doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Winter doves, anybody seen any?

Well dove season is back in swing here in NC. I have two farms I hunt on and both with late cut corn. Also a huge field of soy beans. The two corn fields have doves. But they are in flocks and when they come they come all at once and leave. Shooting is fast for a couple of minutes and then nothing.
No doves on the soybean field and don't understand why they don't like them as quail sure do.
My decoys seem to work this late season.
I have heard NC is getting feedback from hunters on Sunday dove hunting. Sure hope that passes.

I've seen a bunch here in PA even with the snow. As you said, they're flocked up. We can't hunt them here until after Christmas if I'm not mistaken. All the doves I've seen have been in standing or cut corn fields.

They're beginning to hit our peanut fields pretty good down here. We will be shooting them pretty heavy from just after CHRISTmas until the season goes out on Jan. 15. We have a large population of native doves but, the migratory doves are making their way down here now. Here today, gone tomorrow. We scout for them, and when we find enough feeding in a field a field to shoot, we shoot them on the "spur of the moment" before they move on.

Late season doves are very sporting. Killing a limit of 15 in the late season is easier said than done.

SRH

None seen today near Amarillo, Texas

Well, now that you mention it, we were in Yuma two weeks ago and saw lots of doves, shot a bunch but not quite limits. Wind was blowing 40-50 mph and there were enough birds to limit, but we could not hit them consistently.

Went back last weekend for three days, starting Friday afternoon. Winds were moderate and we had one hour limits on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, plus a pile of Euros on Saturday. Wound up eating a lot of Mexican food and buying lots of crap at Walmart. Had an absolute ball, best December shooting I have ever seen. We were lucky enough to find some milo fields that were being harvested. Kids put out a couple of spinners and the birds were circling them regularly.

Late season Doves are everything early ones are not. Faster, smarter, heavily feathered and often seen in large groups like teal buzzing decoys. With extreme cold or a good tail wind hunting them is not for the faint of heart.

My favorite way to hunt them is along a hedge row if I can find one they are working. Sometimes you will get them crossing in one or two places which if spaced correctly give you good left and right incomers or going away birds. Sometimes you get lucky and get them flying parallel to the hedge row and you end up with consistent crossing birds all day long. Had this one day with a slight bend in the hedge row so I had perfect concealment at birds which were all about 35 yards out crossing from my left to right with a 25 mpg tail wind. Man did I use up some shells that day to get them. Better use the big boy gun with big boy shells when you are playing that game. Stan's 32" Hammer gun or my Sterlingworth 32" ejector is a fine gun to use for those days.

I got a last minute call this month for a chance to shoot a field that had over a 1000 birds the day before the shoot; weather was cloudy. The birds had just shown up. I had other plans and declined. The day of the shoot was bright and not a cloud in the sky. Only a few limits were taken and nowhere near a 1000 birds appeared. As noted above, here today, gone tomorrow when it comes to winter season dove. Gil

I've got a 32" L C Smith 16 ga. with two X-full chokes that works well on those late season rockets, and am having a set of 32" barrels fitted to my 12 ga. Sterly ejector, too. Late season doves decoy well, if you are the only gun in the field. As I have mentioned before, they're suckers for a Mojo decoy set atop a center pivot irrigation system. They love lighting on pivots anyway, and if you're the only decoy in the field it is just a dove magnet.

I really enjoy shoots with my buddies this time of year, but the fact of the matter is, if you don't "hit it lucky" and get a hot spot, you'll come nearer getting your limit by going alone with your decoys. That sounds counter-intuitive, but I've found it to be so.

SRH

Accurate observation. Winter dove concentrations are very much a crap shoot, but I have had good luck walking up singles in the desert. Long shots, lots of work, but can be productive. Use a light gun with tight chokes and 7-1/2 or 6 shot.

What percentage of your doves are Eurasian collard doves?
Mourning doves?