Who's doing "Blackpowder Doves" this fall??

[roundball]

Anybody got plans for blackpowder doves?
I should get confirmation this coming weekend about a shoot for Sept 2nd...will take the Navy Arms SxS .12ga if I do

 

[bigbore442001]

It would be fun , but they are classes as a song bird in Massachusetts, thus off limits to legal hunting.

 

[Dave K]

Roundball, you know I will be. I am not sure of which gun yet for sure. Probably the recently completed 14ga. SxS perc.

 

[Wart]

I've never hunted doves but hear they are fast. Never known anyone to use blackpowder on them as well.
It will be interesting to hear the stories of everyone's hunt - looking forward to it :thumbsup:

 

[3 stinky dogs]

When ever I went for doves I would do lots of shooting for a few birds.Not only do I want to hear the storey's but I would like to know the cuss words that were helpeful on bagging the birds.

 

[silverfox]

roundball: We get to hunt whitewings the first two week ends in September with mourning dove starting about 23 of Sept. I have hunted both for several years with a dixie sxs 20ga and see no difference than using a modern gun until the second week end. The second week end the birds fly at the outer limits for my unchoked gun. My best hunt was when I ran nine straight on doves. Never got close since. That's our first open season down here with deer season to start in November until mid January.
Have a good hunt, Fox :thumbsup:

 

[roundball]

roundball: We get to hunt whitewings the first two week ends in September with mourning dove starting about 23 of Sept. I have hunted both for several years with a dixie sxs 20ga and see no difference than using a modern gun until the second week end. The second week end the birds fly at the outer limits for my unchoked gun. My best hunt was when I ran nine straight on doves. Never got close since. That's our first open season down here with deer season to start in November until mid January.
Have a good hunt, Fox :thumbsup:

What's a "whitewing"?

Where is "down here"?

::

 

[Tahquamenon]

Michigan just repealed a temporary dove season that was initiated last year.

The animial rights folks raised such a stink that that the season was canned for 2005-6 hunting year.

 

[silverfox]

roundball: A whitewing is a little larger than a dove and lives in northern South America to the Southern US border with a few in Florida. They are slate gray in color with White bands on their wings and tails. They tend to live in colonies of rather large size the expected population this year in the valley (South Texas) is close to 2 Million birds. In the 50's when I was in school, school closed for opening day and the population at that time was 10 to 12 million birds. That amount of birds can now be found in Mexico. Most of the shooting is pass shooting. You set up between the roost and feeding areas with sometimes groups or flites of up to 100 birds at a time flying by with this lasting for up to 2 hours. The limit is 10 per day. Quite a bit different than hunting Mourning dove over a pond. Habitat loss has reduced their hunting in the US by about 90% but we still have about 4 days of fun every year. Did I mention they migrate each year, they show up here about may and leave by the first cold front or by early October. They are fun to hunt but most places it gets very very crowded and some places to dangerous due to all the ok I'll call them NUTS that have guns in their hands.
They are about 1/3 larger than Mourning doves or about 1/2 the size of a pigeon.
Fox

 

[Rebel]

I have better luck hunting them with my Navy Arms double barrel .12 ga than i do my Mossberg .12 ga. pump. Plus it is a lot more fun. Don't know if i will get to hunt them this year since we moved. Haven't seen any doves around here, and don't know where to go to hunt them here. But they are fun with a muzzleloader.

 

[roundball]

".....They are slate gray in color with White bands on their wings.......

Heck, we call them "Mocking Birds" around here...
:kid:

I've been on a few heavy population dove shoots myself over the years and the action is just incredible when they start pouring into a field flock after flock

 

[silverfox]

roundball: your right it's a bad two week ends for the poor mocking birds. We lose a lot of them to people who shouldn't be out there hunting when they can't tell the difference. It's like the deer hunters who shoot at sound or movement and then call it an accident.
Fox :thumbsup:

 

[Dave K]

Rebel, I must have the same results as you. I find the open/cyl. chokes of my muzzleloading shotguns to be almost ideal. I do use decoys and the birds will usually give them a "look see" or at least fly by them. Yes, there is alot of shooting, but there are birds down also. If I weren't so computer challenged, I would post a picture of last years hunt with the first time I took out the 20ga. SxS original flinter. What a ball, yes I also scored on doubles too. :winking:

 

Michigan just repealed a temporary dove season that was initiated last year.

The animial rights folks raised such a stink that that the season was canned for 2005-6 hunting year.

Yes, the Granholm Love Bird is safe for another season...until it crosses the border into Ohio, where they have been hunting them for years and yet somehow the little buggers have not yet gone extinct...

I'd probably take a dove if I was out hunting and one came up--never turn down meat--but I hunted them plenty out in Idaho and found that it was a lot of work for not much reward. they are CHALLENGING to say the least and getting them with a flinter is difficult but can be done.

Know thy gun above all else, and you'll succeed.

 

[KyFlintlock]

I am hoping to give them a try over Labor Day weekend. A buddy of mine is having a shoot... They have to get close with the cylinder bore though!

I better buy some chicken for dinner that eve just in case!

Good luck and take some pics if you make it out
Wess

 

[loishd]

My hope is to get a few shoots with the smoothie. I have had two to three dozen hanging around the farm laterly. Probally all go and hide come season opening.

 

[roundball]

That's kind of what I did last year...stood in the edge of tress at a small pond just before dusk and managed to bring down three...hopefully I'll get in on this shoot at a big farm that always has tons of birds over it's fields...get a lot more action that way...hard to dove hunt alone with nothing to keep the birds flying

 

[roundball]

To tell you the truth, all I've ever hunted with was Improved Cylinder choked shotguns so I always held for reasonably close shots all my life anyway.

With the Cyl/Cyl bores on my Navy Arms, I use a little bigger shot charge than normally would (1+1/4oz) plus I use #6's and 7.5's so they'll bore straight ahead a few yards further before they start spreading as bad as lighter shot sizes would...patterns pretty good.

My biggest problem with the Navy Arms is that it's too short for a good fit for my size...I'm going to add a slip on recoil pad to increase the LOP (then see if my Wife will sew a leather lace-up boot to cover it...have to be PC you know !!) ::

 

[KyFlintlock]

I usually shot a modified choke in past years...but I'll quit whining about the cylinder bore and see what I can do.


It will be great fun and if I manage to take a few birds it will be just great.

Good luck and don't forget the pics.
Wess

 

[biliff]

Haven't seen any doves around here, and don't know where to go to hunt them here. But they are fun with a muzzleloader.

Doves can get kinda spotty in Oregon, specially on the wet side. If you do some scouting, some years you can find local concentrations that will stick around thru Labor Day. First rains hit, though, and they're outta here. Some years you get a good shoot in, some years ya don't.