Hello Doves

[calamari]

Do you have to go through the same registration process for dove at the state refuge that you go through for pheasant and duck?

On the areas that don't require a reservation it's all just a simple free self registration. Don't be caught w/o it however. I'll never forget watching the area manager of Gray Lodge standing next to the check station with a warden almost yelling at two guys who didn't fill the little card out.
Some places have doves the whole first half of the season but in my experience most are shot off the first day. The area I hunted had to have had 3-5 hundred birds shot that day and I bet the guys who shot a limit in the morning were back at it in the afternoon.
I'm going to wait until next week and see if any new birds have moved into the area but based on the past it will be poor.
The walnut orchards in the area were full of doves with nobody hunting them so there is a pool of birds but the small amount of food planted on the areas can't compete with the thousands of acres of chopped safflower region wide.
My best late season shooting has always come next to a pond with a roost tree near it. Sit in its shade and the heats tolerable. The hard part this year is finding a pond with any water in it.

 

[enzinn]

On the areas that don't require a reservation it's all just a simple free self registration. Don't be caught w/o it however. I'll never forget watching the area manager of Gray Lodge standing next to the check station with a warden almost yelling at two guys who didn't fill the little card out.
Some places have doves the whole first half of the season but in my experience most are shot off the first day. The area I hunted had to have had 3-5 hundred birds shot that day and I bet the guys who shot a limit in the morning were back at it in the afternoon.
I'm going to wait until next week and see if any new birds have moved into the area but based on the past it will be poor.
The walnut orchards in the area were full of doves with nobody hunting them so there is a pool of birds but the small amount of food planted on the areas can't compete with the thousands of acres of chopped safflower region wide.
My best late season shooting has always come next to a pond with a roost tree near it. Sit in its shade and the heats tolerable. The hard part this year is finding a pond with any water in it.

I know exactly how you feel about opening day on the State Wildlife Areas. I stopped hunting a very long time ago when I noticed that people were setting up across from me on safflower fields and swinging the barrels right through me at birds 10 feet off the ground. I am lucky I did not get shot!

It was too damn hot for me and my Lab anyway, even with water.

Now some of my best dove hunts happen at at the refuges during the second winter season. I have sometimes seen them bombing through a field or corridor and will just go set up and have myself a little shoot.

 

[NewmanCA]

I know exactly how you feel about opening day on the State Wildlife Areas. I stopped hunting a very long time ago when I noticed that people were setting up across from me on safflower fields and swinging the barrels right through me at birds 10 feet off the ground. I am lucky I did not get shot!

It was too damn hot for me and my Lab anyway, even with water.

Now some of my best dove hunts happen at at the refuges during the second winter season. I have sometimes seen them bombing through a field or corridor and will just go set up and have myself a little shoot.

Second season dove opens the same day of pheasant. The past couple of years I've noticed guys were shooting doves like crazy at the refuge on the pheasant opener

 

[enzinn]

Second season dove opens the same day of pheasant. The past couple of years I've noticed guys were shooting doves like crazy at the refuge on the pheasant opener

I might have been one of them!

 

[NewmanCA]

I might have been one of them!

LOL, I hope not. I happen to be stopped by the game warden who checked me out prior to starting my pheasant hunt. He told me a couple of the guys were cited for going over the limit.

 

[enzinn]

LOL, I hope not. I happen to be stopped by the game warden who checked me out prior to starting my pheasant hunt. He told me a couple of the guys were cited for going over the limit.

Not me then. I don't think I have shot a limit during the second season. I usually get ansty and go back to pheasant hunting.

 

[calamari]

LOL, I hope not. I happen to be stopped by the game warden who checked me out prior to starting my pheasant hunt. He told me a couple of the guys were cited for going over the limit.

Going over the limit and hunting them legally is two different things. They've opened up other hunting opportunities on the areas including quail and turkey hunting on some of them. One of the best turkeys I've ever eaten was about a 5 pound juvenile I shot on one of the areas during the fall season.
For those that consider themselves good wing shots try Snipe on the wet edges of the areas where they occur. Before you do make sure you can recognize them as there are a number of protected shorebirds that look very similar. I find them as solitary individuals so if they're in a flock in the fall, in my experience, they're not Snipe.

 

[enzinn]

Calamari - snipe have saved my pheasant hunting days too. For those who haven't hunted them, once you learn how to ID them, it is pretty easy to discern them from similar looking shore birds.

Not much meat to them, but when the flocks are moving through, the shooting can be entertaining and humbling (like trying to hit a fast ball moving in a cork screw fashion!). Man they are tasty though.

I love a pheasant hunting day when I can come home with a rooster, a couple of ducks, couple doves and some snipe. It doesn't happen very often (to me), but when it does it is a nice little wetlands buffet. And the looks that the duck hunters and check station guys give me when I roll up with a bag filled with all kinds of different species is hilarious.

