Great little Labor Day shoot this afternoon. It was 92 when we arrived but a big cloud bank came in from the west and shaded us the rest of the afternoon. There was a little breeze, and the doves were really wanting to be where we were, in those sunflowers. We went to the field a little after 3 and I was done by 5, at the latest.
Used the same Dickinson .410 as Saturday, with the same 3/4 oz. loads of 8 1/2s to get a 15 bird limit. Was in a narrow neck of the field with tall, thick weeds on one side and a hedgerow on the other filled with wait-a-minute (smilax) vines. I had to pick my shots carefully to keep them from falling in that jungle of stuff. Everyone was told to be out of the field by 6:30 so the remaining doves could feed, but I think everyone was out before 6:00. I had to wade into those smilax vines to get one dove and I came out looking like I spent the night zipped up in a sleeping bag with a blind bobcat. Killed two sets of doubles. Two doves would come by and I'd get one with the right and one with the left. On one set both birds were dead in the air at the same time and fell about 15' apart.
I used a few of the nickel plated loads towards the end of the afternoon just to see how they would do, and they hammered the birds hard. But, as I said earlier, these early season birds aren't the best on which to make a judgement call on how good the load is.
