Great pictures Mark. All game should always be cooked so that the meat is moist. I wish I could say I tasted dove, but I always gave them away to the gentleman who I hunted with. He loved them.

Dean, I hope you are picking your woodcock and not breasting them. The fat little legs have white meat and are delicious. That and the skin and fat under the skin is the only part of the woodcock that I really like. The woodcock is a very strange bird. Ears before the eyes and dark meat with white meat on the legs. I love the little fellows and I can foresee the day when I stop shooting them like my grandfather. Off season I've observed them walking around and they are a really pretty bird that struts with pride with their little tails spread.

The Herter's 16 ga. loads are great; I shoot a lot of them. Also love the "What's In Your Wallet?" look on Hobb's face in the picture!

I don't know how many of you guys remember the original Herters in Waseca Minnisota. They had a wonderful big catalog filled with hyperbole and witty commentary written by Jacques L. Herter himself. I still have some of them and read them from time to time. I ordered a lot of stuff from Herters back in the day. Some of it was very good and some was not so good. Their fly tying materials were crap but I liked their crow and duck calls. Herters was a grand old company. I even made a pilgramage to the Waseca store when I was in Chicago for a month on an auditing assignment.

Oh my gosh! I misspelled Minneasota. My apologies to the folks that live there. I haven't had my morning coffed yet. Thats my excuse.

I am sure there will be plenty of argument to this statement and I love variety as well in gauges of shotguns and enjoy shooting them all. However, read this statement the other day and it made perfect sense. "If we were starting from scratch to design the shotgun and its cartridges, it would be the 16 gauge with a 1 ounce load." Add to that I think a Parker 16 gauge on a 1 Frame is the ultimate in firearm congress.

I have not used the Herters brand shells yet but read they were made by Sellier and Bellot out of Czech Republic, but even S&B is a subsidiary of a Brazil company CBC. Its a world economy. I guess Bass Pro/Cabelas owns the Herters name and slapped that brand on them. Good idea since people still remember the brand. I remember as kid getting the Herters catalog and reading the stories. Still have a few Herter's Duck calls. Also have my first weapon. A Herter's fiberglass recurve bow with a 15 lb draw and leather quiver.

Here is neat article.

https://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/07/b...Collins-t.html

Todd, if your statement was about grouse guns, I would totally agree. The 16 bore with an ounce of 9's was my standard grouse load for years. Now I just use 20 and 28 bores. But my best shooting at grouse was probably done with the 16 bore ounce loads.

Sorry, but I believe the 16 bore falls short as an all around gun. My patterning tests with the 16 bore showed, at least with my guns, that the 16 doesn't handle shot larger than 6's that well. You can get away with 5's, but anything larger falls short of even and consistent patterns. Likewise, I've never got decent patterns from my 12 bore guns with shot sizes larger than the old St. Louis 3's. I wish I could get size 3 again. It was my favorite size for geese. I used to get it from Herters of old. I still have a partial bag that Destry gave me that I will be loading in a 10 bore. Leave it to Destry to find St. Louis 3's.

Let's change my statement above from grouse guns to upland guns. No finer upland gun, in my opinion, than the 16 bore, unless you stuff 1 1/8 ounces in the shell. One ounce of shot and the 16 bore were made for each other. The ultimate upland load in ,my opinion.

Yup. The shot column on ounce load with 16 bore at .662 is 2/3 of an inch and 1 ounce of lead shot almost measures out to same height. Recoil is very manageable and shot stringing is minimal, which is perfect for fast moving game like a dove.

I agree with you about shot size but I have never shot much of anything in small game on the wing that required bigger than 6 shot with a 16 gauge. I do prefer a 12 gauge when it comes to ducks though. They are just tough birds and want more shot in the pattern.

If Bill Hanus was alive he would still be pumping out info on 16 gauge merits.

I posted this before here is a link to a great article.
https://dailycaller.com/2013/08/20/w...gauge-shotgun/

Year over year, I average taking, and cooking, 150 to 200 doves. Cook them lots of different ways, but the advice not to overcook is paramount.

Growing up, my Dad insisted that each bird be plucked “neck to toes”, carefully gutted, retaining liver gizzards and hearts, snipping only the feet and head from the carcass. All the gizzards were split and skinned, then fried in bacon fat with the rest of the giblets, with flour tossed in to make a roo for giblet cream gravy. The birds were dredged in buttermilk, seasoned cracker crumbs, and pan fried. Served with “grandad’s bisquits”, turnip or collard greens, that meal was my absolute favorite growing up!

I will never forget the first time , after college, that I took my Dad dove hunting at “my” lease, and proceeded to breast out my birds in his presence!! I thought he was going to disown me!!

A couple of times each season, I’ll get the urge to do the birds “my Dad’s way”. I never could shoot them his way though. His butt never left the overturned, extra tall galvanized, bucket that he used for a seat, and transport device. Dad was a lefty, but shot a right handed A5- 16, until he bought a brand spanking new right handed 1100 12 in Gibsons discount store when I was 8, trading in his old Browning for it. He did not care what ammo he used for doves, as long as they were AA 9’s. I truly do not think I can remember a time that he opened a second box of shells on a shoot in order to get a limit, nor do I ever remember him keeping count of how many birds he shot!! He would shoot a box, and it might mean 12 birds in the bucket, or 20. How he shot that well, sitting on that damn bucket i’ll never know!

When I was a boy and had a bunch of grouse to pick, I asked my grandfather if I could skin some of them. He replied, “anyone who skins a bird doesn’t deserve to eat it”. I took that to heart and never skinned a bird in my life. Not even ducks or geese which take time to pick properly. I’ve never popped the breasts out of a bird either but I can understand why it is done with doves. But woodcock…..never.