Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Favorite Shotgun set up for dove?

I know this probably belongs in the upland section but I wanted to hear what the pros use.

Here are my preferences: 12 Gauge, 1&1/8 or 1 oz. 8&1/2 magnum shot at 1325 fps. or 7&1/2 for pass shooting and pigeons. Skeet 1 & 2 chokes for waterholes, or IC and Lt. Modified for general use, and Lt. Mod. and Imp. Mod. for pass shooting. #9 shot works great for close in shots but is likely to stay in the bird more frequently. #8s are good for all around and the 7&1/2 if most shots will be 30 or more yards away. Use about the same with a 20 gauge but with one step tighter chokes and #8 shot. Cylinder and skeet wound too many birds with a 20 or smaller gauge. Mostly use over and unders now, Brownings and Berettas.

20ga, imp cyl and 7 1/2 shot.....1200 fps or so

Hard to beat right there. PREZACTLY the way I roll.

And we don't get beat up!

Parker 12 gauge 1.5 frame 28 inch damascus barrels. Full and imp with RST spreader loads 7.5s.

28 bore O/U Miroku, skeet & skeet, 3/4oz. #8's, was my go-to technology for many years, hunting over a 2 1/2 acre sunflower field planted each year for the sole purpose of dove-ing. Sold the gun though, and if I head over this Monday it'll have to be with an LC Smith 12 bore IC & Mod, with 7/8 oz. #8 spreader loads. The shooting is fast and close.

Very classic choices gentleman. The ultimate may be #9 tungsten but I doubt I will ever use that, or at least not for other than a novelty. A classic gun just makes the experience that much better, and the way I shoot I doubt the extra shot of a pump or auto would increase my bag. On a recent (last week) trip to Mexico I bagged close to the same number of birds with half the shots as my friend with an un plugged auto.

Not that it has any application in the real world, nor is it germane to this thread, but a double fitted with ejectors is demonstrably faster to fire a long string of shots with than an autoloader. Think about it.

While I'll be trying a .410 over/under this year, my standard dove load is a 20 Ga SKB side by side shooting a full ounce of #8 nickel plated shot. Both barrels are full choked.

If one wants to be frugal, just go to Wally world and pick a box of 100 trap loads.....# 7 1/2 or #8 will work just fine.

While doves are not hard to kill, they can be hard to hit.....they provide lots of humble pie with their antics.

Your kill ratio will soar if you put a more open choke in your gun...

1974 Browning 20 Superposed Lightning... not a fussy gun with M/IC chokes... all my shots will be less than 35 yards. At that short distance, I can usually connect on 80%+...

This

Usually 12 gauge, 3" magnum steel #2, extended range waterfowl choke. Works for everything that comes to a waterhole, including doves.

I use my old trap shotgun...

Belgium made Browning Lightning, imp modified and full

I use trap loads 1 1/8 of 7 1/2s, 3 dram

I have used a bunch of different shotguns on doves, but my choice varies considerably depending on the kind of dove shooting.

For local doves here in Montana, I tend to use a different shotgun early in the season, because most mourning doves have gone south by the end of September (and often sooner). In this part of the state the shooting isn't concentrated, so they (and the invasive collared doves) tend to be targets of opportunity, jumped or pass-shot while hunting Hungarian partridge and sharptailed grouse. As a result I often use a little larger shot than the #8's usually chosen when just hunting doves, often 7-1/2's or even handloaded 7's (a great all-around upland shot size, in my experience better than either 7-1/2 or 6).

Usually the amount of shot is around an ounce, no matter the gauge, and maybe a little less in 28 gauge. Choke is generally somewhere around modified, because shots tend to be a little longer than with doves coming into crops.

Later on, after black bear season opens in mid-September and pheasants in October, I often use my 16x16/6.5x57R drilling, usually with 1-1/8 ounces of shot, the size at least #7 shot but often #6--again because of the wide variety of birds. Plus, after September am mostly shooting collared doves, which do not head south, and are just enough larger than mourning doves that pattern density isn't quite as important.

When doing dedicated dove shooting over farm fields, whether in the U.S. or elsewhere, tend to use a 20 or 12, usually with around an ounce of #8 shot and chokes in the IC to modified range. Shots tend to be closer, partly because the birds aren't jumped but incoming, and a hunter can pick and choose more, especially in places like Argentina. Gauge is often more a matter of available ammo, but often use relatively heavy autoloaders to reduce recoil in high-number dove shooting.

