Photo by Ron Sinfelt.

Here’s an oxymoron for you: “well-planned dove shoot.” Made me chuckle just now when I wrote it.

Don’t take that the wrong way. Every summer, hunters spend more time than many of them will care to admit planning dove shoots. Opening day of dove season has become a wonderfully fun social event just about everywhere.

But many things can turn a “well-planned dove shoot” into something far less rewarding than was intended. It happens quickly, and usually, it isn’t anybody’s fault.

The funny thing is that, in my experience, the puzzle of putting things together doesn’t really get more difficult if you add or subtract hunters. Larger groups only mean more places for the same things to go wrong.

What can go wrong? How can you fix it? Can you fix it on the fly? Can you salvage a productive dove shoot that’s started turning into chapter and verse from Murphy’s Law?

You can indeed -- and that’s what this story is all about.

You can control most of the elements that will make or break a dove shoot -- where you set up, how you conceal yourself, how you shoot, what you shoot, and so on. You can’t however, control where the doves are going to fly -- or why -- on a given day. So forget about that. Concentrate on what you can control, and do the best job possible on those things.

Let’s work backwards and talk about your shooting first. Any practice you can get before the season opens will help, but the kind of practice designed to make you a better dove shooter will make a bigger difference than you think.

What exactly is “practice designed to make you a better dove shooter?” Something involving overhead incoming and passing shots, and passing shots at distances of 20, 30 and 40 yards. If there’s any way that you can practice taking those sorts of shots at clay targets, your shooting will improve, as will your ability to judge distances.

Some shooters will disagree with this, but I believe it to be true that every wingshooter attempts shots at distances longer than he believes. Knowing what targets look like at the very edge of effective shotgun range is going to help you make better decisions about when to shoot, and those decisions will help you become a better shot.

You also should take the time to pattern your shotgun at 20, 30 and 40 yards with the loads you intend to use. If your smoothbore has interchangeable chokes (most modern guns do), take the time to pattern using at least the improved cylinder and modified tubes. If you own a skeet tube, try that one too.

Knowing how your shotgun patterns with the load and choke you intend to use at the distances you intend to shoot is critical information when it comes to being a better shot. It’s also critical to being a better dove hunter for a reason you might not consider too often.

Birds get “educated” when we miss them. One reason for dove shoots going bad, especially after the season has been open a while, involves just that kind of education. The better you shoot, the less you miss. The less you miss, the fewer doves you educate.

That education also occurs as it relates to a couple of other things you can control: movement and concealment. One element of a dove shoot that I personally find very intense and challenging is the constant searching for birds flying just under the treeline, which sometimes makes them very difficult to pick out. Seeing them, and waiting on them until I know they’re in good shooting range -- that’s fun for this dove shooter.

It’s also important when it comes to not educating them. It goes along with improving your shooting; as noted, the fewer birds you miss, the fewer birds you educate.

When it comes to concealment, we all should be pleased as punch with the new high-tech style of lightweight, moisture-wicking camo clothing. When I started hunting doves many years ago, that kind of camo didn’t exist. As a result, my outings got sweaty and miserable in a hurry after the sun rose above the treeline, because the opening days of the season can be so hot and humid.

I didn’t wear short sleeves; I covered up. I wore a headnet. And I still do those things, because concealment is very important when you’re trying to pass-shoot doves and want a chance to take shots close to you.