[Greeklawyer]

does it have to be a wooden dowel or can empty shells be used to keep to the two live shell limit?

[VRWCmember]

I doubt that empty shells would work. The warden will check the gun when it is empty (so the empty shells would be removed) by pushing a plunger up into the loading tube. This indicates how many shells can be loaded by how far the plunger can be pushed into the tube. The dowel is actually placed in the tube behind the plug that pushes the shells into the chamber.

[Woodman]

It doesn't need to be wooden; however it does need to be between the stopper and the spring,(require disassembly to remove) so the dud shells won't count.

I used to do quite a bit of waterfowl hunting and I had a very good Lab. Every time I went out to our blind or Goose pit the first thing I would do is send the dog out to retrieve. 9 out of 10 times he would bring back at least two live birds that were wounded. The reason that you can't trust most waterfowl hunters to have more than 3 shots is that they will take them and wing a bird without killing it. When the bird is flying at 50-70 mph by the time you take a 4th shot it is well outside the 40 yard kill range. In fact most third shots are outside that range as well.