Black Powder Doves

[roundball]

Opens at Noon this Saturday...a 12 acre NC game land section of millet and wheat...hunters might outnumber the birds but thought I'd give it a try...the farm I normally hunt is all tobacco this year.

Off Friday, will scout the field patterns for a good spot opening day....12ga SxS Navy Arms percussion, 80grns FFg +1+1/8oz # 7.5's...sure will be nice if I can get a few!
::

 

Yep same here but will be out for grouse Sunday morning with dove in the evening. It opened Wednesday here will be using my 20 gage SXS with 70 grains 2F and 7/8 #7 shot.

I will also be loading up some BP shells for my old double hammer 12 gage SXS for a friend to use, look out here we come LOL
Good luck on you hunt round ball:thumbsup:

 

[roundball]

North Carolina is still deep in the "Bible Belt" mentality so there's no Sunday hunting here!
:curse: :curse: :curse: :curse:

Hope you get a few!

 

[roundball]

Opens at Noon this Saturday...a 12 acre NC game land section of millet and wheat...hunters might outnumber the birds but thought I'd give it a try

:cry:

Scouted the state game land area I wanted to dove hunt tomorrow...glad I checked it today because it wasn't planted with millet and wheat at all...just a weed field and never saw a bird...neither did the other 3 hunters who showed up to scout while I was there.
I knew I should have been getting a place lined up weeks ago but had too much else going on...oh well, back to the tobacco farm...might pick off a stray

 

saton me back portch last night and counted 28 in less then 45 min . i think i will just come home sunday and set up a chair in the back yard

 

[Joel Lehman]

Dove season opened Sep 1 in central Texas. I went to a public hunting area that requires the purchase of an annual permit in addition to the hunting license. The 180 acres was packed with hunters. Legal shooting started at sun up, 7:07am, but at 6:40am many hunters were blasting away. I saw 4 hunters fire three times each at a dove within range and all missed.

I also used my Navy Arms 12ga. SxS, cylinder bore, with 1/38 oz of #8 shot and an equal amount of Goex 2F. I was setting in sunflowers and only fired twice and got one dove. The place was really crowded.Even with my broad brimed hat the falling shot bothered me.

Joel Lehman, Austin, TX

 

dang come to idaho ,, hardly no one hunts dove here and just about any ditch bank will yeild you a limit in just a short time , oh no lead rain eather

 

[roundball]

I decided to enjoy another range trip with my .58cal and didn't go dove hunting yesterday after all.
Going after doves alone without a crop field to draw them and without at least a couple other hunters to help keep them moving out of the trees is pretty dismal...maybe tomorrow morning

 

[roundball]

I am sorry to report that I went to a farm for a few hours this afternoon, only saw a few singles off in the distance, and never made smoke.


(not a lot of doves coming into a tobacco field!)


Then I got rained out by a thunderstorm by which time I took no small measure of delight!
::

Tales of slewing doves will have to wait a while longer...

 

Well I just got done eatin LOL.
Now the only cap gun I have is a 20 gage SXS BP. a couple months ago I picked up a couple old Damascus doubles cartridge guns in 12 gage both were tight and with shinning bores. Saturday I loaded a box of 12-gage paper shell with 70 grains of FF black powder and 7/8 oz of #7 shot .A friend and I went out sunday morning for grouse and dove.

The mountains were a zoo with people so we headed up high 8000 feet high. Every time we slowed down a couple trucks would catch up with us and the race would be on to the high mountains choke cherries. I had a spot in mind and my little scout 800 new the way well. Just as we came around through the last thicket of buck brush there in the road was a nice blue but the trucks had caught us. He jumped off the trail and Fred, my partner on this hunt watched him sail up hill under a big pine. Right around the corner was the road I wanted and I figured that the blue had landed right on that road. I swung the scout in and hit the breaks the guys behind us went passed, I

 

[roundball]

That sounds like a great outing and you tell the story very well...almost felt like I was there!! :redthumb:
And thanks for the offer to stop in, but the odds of me getting a chance to just "drop by" Idaho I suppose is on the low side, no matter how bad I'd like to see that country out there ::

 

well then here is a link to my web site. i dont go there much and i havent updated it yet this year . if you go to the photos page you will find links to photos i have taken of some of the area i live in . it will give you some idea of why we only hunt up hill LMAO
My home page

 

[roundball]

Very nice site...beautiful scenery...I should be there in a four day drive !!!!!!!!!!!!!


(Is the "dead fall" that's leaning precariously towards one of those Tee-pees still standing? :

 

ya it is . its actualy about 40 ft from the back of it . the lodge in the center is mine . the one on the left is two brothers and on the right is burning hair :thumbsup:

 

[RussB]

I see that most people hunting are doing about the same as myself. Although I've put the hours in the results are poor at best.
I hunted Grouse for two days before I finally got a single bird on a second flush. I hunted another two days and got off one shot, but missed. I did manage to get a double on Sunday morning that flushed right under my feet when I only saw one bird get up, I thought I had blown it in half as I saw two very distinct pieces falling.
Up until mid August I was seeing twenty to thirty birds every day. I just knew this was going to be my best season ever. Then the much needed rain started to come in and that lasted about eight days. I'm not sure if the rain affected their presence that much and moved the birds to "God only knows where", or if it's like some of the other hunters are saying that they actually got pneumonia and are dying off already.
What do you fellers think? Can Grouse actually come down with pneumonia and die within two weeks? I do know this happens with Quail occasionaly, especially in the more aired southwest, but they seem fairly fragile when compared to a nice "Ruff", or a big "Blue".
Russ

 

[Stumpkiller]

For a wild creature, grouse are not the hardiest of critters. I wouldn't be surprised they could come down with something. About five years ago we had rafts of dead ducks floating all ove Cayuga Lake. At first it was thought someone was poisoning them, but then it was found they were dying of an avian flu. I took a Cornell vetrinary pathologist (who knew there was such a thing) out to sample weak but not quite dead ducks. I saw ducks swimming that just would lower their heads and drown because they couldn't lift them back up. They were going fro able to fly to dead in HOURS. We lost 90% of the normal summer population there.

I doubt grouse would suffer the same because they are not flocking type birds, and I doubt pneumonia would take a substantial number - pneumonia is more an opportunistic illness that attacks the already weak - and late summer is their top condition time. They probably just moved to better browse higher up slope. Try hunting the ridges.

 

[RussB]

Stumps, I think I'm in agreement. I say "think" because I've already been up high. I have plans for thursday morning to hunt low. I have spent a lot of time, and treked many a mile, in the past week trying to solve this little mystery. ::

On the first day of the season my smoothie weighed an even eight pounds, yesterday, on the way back to the truck, I bet it weighed fifteen pounds. :crackup: maybe?

I guess the thing that is bothering me most is I can not even find where they have "graveled" since opening day. Normally, old dirt log sled roads will show the tell tell signs of them scratching through the gravel before going to roost. If I can ever find this, I'm sure that I can find a bird or two with a little work.
I wish I was only half as smart as my dog thinks I am. (Actually, I'm not even sure he still thinks that way.)
Anyway, perhaps some of the more knowledgeable will chime in here and get both me, and my dog, straightned out.
Respectfully, Russ

 

i think many times the storms break them up , where we always see 2,3 or 4 birds together we now se then in singles . we only found birds high, nothing in the lower pines

 

[buckknife]

Roundball there will be better days.We cant even huntem here,they say ther song birds.Thought we were gonna get a season last year but the govner vetoed it :curse:

 

[roundball]

Good Lord...as songbirds in Iowa????
I'd have guessed they'd be so numerous in the bread basket of the country they'd be treated as pests!!