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 #3

Continuing to swing on the dove after you fire the shot is called the follow-through. As you follow through with your shot, you will string out the shot so the shot pattern stays in the same flight pattern of the dove. In other words, by continuing to move the barrel as the shot comes through the barrel, you're spreading the shot over a greater area than you would if you stopped the gun's movement when you fire the shot. Most often, if a hunter doesn't follow through, he will shoot behind the dove.

One factor that few shooters realize is that there's a fraction-of-a-second delay between the squeeze of the trigger and the release of the shot. In that short amount of time, if the barrel of the shotgun doesn't continue to move, your shot will go where the dove was instead of where he's going to be. There are hunters who use the point-shoot method to hunt doves, which means they point the barrel of the gun at a spot in front of the dove where they expect the dove to arrive when the shot gets there. However, if you use the point-shoot method, your lead on the dove has to be much greater than if you use the follow- through method.

Tomorrow, we'll discuss how to take the bird that's flying straight at you and the bird that's flying strait away from you.

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