8 replies to this topic

[Bisley]

I know this way late, but things have been busy beyond comprehension, so here goes;

It starts off with the transmission in the truck slipping the week before opener. Don't know if it's the trans filter that has never been changer in the 100,00 of the 190,000 miles I have put on it or just the trans saying goodbye, but that will not keep me from dove opener. We then move to Thursday night where I have dinner with a friend who is as easy on the eyes as she is fun to be around that ends around 1am, only to get up at 4:30am for work and leave straight after at 5:00pm in the holiday traffic, ugh. Drop the nephew and dad off and pay for three nights of a motel at 8pm and haul butt to make it to our phenomenal opening day party. Beer, bar-b-cues, birds and babes. This has absolutely ruined every opening day for anything else I hunt for life. It will never be as good as dove opener! My hunting partner and I proceed to enjoy ourselves until about 3am when we head back to go get the nephew. Pops was feeling a little sick still so he waited until later to come out with us. We finally get to our spot, cots out and ready to sleep at 4am, or so we thought. Finally told the kid to shut the HeXX up at4:37am . Then the alarm goes off at 5:30am . Yep, 53 minutes total sleep. Great. Thank God for adrenaline! Luckily we were not disappointed, there were dove everywhere! But as you can imagine, 53 minutes of sleep did not help our shooting. I drop my first one right out of the gate and went pure downhill from there. Even the kid who is usually death with a shotgun was off. Whew, that made me feel a little better. After an hour of, for lack of better words, sucking, I decided to shake things up a bit. I handed the kid his grandpa's Winchester (sorry Frank) 1200 12ga while I snuck some of my 1-1/2oz loads out to the field. Oh yeah, much better! They told me the it got a little cooler every time I shot because the 1-1/2 oz lead cloud would block the sun temporarily . I told them I didn't notice, because unlike them, I was picking up my dead birds.

Well, those worked for about an hour or so until the birds got wise to the couple of hundred people around this spot. I then was coherent enough to shoot a smaller (but MUCH faster) 1-1/8oz rounds and really reach out beyond anyone around us. In a 30" full choke barrel at 1600fps, 50 and 60 yard shots were easy! The guys next to us accused me of using 00 buck. It was that amazing. Here is the part you want to hear Frank. Even though it sounded like a war movie going on, apparently this dang coyote decided it was a good idea to stroll out to the canal by which we were shooting and take a look! Why, I don't know, but he did. Well, some idiot decided it was a good idea to shoot it with bird shot at some 40 yards . It was not! And I was not happy! It jumped into the canal to get away and started swimming right by us. The guys idiots are yelling to us, but I had already seen it. when we saw it trying to get out and limping, my buddy asked me if I was going to cut a shell and finish it. I looked at him and asked why cut a shell, then leveled off at 35-40 yards across the canal and absolutely HAMMERED the poor dog! I use 1-1/8oz #7's (no, not 7-1/2's, 7's) at 1600fps in the aforementioned 30" full choked barrel, and every pellet made a beautiful pattern you could see on the fur. It literally knocked him off his feet and pushed him into the steep wall of the canal! It looked like a wrecking ball had hit him and it was instant lights out. Not bad for a "dove" load, eh? I guess that also answers the question about it being OK for chukar, as well as quail . He hit the dirt and slid right down into the runoff canal dead as a doornail. I could hear one of the idiots telling his friend "See, I told you he was using 00". Dipsticks. Of course the first thing I could think was how I wanted to tell Frank that i did not find this coyote hunting nearly as exciting as bird hunting. I mean, really, it was like shooting fish in a barrel


We decided to leave shortly after that to have lunch, get the decoy we forgot to buy earlier, and pick up my dad. We hunted a different field that night and had a great time with just the four of us; myself, my dad, my nephew, and my best friend/hunting partner. This is what (dove) hunting is all about. Birds are just a bonus at that point.

