Dove season opens up this Wednesday for us and many other states. Wanted to know who has plans?

We have a group of us hunting opening morning at a pretty sweet setup on our ranch. There is a large pan flanked by two dirt tanks with a line of trees for roosting at one end. Went out last week to check it out, it was flooded with birds. Will report how the shoot goes.

Hope that everyone has a great opener.

Not us......they're protected 'round these parts.

The doves here did what they do every year. At first light, about sixty would rise from the grasses down the valley from us and perch themselves en-mass in a couple of old treetops, fly off after an hour, and return to the trees at dusk. We had hundreds flying by every day in flocks of one to three dozen or so. I could have sat outside for an hour in the morning or an hour in the evening and shot my limit. Then last week they left. Season starts on the 1st but all we see now is an occasional straggler or two. Happens every year.

We'll try them Wednesday afternoon in West Texas. You never know what you're going to find until the first day has come and gone. Great summer for nesting with ample rainfall, few storms, etc., but sometimes the birds just aren't there. Keeping our finger's crossed and our 28 gauge loaded.

Today was hot; 91 degrees and once the wind stopped around 5pm, the humidity soared. Took my limit of 15 in two hours but it took 32 shots...lol. Had to borrow a gun but at least it was a Beretta.
LDK

They are thick down here in Texas. My buds mopped up this morning.

But I am not down there with them as I am still stuck in town. But soon. Very soon.

Here in Pennsylvania, the first month is only afternoon shooting.

Yesterday was 98 degrees, and nothing was flying. I kicked some fields that five weeks ago were full of doves, now nothing.

Today is another day.

Good luck.

Sincerely,

Chris Bemis

quote:

Originally posted by Sevenxbjt:

We have a group of us hunting opening morning at a pretty sweet setup on our ranch.

Funny that they're called morning doves, yet here in PA like Yale said, we're not allowed to start shooting at them until noon when the morning is officially over.

96 degrees here and nothing flying either. Plus, no silage corn has been harvested in my neck of the woods which always draws in the doves. I think they're just sitting on the walnut tree branches cooling themselves now. I hope things pick up soon, the temp drops to something more seasonal, as I'm itching to bag a few with my 16ga Rizzini. Dove stew, yummm!

Arizona,means one thing for sure Doves. It is easy to shoot a limit every time you go afield, if you do your scouting. Our limit is 10, and I have hunted 2 days and shot 20 for 31, with my 20 gauge. This morning 9/2, one of the guys wives, was done in 15 minutes with a 28 gauge.

This is the place to dove hunt,quail too! I hope some of you guys will give it a try.

Jerry

We also limited in under 2 hours. The dogs loved it. They were so excited when I starting putting on my camo. They were so happy to do all the retrieving for us.
Tomorrow, they get to do it again.

9-3 Another day in the field here in Arizona, another limit! Big feed tomorrow, we'll eat 50-60.

Have a good one

Jerry

quote:

Funny that they're called morning doves, yet here in PA like Yale said, we're not allowed to start shooting at them until noon when the morning is officially over.

They may be called morning doves in PA (and it's a common mistake, hell I was in college before I knew that "bob war" was actually spelled "barbed wire" ), but their real common name is "mourning" because of the sound of their calls.

Went out again tonight. Myself and one buddy each shot a limit between 5 and 645. May go back again in morning.

Wanna hear the dove story of the day?

Last year we had sunflower and a great hunt. This year we decide to go it one better and do corn, in the hopes of doves first, then deer and if lucky even geese.

Well, the farmer plants the corn and makes one of the best stands of corn I've seen in a while considering how dry and hot the Summer. But we discover a week before the season it's not been cut. So we get busy and borrow a tractor and bush-hog down a bunch of it ourselves and go out there opening day.

And along comes guess who? The farmer. And he's really not very happy at what he sees.

Turns out to be a classic case of what somebody or other was talking about when he says, "what we got here is a failure to communicate".

We thought the farmer clearly understood the crop was to be cut and left to hunt over. The farmer on the other hand thinks this is HIS crop to be harvested and sold, all of it. That's why he didn't bother to cut any. What's more he's bringing in his equipment to cut the whole thing on Labor Day. We were planning on a big shoot then too.

To complete this picture, it turns out there were no doves anyway. Rumor has it they were heavy in this area of W. Tenn. two weeks ago, then packed up and left. Not even the few usual odd doves that hang around the place are present. Nothing. Zero.

We resisted the temptation (probably wisely) to joke with the farmer about it. "You mean YOU didn't cut this..we were wondering who did it". Or, "no question about it...it's crop circles...it was them aliens for sure.."

Anyways, you can bet next year's crop is going to be something the farmer's not interested in..

Took about 20 minutes opening day to take my 15 bird limit. I have rarely shot as well. Our group has had some great hunts this year and my lab and GSP are getting plenty on retrieving work.

Perry

I would love to hunt there Perry someday i want to see your hunting traditions.

Limit (15) this afternoon.

Today was the next-to-last day of our first season, and I had been watching this field hoping the birds would find it and I could invite a dozen or so shooters. With the cooler weather this week, the birds headed south but I decided to give it a try by myself. I figured I might get a shot or two, but never imagined I'd shoot a limit. Now to find a place for tomorrow.

Update in Pennsylvania from the last weekend of Saturday, the 25th. Shot at a couple of stragglers, but now nothing as of the last day on September 28th.

This was the weirdest season that I can remember. Too hot, and no birds, not just a dearth of mourning doves, but no starlings, blackbirds, etc. It will reopen on October 28th, and hopefully a few more doves will show up.

This summer, they were on my back window sill, and building nests in our house and garage gutters. They were everywhere, and then one week before the season opened, all gone.

Sincerely,

Chris Bemis