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Various questions on doves: guns, loads and dogs
1. How does one legally acquire real birds, including doves, for training one's puppies and/or introducing puppies to birds BEFORE the puppies go to the field? One might have to hunt the birds lawfully to possess them. But what does a person use for a retriever in order to hunt these birds until his own dogs are field-ready? What if he can't borrow a dove-ready dog from a hunting buddy? Will I initially have to shoot birds and retrieve them myself SANS dogs just to acquire training birds for my own dogs? I guess I could also purchase a few pet live doves and slaughter them for that purpose. I don't think it is legal to purchase harvested GAME birds from another hunter. At some point during dog training development real birds will have to be acquired somehow to complete a retriever. Doves and pigeons have a smell that dogs might not like. They also might have to overcome dove-feather shyness as well. They might also have to learn that a mouth full of dove down is still less unpleasant than a jolt or two from an e-collar.
2. How badly does a 12-ga. pump kick with field or dove loads, say 1 ounce, 3 1/4 dram equivalent, 2 3/4" number 7 1/2s? How bad does it kick as compared with a 20 ga. pump with heavy hunting loads?
I was considering a 20 ga. Benelli Nova as my first dove gun but after reading Charley Dickey's "Dove Hunting" he recommends a 12 ga. for a novice shotgunner. Supposedly a 12 ga. will give a denser pattern for a given choke and range. Doves acrobatting on the wing are the damnedest things to hit but a 12 ga. has an advantage for a newbie. My concern is a 12 might not be as gentle on the shoulder as a 20 but aren't 12 ga. guns fairly gentle with field and target loads? Just back from my local Walmart this morning, there are whole bunch of 12 ga. dove loads, no 20 ga., on promotion. $4.74/box by Federal. I like the idea that Wally-World stocks a huge amount of cheap dove loads prior to the season, but only in 12 ga., so maybe a 12 ga. for a dove gun might be practical for the great availability of shells.
3. Why is DRAM EQUIVALENT still printed on shotgun shells that have used smokeless powder for over 100 years now? What hunter actually cares?
"Let Hercules himself do what he may, the cat will mew and dog will have his day." - William Shakespeare
2. How badly does a 12-ga. pump kick with field or dove loads, say 1 ounce, 3 1/4 dram equivalent, 2 3/4" number 7 1/2s? How bad does it kick as compared with a 20 ga. pump with heavy hunting loads?
I was considering a 20 ga. Benelli Nova as my first dove gun but after reading Charley Dickey's "Dove Hunting" he recommends a 12 ga. for a novice shotgunner. Supposedly a 12 ga. will give a denser pattern for a given choke and range. Doves acrobatting on the wing are the damnedest things to hit but a 12 ga. has an advantage for a newbie. My concern is a 12 might not be as gentle on the shoulder as a 20 but aren't 12 ga. guns fairly gentle with field and target loads? Just back from my local Walmart this morning, there are whole bunch of 12 ga. dove loads, no 20 ga., on promotion. $4.74/box by Federal. I like the idea that Wally-World stocks a huge amount of cheap dove loads prior to the season, but only in 12 ga., so maybe a 12 ga. for a dove gun might be practical for the great availability of shells.
3. Why is DRAM EQUIVALENT still printed on shotgun shells that have used smokeless powder for over 100 years now? What hunter actually cares?
"Let Hercules himself do what he may, the cat will mew and dog will have his day." - William Shakespeare
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