doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Dove hunts in North Alabama

I didn't think you were being smart. But the root of it is top sown wheat. And it was incidents like the Youth Hunts stated that inject inconsistency.

"Last year, a difference of opinion on the legality of hunting over top-sown wheat between a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Agent and the WFF Division caused two youth dove hunts to be canceled.

To ensure the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources had a correct interpretation of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife (USFWS) regulations, WFF Director Corky Pugh asked Fish and Wildlife for a clarification of the regulations regarding �intent.�

�The regulations have not changed,� Pugh said after receiving the reply from USFWS officials. �If a field is planted according to the Cooperative Extension System guidelines, the determination of �intent� is not relevant.�"

This same interpretation/individual camped out up here for a while. I wouldn't bush-hog any field unless I had a pre-approved plan or obtained pre-approval prior to opening day.

Kind Regards,

Raimey
rse

I may be misunderstanding this, Raimey, but how does bush hogging a drought ravaged corn field have anything to do with top sowing another crop like wheat?

I am well aware that top sowing is not an approved agricultural practice, in the game departments' eyes, having lived through that loophole in Georgia during the 1980's, but mowing down an unharvested, drought ravaged corn crop is absolutely an approved agricultural practice. It is common to do so, in order to do a better job of discing it or in order to no-till plant it next year. There is a huge difference between running up and down a field on a four-wheeler knocking off ears, and mowing it all down with a stalk chopper or mower. The Feds will not bother you on that, and they typically are harder to deal with than local wardens.

I farm for a living, and have planted, manipulated, and otherwise shot over crop fields all my life. I can even intentionally adjust my combine to leave more than usual on the ground and shoot over it legally. What I cannot do is take a crop out of the field (corn, peanuts, wheat, etc.) and then reintroduce it to the field. This constitutes baiting.

You may well have a game warden, or wardens, that are being overly strict in regards to this, but I cannot imagine Alabama's laws are any different from Georgia's on this, since doves are considered a migratory bird, and subject to federal regulations.

SRH

Stan, I didn't like stepping on Raimey's take on the Alabama dove rules, but I think I understand the "new" regulations on dove baitin' to open the door the practically any manipulation of a crop in the field so long as nothing is removed from the field in which it is grown. I understand his position that he has seen some enforcement on a local level which was of of bounds to the law.

One thing I have noticed the last couple of years under the new regs is that those who have purposely manipulated crops for doves have hit on the strategy of "strip planting" herbicide ready corn and sunflowers, then killing off the weeds with roundup or other herbicides. The herbicide leaves the crops weed free; the crops look like they're growing out of concrete. No snakes and birds easy to find. As the season comes on the corn is cut a few rows at a time with a silage cutter and blown into the ripe but unharvested sunflowers. The ground is bare but the sunflowers are left standing for cover.

This is the best set up for dove I have ever seen.* Are you doing this?...Geo

PS: *Actually this is the best strategy I have seen short of spin spreading three-way scratch into a pine clearcut. Possibly the regs have become a little too lax for the good of the resource...Geo

I may be wrong, but it is my understanding that you can plant anything for doves: corn, millet, milo, sunflowers, etc. and then bush hog it, disc it, burn it whatever. As long as you do not remove it from the field and redistribute it later. Adding anything not grown there, be it wheat, sunflowers, corn, rock salt etc. is a different story. I may be wrong, but I don't think so!

That's right, Tyler. Re-introducing it to the field is the killer, is considered baiting, and well should be, IMO. It is absolutely not necessary.

George, I used to strip plant like that, but finally quit in favor of 100% sunflowers. There is Round-up Ready corn, of course, which can be oversprayed with glyphosate, but there never has been a Round-up ready version of sunflowers. What there is, is Clearfield sunflower seed, which can be sprayed with Cadre, primarily a broadleaf herbicide. Our pigweed had gotten resistant to Cadre, but I found a "new" herbicide that is the best stuff I have ever found for sunflowers. It is called Spartan, and MUST be sprayed pre-emergence, or before the sunflowers emerge after planting.

I have the cleanest field I have ever had, this year, due to trifluralin incorporated prior to planting, and Spartan pre-emergence. As you know, one of the keys to having a field attractive to doves is the ground under the crop being clean and bare. I'll take some pictures this afternoon and you can see what I mean.

I'm off to shoot a field near Louisville. We draw stands at about 6:30 a.m., so I'd better get crackin'. John Roberts and son Ross will arrive here late morning to shoot with me this afternoon. Gonna be big fun today!!

SRH

Well, if you can't find a shoot, opening day of dove season is the very best day of the year to go down to the river and telephone fish. All the game wardens are looking for baited fields. [just kidding]