This morning a friend and I hunted his Sunflower patch
He planted 5 acres of sunflowers and just before Sept 1 he bush hogged the patch
This morning we went out to harvest some more Morning Doves
I had made a batch of about #7 1/2 or #8 shot
I put some graphite with it and used the brass vibrator to coat the shot
I had a Remington 1100 20 gau with a mod choke tube
Bill had a Beretta 302 in 20 gau with ( I think ) a mod choke tube
We both shot 1 oz of shot in Federal Top Gun 20 gau hulls
Federal 20S1 wads
Herco and CCI 209 primers
This load was what my press was set up for
But I had been loading #6 shot for LOW IQ released pheasants
A little before sunrise we put out 4 rotary wing Dove decoys on 5' stakes
We also added 12 foam dove decoys
We put out 2 dove "trees" ... 6' saplings stuck into the ground with no leaves
These each had 4 foam decoys
We also put 4 foam dove decoys on short sections of sunflower stalk about 1 foot long
To make it look like feeding doves
We can not start shooting till Sunrise per the hunting regulations
Guns plugged for 3 shells
About 15 min before we could start hunting the doves started to show up
Our phone alarms were both set for 7:16
So we stood up and started harvesting doves
For the next 1/2 hour or so we took turns shooting and also shooting AT doves ( we both missed a few LOL)
We then collected the doves and figured out we each needed 2 doves for out limits of 15 doves
No doves came in range for a little while , but were landing at the other end of the sunflowers
So we walked down there and each picked out sort of 2 easy shots each
While down there we also had 2 flocks of pigeons come in
We let the first flock of them land before we decided to also harvest them
Of the 2 flocks of pigeons that came in
We harvested 7 of them between us
By 9 AM we were done dove hunting and had picked up our decoys
We each had 15 doves and 7 pigeons total also
Bill only wanted some of his doves and didn't want the pigeons
He is a Semi Driver and will be on the road for a while
So he told me to make sure I harvest some more doves while he is working LOL
I had Bacon wrapped Dove breast for lunch and froze the rest in meal size groups
I froze them after vacuum sealing them breasts in bags
It is great to have a close by place to hunt that I can hunt any time I feel up to it
And not have a bunch of other "Hunters" try and butt in
Or shoot at birds decoying to me , from 100+ yards away
John