Five Tips For Shooting Doves

with George Mayfield

With dove season having already opened in many states and about to open in others, we asked George Mayfield, owner of The Roost hunting lodge in Aliceville, Alabama, for five dove-shooting tips. Mayfield hosts dove hunts on his loaded dove fields every week of the season.

Tip # 2

The "sweet spot" is the most natural place on your body where your gun, shoulder and hands come together. Hold your arm out in front of you, parallel to the ground, and raise it to a 45-degree angle. The pocket in your shoulder that's created when you raise your arm to that angle is what I define as the sweet spot. That is the same position you would use for trap-shooting or skeet-shooting.

Once you are in the sweet spot, you can shoot accurately if you keep your shotgun barrel inside the diameter of a tennis-racket head. Anytime you shoot outside the sweet spot, you won't shoot accurately because you and the gun will be off-balance.

So before you go dove hunting, learn where your sweet spot is, learn its diameter, and always try to take your doves when they enter that tennis-racket-sized zone. If the dove flies out of that zone, move your sweet spot by moving your feet and turning your body. If you concentrate most of your shooting in that small zone where your body and your gun are aligned perfectly, you'll take more doves. If the dove flies out of the area where your body and your gun are aligned perfectly, remember to move your body before you take the shot. Anytime you shoot off-balance, more than likely you are going to miss the dove.

Tomorrow, we'll discuss why and how following through with your shot will drastically increase the number of doves you take.

Click for the rest of George Mayfield's tips...

#1 -- #2 -- #3 -- #4 -- #5

If you would like to contact Mayfield, his address is:

George Mayfield
1912 Oak Street
Aliceville, Alabama 35442

Phone: (205) 373-3147