first dove season - your opinion

MSDuckmen · Postby **MSDuckmen** » Mon Sep 24, 2001 11:33 pm

Dove were great on our fields this year. Just limit way to soon for me. Drive two hours get your limit in 30 min and drive two hours home. Done it 8 times already this season and the migratory birds have not even arrived yet.

Think it has alot to do with the way you prepare your fields. They looked like black birds the first few times we hunted and slowed down to just a few hundred in the afternoons now. As the second and third season come into play we should have the big boys coming in strong. This makes for a wonderful afternoon hunt after a morning of wacking ducks.

Sambo · Postby **Sambo** » Mon Sep 24, 2001 11:53 pm

I have had some good (not great) hunts this season. The few times I went, I went at sunrise though. I have to admit though, it was hard to get up early for doves.

MSDuckmen · Postby **MSDuckmen** » Tue Sep 25, 2001 6:26 am

JETDUCK
That is not hard at all if you walk straight to the bird after you shoot him down. and most of us have a dog. But even those without a dog will usually mark the spot and walk to it first thing. Yes we do lose some but you will regardless of where you hunt. The millet is easier to locate the birds in than the Sunflowers because they don't blend as well in the millet and sometimes in the sunflowers you'll walk right over them.
The hunts we have are like most peoples opening dove shoot. We manage the birds with crops and by doing this we have learned how to take the game with minimal lose of birds.
I will tell you this we have guest that come out and they will shoot at mutiple birds and fuss cause they are having a hard time locating them. We simple tell them the same thing I just told you. Walk straight to the bird and leave the doubles alone. There will be plenty more.

gwall · Postby **gwall** » Tue Sep 25, 2001 6:38 pm

thanks for the info duckmen - by the way do you know what that little black round seed is that you find in a doves craw sometimes - is that goatweed? they love it whatever it is

MSDuckmen · Postby **MSDuckmen** » Tue Sep 25, 2001 7:58 pm

Yeah Gwall,
We call that seed rag weed seed, If you walk along the edge of the road you will find a short prickley plant only about 4 inches tall covered with that seed. I think that is where they are getting most of those seeds while the are picking up road gravel.

Blackduck · Postby **Blackduck** » Tue Sep 25, 2001 8:56 pm

That is a pretty fancy picture.