One Box One Bird My Journey to Better Shotgunning

[George P]

Trap was less accessible today due to a skeet tournament. I was offered to try podium, which I did, and we then went to five stand because the rabbits were not thrown properly. Apparently a battery issue, whatever. It was all very fun. Two runs each game. I had two ejection malfunctions in five stand because I short stroke, I think. These new (to me!) games made me desire an over and under a little more. All in all, they were more fun than single trap, I thought. Something less serious, less formal about it. Or maybe was it the funny guys I shot with. Very pleasant folks this morning, very. Some of them also missed some birds, which felt reassuring compared to the trap shooters I had shot with previously during Summer. They did not miss very often. I was rightly told to give more lead quite a few times. Three puffs of smoke; I finally got that satisfaction! Did not count hits and misses, not there yet. I shot #8 with a modified choke all along. One shooter had a camera attached to his lower barrel. It must pay to watch your shooting back home, because he was quite a shooter. So much fun, so little time.

You'll find 5-stand and sporting folks to not be quite as serious as trap and skeet guys. Simply put, trap and skeet are about perfection, not missing any, while 5-stand and sporting are all about trying to hit as many as you can. There are very few perfect scores in sporting while if you do not get a perfect score in trap or skeet, you won't make the shootoff

 

[Frostbite]

You'll find 5-stand and sporting folks to not be quite as serious as trap and skeet guys. Simply put, trap and skeet are about perfection, not missing any, while 5-stand and sporting are all about trying to hit as many as you can. There are very few perfect scores in sporting while if you do not get a perfect score in trap or skeet, you won't make the shootoff

I observed that the others were always loading two shells and almost always shooting twice, even on single birds, trying to hit a piece that did not blow off. Is that common practice where you guys shoot?
It did seem less serious. My week work is serious, with little place for mistakes, so it might be a reason why I enjoyed yesterday's shooting so much, it took me elsewhere. Again, friendly and funny folks, very enjoyable company.

 

[George P]

In 5-stand and sporting (and FITASC and Super Sporting) whenever there is a single target, you are allowed "full use of gun" (2 shots) in case you miss with your first shot

 

[Johnm1]

2020 Update: I was unable to take my Sterlingworth to the range before dove season but it only took a few shots to get on track. I was again able to get the limit this year before 10 AM. This year the limit is 15. Now I'm still not a great shot but when I do my part I am able to hit what I'm shooting at. Without too much detail let's just say that those 15 birds required more than 2 boxes of shells. Not great but I pretty much know what I did wrong on all of my misses. It comes down to being more selective. Some were just dumb shots too far out and some I was unprepared for and didn't mount the gun right. The bruise on my arm below my shoulder is proof of that.

Years past before lessons I'd go through 4 boxes and maybe have 1 bird. This is an older very long thread but there are some really great points within it. If you are looking for some pointers there are a lot of very successful shotgunners that have added quality to this post.

Moral of the story, lessons are a useful thing and not very expensive in the long run.

 

[Johnm1]

As a follow up to the 2020 update, I am still learning things. Mostly that shot selection is a bigger influence on good shot gunning than I had previously thought. Now we don't really have a choice on shot selection in the games we play (skeet, clays, trap) but we do in the field. Saturday morning was my 'opening day' and managed to limit out by 10:00 AM. I have to travel 4 hours to get to a spot where there are more birds than one can imagine and no hunting pressure. And I mean no hunting pressure. There were more shots then I'd like, but I knew what I had done wrong on almost all of the missed shots. Mostly choosing to shoot at targets too far away with several shots that I tried to take when I wasn't prepared.

It wasn't until Monday morning I decided to go to my original place close to home to see if I could replicate success there. I had chosen this place years ago because there were few birds and that limited the number of wasted shells/misses. There wasn't anything to draw the birds to my spot and I would get intermittent birds crossing from pretty much any direction. I hunt alone and that often led to me spotting the birds late. When I started on Monday morning I spotted several birds crossing but way out there. I did manage one shot but in all reality it was much too far to take that shot. But it was the only bird that had crossed my path that was even close. So I did what I was doing before my lessons and took the shot and missed.

This got me to thinking, maybe part of my problem was putting myself in a position where the only shots I had were low success shots and I took them out of desperation. I thought about this for a bit while listening to a lot of shooting less than a mile away in the direction of a water catchment. That catchment rarely has water in it but we did have some rain recently. So, I moved closer to the catchment, not close enough to encroach on the hunters that were there, hoping I could catch some bird making their way to that water. And it worked. Still not a lot of birds but I had some birds coming from directions that I could mostly anticipate. And the success rate was much better. I still took some poor shots, but again, I knew what I had done wrong.

So, I'm beginning to think the 'One Box - One Bird' failures might not have been all poor shooting. At least some of the failure was poor shot selection made worse by selecting a location that had an abundance of poor shot opportunities. Add to that a level of desperation and maybe I had created a 'self fulfilling prophecy'.

Just rambling I suppose.

 

[entropy]

I've never hunted doves, but I've hunted enough ducks to know what you mean. With duck you have the advantage of decoy placement and calling, and while those are options for dove, many do not use them. But like they say in the military, firepower is good, but position and firepower is everything. Whatever type of hunting I do, I like to study topo maps (dating myself there; nowadays one can just use google earth) of the area, and determine likely 'choke points', as well as back up ones where to set up. All game whether furred or feathered need food, water, and bedding, and at differing times of day. Learning the daily routine of your game helps solve this riddle, then you are just left with finding areas in or close to their destination, and setting up accordingly.

 

[cdb1]

I have always had a problem with depth perception. As such I’m horrible at estimating distance. So whether hunting duck or dove I don’t shoot until I can see the whites of their eyes.

 

[entropy]

Aren't doves eyes red?

 

[Johnm1]

Nope. Not red. Desperation has a tendency to shrink the perceived distance. I carry my range finder and range landmarks around me so I know the distance I should be shooting. But if the shots presented are outside of that range, sometimes I do shoot when i shouldn't.

Dove are an interesting hunt. They fly anywhere between 20 and 30 MPH. Higher speed for white winged dove though I have never seen any WW here. They can come in high and give a hunter a lot of time to see them, or they can come in just above the brush and appear seemingly out of nowhere. If they see you they will just avoid your location. I'm not sure how they know the range of a 12 gauge, but somehow they do.

In an area where there are a lot of opportunities it is easier to be more selective. For those cases where they 'catch me off guard' I should just learn to let them go. From the bruise on my upper arm I obviously mounted the gun poorly on at least one shot and probably several. Being on blood thinners (for life) bruises are not a good thing. The bruise has spread from my upper arm all the way down to my elbow. Looks like I was hit with a baseball bat. And it will be weeks, possibly months before that will go away.

 

[George P]

Sounds like you guys need to go to Argentina........................
Your ammo bill will cost more than the rest of the trip, but, you'll kill more dove in three days than you will in 3 decades here. One of my friends averaged 4000+ birds per day

 

[Johnm1]

I don't know about others, but those Argentina hunts don't sound very 'rewarding' to me. I've seen pictures like that before and even if I go home skunked, and I have often, being able to shoot until your shoulder can't take anymore just isn't hunting to me.

 

[George P]

No one said it was "hunting"; but them again sitting on a stool in a in a blind in a field is also not "hunting". Neither is those same folks who set out food plots and then sit waiting for deer to walk by, that is "deer waiting", not deer hunting".............NOT being limited to some arbitrary government number is nice