Gauge can also depend on what other hunting might be involved. In both Argentina and South Africa (which I rate better than Argentina for dove/pigeon shooting, due to more species) waterfowl and larger upland game have also sometimes been available, so I used 12's, with different ammo as required. On a strictly dove shoot in Argentina used a rental 20-gauge auto, which of course worked fine.

MD +1 on #7 shot, worked great on teal too when it was legal. Where in SA did you dove hunt? Have you hunted sand grouse around a water hole? Really fast action reminiscent of dove shooting here in Texas.

Gnoahh +1 on the double for fast shooting. Recently I had the pleasure of having my bird boy act as a loader with a second O/U, really nice but almost like cheating. I felt like an English Nobleman briefly.

Sk or I/C choke in 12, 7 1/2 or 8. I/C in the 20, & prefer 7 1/2 there.

Starting today with synthetic Benelli M1 Super 90 in 12 gauge. Opening day is kinda serious for me.

After things slow down & the shoots become more leisurely, I'll go to a 20 ga. 687 Beretta choked I/C & I/C. 2 1/2 dr. 7/8 oz.

If I get to shoot several times this season I always try to take out an Ithaca 12 ga. S by S in twelve choked I/C & Mod. I load a 2 3/4 dram equiv. with 1 ounce shot for it.

We had a lot of birds yesterday over a fine crop of sunflowers, & last night we had nearly the storm of the century. Flash flooding, golf to tennis ball size hail, wondering how a dove could even live through it. Got my fingers crossed for today.

Nothing fancy here just a old 20ga Ruger Red Label 28" imp cyl/mod. Winchester XX

Model 12 16Ga, Ithaca Model 37 28Ga, Perazzi MX 8 20Ga. Chokes will be Mod, shot 6's for the most part.

However, if the Doves are thick and the guns are there, then I don't have to shoot. I can be content letting you all shoot and watching Merlot doing the the hard work.

Tejano,

In South Africa hunted around Bloomfontein, about 250 miles south of Joburg. There were four species of doves, including the pigeon-sized rock doves, which some consider among the toughest wingshooting in the world. (One of my companions claimed to shoot 90% on doves in Argentina, and got zero rock doves in his first box of shells.) Also hunted a lot of helmeted guineafowl, which is a lot like pheasant hunting, except the birds are twice a big, and there were some francolin as well, along with limited jump and pass-shooting for waterfowl, including Egyptian geese. Turned out the country was unusually dry, despite the hunt taking place not long after the rainy season, which limited the waterfowling.

Did Namaqua sandgrouse over a waterhole in Namibia, which was great, along with various other kinds of birds in other African countries. In fact have hunted birds on most of my safaris, but the one to Bloomfontein (my most recent trip) was the only one dedicated totally to bird hunting. Had wanted to make a dedicated wingshooting trip for quite a while.

The first time I hunted doves in the dim dark past I used a 16 bore Fox Sterlingworth, my only shotgun besides a tightly choked Ithaca 37. Being new to it I got excited and flubbed a few shots but then knuckled down and managed to scratch a limit with less than a box of shells- not a bad feat for a newbie. At that point I looked over at Jack, my mentor, as he missed yet another one. It was his last shell of the box and he hadn't scratched one bird. I was gobsmacked to hear him let loose a string of particularly nasty profanity followed by his swinging his Model 12 by the barrel and launching it about 20 feet into the weeds. "If you want it you can have the $%&#ing thing" he said as stomped off toward the car. That's how I came to own my first Model 12. Good times.

Classic!!!!

Now THAT'S a funny story!

I have an 870 Rem.12 gauge that i worked over the forcing cone.

It does a number on dove,quail and turkeys.

I ran for years an 1100 Magnum 30" full 12 gauge.
WW Superhandicap 7.5's.

It was top gun at a couple F&W areas, repeatedly.

Also ran an 1100 Trap once in a while.

Then they went non toxic shot.

Have run a couple 20's and 12's w steel.
1100 standard w Imp Cyl 6's in 12 gauge last couple of years. Top gun one year.
But I found the 26" bbl a little short and wearing synth stock, the gun overall a little light.

A 28" Remchoke w some added weight to synth stock would be my choice.

Have run an 870 Supermagnum Express 23" Remchoke before I got the last 1100.
It too was top gun a few times, but it wears on ya and doing triples is a no go (so far).

