Why You're Missing Doves with Jerry Tkac, Owner of The Shooter's Corner (Replayed September 6, 2025)
September 13, 2025 • 10 mins
Replayed on September 6th, 2025. Doug's insightful interview with Jerry Tkac, for your listening pleasure.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, welcome back, thanks for listening. Doug Pike Shaw
on Sports Talk seven. As promised, I've got one of
the coolest people I've ever met in my whole life
on the phone right now, and that's Jerry TK.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
I'm gonna get him on the phone. Jerry TK. What's
going on? Man?
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Oh oh, nothing much, Doug. Sitting down here in South
Texas watching these birds fly over.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
So what county are you? What counties you're wrenching?
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Yeah? Do all? Oh?
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Okay, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
That's a nice country right there, man, Holy cow, right
in the middle of it all, far enough away from
the river to not have to have too many worries,
I guess.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Huh no, No, the New Aces is a little a
little bit north of us here, but we got we're
about ten miles north of Freer. Yeah, okay, fifty nine.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Oh, I know exactly where you are, man. Sounds like
a pretty place. So here's what I want to do.
So let's talk about dove hunting.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
I would you know you're going to be planning some
dove hunts, you know, especially if you're coming out of
the Houston area going south or north or which direction
you're going go Dublin and I see it time and
time again. People take off, they go spend a bunch
of money, they go off duv hunting, and then their
gun get out there in the field and their old
(01:21):
trusty shotgun doesn't work. Yeah, they're out there. And my
advice to people, get that gun, get it cleaned up,
you know, either take it to your gun smith or something.
Get it checked out, especially on those old Remington eleven
hundreds where those old rings go go bad. But you
(01:42):
need to be prepared because it's uh if you you know,
if you have a trip plan and you spend a
bunch of money getting to the place you're going and
your firearm doesn't work, and it's it's all or not,
and just get that thing checked out. And you know
(02:03):
another thing is shoot good good shells.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Amen, that's on my list. Here, go ahead, preach preacher.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Yeah. Too many times people they you know, they shot,
you know, and I know it's a shotgun. Shells have
gone up and since COVID and everything, but buy good shells. Yeah,
you know good. The best brand that I find is Reels. Yeah,
they they're popular and they are one of the best
(02:34):
shotgun shells you can you can find it.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Jerry, talk a little bit about antimony, because I bet
seven out of ten people listening right now don't even
know what that is and what it does for lead pellets.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
It's animony. Is a is a metal. It's a it's
a metal that's used to put into the lead to
harden it. Right. You know, if you shotgun shells, some
are just nothing but purely it. Okay, good shotgun shells
(03:07):
have between three and five percent animony. Now your target
loads more have they carry more of the five percent animony,
but they don't want less deformation and most hunting, good
hunting loads, they got three percent, and that's keep the
shot from deformation and gives you a good pattern, you know,
(03:29):
and take that old shotgun out and pattern it.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
I'm talking about that.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
You take your deer right out inside it in but
take that old smoke wagon out and try that pattern
that shotgun. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
I talked to ed Riggi about that and found out
that they have I think at twenty five yards down
like from five yards out to six hundred, but at
twenty five there's a place where you can just go
up there and strap up a piece of butcher paper
and see how many holes you can put in it
and I can't impress. And I know you'll agree with
how smart that is to just go see what your
(04:03):
shotgun shoots like with the different choke tubes in it.
And you can't really check different ranges there, but you
can see at twenty you know, twenty five, I think
it is. You can see the difference very clearly, see
the difference in.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
Patterns, right, and and be prepared sometimes when you go
the hunt, if you're hunting over a water source like
a pond late and eating it early in the morning,
you know, you lead a little more open, you know,
go with either an improved celder.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Or solder and spram out everywhere.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Here there was a place when I was when I
was waterfowl guiding and dove guiding out there in Katie.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
There was a place that we found.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
It was really close to town to had those giant
high lines where the you know, the main transmission lines
of the big tall towers, and they were these birds
were flying to and from roost and feed about ten
yards even higher than those And Old Eric Hilton and
I got out there full choked and and leading these
(05:06):
birds about the length of a school bus and knocking
them down. It was hilarious. Man, we had so much fun.
