This is one the biggest weekends of the year. Opening of hunting and football. May start with my 16 DHE using the 28 improved and mod barrels. Ordered a flat of RST 12 2 1/2 inch shells for my PH and CHE guns. Am looking forward to trying the CHE since it is choked improved and full.Looking to seeing friends and working my dog and having fun.

As a Hunter Ed instructor, I always get twitchy when I hear about 12's and 20's on the same shoot. Please make sure you don't stuff one of those 20's into your 12, then put a 12 in on top

Good point John.

16 with a couple cases of 7/8 oz handloads. I’ll wait out by the stock tank. Two or three days out.

Mill's if I go I'll take both the EH guns I showed you at Sanford the 28" gun that's choked cyl and light modified and as a back up for long shots the EH that's choked F and FY (FY is fuller yet) . Both are on #2 frames .

Have a 150 rounds of 10 gauge 1 1/8 ounce #8 pushed with 18.8 grains of Red Dot .

A pair of Remington 1100's or Beneli's in 20 gauge . And if you take the 1100's a tackle box full of extra triggers bolts linkage and variouse other small parts .

Mill's if I go I'll take both the EH guns I showed you at Sanford the 28" gun that's choked cyl and light modified and as a back up for long shots the EH that's choked F and FY (FY is fuller yet) ,

Have a 150 rounds of 10 gauge 1 1/8 ounce #8 pushed with 18.8 grains of Red Dot .

Being a New Yorker, I wasn’t a dove hunter. Doves are considered song birds there. But when I moved to Maryland about 25 years ago I decided I wanted to try it. Not having any contacts for private land yet, I went to McKee-Beshers WMA on opening day. I had trepidations. I had never before hunted public land and had heard horror stories from those who did. But I decided to grab a 12 bore DHE with 28” modified and full tubes and give it a try. It was worse than I expected. It was a real carnival atmosphere. Yelling and screaming from one end of the field to the other. Every bird that was hit, elicited loud hurrah’s from the clowns in the carnival. I had my setter with me to retrieve my birds and he seemed confused by all the shooting and hollering. The third bird I shot, a yahoo ran out and grabbed the bird before my dog could get to it. He set up way to close to me. He pocketed the bird. I told him exactly what I thought of him and left the field, vowing never to hunt doves again.

But I later met a guy who had access to great private land in Virginia and I shot doves with him there for a few years. I enjoyed it but never fully got into it. I guess my sub-conscious New England upbringing still considered them song birds. But I can fully understand why folks like it so much.

Thankfully most of the other hunters at our dove fields on North Missouri WMAs are more polite and safe. You still need to show up early to get a good spot on opening day (especially on a Labor Day weekend), but having others around the field helps to keep the dove flying. After the first couple of days I frequently have the place to myself, especially if I go in the morning. We are pretty isolated here in my part of the State, but the hunting tradition is strong. There are actually less people in the top two tiers of counties in Northern Missouri than there were in 1900(!)

I've hunted dove in my home state of Virginia, and have fond memories of those times. The only bad thing about dove hunting around here is that usually a front will come through and move birds on sometime during the first week of September...and then the hunting is poor. But, hey, the teal season opens then! And the squirrel season started back at the end of May, so if you can stand the heat and humidity, it's a pretty darned nice place to live.

The wood on that 16 is gorgeous! Even if the birds aren't flying, you can sit and look at the gun.