It works but isn't ideal.
I got it like new, cheap.........for 215. It kills turkeys just fine and is short enough for HD.

Slob shooter here, no cherry picking..........no practice, Shoot once or twice a yr (dove hunting) and run around 50%.
Nothing great, just everybody else up there sucks LOL

Did run 8 in a row from the start, some screamers too, but then decided proper form would be to shoot with my head up my azz and ruined it.
Still limited out at 50%............but damn. Just got into a bad string and then finished strong.

Back in 80's a bud had a bad go with a M500.
Miss miss miss.
I had an 870 Special Field 20 ga.

He was blind down from me.

Birds flew by his spot with no shots.
Again and again.

WTH?

I stepped out of the high weeds and saw his gun out in front of his blind, muzzle into soil..........like a fence post.
He was so mad he pumped it so hard he broke the tabs on the plastic trigger housing.

Gun was Kaput.

Next day we drove to Lengel's Gun Shop and he bought an A5 20 guage Invector. New.
Went back out for dove, maybe ten shots before he connected.

He was happy LOL.

A Mossberg 500 isn't a Model 12 and even so..............I didn't get a chance at his temporary fence post LOL.

Battue,

I'm 100 miles east of you. Almost no doves here, no one hunts them. I see a pair on the powerline
at home, never see more than a few.

You hunt them in your area, or traveling to them?
I have relatives along I-81, they used hunt them, pretty old now.
Migratory route thing, or am I missing something.

Have went with a friend who used to hunt th em before he moved here,
couple evenings sitting watching. Seen a few too far away.

We might have needed different stands, but there really not many birds.


On the good side.

I have never missed a dove.

Dillonbuck,

We used to have many more hanging around. I have one farm close by-just checked it-that will sometime during the season have a good many.Trouble is, it is getting built up on the periphery. He has a lot of corn yet to be cut. When he had cows it was pretty good most of the season. Now the best time has been in the late season when the migratory Birds are passing thru. There will be a couple days when there will be a 200-300 that stop off for a rest and some grain. The shooting can be as good as it gets for a short period of time.

Have a friend who lives South of Pittsburgh, that always finds a couple farms that will have good shooting on weekdays when you have it pretty much to yourself.

Another possibility is the GC is now planting Dove fields on some of the Game Lands. A couple of them should be relatively close to you. Go to page 7, click on a Bird and it will tell you the specific GL. They normally do a good job when it comes to planting habitat. I wouldn't doubt that a few of them will be worth a visit if one does their checking.

http://pagame.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapSeries/index.html?appid=fdab80363fba4e078b74a69630af1b5f

Remington 1100 28" vr, skeet in 20 gauge. Federal 7 1/2 field loads 'cause they are almost always the least expensive option.

Benelli Legacy 28 ga., IC choke, 3/4 oz. 7.5 shot.

Mostly, I have used my 870 Wingmaster 20ga with I/C choke barrel. It's a '75, so I have two barrels for it. Always worked.
Now that this state has gone non-lead thru out, I switched to my 930 Field and #7 steel for dove . Did well yesterday in Ca.'s Owen's Valley. Didn't get a chance at any Eurasian's, But, back home and wife is getting them ready dinner, whatever that may be, but, it WILL be good. Beers to ya fellow dove chasers!

For decades Dad had only one shotgun, a 12 gauge full-choke Ithaca 37. The good thing with that is, he knew the gun well.

Our limit was 10 doves. One opening day when I was a kid he went nine doves in nine shots. Got kinda cocky about it... Used the rest of the box without another dove downed!

I don't hunt doves often - used to use a 28 ga Model 12 skeet with a Cutts compensator & different choke tubes. It worked pretty well but my shooting improved with a 20 gauge side by side "Ithaca" by SKB.

These days I pretty much hunt all birds with a 12 ga Beretta 390 semi-auto. It's big, black & ugly, but I shoot it better than any other shotgun I've tried.

Danged doves have embarrassed and frustrated me more than a few times over the decades. I have never had a streak like Dad had with 9 for 9. That was quite a morning!

Guy

12 gauge O/U with M/IC chokes and Winchester AA #8.

Dove can be humbling, I bounce back and forth from 40-60% success rate with a few notable strings of a dozen or so back to back but then always start shooting at blue sky to ruin the string. Have had a number of triples including multiple two shot triples especially in Mexico.

