do that here. While waiting, I keep hoping for CWD to move South.

It's bad when I have had to threaten the friends who hunt my place with banishment if I ever learn they have killed a coyote. Coyotes are my allies in this fight. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend". An acquaintance found a coyote den and put a trail camera "on it". The female brought eight fawns in to her pups in one spring. You go, girl.

SRH

When I was young, deer were not very common. Our family had deer drives through the woods to drive the deer out into the fields so they could be shot. Over time it died out. About 20 years ago I mentioned to a cousin that what we needed was a deer drive to thin out the deer on my farm that was rank with deer. So he talked a bunch of family member into doing it the last day of deer season. It was going to be a group effort with all sharing in the meat as they wanted.

That farm has three sections of woods around very large fields that borders marsh or a small river and is a kind of small peninsula. Well they put out shooters in the fields, decided on safe lanes of shooting and sent men and boys into the woods to flush the deer out. And out they came, ran across the fields and those who were not killed went into another section of woods. So they repeated it on the nearest section of woods and even more deer poured out. Again more deer were killed. At this point it was lunch time and they had a BBQ setup. The drivers decided to take a break before they would try the third section where almost every deer on the farm was now hiding.

Just before it was time to start again one of the smarter cousins said that they had killed 23 deer so far and that was going to be a lot of work when they were done. A quick discussion ensued and they decided 23 was enough. At least they did send the young boys into the woods to stir them up and flush them out. I do not know the true number of deer the ran out of there. Most of my cousins are not good with higher math but a conservative estimate was well over 50. Some of those deer had been run out twice and survived two different gauntlets. And as you would guess it they never left that farm. It took years to get the numbers under control. We used a lot of permits to thin the number down and if you thought they were too thin a few would move in in the next few weeks.

CWD may never make it that far south. We have had a couple isolated die offs where every deer in a mile radius dies in a rapid time frame. But it always burs out before it spreads too far and deer number recover very quickly. Too quickly.

Problem for us is, we've got exponentially more woods around fields that y'all, Jon. Smaller fields, surrounded by woods, big problem. I've had a minimum of 60 acres of cotton completely demolished this year. Over half the production costs incurred, but zero yield.

It is what it is. I can suck it up or quit.

SRH

For the first time in many years I will be attending a "Pay" hunt. As my fields I have permission to hunt on are not cut yet here in central N.C..
It is costing me $80 and that includes lunch. I will probably use my Model 42 or my 12 bore Garbi.
Stan, I expect a full report on your opening day hunt and pictures so I can be jealous.

We have plenty of coyotes on my place in Virginia too but they don't seem to be impacting the deer and that is curious. I think part of the problem is that the deer just move in closer to homes and yards.

Back on the subject of dove.

Anyone know of any shoots in Georgia say between the GA/FL line in Jacksonville and Savannah?

Thanks!

My options this year were either a pay hunt or no hunt. I've chosen "no hunt" for a number of reason, with hopes for a better situation as the year evolves. Sure glad to hear you folks are doing good down in the Southlands.

I dunno ............. as many deer as we have you wouldn't think the coyotes are doing much either, but eight fawns by one female is pretty significant.I can hear them outside my house at night so close that they can't be over 50 yards out.

My wife walks our little miniature Yorkie on a narrow woods road back to a little irrigation pond behind our house every afternoon. She usually carries a pistol, just in case a yote tries to grab him on the leash. She may not hit him with it, but hopefully he would reconsider if shot at.

SRH

About ten miles away from my house, last year, a coyote ran off with a small poodle. It was thankfully never recovered. Apparently the coyote in question had a taste for French food. Had that happened to my wife's dog there would be a lifetimes bounty on them in her books. Woman holds a grudge.

Recent rains on my patch of the Southern Rolling Plains of Texas have really improved my Dove fields....Lots of birds present at the moment.....No weather front on the horizon before the 1st to move 'em out so I am probably All set.... A much improved prognosis than I was facing just 60 days ago....
This a thirsty , parched ol country, but rain does indeed turn it around. This starts my 61st Dove Season.....and marks my 60th Texas Opening Day.....Hard for me to believe that in a life filled with extensive world travel, I have missed only one September 1st Texas Opening Day.

Reports from the landowner 200 miles West are dismal at best. So I picked up a few boxes of clays to give the French girls some trigger time. Clay or feathers, can't shoot 'em inside the house- so the dog and I go tomorrow for a few days of patient vigil and star strewn nights.

Mike

My youngest son Ross and I will open the season tomorrow here:

https://youtu.be/OKKxbOks6l8st

A little on the plush side, lol, but easily our best alternative. Price isn't that bad, actually. Breakfast @ 5 am, shoot that morning, lunch, then afternoon shoot, $160 a head. I've spent more and gotten less trying to prepare a field. As much as I spend a year on registered SC tournaments, this is nothing.

I use the term "shoot" because it ain't "huntin', it's shootin'...
JR

I had no idea Mississippi had prairies. Slick looking place...Geo

George, get on Google Earth and zoom out, look at Mississippi and Alabama. You can see the "Black Belt" of black prairie soil that runs from roughly Tupelo in a broad, counter-clockwise arc down to just east of Montgomery. Black farming soil, limestone, cedars, cottonwood, bodock, scrub oak. Great for game. The term "Black Belt" has other connotations as well because of the plantation farming that was there in the 1800's.
JR

That's not bad as long as it's not a Le Mans start to the stands jamming as many folks as they can into the field. A civilized drawing of stands is what I like where we shoot. I assume the membership is private and this is an additional cost to the membership fees.

