Home Forums Birds & Dogs Shotguns Woo Hoo Dove Season is Right Around the Corner!!

I'll take my Benelli M2 American.

9/1 opener. M1 S90, M870 field grade 12 with 26" VR Imp cyl, Jap Sweet 16, or a 20 ga Citori Lightning that should cover all contingencies but 1 the high pass shoot that I have a BPS 10 for. Have some 1 1/4oz 7 1/2's for that possibility. Don't knock it before you have tried it. Magnum Man

Beretta A400 xtreme with a briley improved modified. Steel 6's for doves and steel bb's for geese.

Fausti Velo made for Cable's. 20 guage o/u 28" barrels.

Ernie

Franchi Affinity 20ga.

Just bought the compact in Max 4 for my daughter but we bought an adult stock too. Picked up two flats of ammo today. Ready for 3 youth hunts starting next Sat.

Taking a new Benelli SBE II to break it in. Headed out in about 6 hours.

1100 LT 20 for me.

My son is nearly bursting for the morning hunt. He's five and can't wait. This dad thing is OK.

Being a 76 y.o. Smart a$$, I took a model 42 Winchester (modified choke) .410 that I bought about ten years ago, patterned a few loads, shot a couple of nuisance birds, and put it up. My patterning and penetration on pine boards led me to believe that #8 or 8.5 target loads with the hard shot out performed the 3" 7.5 softer shot. I'm on blood thinners and bruise easily. It didn't happen this opener.

I took it and the 8.5 target loads and was pleasantly surprised. I did not try long shots. Most successful shots were within 25 steps with a couple of lucky ones around 30. I ran right at 50%. Not too bad for an old fart that sees dove (actually a couple of irregular shaped floaters) when none are there. These floaters allow dove to slip in on me sometimes, when I think I'm seeing floaters.

Enough whizz and moan. I only want a limit and then the AC back at the lodge. I can't recall a more enjoyable opener. I plan to take it again this week-end. If it continues to make me happy, happy, happy, I may cancel my itch for a Legacy 28 ga. Daughter and S I L both shoot them and love them. I'm pretty sure that as the birds become more wary, I may need heavier equipment. I have a couple of nice twentys. A friend showed up with a Beretta SP IV in .410 bore. He is an expert shot gunner. He also prefers the target loads.

Hope you had even more fun than I did. BTW, we also took out two rattlesnakes and neither rattled. Some theorize that they have quit (evolution ?) sounding off because if a hog hears one, the snake gets eaten. Hogs love them and the fatty flesh seems to make the venom ineffective. We got hogs!

Best wishes,

Jack

Being a son of the south I always looked forward to the opening day of dove season in the Carolinas.
There were some hunts that were more of a social event, people would do a "pig pickin" before hand and we'd then go shoot birds after lunch.

Nothing like sitting on a recently cut milo field near a water hole with several boxes of shells.

Here in MI they think they're a song bird, when I see them I think breasts wrapped in peppered bacon on the grill finished with a dab of BBQ sauce.

I do get my dove fix when I go home each fall so all is not lost.

Have a great opening day, be safe.

SC