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First Dove Hunt of the Season.
Had my first opportunity this season to go dove hunting. So, my boy and I went out with a friend to a small ranch. Weren't expecting much but, boy were we wrong! Probably the best flying I've seen in several years. I limited out in about an hour and a half. Would have been much sooner except for my misses and a couple unrecoverables.
Honestly, it was the ending to a crappy day that I sorely needed. Wonderful time with my boy and best friend with cool weather and pretty scenery. My boy had a great time playing bird dog and my friend and I shot rather well. Plenty of birds for a cookout next weekend. Hope to go a couple more times this week.
Just for you, CPJ.
Honestly, it was the ending to a crappy day that I sorely needed. Wonderful time with my boy and best friend with cool weather and pretty scenery. My boy had a great time playing bird dog and my friend and I shot rather well. Plenty of birds for a cookout next weekend. Hope to go a couple more times this week.
Just for you, CPJ.
"To Hell with efficiency, it's performance we want!" - Elmer Keith
Replies
There will be peppers..........peppered bacon..........and a grill involved next weekend. Oh yes.
I shoot that shotgun better than I ever shot my 870. Come to think of it, I shoot my 20ga SxS better than my 870 as well!
These were last year.
I'll try and use my 20ga next time.
Doofus, everybody wing shoots better once they get warmed up, you are hardly a poor shotgunner, especially with a double, I have been known to empty a semi-auto or 2 until I get warmed up, I just keep pulling the trigger until I catch up:guns:
Are they breasted out so you can you justpop them in your mouth or do you have to eat around the breast bone? Looks like food just begging to be enjoyed with a beer.
Biggest problem I have is getting my head down on the stock. I want to shoot with my head up and end up shooting over the bird. If I get my view down the rib, I can usually hit them. If I snap shoot, I tend to keep my head up and I'll miss cleaner than snot.
They are still on the bone. Yes, beer goes well with them.
Here is my SxS with some birds from several years ago.
Most, if not all, of my misses at the clays range involve me lifting my head, just got to join a league and burn some ammo, I can shoot 3 of my shotguns reasonably well now at the clays range, but it took 1000's of rounds to get there.
Any time you get to get out and throw some BB's at fast flying feathered ballistic missiles it is pure fun!
Stock fit while shotguning is critical, you should be able to shoulder the shotgun without having to move it away from your body, cant is also important. When I had my Citori professionally fitted I improved a lot. And yes head down is very important along with following through the bird with your swing. A lot of people tend to want to stop as they are pulling the trigger which causes a lot shots missed by shooting behind the bird.
AKA: Former Founding Member
I miss hunting dove down in your neck of the woods.
Mike
N454casull
I'm a terrible wing shot. I've got some guns that I don't deserve. Also, I believe the more the merrier in dove shooting. A number of guns will keep the birds moving.
:that: :agree: Shotgun fit is very important, the only shotguns that ever fit me without alterations are Win. 1300, 1400, & IZH O/U.
I was never a good wing shot until I moved to Houston and started duck and goose hunting. A buddy started me shooting sporting Clays, told me to shoot with the gun in the down position, the way you would carry it if hunting, not at the shoulder, like trap & skeet shooters. Within 4 - 5 months I went from using a box of shells and getting a few birds to limiting out and only using a couple more than my limit.
JAY
I agree with Tim, I have not had a shotgun fitted to me just because I don't know of anybody local that does it, but the idea to fitting is smooth mounting and cheek weld. The kids Scholastic Clays coaches preach practicing your mount and swing in the off season by putting a mini-mag light in the muzzle of you shotgun and have some one use a laser pointer or tightly focused flash light to give you some random spots on a wall to practice your mount from the low position.
What Jay said.
Try this little experiment. Close your eyes while you hold the shotgun with the butt touching your belt. Keep your eyes closed as you shoulder the gun smoothly and get it settled into your shoulder with your cheek firmly 'welded' to the stock. When it is at what feels like a comfortable position, open your eyes and look at your 'sight' picture. If the stock is too long you will be looking at the back of the receiver and wont be able to see the rib. If the stock is too short, you will be looking at the whole rib from a slightly elevated position. ( think of the view a pilot has of a runway just before he touches down)
The first will cause you to shoot underneath the bird normally, the latter will cause you to shoot over.
( If you want to test this, cut a few pieces of cardboard the same size as the butt plate and tape them on.....You will notice that your view of the rib will disappear)
If the gun is a good fit, you should just be able to see the length of the whole rib......and if the gun has a mid bead it should line up with the end bead.
