MD Eastern Shore Dove Hunt

Yesterday was my first real dove hunt and it was a blast.  Very early action seemed to indicate I had been placed in a hot corner of the field.  That turned out to be true but only in regards to ambient temperature.  There was a slow but steady stream of doves to the sunflower field we were surrounding but most headed straight to the group who had set up decoys and a mojo.  The rest of us were left to clean up the stragglers and escapees.  Despite their success the guys with the decoys didn't seem shy about taking longer shot at birds heading toward other shooters, which began to irk me a bit as I sizzled in the noonday sun with two dead birds in the dust at my feet. 

They eventually got loaded up and left and the rest of us were able to spread out a little and get more consistent shooting.  Around 4 PM we thought it was over but rather than coming in off the corn birds starting coming in off the woods providing another couple hours of slow but steady shooting.

I found my 20g/32" O/U well suited to the task, though I should have tightened up the second choke as the birds began to fly higher later in the day.  In the future I might choose a semi since a third shot was sometimes an option.  As the day wore on we had to adjust our location and shots to avoid dropping birds in the corn where they were surprisingly hard to find.

The variety of shots presented was amazing and I made a few excellent shots, and even more astounding misses!  I calculate my shell to bird ratio at 3.6 to 1 but would have guessed higher walking off the field yesterday afternoon.  All in all a very memorable day!