2023 Doves

[shooter53]

Its tough over here on guns, but great on limits, And anything to do with shooting components and and ammo has rocketed in price the same as out with you, shotguns at auction really cheap from 14/15 $ i bought a sabatti artremide o/u like new not a mark on it £130 £1100 new so not all is bad

 

[Bob Wright]

28" modified is a typical shotgun barrel. I have a 21 inch Special Field Rem that is great on fast rising quail. I use it on duck and dove as well.

 

[quigley257]

Great photos. What choke do you like for dove hunting?

I was using the stock modified tube. I may pick up some Benelli Mobil 28 gauge compatible tubes in the future.

 

[Lee7588]

Where is that?

If you tap their name it will give more info, but from the UK

 

[quigley257]

28" modified is a typical shotgun barrel. I have a 21 inch Special Field Rem that is great on fast rising quail. I use it on duck and dove as well.

Yes!! I bought a Rem 870 Special Field with the 21" barrel the year they were introduced. I lived in northern Minnesota at the time. It was and is just the ticket for Ruffed Grouse and Woodcock in the thick woods that they prefer. It was my "do everything" gun. It has a 3" chamber so I used it for upland and waterfowl(pretty harsh recoil) and even shot a few deer with it using a rifled tube and slugs. I can't imagine how many hundreds or thousands of miles of Minnesota woods that shotgun has seen. I still love the straight English grip and the way it handles.

 

[shooter53]

Where is that?

im from Wales but do my shooting in Hereford Uk only 1hr drive, All my shooting is free even the deer on a good day or night 100 plus crows, pigeons or rabbits (night time) so we have plenty of small game and dont have to worry about anything hunting us must be creep that

 

[MIBirdhunter]

Earlybugle, I was at Kankakee F&W area 9/1 and the biologist said that northern Indiana had about 80% of its birds move south the week prior with the cold snap. Unfortunately, I can't verify as we didn't draw for the hunt.

 

[GunHawk]

My dove gun is a 20 with damascus barrels. Here is a pic from the ad when I bought it.

 

[Roughrice]

I was using the stock modified tube. I may pick up some Benelli Mobil 28 gauge compatible tubes in the future.

I use Carlson Light Modified for my Silver Mallard Berreta.
It's slightly tighter than factory modified and I use the same for duck hunting.

Much less shooting this morning.
The average was about 7 or 8 dove per man with 15 guns in field.

 

[brcfo_outdoors]

Me and my buddy limited out two mornings in a row in about an hour here in the deserts of southern California. Lots of people were struggling to make limits but we saw more birds this year then we had in the past two. I think locations make a huge difference and you have to scout each year to see where they actually are. We had a lot of water this winter which I assume helped.

 

[Hunter Hoover]

That looks like a lot of fun. I haven't hunted this year yet because the one farm we used to hunt changed hands so we can't hunt there anymore. Good luck with the Tristar. Both of the ones I had I sold again because of issues with jamming up a and had a broken firing pin on the one. I made up my mind I'll never own another. I use a Franchi affinity for most of my shotgun stuff but also use a BerettaA400 Excel some.

September 1st brought yet another great dove opener here in western South Dakota. Limits came quickly with birds moving well in spite of how hot it has been. I shot my 15th bird of the day at 8:42 am. Could have limited out earlier but we were being especially careful about not shooting birds over the tall, thick cover. There's plenty of that with all the rain we got this summer. I'm absolutely loving my new shotgun. I picked up a Tristar Viper G2 Pro model in 28 gauge earlier this year as well as a MEC 600 jr for reloading. It is a Benelli clone with an inertia drive system and scaled to gauge, weighing a trim 5.9#. I'm running 3/4 oz of #8 shot at 1325 fps and it patterns well and fits me well. I managed, for the second time in two years, to get two birds with one shot. I did it last year shooting a 12 gauge with 1-1/16oz of 7-1/2 shot. I'm looking forward to many more fun filled days on the Dakota prairies in the weeks to come. Not much better than fresh grilled bacon wrapped dove breasts when you're camping in the Black Hills!!

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[Window]

September 1st brought yet another great dove opener here in western South Dakota. Limits came quickly with birds moving well in spite of how hot it has been. I shot my 15th bird of the day at 8:42 am. Could have limited out earlier but we were being especially careful about not shooting birds over the tall, thick cover. There's plenty of that with all the rain we got this summer. I'm absolutely loving my new shotgun. I picked up a Tristar Viper G2 Pro model in 28 gauge earlier this year as well as a MEC 600 jr for reloading. It is a Benelli clone with an inertia drive system and scaled to gauge, weighing a trim 5.9#. I'm running 3/4 oz of #8 shot at 1325 fps and it patterns well and fits me well. I managed, for the second time in two years, to get two birds with one shot. I did it last year shooting a 12 gauge with 1-1/16oz of 7-1/2 shot. I'm looking forward to many more fun filled days on the Dakota prairies in the weeks to come. Not much better than fresh grilled bacon wrapped dove breasts when you're camping in the Black Hills!!

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Man it doesn't get any better than that! My little girl (12 year old) and I got a limit here in Georgia Saturday morning. I'm 52 and haven't missed an opening day since I was 4. Can you guess what's going to be for supper tonight?

 

[blvette75]

September 1st brought yet another great dove opener here in western South Dakota. Limits came quickly with birds moving well in spite of how hot it has been. I shot my 15th bird of the day at 8:42 am. Could have limited out earlier but we were being especially careful about not shooting birds over the tall, thick cover. There's plenty of that with all the rain we got this summer. I'm absolutely loving my new shotgun. I picked up a Tristar Viper G2 Pro model in 28 gauge earlier this year as well as a MEC 600 jr for reloading. It is a Benelli clone with an inertia drive system and scaled to gauge, weighing a trim 5.9#. I'm running 3/4 oz of #8 shot at 1325 fps and it patterns well and fits me well. I managed, for the second time in two years, to get two birds with one shot. I did it last year shooting a 12 gauge with 1-1/16oz of 7-1/2 shot. I'm looking forward to many more fun filled days on the Dakota prairies in the weeks to come. Not much better than fresh grilled bacon wrapped dove breasts when you're camping in the Black Hills!!

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Just reminds me to get my daughter and I out there, I bought her a tristar 20 gauge youth when she was 12, she has out grown the stock, just need to swap it out and take her. Great pictures and thanks for sharing.

 

[Bob Wright]

Yes!! I bought a Rem 870 Special Field with the 21" barrel the year they were introduced. I lived in northern Minnesota at the time. It was and is just the ticket for Ruffed Grouse and Woodcock in the thick woods that they prefer. It was my "do everything" gun. It has a 3" chamber so I used it for upland and waterfowl(pretty harsh recoil) and even shot a few deer with it using a rifled tube and slugs. I can't imagine how many hundreds or thousands of miles of Minnesota woods that shotgun has seen. I still love the straight English grip and the way it handles.
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Kicks hard doesn't it? Haha! I wished I bought all the other ones in auto and in 20 GA. They didn't produce them very long but for gambles quail to ducks with the super full choke I use, they work great on ducks.
The English grip and 21" barrel does make it stupid fast to shoulder. I ruined many quail by not letting them fly a bit more.
I had only the 2 wings left of one quail. He took the wad too.