timb99

Went Guinea Fowl hunting Saturday in Limpopo Province near Pienaarsrivier, north of Pretoria. The terrain, unlike my last hunt, was vastly different. Nothing like home. We hunted in what is called "the bushveld." Tall dry grassland with lots of bushes and small trees. Seems like every bush has stickers, every tree has thorns. But what fun it is to hunt guinea fowl! Kind of like pheasant hunting, but different. Instead of seeing deer, we saw gray duiker (teeny-tiny antelope) and one of the guys saw a kudu (huge antelope), and instead of bobcat, one of the guys saw a caracal, a cat related to the lynx. On my first flush, probably 10 of these things jumped up about 10 feet in front of me. Got a double, and if I had been hunting with a pump or semi-auto, it would have made for a very makeable triple. Oh, and these things run faster than pheasants. If they’re not DOA when they hit the ground, good luck finding them. Truckload of Guineas Odd looking critter, ain't they?

White Faced Whistling Duck one of the other guys in my group bagged.

MR Ducks Yellow-Billed Duck

Pond where we hunted Swainson's Francolin

Got to go hunting this past weekend in South Africa. Mostly waterfowl, but we did a little upland hunting too. Great fun. Got up at about 3:00 a.m. to get to my friend's house (45 minute drive) by 5, to get to the field (hour drive) by 6. Lest you think Africa is always hot, when we got out of the car to start our hunt the thermometer on my friend’s car said -3°C which is about 27°F. And there was a lot of frost. And a chilling breeze. No blind, just sit by the side of the pond, which is in the outfall of a small dammed reservoir, and shoot them as they fly over. Bagged 3 yellow-billed ducks, an Egyptian goose, and also did a little upland game hunting and bagged a Swainson's Francolin. There’s a photo of a White-Faced Whistling Duck in there too. Very interesting patterns and colorations on these birds. Swainson's Francolin is an upland game bird, bigger than a Bobwhite Quail, but quite a bit smaller than a Ringneck Pheasant. I guess about the size of a Hungarian Partridge? The one I bagged flushed about 10 feet from me, after having been standing in that spot for about a minute waiting for the dogs to find a downed bird. We hunted for them in a native grass field (much like CRP) next to a corn stubble field. If you had blindfolded me and plopped me down there and told me it was Western Kansas or Nebraska, I would have believed it. Except for the zebras and ostriches we saw. The pond where we hunted is close to three Eskom (our client) coal power plants. Though they look close, they’re really 15 km (about 9 miles) away. I hunted with guys who had English Springer Spaniels. These dogs worked great for both waterfowl and upland. Well trained. It’s not home, but being here doesn’t completely stink. Egyptian Goose Power plant near the pond where we hunted.

Going waterfowl hunting in Mpumalanga province, here in South Africa tomorrow. It'll be a first for me. I've never been waterfowl hunting before. Yellow-billed duck, red-billed teal, Egyptian goose, white-faced whistling duck and Spurwing goose are legal game.

Not on the standard Condor.

Odessa, FL

Already been, three times!

Length of barrel has nothing to do with patterning. That's a function of the choke and the load you are using. The 24" barrel is nice for turkey hunting because its easier to tote around in the woods.

Awesome looking bird! Congratulations!

Shot another limit on Saturday.

I'd guess most shots were within 45 yards, accounting for both elevation, and horizontal distance. I was using international trap loads, which are 24 grams (about 7/8 ounce) at 1350 fps. Number 7-1/2 shot. First shot modified, second shot light full. Later in the day, just to see if I could, I tried a few "hail mary" shots at what I estimate to be about 60 yards. I found that if I gave them about 10 feet of lead, even with the modified choke, they would go down, dead as a doornail.

These are African Ring Necked Doves. Hunting over/in a sunflower field near Pienaarsrivier, Limpopo Province, South Africa.

Went rock pigeon/dove hunting near Bronkhorstspruit in Gauteng Province, in South Africa, just a couple weeks ago. Hoping to do some upland and waterfowl hunting this fall (its early fall right now.)

A few suggestions (I sometimes suffer from the same problem, btw, and I am an "A" Class ATA shooter, 95.8 average in singles last year, for what that's worth.) I will assume you are a right-handed shooter. Do you shoot both eyes open, or one eye closed? Some of my advice may be dependent on that. Foot position. When I "address" station 1, my feet are "almost, but not quite" squared up with the front of the station, with my belly button facing, approximately, the right-front corner of the trap house. This allows you to swing to a hard left without going "over center" and twisting over your left foot. Make sure your weight distribution is noticeably more on your left foot, and both knees are bent slightly. If your weight is "evenly" distributed, a move to a left-rising target can cause your weight distribution to move to your right foot, which can cause your right shoulder to drop, which may cause your move to the target to go high. This is a personal preference thing, but I'm about 65-75% on my left foot, and I try to pivot over the balls of my left foot (I do this at all trap stations, at skeet, and at sporting clays, its just my style.) This allows me to pivot 90 degrees or so while keeping my shoulders level. May or may not work for you. Try "cheating" a little more to the left with your starting gun point. At station 1, I point about a foot to the left of the left-front edge of the trap house (seeing a little gap between the house and your bead), and my bead is about level with the top-front of the house. If you shoot one eye closed, keep your starting point even lower, maybe a foot below the top of the house. But DON'T LOOK there! Its hard to describe, but your eyes, just before you call for the target, should not be focused on anything, and but should be looking about a foot above your bead, and about 10 yards out in front of the house. This is called "soft focus." This allows you to see the bird's direction, without seeing it as a "flash of orange." If you focus right at the corner of the house, you're going to see this flash of orange as the target emerges, and your brain will think "oh, sh!t I gotta hurry!" (this is generally true at all stations, btw.) Soft focus allows you to make a smooth, controlled move, instead of jerking and rushing to the target. Follow through! Make sure, after you pull the trigger, that you keep moving that gun, as though you're going to shoot at the target, or a piece of the target, again. You can practice this by forcing yourself to follow a big piece of the broken target all the way to the ground (or the whole thing if you miss.) This practice will also help prevent picking up your head. Picking up your head is another common problem. A SxS offers a few challenges. Lighter, yes. Flatter shooting (trap guns should shoot a little high) so you have to cover the target on straight-aways. The big thing is they block so much of your vision. Possibly, what is happening is your brain, when it loses sight of the target, thinks, "I gotta shoot now!" And you pull the trigger. This is the advantage to a high shooting gun with a tall rib. That is, you never lose sight of the target when you are swinging through it. Good luck. I love SxS guns. Just don't like shooting trap with them. Hope I didn't go overboard with my answer. Tim

