We just got an email from longtime friend and customer Russ Bourquein about meeting him in Hondo, Texas to shoot some white-winged doves. He had talked to Sammy Nooner of the Nooner Ranch, who had located two pockets of doves containing big concentrations of white-wings.
It was January, the last of the winter season for doves. We have hunted winter doves previously and experience has taught us that when you shoot at them in the second part of the season they alter their pattern as quickly as overnight (here today, gone tomorrow). The opportunity to be able to shoot in two different places made the invitation easy to accept.
We were getting ready to go almost immediately, and that is when the problem occurred: Which guns were we going to use? Side-by-side, over and under, semi-auto, 12 ga, 20 ga, 28 ga? The ensuing conversation brought about the advantages and disadvantages of several of our favorite hunting guns. We realized that we had not talked about this in this column, so here goes.
Winter white-winged dove hunting in Texas to us means big, tough, hard-flying birds that have survived all the hunters’ shots back in September and October. To put it another way, these birds are not going to be just floating along in straight lines. After the first shot in the field, they are going to kick into survival mode. That means they are going to be “jukin’ and jivin’” and if the wind is blowing, they will have the advantage. We would be shooting without a dog, so that means “shoot one bird, mark it and retrieve it” and then shoot another one. And we’d always be helping each other mark and retrieve birds.
Gil’s first thought was his Webley and Scott side-by-side 12ga with 30-inch barrels. This gun has two triggers, which many shooters are afraid of. But it offers the most ideal option for using two different chokes. This gun was reconditioned by Briley Manufacturing of Houston and equipped with their flush-mounted interchangeable chokes, making it versatile regardless of what the birds were doing. With an open choke in the right barrel and a tight choke in the left barrel, whether the birds were close or far, the ideal choke could be chosen by a simple move of the trigger finger from the front trigger to the back trigger. We have developed a simple way to learn to shoot a double trigger gun.
Vicki’s first thought was her 12 ga Beretta Xtrema 2 semi-auto with the Kick-off recoil reduction system. Her reasoning is that if we shoot 12 ga, we will probably be using #6 lead shot in a 3 ¼ dram load, which will have some recoil. But with the gas-operated semi-auto and the Kick-off recoil system, recoil is never a problem. This gun has something that makes it unique that we discovered when we first shot it. The pistol grip is more of a semi-pistol grip, or a cross between that and a “Prince of Wales” grip. We have discovered it’s much more forgiving with respect to the length of pull. Vicki’s length of pull to center on all of her guns is 13 ½ inches and this gun is 14 ¼, making it ¾ inch too long. It should be too long for her to mount comfortably. But with the length of the grip, and the grip not being a sharp 90-degree pistol grip, her hand could easily slide back to accommodate the extra length, which makes it easy to mount a gun that is almost an inch too long. This is something not many people know, and it makes this gun user-friendly when you have to wear warm clothing.
We both thought about using our over and under K-80 12ga target guns but they weigh nine pounds, and if we were going to have to walk and hunt, we didn’t want to be carrying that heavy of a gun. The recoil would not be a factor due to the weight of the gun, and we both have ISIS recoil systems installed on our guns that virtually eliminate any felt recoil, regardless of what kind of ammunition you might use. They are target guns, and there is a difference between target and field guns.
Target guns are heavy to facilitate a smooth swing and absorb recoil. They’re made to be carried a little and shot a lot. Field guns are lighter and made to be carried a lot and shot a little. If few were going to be set up and staying in one place, then the heavier gun would not be a problem. And the fact that we shoot them more than all other guns combined made them a definite good option.
A quick check of our ammo inventory revealed that we had a case of 20ga #6s, which made us think of our K-20s that we take to Argentina on our high volume hunts where we instruct in the field. Weighing eight pounds, these guns are lighter than their big brother the K-80, and they both come equipped with 32-inch barrels with interchangeable chokes, and have ISIS recoil reduction systems installed on them. We have killed thousands of birds with them in the past, so the confidence factor is there and we already have ammo. Although these guns are lighter than the K-80, they are not as light as a true 20ga field gun, making them okay for a little walking and hunting. But it’s not something we would want to walk with all day and have to carry.
We each have 20ga field guns that we use when we walk and hunt larger birds like pheasant or jump shoot doves in a field. Vicki has a Beretta Silver Pigeon 20ga with 30-inch barrels. That gun weighs 6 ¼ pounds. Gil has a Browning Superposed 20ga with 30-inch barrels choked mod and full that weighs seven pounds. Both guns are light enough to be carried all day without fatigue, but they’re heavy enough to shoot and kill a limit of birds, even with 3-inch hunting ammo. Vicki’s gun has interchangeable chokes, but Gil’s gun has fixed factory chokes of mod and full, making it not a good choice for shooting inside of 20 yards and not as versatile as Vicki’s.
So, you can see our dilemma – and we have not even gotten to the 28 gauges yet! We guess the bottom line there is no one gun that does it all and has all the advantages of all configurations of guns with no disadvantages. But then, that’s what makes wingshooting so much fun. Developing different guns for specific purposes allows for each shooter to go with what he or she likes.
We ended up deciding to taking our K-20s and our case of 7/8 oz #6s and headed to Hondo to meet up with Russ and the gang at what just might be the perfect storm. What makes it perfect? Well, we just found out we would be shooting in a 15 mile-per-hour gusty north wind, which puts the odds in favor of the doves! Gil has often said that if he could hunt just one kind of bird it would be a dove in a 12 to 15 mph wind because he views that as just about the most unpredictable challenging target with wings on the planet.
We knew we would have to bring our A-game to this shoot-out, since we would be shooting among some of our students. And not that we were worried, but we also took our 12ga K-80s along with some 1 oz #7 ½ s – just in case!