That was that's some tough shooting.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Man. Yeah, that's uh, that's to me, you know, that's
the lot. That's the best part of duv hunting. I like,
is that pass shooting at those flocks like that?
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Oh yeah, man.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
And so I think it's going to be a banner
year this year on dove So.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
That's what part yeah, PARTI and wallet departments. So we've
got like a record number of white wings. Their word
was excellent as far as predicting what the season would be.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
So uh yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
And now that that being said, you can still be
one fence line from where excellent meets nothing.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
It just happens. That's way.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
That's kind of like fishing that way, but overall pretty
good looking. What what is your when when you dove
hunt anymore?
Speaker 2 (05:58):
What gun do you pull? What game do you pull?
And what what shot load do you put in there?
Speaker 3 (06:05):
Well? I shoot an over under, I shoot a browning
over and under, okay, and uh generally I'll just shoot
you know, improved cylinder or or cylinder right and until
if I see them flying high and then I'll change
out to a modified Yeah, and I like, I like
those real Super Game seven and a half Arson eighth shots,
(06:30):
and they're running twelve eighty twelve hundred and eighty feet
a second. If you get much over that, you get
you'll start getting your shoulder beat up pretty good. You know.
That's a good point for over under, for shooting over Now,
if you're shooting a semi auto, yeah, in a Burretta
or Bonelli, you know, it's not as bad. You can
(06:50):
you can get by that. But and that's another thing.
Some of these semi autos on these uh low powered
double low powered shotgun shells.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Oh wow, nope, Yeah, there's.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Nothing and there's nothing you can do in the field
about that.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
If you've got you've.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Got shells that won't kick that kick that hole out,
then you're just stuck.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
You might as well just bring a sling shot.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
You know. Yeah, I mean we see this time again.
Man might come in there, My shotgun won't cycle. What
load you shoot? Well, there're you know one ounce uh.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
These seven eight seven al.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
Yeah, and uh, well you've gotten shoot a little heavier load,
a little better shotguns. Yeah yeah, And it makes sense
because you don't you know, you don't want to come
out here and burn up a box for two birds.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Yeah, you know, isn't that the truth?
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Hey, I got a question off of shotguns for a second,
just because I know you got more experience than I.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Do, even hunting doves. Camo? How important is camo?
Speaker 1 (07:52):
And is is camo more important than just being still
when doves are flying?
Speaker 3 (07:59):
It's both you need to be camos and being steeled.
You know, too many times to see people just standing out,
you know, but you know, standing out in the middle
of the field. Oh yeah, and that's you know, that
may work on early seasons, right, but when you as
you see goes in, those birds get smart. Now.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Yeah, but day two they figured it out after day one. Uh,
we watched that every year that the birds. The first morning,
the birds are flying three feet off the ground, just
right over the goat weeds, just just high enough not
to bump their bottoms on it, you know. And then
by the second day they're they're up twenty five thirty
yards they know.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
Right, you know, And that's something too. You know, you
get food sources that they that's what Instead of planning,
I went through it all, planning all kinds of exotic seas.
I just went and bought bought dow weed seeds from
a place up in brown Wood. Yeah, and only came up. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
That's incredible, man, you only con it.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
It's a natural you know, it's just natural feed.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Yeah, that's that they're they're looking for that anyway, and
you just handed to them on a silver platter. What hey,
I want to do this again before Rifle season two
to talk a little bit about calibers and some of
the boutique calibers and whether you like that and whatnot.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
So I'm going to tee you up.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
Give me all all right, Jerry, and well, good talking
to you, Yes, sir, man questions call sir, and good
luck to all these hunters out there. And uh, I
hope they can fill their bags full.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
How many boxes?
Speaker 1 (09:43):
How many cases of Rio seven and a half you
got in the store right now?
Speaker 3 (09:49):
I've got a truckload any other day.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
A couple of pallets, oh lord, it's so yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
I've probably shot a few pallets of shells in my time,
but to to think about truckloads of shells, that's pretty impressive.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Man.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
That's good though, because everybody who wants them is going
to get them, and they always do. From you Jerry,
thank you so much for your team man. Yes, sir,
that's Jerry TK from down there at Shooter's Corner. One
of the nicest guys, one of the most patient guys,
and he just if you ever want to have a
good conversation about any kind of honey, about any kind
(10:28):
of gun related issue, just get him on the phone
or get down there to the store and you'll learn
as much or more in two minutes as you knew
when you got there.
