killing doves and shot size
 

The first dove season has ended in Mississippi and with it my 62nd year of shooting. the season was awful as few doves as I have ever seen. I only when on three shoots and killed 30 birds. Hate it but they seem to be going the same route as our quail. Last year and this year I shot my 12 CHE choked improved and full with RST 2 1/2 7's. after using 8's or 9's all of my life. It is my observation that you wound fewer birds with 7 shot. When my dog brings back the dove it is most always dead. All those years of shooting 8's or 9's I estimate 1/3 of the doves I knocked down were not dead when picked up. My shooting percentage is about the same. Years ago a dear friend from Alabama told me one the best dove shots he ever saw would use nothing but 6's. Wonder other shooters observations on shot size.

7.5's period! I would rather be overchoked than not.

I got away from shooting 9's years ago for any type of game, mainly because I felt I was crippling game with it. I had several experiences that I knew I had hit a bird well only to have it fly off to die a slow death.

Over the years I've simplified my thinking for game birds other than waterfowl and now shoot #5 for pheasants and #7.5 for almost everything else including targets. Keeping to those two shot sizes has worked well for me.

Do what you want say what you want , for dove I prefer 8’s then 9’s and then 7 1/2’s . I can guarantee you I’ve had more birds that I knocked feathers from and didn’t find with 7 1/2’s then the other two combined . I have very rarely used 6’s in the late December season but I can’t say I’m
An advocate of 6’s .

Last year I bought 2300 rounds of 2nds from my ammo supplier. These were 16ga 2 1/2” 7/8 oz and there were shot sizes 8, 7 1/2, 7, 6 and some 5. They were in bulk dumped in 10 box case boxes and the shot size was not identified but they had been separated by shot size. I was shooting 80% Eurasian doves and 20% pigeons and I shot all of the shells. During the whole lot my percentage on shooting was the same. If I buy new shells, I usually get 7 1/2 but I know from experience that shot size is not the critical factor.

7.5 shot, 1200+ FPS, mod/full for doves.

i like 7 1/2 shot size...charlie

Generally 8s. I seem to overestimate distances, so most of my shots are within 40 yards, so if I do my part, the birds are dead.

Having said this, my dove season this year constituted 1 dove with two shots, so I would not pay any attention at all to my recommendation.::nono:

This year I have been shooting a 30" 16ga.Sterlingworth choked mod and full.I have been shooting 71/2s in the mod barrel and 6s in the full with great success.I started with the 6 shot because I got a great price on a flat of Remington dove and quail loads in #6.By the way,those Remington 16ga loads measure 21/4" when unfired and 21/2" when fired even though they are marked 23/4".They work great in the 25/8"chamber of the Sterlingworth with no excess recoil or pressure.

I like 7 1/2 shot out of all gauges for dove and quail. I'm not a proponent of speed and prefer less than 1200 fps.

I have used 8s forever but have been trying 7 1/2 lately. I used 6s once with good results too.

Daniel , I just posted on Hunting with Parkers. I mention some of the loads I use. I'm big on 8s in everything I load, I'm bigger on #9 & #10 in my 2 1/2" 410 loads.
Chris Robenalt

Observation in 12 ga:

Last week limit of doves with Federal 3-1 1/8-8 1200 fps lots of cripples to dispatch.

Today limit of doves with Win. AA 3 1/4-1 1/8-7.5 1300 fps all doa.

7 1/2 is the choice.

Good job Jerry! I posted this earlier, but my buddy and I shot 410 on Labor Day. We each shot less than a box of AA 2 1/2 #9, 1200FPS. No lost birds, I even shot a couple Eurasions. Something about a 1/2 ounce of #9 or #10 that gives us the perfect recipe for bringing these critters down. These loads are deadly year around. I'm going to do an Eurasion only hunt here in a couple weeks with 410.

My question for the "small shot" advocates is: Would you rather eat a dove or a quail with fifteen #9s in him, or a dove or quail with four #6 or six #7 1/2? As Jerry says, they will be dead with a sufficient load of bigger shot, not so much with #8 or #9. Chris, I'll bet your little .410 has some serious choke in it, and you know how to shoot it. Congratulations on a great shoot.

That makes sense Bill, I never thought of that, but then again Ive never had a mouthful of shot in my birds. We filet the breast meat, and usually it's very clean. You do make a good point though.

This has always been my thought. I know there's a lot of different thinking on shot size, but my preference has always been to use the bigger, easier to find shot sizes. 7 1/2s being, IMO, the perfect shot size for doves.

/http://shotshell.drundel.com/pelletcount.htm

This chart is pretty useful. I didn't realize that there is only a 0.005" or 0.12 mm difference between #7.5 and #8.

Some years I am blessed to be able to shoot at a lot of doves. If I expect there to be more mourning doves, I reach for #8 and if whitewings then #7.5.

Although when I was low on shells last week I shot RST #6 copper plated out of my Trojan 16 and it dropped the birds DRT. Not the most economical load but it worked well on an assortment of mourning, whitewing, and Euroasian.

Chris,

I also use a .410 in a skeet gun with 9s or a 28 with 8.5 if it is opening day and there are lots of stupid young doves flying like crazy and coming in close. Use the smaller shot because not enough 7.5 or 8 for good patterns at 25 or 30. I've even killed my limit with the 1/2 ounce 9s in January when it was so cold one could not stand it and the doves were flying like crazy to decoys. But now they are flying like jets over the freshly shelled cornfields and I don't want to cripple them so I have stepped up the gauge and load to a gun that reaches out to thirty-five yards, sometimes a little more. Going again in the morning as it is cold now and the birds (all males) are here in good numbers. We can hunt until October 27. Then two more seasons later. We have nothing but Mourning Doves here.

I just checked the chokes in my 410 Bill. Using the Galazan choke gauge they measure MOD/IM. I usually choose a shot from 25 to 40 yds. Other gauges and chokes will vary of course. I believe everyone has a load that gets the job done. I'm happy somewhere between #8 & #10.

Yes, .005 difference but based upon the number of shot in an ounce it tells you that 7.5 shot is 17% heavier than a number 8. That is a lot more knockdown power.

1 ounce/350 pellets = .00285702 ounces/pellet 1 ounce/410 pellets = .002439 ounces/pellet 7.5 pellet = .000418 heavier .000418/.002439 = .17138 = 17% heavier (math majors, please check this reasoning)

Back in the day when there were plenty of quail, and don't frown on this, we did shoot rabbits when we jumped them bird hunting. Dogs would even stand them. I always used 7.5 as my quail shot and to bring down rabbits. Oh the good old days. Gone forever here.

I've always favored #7 1/2 for doves and quail both. I've been shooting #7 this year because I bought a couple of bags to try. Lots of my white wing shooting is high flyers and I have resorted to #6 and full choke on occasion! Thought I'd try the slightly larger shot...... can't really see any difference. Seems the biggest factor is my shooting on any given day.

Yup! What he said!!