Christmas Doves

[Jerry Harlow]

Man is it cold but my favorite hunt is the third dove season which comes in Christmas week. Got there late yesterday morning and had trouble with the VHE only letting me shoot one time, so I only got seven. Went back this morning before daybreak and betrayed the Parker that had let me down taking the A5 Light 12 as my first choice. Either not enough choke or maybe I could not hit, so I switched less than halfway through my limit to an early A Fox. This was a rescue gun, kind of like rescue dogs people get addicted to helping. It had a B grade stock, fifteen pounds of pull on the front trigger, and a slick forend with checkering almost gone. A little work farmed out and she is ready for the next 105 years; and I shot this mongrel as well as anything I own with its .020 and .040 chokes. Worked very well on doves.

[wayne goerres]

Is your fox a 20ga and if so what are the chamber lengths.

[charlie cleveland]

nice...i too always liked the late dove season the doves would come in on a 40 mile and hour windto test your shooting skills...charlie

[Reggie Bishop]

Nice shooting!

[Garry L Gordon]

I wish our dove season was split and had a later portion. Over the past 6-8 years we have started seeing more and more dove winter over, and they can be quite numerous in harvested grain fields with good amounts of waste grain. It would make the low quail numbers more bearable if one could take dove also. I'm sure my dogs would not mind.

Thanks for posting your pictures. I enjoyed your accounts of the two days.

[Jerry Harlow]

Is your fox a 20ga and if so what are the chamber lengths.

It's a 12. Went again this morning and took an A5 Sweet Sixteen shooting Remington High-power 7 1/2 in modified. Killed seven but missed too many easy shots. That is the only problem with taking a different gun every day but what the heck are they for if you don't use them? Man was it cold. In the low teens with a twenty mile an hour North wind, making it about zero. The teenager I took said it was so cold he could not get his safety off until the dove was out of range.

[Kevin McCormack]

Man! - an A-5 round knob with a 'hybrid' Fox backup gun! - My kind of combo!!

[Jerry Harlow]

was crying to go. Another good and cold morning making them feed.

[Reggie Bishop]

I plan on making another trip to the fields tomorrow. The weather here is supposed to get very cold on Monday, even though its been a cold week here. I am hoping the approaching cold will put them in feeding mode! You have a had some good days lately! Thanks for posting.

[Jerry Harlow]

The drought ruined the corn crop here. So nothing was cut in September and October, and the ears are 1/3 the normal size. The machine missed so much corn there are bushels on the ground or they may have bushhogged some of it, thus every dove for miles has found it. But it is hard to get up leaving a warm bed and be there at daybreak freezing to death with a North wind in your face. But once I start shooting I forget I am cold.

[Daryl Corona]

But once I start shooting I forget I am cold.

Funny how that works is'nt it Jerry?

[Jerry Harlow]

First day in 20s at daybreak but was the coldest of all with a 20 mph wind. But I did not miss a shot! Took a rescued 28" VH 12 gauge M/F that was one of my first saves of junk. Now it is nice junk. Was someone's saltwater waterfowl gun in New England due to outside pitted barrels and frame, cracked stock, no buttplate, but perfect bores. Look out NC, SC, GA, and AL; my doves are on the way to you. They are now all gone (almost all males this late in the season). Did not see a half dozen where there were hundreds last week.