All right, welcome back, thanks for listening. Doug Pike Shaw
on Sports Talk seven. As promised, I've got one of
the coolest people I've ever met in my whole life
on the phone right now, and that's Jerry TK.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
I'm gonna get him on the phone. Jerry TK. What's
going on? Man?
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Oh oh, nothing much, Doug. Sitting down here in South
Texas watching these birds fly over.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
So what county are you? What counties you're wrenching?
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Yeah? Do all? Oh?
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Okay, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
That's a nice country right there, man, Holy cow, right
in the middle of it all, far enough away from
the river to not have to have too many worries,
I guess.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Huh no, No, the New Aces is a little a
little bit north of us here, but we got we're
about ten miles north of Freer. Yeah, okay, fifty nine.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Oh, I know exactly where you are, man. Sounds like
a pretty place. So here's what I want to do.
So let's talk about dove hunting.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
I would you know you're going to be planning some
dove hunts, you know, especially if you're coming out of
the Houston area going south or north or which direction
you're going go Dublin and I see it time and
time again. People take off, they go spend a bunch
of money, they go off duv hunting, and then their
gun get out there in the field and their old
(01:21):
trusty shotgun doesn't work. Yeah, they're out there. And my
advice to people, get that gun, get it cleaned up,
you know, either take it to your gun smith or something.
Get it checked out, especially on those old Remington eleven
hundreds where those old rings go go bad. But you
(01:42):
need to be prepared because it's uh if you you know,
if you have a trip plan and you spend a
bunch of money getting to the place you're going and
your firearm doesn't work, and it's it's all or not,
and just get that thing checked out. And you know
(02:03):
another thing is shoot good good shells.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Amen, that's on my list. Here, go ahead, preach preacher.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Yeah. Too many times people they you know, they shot,
you know, and I know it's a shotgun. Shells have
gone up and since COVID and everything, but buy good shells. Yeah,
you know good. The best brand that I find is Reels. Yeah,
they they're popular and they are one of the best
(02:34):
shotgun shells you can you can find it.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Jerry, talk a little bit about antimony, because I bet
seven out of ten people listening right now don't even
know what that is and what it does for lead pellets.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
It's animony. Is a is a metal. It's a it's
a metal that's used to put into the lead to
harden it. Right. You know, if you shotgun shells, some
are just nothing but purely it. Okay, good shotgun shells
(03:07):
have between three and five percent animony. Now your target
loads more have they carry more of the five percent animony,
but they don't want less deformation and most hunting, good
hunting loads, they got three percent, and that's keep the
shot from deformation and gives you a good pattern, you know,
(03:29):
and take that old shotgun out and pattern it.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
I'm talking about that.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
You take your deer right out inside it in but
take that old smoke wagon out and try that pattern
that shotgun. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
I talked to ed Riggi about that and found out
that they have I think at twenty five yards down
like from five yards out to six hundred, but at
twenty five there's a place where you can just go
up there and strap up a piece of butcher paper
and see how many holes you can put in it
and I can't impress. And I know you'll agree with
how smart that is to just go see what your
(04:03):
shotgun shoots like with the different choke tubes in it.
And you can't really check different ranges there, but you
can see at twenty you know, twenty five, I think
it is. You can see the difference very clearly, see
the difference in.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
Patterns, right, and and be prepared sometimes when you go
the hunt, if you're hunting over a water source like
a pond late and eating it early in the morning,
you know, you lead a little more open, you know,
go with either an improved celder.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Or solder and spram out everywhere.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Here there was a place when I was when I
was waterfowl guiding and dove guiding out there in Katie.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
There was a place that we found.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
It was really close to town to had those giant
high lines where the you know, the main transmission lines
of the big tall towers, and they were these birds
were flying to and from roost and feed about ten
yards even higher than those And Old Eric Hilton and
I got out there full choked and and leading these
(05:06):
birds about the length of a school bus and knocking
them down. It was hilarious. Man, we had so much fun.
That was that's some tough shooting.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Man. Yeah, that's uh, that's to me, you know, that's
the lot. That's the best part of duv hunting. I like,
is that pass shooting at those flocks like that?
