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Well I have been shooting a 1100 12ga for 44 years now and have had several triples on Wild Iowa Pheasants, Quail , and Hungarian Partridge, And Ducks & Geese, and two quads one on Quail and one on Hungarian Partridge.
I have only had one chance for 5x5 and I had half a dozen Roosters in Western Iowa get right up in front of Me and I shot a triple and stopped because that finished our limit that day hunting with my Dad. I was shooting a 1100 28ga that day and did have five shells in it.
In Reality in the Uplands you do not get a lot of opportunities for triples less for quads and I have only had the one chance at a 5x5 the once on Pheasants.
The third shell does become important when Duck hunting but more for killing a cripple on the water when not hunting with a dog.
I shoot Trap and Skeet both in the summer to stay sharp. The above is all wild birds in Iowa.

Triples on pheasants? Multiple times? Are you kicking them out of the box on a preserve? I would like to see a triple flush of wild SD birds in the wind,...and all fall to a single gunner. Not that it’s not possible, but it’s quite improbable.

I’ve made doubles on wild pheasants and Huns, but not “multiple” times if that means many, and I’ve hunted them for over fifty years.

Anyway, in all that time, I cannot say I needed more than three shots. Mainly because even in Iowa in the sixties, flushes were usually singles; some doubles but then often just staggered.

Even currently, in SD, while you may see any number of roosters flush together in range, that would be the much less common than staggered singles or some doubles. So a SxS is fine for me or in a SA I’ve gone to the Benelli Ultralight — a 20 and a 12 — with one in the pipe and two in the tube.

But I only know pheasants.

Dropping doves or geese in one pass triple........kinda cool.

Just because we haven't done something does not mean others might have....

Doubles, triples, quads, etc.....only counts when they all get up at the same time and you take the number out of the air....Have had up to 8 Ruffed Grouse come out mostly one or two at a time and got three.....it wasn't a triple...

A true double or triple is two or three Birds, all of which flushed at the same time and all of which were dead in the air before one hit the ground.....Which most times changes the count....

Have seen more than one person claim a double. when it was two Birds that didn't get up even close to the same time.....Not the way it works....stragglers don't count....

Have you spent much time on the prairies hunting huns and sharptails? True doubles and triple opportunists happen all the time.

No, but I don’t know what that has to do with defining what a true is....

Eye mon! Truth.

Yes, that is correct as long as I have been hunting, about 60 years +..

Not arguing with your (correct) definition of what a real pair is.

But to say most times the count changes because that’s how it is with ruffed grouse is a little short sighted. There’s a whole world of upland birds out there and plenty of them flush is coveys.

Again. I'm only defining it.... Make of it what you want and how it applies to the Birds you hunt.....You want to correct me on that, then that is fine with me....Because naturally, if one hunts a Bird that tends to flush in numbers your odds and chances go up....

It is not only rare with Ruffed Grouse----most of the time it is the way of wild Pheasants, and try going for a triple on Woodcock. I've had the fortune to hunt Wild Quail a few times with a Guy that has probably shot more Wild ones than most people alive today....The guy owns one of the premier wild Quail plantations in the South for reference----Put a Semi Auto in his hands and three will often come down on a 20 Bird covey----damn few times will he call it a triple....He may say, "I got three on that rise." May, but it not that big a deal with him any longer, and most times he is carrying an O/U.....


Good for you, that you have the opportunities...But, I'm not going to sugar coat it just to be nice....I'm fed up with it at this place....So here is the fact of it-doubles are always doable given enough opportunities-however if three dead in the air on one flush are common....then it isn't all that hard.....Hell, most will have a hard time consistently smoking three clays, all in the air, that come out spread out, and unannounced....

You don't want to argue, but you call me short sighted and you can do that....but I'm the one that knows different...."opportunists" and doing it are two different things....If only obviously....And doing it was what I was defining....

We shoot a lot of sage grouse, some sharp tails and seldom huns.. The huns I have killed were usually singles.. But often a late riser would produce a double.. I most often hunt with a pump .. So killing a double is some thing that happens fairly often, but only once in 60 years did I kill a true triple.. That day I had an 1100 12ga.. I stepped off the ditch bank in to an uncut field, and sage grouse burst out everywhere.. I got a true triple .. I can still see them dead in the air..