Skeet is fun. Harder to learn than trap, but in my mind, easier to "master." That's a pretty good round with a pump gun. "Back in the day" a Winchester Model 12 was the gun of choice. But try Olympic skeet. Its like skeet on crack. Same field, but with the following modification: Targets are faster. You must use 24 gram loads (a little less than 7/8 ounces, but no limit on muzzle velocity, usually 1350-ish.) You must start with low (unmounted) gun. Toe of your stock at your hip. When you call for the target, there is a random, 0 to 3 second delay before the target comes out. You CAN'T move or mount the gun until the target comes out. You shoot a high house single and a double shooting the high house target first at stations 1, 2, and 3. At middle station 4, you shoot 6 targets. A high house single, a low house single, a double shooting the high house target first, and a double shooting the low house target first. You shoot a low house single and a double shooting the low house target first at stations 5 and 6. You shoot only a double shooting the low house target first at station 7. You still have to shoot station 8, low gun, random delay. Its tough.

Great idea to do so, and the club where I am a member back home is greeat for this, because often, I'm the only person shooting there. Make sure the range you are at allows such shooting. I would agree, however, that for anything beyond about 50 yards, shooting standing, off-hand, is a bad choice, unless you practice it a LOT, and are 100% confident in your ability to place a shot like that. When I hunt, I look for anything, a tree, a fence post, anything I can use to steady my shot.

Hee hee...Its summer time, sunny and about 80 here in Johannesburg.

mtdeerslayer, There are indeed a lot of misconceptions about extended and ported chokes. Here's my opinion: Extended chokes do not necessarily improve patterns over flush chokes. The do look cooler. And they're easier to unthread. Ported chokes can, at the very best, reduce recoil by about 3%. Its easy to calculate if you look into the accepted recoil formulas out there. Ported chokes, if the ports are all around the circumference of the choke tube extension, cannot, according to the laws of physics, reduce muzzle rise. Many people think tight full chokes make your shot string long. Others believe tight chokes actually makes the shot string shorter. Bottom line, it doesn't matter even a little bit. Slowing down the wad? I have heard this claim before, but I have my doubts as to any truth or benefit to that. The wad is usually completely separated from the shot within about the first 10 feet of the muzzle. But I agree with GTPSC, it is important to pattern your chokes. But just looking at them tells you nothing. Check into the computer program "Shotgun Insight" by Dr. Andrew Jones. This will tell you what your patterns are doing. And that's the only important thing. For what its worth...

"...but alot of people swear by extended or ported chokes..." The only thing extended or ported chokes do better than flush chokes is that they are easier to unthread with your fingers. Other than that...its all sales hype. Only ONE way to tell if your chokes make the grade. Pattern the gun, and use a computer program like Shotgun Insight (http://www.shotgun-insight.com/) to analyze the patterns. Anything else is just guesswork.

Agree with jones. You will not like a pistol grip for wing shooting. At all.

OK, my opinion. You can't "look" at a few patterns and decide its good or bad. To do this right, you really need to use a pattern analysis program like "Shotgun Insight." And you need a minimum of 10 shots on paper, at the distance you really think you'll be taking game. http://www.shotgun-insight.com/ It will tell you whether you are looking at a really bad patterning gun or choke, or one pattern that is bad out of 10. But before you go to this trouble, are you already hunting with it, and are you bagging birds?

Brush cutter pants or a pair of chaps as noted above. A coat and hunting vest that does not inhibit your ability to mount your gun. Lots of orange. Vest, hat, coat. You want to be seen by your fellow hunters. In States where upland game is popular, "hunter shot while another hunter was swinging on game" is a common hunting accident. Some sort of eye protection, if you don't normally wear glasses. Good gloves that afford some protection against the cold, while also allowing good grip on your gun, and ability to get your finger on the trigger. Make sure the gloves will do all this when they are wet, too. And before you go, get out and shoot some trap practice so you can hit those birds when you get an opportunity! And remember all those things you learned in Hunter Ed! Do all the "do" things and don't do any of the "don't do" things.

Define, "not patterning well." Is it not hitting your point of aim? Or do you think the patterns don't look good, and if so, what are you basing that on?