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Oh yeah, man.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
And so I think it's going to be a banner
year this year on dove So.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
That's what part yeah, PARTI and wallet departments. So we've
got like a record number of white wings. Their word
was excellent as far as predicting what the season would be.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
So uh yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
And now that that being said, you can still be
one fence line from where excellent meets nothing.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
It just happens. That's way.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
That's kind of like fishing that way, but overall pretty
good looking. What what is your when when you dove
hunt anymore?
Speaker 2 (05:58):
What gun do you pull? What game do you pull?
And what what shot load do you put in there?
Speaker 3 (06:05):
Well? I shoot an over under, I shoot a browning
over and under, okay, and uh generally I'll just shoot
you know, improved cylinder or or cylinder right and until
if I see them flying high and then I'll change
out to a modified Yeah, and I like, I like
those real Super Game seven and a half Arson eighth shots,
(06:30):
and they're running twelve eighty twelve hundred and eighty feet
a second. If you get much over that, you get
you'll start getting your shoulder beat up pretty good. You know.
That's a good point for over under, for shooting over Now,
if you're shooting a semi auto, yeah, in a Burretta
or Bonelli, you know, it's not as bad. You can
(06:50):
you can get by that. But and that's another thing.
Some of these semi autos on these uh low powered
double low powered shotgun shells.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Oh wow, nope, Yeah, there's.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Nothing and there's nothing you can do in the field
about that.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
If you've got you've.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Got shells that won't kick that kick that hole out,
then you're just stuck.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
You might as well just bring a sling shot.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
You know. Yeah, I mean we see this time again.
Man might come in there, My shotgun won't cycle. What
load you shoot? Well, there're you know one ounce uh.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
These seven eight seven al.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
Yeah, and uh, well you've gotten shoot a little heavier load,
a little better shotguns. Yeah yeah, And it makes sense
because you don't you know, you don't want to come
out here and burn up a box for two birds.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Yeah, you know, isn't that the truth?
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Hey, I got a question off of shotguns for a second,
just because I know you got more experience than I.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Do, even hunting doves. Camo? How important is camo?
Speaker 1 (07:52):
And is is camo more important than just being still
when doves are flying?
Speaker 3 (07:59):
It's both you need to be camos and being steeled.
You know, too many times to see people just standing out,
you know, but you know, standing out in the middle
of the field. Oh yeah, and that's you know, that
may work on early seasons, right, but when you as
you see goes in, those birds get smart. Now.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Yeah, but day two they figured it out after day one. Uh,
we watched that every year that the birds. The first morning,
the birds are flying three feet off the ground, just
right over the goat weeds, just just high enough not
to bump their bottoms on it, you know. And then
by the second day they're they're up twenty five thirty
yards they know.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
Right, you know, And that's something too. You know, you
get food sources that they that's what Instead of planning,
I went through it all, planning all kinds of exotic seas.
I just went and bought bought dow weed seeds from
a place up in brown Wood. Yeah, and only came up. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
That's incredible, man, you only con it.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
It's a natural you know, it's just natural feed.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Yeah, that's that they're they're looking for that anyway, and
you just handed to them on a silver platter. What hey,
I want to do this again before Rifle season two
to talk a little bit about calibers and some of
the boutique calibers and whether you like that and whatnot.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
So I'm going to tee you up.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
Give me all all right, Jerry, and well, good talking
to you, Yes, sir, man questions call sir, and good
luck to all these hunters out there. And uh, I
hope they can fill their bags full.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
How many boxes?
Speaker 1 (09:43):
How many cases of Rio seven and a half you
got in the store right now?
Speaker 3 (09:49):
I've got a truckload any other day.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
A couple of pallets, oh lord, it's so yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
I've probably shot a few pallets of shells in my time,
but to to think about truckloads of shells, that's pretty impressive.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Man.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
That's good though, because everybody who wants them is going
to get them, and they always do. From you Jerry,
thank you so much for your team man. Yes, sir,
that's Jerry TK from down there at Shooter's Corner. One
of the nicest guys, one of the most patient guys,
and he just if you ever want to have a
good conversation about any kind of honey, about any kind
(10:28):
of gun related issue, just get him on the phone
or get down there to the store and you'll learn
as much or more in two minutes as you knew
when you got there.
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