By Dave Workman | Editor-in-Chief
A notice from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources reminding hunters about the Sept. 1 season opener on doves reminded me how I concluded several years ago that the swift-winged coo-birds are born with Kevlar outer skins.
Dove hunters keep shotgun shell companies in the black financially. This time of year, boxes—maybe even cases—of No. 7 ½ or 8 shot ammunition go out the door of every gun store and sporting goods retailer on the map. Mourning doves are probably so-named because they leave wingshooters in tears!
The Iowa DNR notice reminds hunters that grain fields, grazed pastures or feedlots are good spots to look for doves, and one will also find them around cattle tanks or ponds.
Right now is the time for all shotgunners, whether you’ll be after doves in the various states where the season opens or pursuing grouse in one of the Northwest states (where dove seasons also open simultaneously), to be pulling shotguns out of gun safes, security cabinets, closets or cases, and cleaning them thoroughly.
Pull the choke tubes, run a bristle brush down the bore wrapped in a cloth patch that’s been soaked in Hoppe’s No. 9 or Outers cleaning solvent, followed by repeated swabs with dry patches and then a lightly-oiled patch.
Add a drop or two of oil into the action, and wipe down the outside.
I also do something else that makes some of my pals question my sanity. I’ll rub the wood stocks of my shotguns with a bit of neutral shoe wax. This tends to fill in any scratches to keep moisture away from the wood, and it does add a bit of luster to the finish.
According to the Iowa DNR news release, “Fast paced and fun, dove hunting can be done by nearly everyone regardless of skill level or mobility. It doesn’t require expensive equipment to participate, only clothes that blend in to the background, a bucket and plenty of shells. There’s a lot of action with a steady stream of doves coming in.”
In my experience, the bucket needs to be full of shells! Doves really are the hotshots of the game fowl world, darting and weaving as they pass by at warp speed. Yet, I know of people who are superb dove gunners and they seem to do rather well. In my youth, one of the monthly outdoors periodicals carried a story by a local writer in Washington State who told the tale of his annual foray to the lower Yakima Valley with a brand new shotgun and his trusty old smoothbore for backup. After doing poorly one morning, he turned over the new gun to his hunting partner and broke out his aging scattergun and started filling his game bag.
The important thing with any gamebird taken this time of year is that you quickly field dress it and get it into a cooler. On my early September grouse hunts, I carry a bunch of large bags inside a cooler with ice because game can spoil quickly when the temperatures are still capable of creeping up into the high 70s or low 80s.
One can start lots of arguments when talking about chokes for hunting doves, and the same goes for grouse hunters. I hunt with a double-barrel, so my first shot leaves through an Improved Cylinder and the backup goes out through a Modified in my 20-gauge O/U Franchi Instinct. For folks with a single-barrel gun, the prevailing wisdom seems to be with the I/C choke unless one is finding the birds winging past at a slight distance. Then you would want to tighten up the choke.
As noted last month in my piece about the best shot sizes for upland game, dove gunners like smaller shot and this weekend will likely see store shelves go bare.
Which brings us around to grouse. Since I am walking proof that doves are immune to my feeble attempts at smoothbore marksmanship, I’ve become rather fond of grouse hunting. Having written about these fool hens many times in the past, I can say only that they offer a challenge while at the same time being remarkably stupid on occasion, a fact that has contributed to my table fare around camp.
If you’re going to spend a couple of days hunting, whether for grouse or doves—or any other upland game for that matter—always have a good cleaning kit to keep your shotgun in good working order. This time of year, it’s not rain but dust that will be the bugaboo, and I even have a soft cloth in my truck to wipe the gun down after a morning or afternoon hunt.
If you don’t have a good case, get one and use it. One of my pals has a hard-sided aluminum gun case and he religiously keeps his shotguns out of harm’s way when he isn’t hunting by storing them in this luggage-quality padded box. My shotguns ride in either a tough padded nylon case or a sheepskin case I made several years ago that has traveled all over the West and has kept rifles and shotguns in remarkably good condition, even in remarkably bad environments.
Good luck, stay safe and shoot straight!
