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.