Published: September 10, 2009 11:34 pm      

Choosing dove guns

Besides the socializing that happens on most dove hunts and locating flocks of the birds, shooting, and its tools, are the significant elements.

Significant? One might question the importance of using a specific shotgun and load for doves because many hunters consider dove shooting mere practice to sharpen their shooting eyes for hunting other game, and they shoot doves with whatever gun they take afield for ducks, quail, squirrel or whatever else they hunt. There probably isn’t another wingshooting sport where hunters use the variety of shotguns, shells and chokes that one finds in the dove fields. The thinking that most any shotgun of any gauge and any shell that can be poked into it will be okay for dove shooting is widespread.

What makes a good dove gun? One that can be fired a lot during the day without inflicting too much pain to the shoulder and that brings down doves consistently if the shooter does his or her part.

The gauge? Any gauge gun is fine for doves if the limitations of the smaller gauges are considered. A .410 is a dove gun only for a good wingshot who knows its limitations and perhaps for youngsters too small even for a 20 gauge. The 20 gauge is better because the larger bore throws a more even pattern. The 16 and 12 gauge shotguns are excellent dove guns.

Autoloading guns probably are the most popular in dove fields. Shotshell manufacturers really like them because doves are easy to miss and few shooters can resist throwing a second and third shot at a disappearing gray ghost that has escaped the first shot. Likewise pumps are popular dove guns. Few hunters go afield with single shot guns in pursuit of doves, but many use double barrels.



Double talk



The double, particularly the over/under, is my favorite for several reasons. Most importantly to me is that I have a choice of chokes when I shoulder the gun to make my shot. I can either slide the barrel selector to choose the barrel or, on double trigger guns, pull the front trigger for close in shots or the rear trigger (top barrel on over/unders and right barrel on side by sides) for the long shots. Next is safety. A double gun, broken where everyone can see the empty chambers, can be carried into groups of hunters that often gather around dove fields without companions wondering if the gun is loaded.

Because my arms are short, a double gun shoulders and points better that autoloaders and pumps, that necessarily must be longer in order to accommodate their loading and ejection chambers. Also I handload my ammunition and the occasional shell with a poor crimp that could jam a pump or semi-auto can be crammed into a double and fired with no problem.

One can find shotguns with chokes from super full to improved cylinder in most dove fields. High flying doves that have been hunted and are spooky can best be taken with the tighter chokes like modified and full. But most dove hunting is done during the first few days of the season. Especially on the first day when the doves are flying close in, the more open chokes are deadly on these tricky flyers.

Screw-in chokes really show their stuff in dove shooting. On windy days in late winter when the birds are older and tougher and are flying high, screw in the full choke or modified tube and swing well ahead of the streaking birds. On opening day when the birds are dropping in to glean grain from harvested fields, go afield with skeet or improved cylinder choke tubes.

 

All around choke

 

A good everyday compromise choke is modified or improved cylinder. I opt for the latter, having knocked over a lot of birds with my 26 inch skeet barrels, some shots being quite long. Skeet borings are just a bit more open than improved cylinder.  Because the more open chokes tend to throw more even patterns, they often appear to be as effective as tight chokes even out to 40 yards or so.

This was evidenced one fall as I walked a North Dakota field in a line of half a dozen hunters and a cock pheasant was getting out of range following a couple of misses by my partners. I misjudged the range and fired a load of sixes at the bird that immediately crumpled and fell some 50 yards away. I never mentioned to my friends that the shot was made from my skeet barrel, but I did brag some on my handloads. Seriously, I see more doves fall day in and day out with the more open chokes than with the tight ones.

So what is the ideal dove gun? For me the double 12 gauge over/under with skeet borings works fine, but improved cylinder and modified would be ideal for all around shooting.  Of course screw-in chokes would make for convenient diversity. I would choose 28 inch barrels for the ideal double gun. Barrels shorter than 28 inches don’t swing quite as smoothly and have a shorter sighting plane than the longer barrels.  A 16 or 20 gauge would be fine as well.

Autoloader and pump fans should consider any gauge from 12 to 20 and choke the gun full or modified for high flyers and improved cylinder for opening day feeders and doves coming to water. I would choose a 26 inch barrel for the repeating guns because I am shorter than average. Tall hunters would do quite well with a 28 inch tube.