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

How about some dove season opener results from some of you gunners around the country? Are the numbers up in other areas as they seem to be here in my part of Jawja?

Eighteen guns opened the season here yesterday on our field that I planted last spring in sunflowers, corn and brown top millet. I had watched the birds all summer and knew that, barring some unforeseen disaster, the first shoot would be a good'un. It was. Fifteen guns limited at fifteen birds each. Three did not, two of which were young boys new to the dove scene. I was on and off the field in about an hour. I used my stand-by Beretta 687 SPII Sporting with a IC in the bottom barrel and a LM in the top. I could have just as well used a pair of SK's, but it was over so quick I didn't bother to swap.

I hope others' opening day went well, too. Let's hear the reports!

Hello All
Great first day of dove hunting

3 28s = 45 doves = 1 hour and 15 minutes



Left to right 86WCF, Zoomie71 , Skeettx

Left to right CZ Ringneck 28 SXS, American Arms 28 O/U, Tristar Brittany 28 SXS.

Bruce, David, and I are ALL 60 years + old !!!

Yeee Hawww, what a fun hunt

Update
Tuesday Tristar Brittany 28 ga 15 doves
Wednesday Tristar Brittany 28 ga 15 doves
Thursday Miroku/Daly Superior 20 ga 14 doves (got rained out) We really need the rain
Friday American Arms Brittany 20 ga 15 doves

The doves are really thinning out as the mornings are cooler up here at 3500 feet elevation in Amarillo.

Saturday Browning Superposed 28 gauge 8 doves
REALLY SLOW
Will go Monday and just to see if they are really gone South


Mike

I went to a pay shoot and had excellent barbque dinner and pecan pie for desert. Doves started flying when it got cloudy around three pm and it did not take long to get the limit. Hot as hexx though! Bobby

Good deal, Bobby. Pecan pie, eh? You were lucky it got cloudy there, it never did down heah'. Didn't take long, tho', and I was back in the shade.

What gun did you shoot?

Limits on opening day and day 2 of the season south of Phoenix, AZ. On opening day mostly morning dove only 1 whitewing, but on day 2, 6 whitewing and 4 morning dove. Most of the hunters near me had limits before 7:00 am. There were plenty of birds and just as many missed shots.

Anyone been out for dove in the Mid-Atlantic area (Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland)? I got one report from Maryland that dove are few and far between, apparently due to the wet spring here.

Stan, i took two 16 ga. side by sides. Started off with the 28" sterlingworth and finished with the Ugartechea grade IV 28". After i got through cleaning both of them wish i had only taken one! Bobby

Here in Southeast Alabama, the season doesn't open until Oct. 6 (the rest of the State is open, though). I went bass fishing this afternoon with friend on pond 2 miles from the house. We saw a lot of birds leaving the bottom next to us heading for the sunflower field on the top of the field. That field should be a good shoot. There was a lot of corn planted this year but most is already harvested (unless planted specifically for dove) and the fields have already been turned, so it won't do the dove any good. The peanut fields will be where most of the shoots are held. One brown top millet field down the road looks very promising.

I can't wait!

Adam

"My group" has assembled for many years at a friend's 'camp' on the banks of the Ocmulgee River in Dodge County, Ga for the dove opener. We'll usually book spots on a pay shoot in the area or just hang out and fish or arrowhead hunt on the premises.

This year the group was short due to the age and infirmaties of the crowd. Those there all had prearranged private shoots and my buddy and I were left on our own. Our opening day consisted of a great morning of bass fishing in the 150 year old spring run mill-pond on the property and an afternoon on the deserted 'dove-field' sitting in the shade swapping his .410 back and forth shootin' "at" snake-doctors. We both agreed that the shoot equaled or exceeded many of the pay shoots we'd been on during previous openers...Geo

Northern Illinois opener was a total bust! Didn't fire a shot on the club's lease. Next day stunk as badly. Birds are around but not in concentrated numbers. Our fields have not been harvested yet so things may improve after that is done. I may be in the hospital then for some surgery. Wonder what the rest of the state had for the opener. Brought my 16 ga. Nitro Special but it was too heavy for a 73 year-old to swing so I guess it'll have to go on the block. Old men need light guns! Chopperlump