This is it, boys. The long awaited, anticipated, contemplated and prognosticated opening day shoot. I gave thanks to my Maker this morning for leaving me here another year, to revel in His creation and enjoy the shooting I so look forward to each fall and winter. My calendar does not begin on New Year's Day. It begins with the first Saturday of September.

Best wishes to all who will take the field today, and especially to those for whom reading about it, and seeing pictures, must now suffice. You are remembered.

Beautiful place, John. I hope you and Ross have a great time together. Report on it, plz. Maybe some pics of the bird field?

SRH

Good hunt to all. Enjoy friends and family. Please make sure to see a youngster or youngest family member has a great time. Everyone’s goal should be to look at a young shooter and think I helped you start down a Dove hunting tradition which will last two generations after I go and give that youngster 60 or more years pleasure. Other than teaching them how to eat ice cream nothing will last as long or give as much enjoyment.

Good hunting, be safe, shoot well and find all those downed birds. We have plenty of bacon for the grill.

Nice start around here, the First limit of the season is in the saltwater chilling......

My Dove involvement for the rest of the opener will be handling the grill chores.... Then,I'll be a spotter and retriever for family that won't get to shoot until this afternoon.

Good Luck and Good Shooting to all,

My first ever dove hunt this morning went very well.

16ga Husqvarna 100 hammer gun:

Good job Mark!! BTW, feel free to post a complete picture of that beautiful 16 hammer gun!!!

Sure thing, thanks! At 6lbs even, it's my main chukar gun, and it shoots as good as it looks. Fixed ic right barrel, Briley's in the left. I don't like the grain pattern in the stock, and will be re-doing that soon.

Here is a full view, next to my 6.4 lb 30" Lefever GE 12.




Here's what it looked like when I got it, before I did the straight grip conversion, etc.

Thanks Mark. Two beautiful pieces. Did you do the refinish yourself? If so, excellent job.

Well, I did not make it out today. Stuck inside all day with a pinched nerve in my back that made walking quite difficult. I will have to live vicariously through all of you who post your tales of the hunt today!!

Mark, your work is beyond belief! Those guns (especially the Husky) are fantastic!

I sure wish I had some more that you could do for me (like in the past). But, don't have anything right now.

My hat is off to you, what an artist.

Best,

Greg

No need for pics on this report, Geo. Nothing to have need to lie about.

Killed a limit, plus one Eurasian ringneck. Shot 50 %, 15 x 30, with the Dickinson .410. Not the kind of shooting I could brag about. In all fairness tho', the birds flew amazingly fast and sporty, for opening day doves.

You shoulda' bet me. I'm sure you'da "took my money". A few pics are over on the hunting pic thread.

SRH

Was one short of field limit 12. Got 11 birds with 11 shells. The misses accounted for many more shells. Gil

Few birds @ Prairie Wildlife, too many people, afternoon thunderstorms. Great food though...
JR

Sorry y'all didn't get much shooting, but glad you got to spend the day together at such a nice place.

What I'd give for some thunderstorms right about now..............

SRH

I actually got my limit. As Stan said the doves here were pretty sporty.
Mike

A big zip, 0 nada here. I went to the local state dove field here. Plenty of sunflowers not a single bird flying. Just very hot. At least the pup got to cool off in the pond.

Here in eastern Iowa Saturday consisted of moderate to heavy rain for 10 hours. None the less we hunted and some birds were flying.
I did get 5 birds before the winds came up. Once the rain started to go horizontal my son and I decided it was time to head home, clean birds and guns (water was literally running out of the locks!).
The storms moved off in the middle of the afternoon and the sun finally decide to shine (87 degrees and 93% humidity) We went back out for just over an hour before the end of shooting time and we each shot 4 more.
We went back out this morning taking my nephew on his 1st dove hunt. He brought his pump shotgun but decided to use one of my Husqvarna hammer guns. He loved it!
Not much flying today. Very hot and humid again with mostly clear skies. Took 2 shots and got 1 bird today.
Ended up firing 18 shells (3/4 is of #8 shot) for 10 doves. Not bad for me but I'm no Stan.

Great report, Matt. I'd swap a day's shooting for a day's rain right now, to finish up this year's cotton and peanuts. Maybe you'll get some better shooting weather soon.

Any day you shoot over 50% on doves is a successful day's shooting. Well done.

SRH

Sorry just getting back online, 22 shells 15 birds. 1/2 oz 8s pic soon to follow

Is their landline still working? hehe.

Here in va the showers threatened but stayed away for the most part. Many limits taken.

Excellent shooting.

SRH

Still looking for a hot field. Hard to even find wheat stubble fields around here among all the corn and beans. I drove 40 miles Saturday and found less than a dozen. Canola and sunflowers are gone from my area of SE ND.

Opening day Sept. 1st, 2018:



I didn't have much of a shoot opening day. Doves were not there as in years past and we got thunder-stormed out at 4:00. Poor shooting on my part. All I can say is I've reached the age where I don't seem to be improving at anything...Geo

Second day, the dove shoot improved but my shooting didn't. Ten birds for a box, shooting my Daly Miroku 12ga with Kent low recoil trainer loads.

Both days were at least comfortable with the rain out Saturday and a coolish breeze Sunday afternoon. I found five arrowheads though picking up birds.

I do love this time of year...Geo