My best run in Tx. was when I was a kid and shot an H&R single shot and got 12 dove with 11 shots. I was pumped when I went to check on my dad, he was hunting with our Friend Father McCabe who was hunting in his black and white outfit. I felt bad when I boasted I limited and he only had three birds. He blamed the low success on the Padre's outfit scaring the birds, couldn't have had anything to do with the long winded BS sessions going on. Dad bought some camo duds for the Father but it didn't off set the bull sessions.

Winchester 101 Skeet and skeet

Franchi Affinity 20ga with light mod choke shooting 1oz of either remington heavy dove or winchester AA also 1oz #8 shot. connected on more than 3 doves at a measure 40yds in the past 2 days. the twenty is plenty for doves.
Big Ed

Beretta 20 gauge sporting with 30 inch barrels or my Rem 870 20 gauge "lefty" 28" barrel choked for skeet.

Over a water hole I like a 26” improved cylinder, pass shooting at high flyers, I like a 30” full choke.

At the water hole, I like Handloaded 1 and1/4 ounce # 9 shot. High flyers, I like handloaded 1 and 1/4 ounce #6’s


I like the old Browning A-500 gas guns, I’m probably the only person that ever liked that model.

My favorite dove gun is a Winchester Model 12, 20 ga with a modified choke. YMMV.

Parker Reproduction, 20 or 28 gauge, choked IC and Modified. In the 20, I shoot whatever 7-1/2 shot is on sale at Walmart. (Seems like the last few years. it's been Winchester "Universal.") For the 28, I usually ferret out a few boxes of whatever number 8 shot I can find.

16 gauge Austrian hammer sxs from the 1920s. Choked about how you'd expect a Germanic gun from that period to be choked - really tight and even tighter. Not the gun for 20 yard shots.

Beretta 20ga will put you in love with a shotgun, very light shotgun and more important, no recoil to speak of.

My old Remington 3200 4 barrel set has served me well over the last 30 years or so. I only use the 12 gauge for the late season birds that are flying up around the stratosphere. I've never had to really use anything more than the 20 gauge with modified and full chokes. I usually load some 7/8 oz #8's (1280 fps) before the season, but I've got so many left over from years past I haven't had to load any in a couple of years. I've even got some 1 oz. loads left out there some where.

Yesterday was my opener and I decided to take out the 28 gauge barrels and give it a go. They're fixed choked skeet/skeet while my 12 and 20 have Briley choke tubes. I was shooting some 3/4 oz. Federal 8.5's sporting Clays factory loads that I had laying around. I did take a box of reloads with 3/4 oz. of #8's too. A ton of birds flying around Hondo, Texas and we were sitting in the right spot. I limited out and the fiance knocked down 12, but could only find 8. I'll go back next week and probably move up to he 20 gauge.

Doesn't matter at all to me.

I can miss equity well with all of them.

Won't get out till Nov this year but have used a 1100 25" barrel 28 gauge the past two years. IC choke, 8s & 71/2s. Initially thought IC would be too open but it works as long as I try to stay under 35 yards. I've used the 28 a lot for wild Valley quail and preserve chukars & bobwhites over my dog. Had my doubts about using it on doves but so far the 28's working at least as well as my 12 and 20 did.

Browning BPS Special Field 26” or 22”
Browning Citori White Lightning 26”
Browning Auto 5 Invector 26”
Remington 1100 26” RemChoke

What a good looking boy! I bet he can do double duty as a groundhog dog!

As far as dove guns goes, I’ll take a Beretta 390, 12 gauge, IC or Modified. A close second is an old Spanish SxS in 20 gauge. I believe it has been commandeered by my young son now. . He fell in love with it on our dove hunt this past weekend.

My Dove/Quail shotgun is a 870 Wingmaster 28 gauge, 25”barrel I/C choke. This gun fits me well and is easy carry when the Quail are just over in the next valley, a mile away! I shoot AA’a 7.5 and have for many many years. Won’t be changing anything this fall or the next or...

20 gauge 1949 Ithaca 37 with a full choke and Federal 8 shot.

