Feathered Lightning

The scene of my first-ever dove hunt was one of those crowded fields where you have to root for a bird to get by everyone else so you can shoot it. The slow, the stupid and the unwary fell from the sky long before they got to within 100 yards of the knoll where I sat, partially hidden under the branches of a tree.

The doves I shot at streaked by with their eyes and their throttles wide open. Up to that day, the only birds I had ever seen over a shotgun rib were ringneck pheasants clambering up and away over the cornfields. Nothing in my experience prepared me for the stream of tiny gray bullets zipping overhead.

Experts, of course, brag about shooting a limit of doves "inside a box," taking 10, 12 or 15 birds with one box of shells or less. So it's my duty to tell you that on that very first dove hunt, 25 years ago, I easily bagged my limit inside a box. Unfortunately, it was one of those big boxes that holds 10 smaller 25-round boxes of shells.

There's no question doves make one of the toughest targets in the sky. Ammo companies estimate hunters shoot five times for each bird they bag. I've improved my average a good deal since that first hunt years ago. You can too. Becoming a better dove shot began, of course, earlier this summer, when you put in your time shooting skeet and sporting clays (you did, didn't you?). Nevertheless, the transition from clay targets to real birds can be a rocky one come opening day.

It's not so much that doves are fast; in fact, serious clay target competitors tell me they often shoot in front of live birds after a summer of clay birds. The problem is, clay targets fly straight paths while doves juke all over the sky.

Clay target shooting sharpens your hand/eye coordination and builds solid shooting form, but it can make you a little complacent, too. After a summer of target shooting, when you look at the dove and judge its line of flight, you assume it's going to keep going the same direction at the same speed. When the dove changes direction, it leaves your muzzle hanging in space, pointed yards away from where it needs to be.

What's worse, many hunters treat smoothbores as if they were anti-aircraft weapons, mounting the gun, aiming down the rib and tracking the bird as it comes into range. The longer you track a dove and the more carefully you measure your lead, the greater the chance you'll slow or stop your swing or that the bird will dodge out of harm's way. Instead, think "eyes to the target, hands to the target"--in that order. Lock your eyes onto the dove as it comes to you, but don't budge the gun until you're ready to shoot.

As you mount the gun, your first move should be with the muzzle, sweeping it along the dove's line of flight and holding slightly below the bird so you don't obstruct your view of the target. Raise the butt as the muzzle moves with the target, and shoot the instant the pad hits your shoulder. It's a short, compact move.