If the gun is too long, other thing you can try is taping some cardboard to the stock where your cheek rests so that it 'lifts' your head up to get a good sight pic.
If the gun does fit, practice shouldering the gun with your eyes closed. After a while, muscle memory will take over and you will find that you can consistently place the shotgun in the same place. It will also help you to 'remember' to keep your cheek on the stock.
The gun should be a natural extension of your body and when shouldered should follow your eyes as you track a target.
Here are a couple of other things that seem to help............
Don't look at the birds body, focus on its beak. It will help you with your swing.
When birds approach, don't shoulder the gun till you are ready to shoot. Follow the bird with your eyes only till it is in range and hold the gun at the ready. If you hold the butt on your belt line with the muzzles up ( keeping the end of the barrel in line with your eyes and the bird), as you raise the gun the only movement should be the butt moving to your shoulder....the barrels should continue to track the bird. This will help with a smooth swing. As the butt touches the shoulder, increase the speed of the swing and 'slap' the trigger....and follow through.
Before I head out shotgunning I always practice shouldering the gun a few times by standing in a room and looking at the point where the wall meets the roof. I hold the gun down with the barrels in line with where I am looking...............then close my eyes and shoulder the gun and swing along the roof/wall line. Halfway through the swing I open my eyes to check that I am still tracking along the wall/roof line and that I have the correct sight picture.
In the field I am not aware of looking down the barrel, my focus is solely on the bird and I rely on 'muscle memory' to have the gun in the right place.
Tracking the bird with the gun shouldered as it comes in tends to make you want to 'rifle' shoot it and hinders the ability to get the barrel in front.
If a bird flys past at 30mph it is going to travel at about 13.8m a second. It will take your shot string about a quarter of that time to get there from the time you pull the trigger.... which means that when the shot arrives the bird is 9-10 feet past that point. Depending on the load, your shot string can be up to 16' long ( that is from the lead pellet to the trailing pellet.)
It is highly unlikely that you will miss if the barrels are in front of the bird..........it is guaranteed you will miss if the barrels are pointed at the bird.
The above is all basic stuff and I apologise for posting it, but sometimes it helps to look at the basics and refresh our memories.
JAY
Son that's somebody with nothing to do with his time but keep me in trouble with mom.
Son that's somebody with nothing to do with his time but keep me in trouble with mom.
They weren't flying as well today and they flew late. They were coming low and fast out of the fields into the trees like rockets!!!!
Just shy of my limit tonight. I found my nemesis. Using a SxS on birds coming at me fast. I lose them as I swing in front of them to lead since the double barrels effectively obscure the bird and I lose my track. Missed them like MAD tonight when they came straight at me. I obviously SUCK at that direction. The barrels covered them and I couldn't tell my lead.
Suggestions?
Regardless, we had a good time. The kids enjoy bird hunting. It's relatively fast paced. And they hey enjoy playing with the birds.
-96 lbs
Enjoy these days, both of you. May there be many, many more.
No. I was on the tree line itself. They were coming out of the overgrown field and into the trees to roost tonight. Couldn't see them until they were almost right on top of me and coming at me. To either side, I did alright. I think I only hit ONE coming at me. Just couldn't see them with the barrels obscuring them.
It was cool, my dad called while we were out hunting and spike to the kids. Told them about taking me out dove hunting when I was a kid and now they got to do it with me. He said he was proud of them and of me for passing on the "tradition".
Had that same problem this year myself...trees behind and cotton field in front...only had about a 30 yard wide space to drop them in. They can cover that 30 yards pretty darn quick.
Oh, try the overtake method when they are coming straight at you.....swing up from behind and as soon as the bead is on the bird pull the trigger and follow through.
-96 lbs
Most people have a tendency to stop the swing or slow it down when they lose their view of the bird in those circumstances. I do it myself sometimes when I get a bit rusty.
If they are flying parallel to the ground directly at you then shoulder the gun at a point just below the bird and when you want to take the shot, 'blot' the bird out. You just have to trust your instincts that you are on target and keep swinging the gun. If you still miss, then gradually increase the speed of the upward swing until you start knocking them down.
If they are flying in an arc from ground level to treetop, then don't start your swing till they are at about a 45degree angle to you.
Do you shoot 'sustained lead.............ie you track the bird with the barrels, swing in front to the distance that your brain tells you is the correct lead and then try to maintain that distance.................Or do you shoot by swinging the gun through the bird at a faster rate than the bird is travelling and hit the trigger as soon as you see daylight between the barrels and the bird?