on August 29, 2009 4:36 PM
I'm excited.
I'm really excited.
I haven't been dove hunting in probably 20 years, maybe longer. To say I'm rusty would be an understatement.
I used to be pretty good with a shotgun when I was a kid. It wasn't unusual for me to out-shout the adults in the party. I'm hoping it will be like riding a bike, but I'll just have to see.
I think I got everything: shotgun, shells, camo, hat, glasses, vest, camelback, stool, license (with appropriate stamps and certs), and hunter's ed cert.
Believe it or not, I'm trying to run light. I live just a few minutes away from the lease, so I'm hoping I can do a lot of walking on the lease from time to time before the other hunters arrive. (There are several food plots for the birds on the lease, so I think flushing them should be a productive strategy.)
I've been reading some online articles, and based on the suggestions I've taken off the fiber optic front sight (I kind of expected it to fall off after a few shots anyway) and replaced the "Dove Duster" choke with an improved cylinder choke.
The reason for tossing the front sight is that unlike other forms of shooting, with a shotgun the front sight or bead is rather superfluous (one article called the bead the "miss bead") so you don't want to draw your eye to it, tactical shotguns, turkey shotguns being exceptions. (I was thinking I would do some Turkey hunting this spring, which is why the sight was on there to begin with.)
I'm running the improved cylinder choke because I expect, at least on opening day, that the shots will be around 30 yards.
Speaking of chokes, a lot of people think that a tighter choke (full choke) causes the pellets to fly farther. Actually, the pellets travel the same distance, they just don't spread out as much. So running a tighter choke isn't going to help you reach high flying birds. If you can reach the bird, it will allow you to get more pellets on the bird than you would get otherwise.
I'm really excited.
I haven't been dove hunting in probably 20 years, maybe longer. To say I'm rusty would be an understatement.
I used to be pretty good with a shotgun when I was a kid. It wasn't unusual for me to out-shout the adults in the party. I'm hoping it will be like riding a bike, but I'll just have to see.
I think I got everything: shotgun, shells, camo, hat, glasses, vest, camelback, stool, license (with appropriate stamps and certs), and hunter's ed cert.
Believe it or not, I'm trying to run light. I live just a few minutes away from the lease, so I'm hoping I can do a lot of walking on the lease from time to time before the other hunters arrive. (There are several food plots for the birds on the lease, so I think flushing them should be a productive strategy.)
I've been reading some online articles, and based on the suggestions I've taken off the fiber optic front sight (I kind of expected it to fall off after a few shots anyway) and replaced the "Dove Duster" choke with an improved cylinder choke.
The reason for tossing the front sight is that unlike other forms of shooting, with a shotgun the front sight or bead is rather superfluous (one article called the bead the "miss bead") so you don't want to draw your eye to it, tactical shotguns, turkey shotguns being exceptions. (I was thinking I would do some Turkey hunting this spring, which is why the sight was on there to begin with.)
I'm running the improved cylinder choke because I expect, at least on opening day, that the shots will be around 30 yards.
Speaking of chokes, a lot of people think that a tighter choke (full choke) causes the pellets to fly farther. Actually, the pellets travel the same distance, they just don't spread out as much. So running a tighter choke isn't going to help you reach high flying birds. If you can reach the bird, it will allow you to get more pellets on the bird than you would get otherwise.
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