September Doves

September means dove hunting, and the more knowledge you bring to the field the more doves you will bring from it. After the first couple of days of being shot at, doves wise up and you will not have very many "easy" shots like at first; if you can ever call any shots at doves easy. So knowing your shotgun, how it patterns, and the ballistics of your load will increase your chances of bagging more birds.
Everytime you’re in the field things will be different. One day the doves will be on top of you, the next time they will be out of range. Most days afield however you will have doves passing far and near. So what is the best choke to use? Many will say an improved cylinder is best because most birds are shot 30 to 35 yards anyway. It is a little easier to hit with an improved cylinder if the birds are close because of the greater spread of shot. So it is true that you will bag more doves with an improved cylinder if you keep your shots under 35 yards. But if you’re like me I do not want to pass up a shot at a dove at 40 or even 45 yards; especially when I haven’t had many doves fly within range that day.

The next choke to consider is the modified. This barrel constriction will hold the pattern together enough to bag doves out to 40 to 45 yards. The only drawback to this tighter pattern is that it is a little more difficult to hit with at closer range. But on the other hand a passing bird at 25 yards is easier to hit than one at 40 no matter what choke you’re using. And with a tighter choke if you miss a close bird you have a good chance to bag it with a follow up shot before it gets out of range. Back in the 70’s before there were screw in choke tubes for the Remmington 870 I used a full choke for doves. This was my duck gun and shooting passing doves is very similar to shooting passing ducks. This way I had a lot of practice before duck season opened. If you are using a full or modified choke and the doves are too close all you have to do is let them get a little farther out before you shoot. With an improved cylinder, no matter how hard you wish, you cannot make a high-flying dove come within range.

So in my opinion the best choke to use on doves is the modified. And if you are hunting late in the season when the birds are flocking together and offering only long flushing shots or high passing ones you will have to use a modified or even full choke.

Now comes the shot. If you read many articles about dove hunting or read a chart on shot suggestions you will see that most will recommend 7 ½, 8, or 9’s. Any writer who recommends 9 size shot for doves has not been in the field much. If you shoot 9’s at a pattern board it does look beautiful. This is because there are nearly 600 pellets to the ounce. But if you use 9’s on birds you will soon find that most birds over 30 yards will keep going even when hit, and a lot of birds under 30 yards will be crippled. This is because the pellets are so tiny. They lose velocity so fast and their weight is so small that they have almost no energy by the time they reach the target. At 20 yards they will kill a dove stone dead, but there will be so many pellets in the bird that it can’t be eaten. At close range 8’s will kill just as good and will also kill easily out to 45 yards. With 8’s you have a little more than 400 pellets to the ounce; with 7 ½ you have about 350. A dove is small, and the area you must hit for a kill is even smaller. So the more pellets you have reaching the bird the better chance of killing it. I conducted a test several years ago on pigeons. A farmer I knew was having a problem with hundreds of pigeons eating corn he put out for his hogs. This offered lots of shooting and a chance to prove something to myself. I brought two guns to the field. Both were Remmington 870 pump guns and both were full choke. One was a 12 gauge and the other a 20. I had reloaded my own shells and both gauges were loaded with the same wad and shot size and with about 1200 feet per second velocity. The 20 gauge however had the standard field load of 7/8 ounces of shot and the 12 had 1/8 ounces. I had a lot of birds coming in, so I could usually pick my shots. Most were 35 to 45 yards when I shot. I was using number 8 shot and I took turns using the 12 and 20 gauge Wingmasters. I fired 60 rounds that day and bagged 50 pigeons. So nearly every time I shot, a bird went down. With the 12 gauge nearly every bird was dead and only a few crippled. But with the 20 nearly every one was crippled and only a few were dead.

Another time I was dove hunting on a hill overlooking a farm pond. A dove came over and I hit it but it didn’t fall. It swooped down and was skimming over the water heading for a thicket on the other side. I wanted to shoot it before it got there. The first shot was perfect, I could see the shot go all around the dove as it flew over the water. It was centered in the pattern, but it didn’t fall; not even a feather was ruffled. So this mean that sometimes doves can fly right through your pattern even if you’re dead on. Is it wise then to shoot with more shot, say 1 ¼ ounces in a high velocity shell? No, because most doves at normal ranges will not get through a good pattern and the extra shot will be wasted. Also the greater recoil from the heavy shells may cause you to miss. I would only recommend 1 ¼ ounces in a heavy "field" load. This is 3 ¼ Drams of powder equivalent. And I would only use this in difficult shooting conditions. Like high wind, or late in the season when the birds are at long range. In a 12 gauge 1 1/8 ounces I think is best. One ounce if you shoot under 40 yards. In a 20 gauge 7/8 works good if you don’t shoot too far. I have even had good results with ¾ ounces in a 28 gauge with a modified choke. The number 7 ½ shot works okay, but remember you have less shot per ounce, and this is a big factor in the small gauges. If you must use steel you don’t have much choice. Number 6 is probably the best, but I would use a 12 gauge so you would have more pellets. With September doves you need to know your gun and your load.

BY KEN BARNES