20 Gauge

[guywhofishes]

Sore feet or sore muscles/joints?

Hard to say - it was pretty hot the last day (80s) so I think it was just the exhaustion. Footing was very good and no stubble so I think his feet were ok. He just looked whipped. Walking behind us - ha ha.

We mostly kept him in the shade of a tree and well watered. At the very end he had no interest in "find the bird" - which I've never seen him lose interest in. We knew then he was toast.

Got back home from out west late last night and he was playing with his toys and frollicking like a pup so I guess no serious issues.

Also- he's still aptly nicknamed "Halfway"... he made about 15 retrieves on doves after the shot and only made it half way back before he dropped them. I think if they squirm in his mouth it freaks him out. He only makes full retrieves for Wags the dog whisperer apparently.

 

[bilbo]

Benelli M2 20g for the win this weekend

I missed maybe 25% of the first shot at doves this weekend but stayed on target easily due to the light recoil and probably bagged 90% of what doves I shot at by following up with round 2. Never once made it to round 3.

The spot we found had an awesome mix of pass shooting and flushing shots. It had weeds/grass that was about 1 foot tall so you could walk the field and flush them like grouse/partridge because they couldn't see you coming.

Shot a limit each of the two days we hunted. Royce couldn't walk the next day - and he barely made it back to the truck at end of the day.

That sounds like a riot! Your hit percentage is quite a bit better than mine. I am way out of practice. I missed out last year due to caring for my Mom with cancer, and this summer haven't had a chance to practice at all until very recently as we were doing a bunch of work on our house, so I hadn't touched a shotgun in about 1.5 years. Sam had his 20 but didn't shoot at any birds. Was still fun though.

I only connected with three doves, and lost two. Our GSP had to stay home yesterday, she has something wrong with her front leg. She would have come anyway, though. She was full of all kinds of piss and vinegar once she figured out we were going hunting, hard to leave her behind but she needs to rest up.

I'm officially released from 'isolation' today so now I can at least poke around in the stores for ammo again.

 

[Dirty]

Just ordered a case of 20g 2 3/4'' steel shot from rogerssportinggoods they had 4,5,7 shot I believe. Just a heads up for anyone who may want to get some for kids to shoot ducks in a couple weeks. I have plenty of 3'' but was scrambling to get the shorter ones for the smaller kids.

I just did the same. Thanks for the heads up!
I’m hoping when she is 11 next year, my daughter can move up to the 20 from the .410 she shoots now and add waterfowl to her list.

 

[bilbo]

Hard to say - it was pretty hot the last day (80s) so I think it was just the exhaustion. Footing was very good and no stubble so I think his feet were ok. He just looked whipped. Walking behind us - ha ha.

We mostly kept him in the shade of a tree and well watered. At the very end he had no interest in "find the bird" - which I've never seen him lose interest in. We knew then he was toast.

Got back home from out west late last night and he was playing with his toys and frollicking like a pup so I guess no serious issues.

Also- he's still aptly nicknamed "Halfway"... he made about 15 retrieves on doves after the shot and only made it half way back before he dropped them. I think if they squirm in his mouth it freaks him out. He only makes full retrieves for Wags the dog whisperer apparently.

Haha love the nickname. Liza graces me with one retrieve per season. I can describe all of them in great detail over her 7 hunting seasons she has had. The best was when I dropped a rooster in a slough and I looked at her, she looked at me, and got this frustrated "FINE, I'll get the damn bird." look on her face and went for a swim. Then dropped it just barely out of the water, so I had to wade into shin-deep mud to get the bird.

 

[guywhofishes]

I do not usually shoot that well. It was one of those rare weekends where I just pointed and killed stuff - like I had superpowers.

I often go into analysis paralysis after a miss or two and subsequently over analyze each shot and drop to well under 50%.

 

[Kurtr]

After picking up 50 some geese the last few weeks the dog went out and got the dove when he brought it back and sat down beside me he gave me a look like what is this little thing. haha

 

[Jigaman]

drive an hour north and I'd gladly shoot skeet league with you! I've been wanting to get back into it. I shoot a lot of sporting clays.

I had stocked up enough 20g to shoot many years of skeet but a couple loser skeet team members who shall not be named had to quit, because of time with their kids, or some other lame excuse like that.

So the disbandment of Skeet Team Fargo was a hidden blessing for dove hunting ammo. I miss the comradery though. Not a worthwhile trade.

The few years of skeet league really seems to have helped my dove shooting, so that was another blessing of "the skeet years".

 

[SDMF]

I often go into analysis paralysis after a miss or two and subsequently over analyze each shot and drop to well under 50%.

 

[guywhofishes]

exactly!!!

 

[Allen]

I just did the same. Thanks for the heads up!
I’m hoping when she is 11 next year, my daughter can move up to the 20 from the .410 she shoots now and add waterfowl to her list.

6th grade? If so, seriously consider signing her up for the Missouri River Clay Target League. I'm fairly sure trap, skeet, and sporting clays are all available at that age. The kids seem to really like it.

 

[Allen]

I re-added our target ammo requirement for the summer.

It came up to over 15 cases.

No damn won der I thought this was an expensive summer even as I fished a lot less.

Note, I think most shooting ranges were selling 12 gage ammo at around $89 a case for the summer. However, they were mostly selling it under the premise that you were actually shooting it at their range.