One thing I love about dove season is that it's a time for me to use shotguns that I don't otherwise use.

For duck hunting, I use a Browning Cynergy Waterfowl model or a Remington V3. Neither strike me as appropriate for a dove field, which calls for more traditional upland field guns.

The first one that comes to mind is my Winchester Model Super X1. Made in 1974, it is the forerunner to Winchester's Super X line that is now in its fourth incarnation. Though the X1 is still considered the finest autoloader ever made, it was doomed from the start. Milled from solid steel billets, it is heavy, but more importantly, it was made only with a 2 3/4-inch chamber at a time when hunters wanted 3-inch chambers. It also had fixed choke bores, and the choke was usually full.

All of those things mak

See Full Page