Doves have normally been scarce here, sometimes get a few shots on a waterhole, sometimes find a decent feed field but nobody to help keep them moving. Got my revenge one year when the field across the creek had sunflowers on it and had just been combined a week or so before. More doves than I'd ever seen were using that field. I noticed that many were trading back and forth through a small gap in the hedgerow and setup in that spot. Had bird after bird coming right over my head and usually at a slower speed than normal. Kind of a station 8 high house, but slower with more time to get ready. I was shooting a Beretta 391 12 ga with IC choke and 1 1/8 oz 8s. Limited out with about that many shells. Sunflowers only lasted a couple years here and then the farmers went back to corn, wheat and beans. Sure wish they'd plant some more sunflowers

Well for pass shooting I use a Winchester 1200 pump with a full choke barrel off a Winchester 1400, for sitting between the waterhole and the sunflower field I use an 870 Wingmaster with an improved cylinder barrel on it. Usually Remington 1 1/8th ounce loads throwing 7 1/2 shot. Went out Memorial day and saw just two doves, didn't fire a shot.

He got into one the other day and the Groundhog was holding his own. I got him off and we called it a draw. 😁

Stevens 311 20ga. ic/m 1oz #8. Had this since I was 14, bought plenty since but this is still my favorite. Saved up grass mowing money up during the summer to buy it used. Wouldn't trade it for the world.
Patrick

If you ever get the chance to shoot a Rem 1100 in 28ga on doves, you will be spoiled forever, mod choke....like shooting a BB gun....stuff dies...near and far...

I like my SKB 680 SxS 20 gauge, choked IC/Mod with an English stock using 1 or 1 1/8 oz of #8’s or 9’s depending on expected ranges.

I also like my Nikko O/U “Shadow” bored skeet/skeet with 1 1/8 oz of 9’s on the first couple of days when they’re not quite as wary.😊

I was the “retriever” for my father for many years and he used a Remington Sportsman 58 and the standard “pigeon load” of 3 1/4, 1 1/4, 7 1/2. He even checked me out of school on occasion to go dove hunting. On one hunt, we were walking out into a harvested cornfield and he was carrying a little folding stool under his left arm and his shotgun in his right hand and the butt under his armpit. A dove came flying by and he pulled up with one hand nailed that sucker. Talk about “bragging rights” with your buds.

A few years later I was on my first hunt carrying a gun and the doves looked like flocks of blackbirds feeding on a cut millet at my uncles’s farm. I was carrying a Savage 24 O/U 22/410 with 3/4 oz #7 1/2. I was walking down a fence line to my stand and as a dove came flying by, I killed him with my first shot fired at a dove😀. Needless to say, the rest of the afternoon didn’t go as well. They were so thick I got to the point where I could fire and reload fast enough to get a second shot. I burned up some ammo that weekend and the following weekend but I got my limit when some of my Dad’s friends didn’t

keith,

"Beretta 20ga will put you in love with a shotgun, very light shotgun and more important, no recoil to speak of."

"If you ever get the chance to shoot a Rem 1100 in 28ga on doves, you will be spoiled forever, mod choke....like shooting a BB gun....stuff dies...near and far..."

Two posts, two different answers. Which one?

We don't have much to concentrate doves up here so my main gun is whatever I have in hand when a dove flies by. So far, that has been a Browning Gold 3.5" Hunter. Fortunately, the doves were flying after the geese stopped which gave us time to switch to steel 7s. I have 9 doves to my name so far, six from that goose hunting outing, the other three while walking the dogs.

Finances has me missing any classic dove hunting trips so whatever I pick up will be it for dove. The one wheat field in the area that has been attracting doves is also the best goose hunting so I don't want to burn it by shooting the relatively few doves around. With highs in the 60's and a storm front moving in, a number of doves should be heading south.

I think my new perfect set up is skeet #1 and #2 in an old Winchester 101 12 gauge Diamond grade. But I will be shooting my grade 6 Belgian Browning 20 with IC & M as well. They both feel right. If only I could shoot as well as when I was a teen when I went 67 straight and still had shells from the third box left over, in Mexico.

1100 26" 20,choked light modified...

I have an old Rem 1100. I shoot the lightest 2 3/4 field load I can find that is sold by the case in #8.

I have a vent-ribbed I/C skeet barrel and a 26 in MOD field barrel with just a brass pin on the end.

I use the Mod barrel if I'm posted at the edge of the field. However, if I have my druthers, I prefer to sit out in the middle with the skeet barrel and get the ones coming straight at me. I wait until the last possible moment and get that look of supreme existential surprise in the bird's eyes. They usually cup and hang there for an instant almost motionless.

Winchester M1200 in 20ga mod choke w / 7.5’s. Shots tend to a bunch over 30yards. And fast.

This year I shot 100% with my .410 O/U.....one shot.....one dove.....season over.....I used a 3" Fiocchi with #9 shot