Sunday was slower morning, but still productive. The best part was seeing this, my dad and nephew out there together having a great time and both smiling from ear to ear. This made the whole effort worth it all.



And as you can see, we put a decoy at the edge of the water and waited for them to fly in. I can not say this enough: I will never hunt dove without a decoy again in my life!!! Not only would the birds land right there on you, they would also see it while flying in a completely different direction a few hundred yards away and change course and come straight into it. Yes, they work that good!

The next picture is special for two reasons. One, it was the kid's first Eurasian dove. Two, it was taken with one of his great grandpa's shotguns! He would have loved to see this picture. It is an old 70's vintage Mossberg 500. You can not put price tags on moments like these. The other picture is to show some who have asked how easy it is to tell the difference between mourning and Eurasian dove. Notice the much grayer color and lack of black spots on the Eurasian dove?

And while Sunday morning was fun, Sunday night had to be the most fun evening of the trip (except for the adult themed opener party). The bids would not quit flying in, and I just sat next to a brush pile near the decoy with my buddy and caught up and shot dove. I wish moments like that would never end. I could do that all day every day with him and never get tired of it. I am truly blessed to have a friend and hunting partner like him. But the real star of the night was the kid. He discovered that he could not only shoot his other great grandpa's shotgun, but he could shoot it well! It is an ancient Winchester (sorry again) 1400 12ga auto, and it shoots like a dream. This is the picture right after he took a double with three shots and while he was headed ou to pick both of them up, he had to hurry to cram another round in and take a third bird with the fourth shot. He was on fire. Three birds, four shots, total of maybe 20 seconds. And he has only been shooting a shotgun for less than a year and a half. You can't see it, but my chest is sticking W A Y out. Also, he looks wet because we had to have him swim in the reservoir for one of our birds.


Monday was a slow day, and we were all extremely tired, so we managed a few birds and headed home early content with the weekend we had. We are not greedy, and decided to leave on a good note and get home in time to unpack in the daylight.

The following weekend was pretty much the same except it was just my buddy, his girlfriend's son, and myself. I left work at noon, transmission still slipping and all, on Saturday and drove straight up there foe the evening hunt and all day Sunday until I left for home at 9pm. We did just as well and had a blast, but I did not get any pictures of that weekend,

One of the things we learned on opening day (well "they" learned, I already knew) was about shotgun ammo. I have been offering to let my dad and my buddy use my reloads that they refer to as "ballistic missiles" for quite some time. My dad is way old school and always reminds me that he has been knocking down birds with what I call anemic factory ammo for years. After watching his first three birds lose feathers and fly away with the 1-1/8oz Remington "Field Loads" (1290fps) I made it a point to walk by him so he could break down and ask for some reloads. I didn't give him too hard a time. I handed him some tamer rounds at about 1500fps only to watch him completely miss his next four shots. As soon as I started to speak, he yells "Yeah, I know, don't lead them". You got it. He didn't lead them and they fell like bricks out of the sky. He was so pleased that he actually told me to give his factory stuff to the next truck that drove by if they wanted it! All that stuff you "read" about speed ruining your pattern, and not making much difference in leading birds, I am sorry to say is pure crap. It may sound great in theory, but the real world has proved it to be totally wrong. I even left some hulls for my buddy to load at speeds, and after one night like this with them, he swears also to use nothing less than 1500fps and #7 shot.


That's all for now. Sorry it was so long. Next up, quail/chukar!!!

P.S. Please excuse any spelling errors. I am usually retentive about it, bit just too tired to shive a git right now.

[KNOCKED UP]

Good story Bob,
I love the stories when the kids are having
a good time.
And you Bob, I don't think you ever grew up.
And you probally never will. (it's more fun that way)
Tom

[Frank]

YIKES , Bob, that was one hexx of a story and hunting trip(s). Awesome pics too, as always, and especially of your nephew. My (30 yr old) daughter just now walked by and saw your pics and asked me if that was Jason, my (33 yr old) 2nd son? I have pics of him like that when he was about your nephew's age. Those pics are absolutely priceless & we want to save forever. Kudos again to you!