I does get quite tiresome battue.. I can believe if things fell right with an auto, many 5.. But it would be rare.. The rifle section is no different.. It seems to be getting worse everyday.. The guys worth reading are dropping off at an amazing rate.. Hang in there not many left that I care to read what they have to say...

I should have said I got two huns out of that covey.. It was not a double, but when I do get two, that is how it has happened..

Shakin my head!

Hey I once missed #1 on a called #6 I was hitting consistently in Make A Break. Dam it cost me, I believe you were there Battue at Anthony's.

A double, triple, etc all flush at the same time. Not as common as one thinks.

Don’t fret, I saw one of the big boys miss a final hanging in your face #3, it cost him 10K.

Well my favorite upland gun on the grass prairies of western SD where I live is a 1959 A-5 Brownig "Sweet sixteen" 27.5 " VR mod choked barrel because it is sweet. My all time favorite bird is the Sharptail Grouse. For the first week or two of the season you can get covey flushes about every other year a opportunity for a triple comes up and I will take it everytime I can. Most of the time your opportunity for a triple is canceled because you all ready have a bird or 2 in your game vest. The last time was the very last hunt I made with my 14 yr old Gordon Setter. She didn't have much stamina left in her so I held her on heel until we got out there in the alfalfa where there were some knee high clumps left that gave the birds some shade and vertical cover from raptors. Her nose was twitching when I told her to hunt them up. 30-40 seconds later she locked on point and I walked in straight down wind. A covey of 15-18 birds came up an I swung from the left working right 3 birds 3 shots all the birds dead in the air at once.1 to 1.5 seconds that little Browning sang her song. Don't get the chance very often but that's one of the things that make it such a special event that you allways remember. You know I just don't care if someone else doesn't like it either. MB

I just found this thread. Hey quick question, since I like to eat wild quail, and don't mind ground sluicing them. Does it count as a quadruple if I get 4 quail with one shot? I've lost track of all the technicalities.

For when I do actually hit some quail in the air, do I have to have slow motion footage to make sure that they all flushed at the same time, in order to qualify for a double?

Single shots most be the most elite type of shotgun, which is cool, because I used to hunt with a single shot 12 gauge. But I never hunted with a bird dog so none of it counts anyways.

I have had lots of occasion's to run out of ammo, while shooting cripples on waterfowl or busted covey's getting up under your feet. Always thought the 3 shot limit for waterfowl was more for a second law to make sure you didn't break the first law.

Sure; you might even qualify for the E. Fudd lll Award which includes your achievements above if out of a truck door. It’s all good.

How about getting back to the truck after chasing a covey of scaled quail, to find that all four doors are still open from everyone bailing out for the chase? grin.

Hope you'll all forgive my sarcasm. But to see TheKid get picked on because he's younger than these guys, and doesn't define doubles or triples "correctly", so he must be inexperienced. The experiences he's posted say otherwise.

How about I'll tell about a few of my proudest "doubles", or rather "two birds out of the same flock/covey".

Jumping ponds for ducks with a younger brother, we flushed a few mallards at close range at one pond, we both knocked down drakes, a hen flew in a circle behind us, I reloaded my single shot and dropped her into the field. To some inexperience boys that was a pretty cool "triple"!

Driving through some oaks/grassland, again with a younger brother, saw some mearns quail run into a patch of grass. We bailed out, him with a shotgun, me with my bow. Had to use my binoculars at ~10 yards to find the quail in the grass, I shot one, one flew, little brother missed. Third bird flew, and he dropped it. We considered that a "double", didn't know any better, but I do now.

Oh yeah, this fall, took some distant cousins hunting for coues whitetail deer. Neither had killed anything prior, both teenagers. We hunted through a desert snow storm, and ended up in range of some small bucks. Visibility was terrible, finally she could find the buck in the scope, made a great shot, her brother hopped on the rifle, second buck stopped, another good shot. The two kids pulled a "double" on coues bucks. I don't think i'll tell them it might not count due to a technicality. grin.