Dos Gobblers

IT IS POSSIBLE to bag two game birds in flight without firing a single shot. I have seen it happen twice.

The first occurred during deer season years ago. I was a guest on a Hill Country ranch near Kerrville. Following the morning stand session, we were driving the rough terrain of oaks and cedars back to the lodge.

Ahead, a bachelor group of four or five turkey gobblers scuttled across the trail and paused on the edge of a ravine. Then, in no particular hurry, they dipped over the rim and disappeared. The vehicle eased to a halt and an impromptu fall turkey hunt began.

I was toting a scoped .243 rifle, a legitimate choice for a poke at the big birds. I slipped slyly out of the truck and crept Davy Crockett style through the brush. With thumb poised on the safety, I approached the ravine, fully expecting to see the gullible gobblers waiting below.

One more step—and the grass exploded under my right boot. I had bumbled squarely into the middle of a large covey of bobwhite quail. Literally.

The step split the huddled bevy. Fifteen or 20 birds roared up around my ears, crisscrossing in frantic flight.

Two quail collided at full exit velocity and, amid a windswept bloom of feathers, both tumbled dead. I have no idea what happened to the turkeys.

I retrieved the cock and the hen and walked back to the waiting vehicle. “Nice double,” my friend said, “but I thought you were turkey hunting.”

The second double without assist from smokeless powder happened on a dove hunt in Argentina. Actually, it occurred before the hunt.

We were driving in a large SUV through tawny fields of grain to reach the palatial estancia on a prominent hill. The afternoon was swarming with flights of doves trading back and forth.

The vehicle stirred gravel dust as it banked around a corner and spooked a close flock amid the stubble. The doves flared low ahead and…Thump! Thump

One smacked the grill and one smacked the windshield.

“Wow,” I exclaimed, “if you can bag a double with a Suburban, this is bound to be a great shoot!”

And indeed it was—superior to even the best whitewing hunts I recall from decades ago in the San Fernando Valley region of Mexico. Argentina truly provides amazing opportunities for doubles, but admittedly, most are achieved with shotguns.

But, closer to home, each fall offers legitimate chances for double dips on doves, quail, ducks and geese.

Frankly, I’m not as practiced at doubles as maybe I should be. This stems from doing a lot of shooting without benefit of a trained retriever. This especially was the case during my early years of dove and duck hunting near Houston.

I truly hate to lose a cripple. Therefore, when birds are within range, I tend to go for the confident shot and mark the fall all the way to ground. By then, a legitimate second target often is gone. But this is not altogether poor form—the old “bird in the hand” theory, with a high percentage of recoveries on downed birds.

I’ve never been impressed with blazing away for multiple hits at long range (increasing the chances of crippling) or over heavy ground cover (increasing the chances of lost falls). I’m concerned with disciplined doubles where both shots are within clean range and over reasonably open terrain.

Most “ice cream” setups occur on crossing flocks at maybe 20 to 35 yards. The idea is to start from behind, smacking a trailer then following through for the closest leading bird. It certainly is possible to take a leader first, then loop back around for a stab at a flaring trailer, but this a sloppy smoothbore work.

Left-to-right tends to favor the right-handed shooter because the swing remains fluid as the birds pass. Right-to-left encourages your swing to stutter or stop as the gun passes the off shoulder. But, again, it’s certainly doable.

Incoming birds might be easiest, especially if they are putting on the brakes to land. Decoying ducks and waterhole doves come to mind. The cool hand folds one of the farther birds then sweeps up to crumple a climbing leader.

But remember, the second shot often will be shorter than the first. The idea here is not to allow the flock to get too close. The temptation is great to keep watching ‘em come.

Low wads of zipping teal are especially bad about this. Allow the cluster to swoop too close, and the second shot might be at a frantic bird turning itself inside out at 10 or 15 yards.

The option on too-close incomers is to turn and taking a climbing, flaring bird going away, assuming safety is not an issue. But a bird that falls behind might land in rough cover (many duck blinds and dove stations are on the edges of brush or levees). Having one out front and one somewhere behind is a good way to get disoriented and lose one—or both.

The quail hunter over a point usually takes close birds going away, probably at a low angle. The key is don’t rush things; take time to plant both feet properly and shoulder gun smoothly and pick a clean target. Roll one, then go for another.

But it’s a gross breach of etiquette to get caught up in the double-dip and swing into another gun’s airspace. Stay on the safe and courteous side of the covey.

Occasionally, two or more birds bunched together will fall with a single shot. This almost always is total luck but certainly worth a bit of gloating over the tailgate.

The shooter with a side-by-side or over/under must make each barrel count, but the hunter with a magazine gun (plugged for migratory birds) has that third shot to regroup after a shameful miss—two out of three—but still some snappy gunplay from a single flock.

Come to think of it, if things go really right, there’s always the chance for a triple.

 

Email Joe Doggett at ContactUs@fishgame.com

 

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