I was wondering where you've been on your dove hunt (reports), so is great reading this. I saw your post on the other thread, and found this next. I figured "stuff" had been getting in the way, and is the same with me right now. Oh, and that sucks about your transmission. Man, nothing worse than car trouble. Plumbing is a close 2nd, but car problems really suck.

And speaking of which, my daughter's 2003 malibu is in the garage as I type this, getting a new (GM rebuilt) engine installed. Her original motor had a rod knocking at 140,000 miles. Just swell, eh, and guess who gets to pay for that, right? Of course she plans on paying me back...right after world peace arrives!

And good grief about that coyote. No shortage of meat heads for sure. I'm just glad you were able to end it for the poor dog, and so thoroughly too. I am semi surprised. Isn't it amazing what some people think we are doing when successful? I mean 00 buck for dove, & then the coyote. Too funny! I think I would have went along with it &/or encouraged the meat heads all the more (to use 00 buck for dove). LOL OH, and you mean s p e e d really does kill? My goodness, man, what's next? World peace (again)?! (that's sarcasm, for any newer folks that may, or may not be wondering btw)... I am a speed freak in other words... with (all) ammo that is!

I am currently HOPING to get out before the quail opener for coyotes, & if / when I do, I will pm or e mail you when I am going. I'm going nuts, with a LOT on my plate at the moment, some serious, & would be the only things preventing me from going. But, I will let you know.

In the mean time, I really enjoy reading about everyone else's hunts. So keep up the good work my friend, and continue to keep us posted with your exceptional reports!

[tawnoper]

Did you fish that coyote out of the drink?

[Bisley]

Attempted but failed to pull it out. Nothing could reach into the 20 yard wide canal. And the facts that it has been stagnant for quite some time, I have seen cleaner sewer water, it is an orchard runoff full of pesticides and animal feces, and there must have been a thousand dead birds in it made me shiver at getting into it. I did try to wait until he was as far as possible, but still shootable, before taking him hoping he would stick to the bank. I did not expect it to bounce that hard off it unfortunately. But I would rather it go down this way than see it hobble off gimpy somewhere. Even a dirty bird killer like that deserves a decent quick death.

Yes Frank, it is absolutely amazing at what can be done when you actually "know" your guns . I would not have even attempted putting the poor dog down had I not known how hard they were hitting while patterning. Yeah, I am one of those that still do that . What's really funny is that I also always have a box of 00 in the truck, and recently some Remington UHD after seeing how well it works for dabob on here. Just didn't think I would need it with a thousand guns going off! I feel like you of the shotgun world now. Speed definitely, absolutely, without a doubt kills. And you throw in a full choke (cause you can always let them fly away further before shooting but you can't always make them turn back around) and you have an amazingly long reaching, deadly combination. Now, let's see, I don't have any blown back primers yet. The primer pockets are still tight. There is a 5-6% leeway in the powder measurements for the inprecise powder bushings. Hmmmm, maybe I could bump it up just a little bit further....................

[stephen722]

glad you had a good shoot Bisley,wonderfull pics and story! be sure and get your loads from the book, blown primers arn't the first sign of high pressure in 12 guage, a split in the barrle, in front of chamber is about the first sign, use scale, the mec guy is stoned! have fun stephen

[Bisley]

Lol, yeah, I only use published loads. The scary part is that they are standard and not magnum loads either . I was actually just kidding about pushing it too much further. In fact, when I do load at the top end of the scale, I don't even use a powder bar at all, I use my standard rifle/pistol powder measurer.

[rustygun]

Another great post and pic's. The young one makes for a good retriever and glad your pop was able to enjoy his shoot. Hope you get the trannie problem fixed so you can keep on trucking.

[Thumper Dunker]

Real cool stuff. Sounded like a bunch of fun.