Wingshooter

Over the last few years, Uncle Rob has talked highly of the annual dove opener. He has even mentioned that some of his kids like it better than the opening day of deer season. While I found this hard to believe, it certainly had me intrigued. When I bought my new side-by-side about 6 months ago, I had high hopes of getting after bird this fall, doves included. With that, I decided this was the year I would give the dove opener a go.

I was up at 5:00 AM sharp Thursday September 1st, and by 5:40 AM was out the door and on my way. I had done most of my dove hunting research right on the PA Game Commission website. I learned that they manage certain fields specifically with the intent to draw in doves. I came across a few of these fields while I was shed hunting this spring. I was headed for those managed dove fields on opening day and arrived at 6:00 AM.

While talking with a friend the week prior, he had warned me that I better get there early as the fields fill up quick on the opener. Upon arriving, I was pleased to find that I was just the fourth truck there. Toting my shotgun, bucket, and two boxes of 20 gauge shells, I headed for the edge of one of the fields, about 300 yards from my truck.

As sunrise came, so did the doves…and the hunters. Within minutes, I was firing off shots at fleeing birds one after the next. I seemingly couldn’t get the gun loaded fast enough. As soon as a group would fly in and I would shoot (and inevitably miss) another would come in before I could get the gun loaded again.

This went on continuously until I was quickly through a box of shells. There was one slight problem – I had been there about an hour and didn’t have one bird to show for it. I had absolutely no clue what I was doing wrong. From what I could tell, I was taking good shots, the birds just weren’t falling. My confidence wasn’t bolstered when a group of guys showed up 80 yards next to me and had 6 birds down in less than 6 minutes. Regardless, I may have looked like a newbie, but I was having a blast doing it.

The next hour went on with much of the same. Tons of action, but nothing falling. I thought I hit a bird that flew a little ways off and immediately headed over for it. I looked and looked but could turn it up. I looked at my watch and new I had to get going to work. “Just a couple more shots” I told myself. Which was good as I only had 6 shells left. Just then, I saw a group heading straight for me. This time, I pulled up the gun instinctively instead of trying so hard. With one shot the bird dropped. I ran over and finally laid hands on my first dove. The next five shots went similar to the first 44, but I didn’t care as I had a bird in hand.

I rushed out to breast out the dove and head to work.

I spent the next few hours wondering what I could have possibly been doing wrong. After some research and contemplation I came up with the following:

1. I was too open-choked. I had been using cylinder and improved cylinder chokes, but found I would be better served using improved cylinder and modified.
2. I was not leading the doves nearly enough. While I thought shooting just in front of the birds would suffice, it turns out it needs to be more like 5 yards.
3. I was aiming too much. Sounds counter-intuitive right? I thought so too. Turns out you have a better chance of hitting them if you just react to where they are rather than really try to aim.

With this in mind, I knew I had to go back. I talked to my buddy Kyle and got him to accompany me back to the fields at 6:00 PM that night. Within 5 minutes of walking back into the fields, I had two birds down. The shooting for the rest of the evening was much slower than the morning. However, I ended up getting 4 doves on about 2/3 of a box of shells. Obviously much improved from the morning.

With the sun setting, it was time to go back and enjoy the spoils of the hunt. I fried up the 5 dove breasts in some butter with simple seasonings. It was a delicious way to cap-off an action packed day in the dove fields. While this was only my first dove opener, you can bet I’ll be back each September 1st to come.