Scrapping doves

[Larry the Gun Guy]

Originally Posted by Stan Hillis

When you pick a cotton crop there is sometimes a significant amount left that opens after harvest. When prices are high it used to be worth picking the crop a second time to get the remainder, which was always such a little bit that it seemed questionable whether it was worth the effort or not. That was called "scrapping". This dove season has been so poor that it occurred to me today that as we go the last few times we are "scrapping" the doves. Whereas a limit of 15 is always the goal we must be satisfied this season with much smaller takes. Nevertheless, i'm grateful for the few I'm blessed with.

This afternoon I sat for three hours and took four, with five shots. Three of them here, taken with the Dickinson 30" barreled .410 and 3/4 oz. handholds. Big, beautiful mature specimens.

Forgive me, but I would think it's a testament to your fine shooting and your ability to put the pattern on the target. Same with Murphy. And the challenges the wind produces when aiding the rockets.

[Stan Hillis]

Thank you, Larry, but I firmly believe most of the ability to shoot a .410 well on game birds is forcing one's self to limit the range to what the little payload is capable of doing well. For me, that's 35 yards on the outside, hopefully less.

There is absolutely NO DIFFERENCE in the killing power of a no. 8 pellet coming out of a .410 bore compared to one out of a .729 bore, at the same velocity. The difference is being able to put enough of those pellets into the vitals of a bird. When you start out with much fewer pellets your pattern density suffers, hence the need for more choke, and shorter ranges, which can bring the density right back up to needed levels.

The thing I have to constantly remind myself when using the little bores is to let longer shots pass. If that frustrates you, you probably should stick with larger bores and payloads. If, however, you can accept that you won't take as many shots as the other guys on the field using bigger bore guns, by limiting your range, you can have great fun with them. You may even find your percentage goes up a bit because of the shorter ranges at which you shoot.

This is the little gun that got me back into shooting doves and quail with a .410, some 12-14 years ago. I prepared some food plots for a friend with my farm equipment, gratis. He was in Academy Sports and saw these for sale and bought two, one for me and one for himself. We did trigger jobs on them both to get them down to about 4 lbs. I fell in love all over again.

The Yildiz Elegante A4, at the time they were on sale for $349, now they're $499. I prefer double triggers but this single selective has never malfunctioned once. Amazing, for the price.

https://www.yildizusa.com/side-by-side.html