All this talk about refuge hunting has me looking forward to the end of September when I head for Wyoming (sage grouse) and North Dakota (pheasant, grouse, huns, ducks, geese and dare I say swan). Can't wait!

 

[quail hound]

Snipe are fun targets and there's always plenty on the swamp edges. Turkey, pheasants, and quail at Greylodge. Shoot a hen Turkey if you can.:cheers:

 

[NewmanCA]

Going over the limit and hunting them legally is two different things. They've opened up other hunting opportunities on the areas including quail and turkey hunting on some of them. One of the best turkeys I've ever eaten was about a 5 pound juvenile I shot on one of the areas during the fall season.
For those that consider themselves good wing shots try Snipe on the wet edges of the areas where they occur. Before you do make sure you can recognize them as there are a number of protected shorebirds that look very similar. I find them as solitary individuals so if they're in a flock in the fall, in my experience, they're not Snipe.

The state does not allow quail hunting on my refuge for some reason. I can't even recognize snipe. I need to look them up

 

[NewmanCA]

I went by the refuge tonight and there were 15 vehicles in the parking lot. There were about as many cars as I see for the pheasant opener. No wonder the doves get spooked so quickly

 

[Beniciahd]

I went by the refuge tonight and there were 15 vehicles in the parking lot. There were about as many cars as I see for the pheasant opener. No wonder the doves get spooked so quickly

I'm sure it'll be the same at all of them based on all of your experiences. I'll just head back to the wildlife area and do some more Quail scouting. Maybe I'll get a few more doves. Coming home with something in the bag after time scouting is a win in my book! I agree, it was hot for the dog yesterday.

 

[calamari]

The state does not allow quail hunting on my refuge for some reason. I can't even recognize snipe. I need to look them up

As far as Class A refuges in the North, Gray Lodge is the only one I can think of that allows quail hunting and the coveys are very scattered. Not many birds and they're always close to great escape cover so it's more of a chance for your dog to get a smell than you to do much shooting. The Class C units have more quail and generally allow more quail hunting.
Once you figure Snipe out they're pretty easy to recognize. They tend to squawk when they're flushed and often will come right back and try to land where you flushed them from if you let them. Never in dry country. Always where there is a water/grass edge because they probe for their food. Find a pasture with an inch of water in it and you've got great Wilson Snipe habitat. You can sometimes find them by listening for their "winnowing" sound that they make generally in the spring mating season. It's hard to describe but once you've heard it you'll always recognize it. I've been just walking along and always heard it coming from out of an empty sky but when I start looking around you'll always see a single bird high in the sky flying around and diving occasionally to produce the sound with their tail feathers.

 

[calamari]

"No wonder the doves get spooked so quickly"

By "spooked" I assume you mean dead. At the area I was at very few birds survived crossing the property line onto the wildlife area.

 

[Beniciahd]

Very good stuff! I'm going to have to do some snipe homework!

 

[NewmanCA]

"No wonder the doves get spooked so quickly"

By "spooked" I assume you mean dead. At the area I was at very few birds survived crossing the property line onto the wildlife area.

No. I mean spooked. Doves are going to start flying high and quickly turn and bail at the first sound of gunshots. Whatever is remaining out there

 

[calamari]

No. I mean spooked. Doves are going to start flying high and quickly turn and bail at the first sound of gunshots. Whatever is remaining out there

Just speaking from my personal experience there is a huge difference between the opening morning and everything later in that day and the rest of the season as far as the number of birds that come to the wildlife areas. I've pretty much hunted the same areas over time through out the season and by the third day to a large extent there are no birds that are left to hunt. I've been the only guy on a number of areas and there were no birds flying and no shooting to scare them away. They're just shot off.
For that reason most guys only hunt opening day. You won't find many guys on the area you want to hunt now.
Here's some Missouri stats to show hunter interest. I bet there are more dove hunting opportunities back there than here and yet few hunt three times during the season.

"76.4% of dove hunters went hunting once during September 2014, 15.9% went twice, and 4.7% went three times"

 

[NewmanCA]

Just speaking from my personal experience there is a huge difference between the opening morning and everything later in that day and the rest of the season as far as the number of birds that come to the wildlife areas. I've pretty much hunted the same areas over time through out the season and by the third day to a large extent there are no birds that are left to hunt. I've been the only guy on a number of areas and there were no birds flying and no shooting to scare them away. They're just shot off.
For that reason most guys only hunt opening day. You won't find many guys on the area you want to hunt now.
Here's some Missouri stats to show hunter interest. I bet there are more dove hunting opportunities back there than here and yet few hunt three times during the season.

"76.4% of dove hunters went hunting once during September 2014, 15.9% went twice, and 4.7% went three times"

I don't hunt doves on the refuges so I am not really too familiar. As I posted last night, there were fifteen vehicles in th refuge last night so quite a few people came for another hunt. I did see one one dove flying away, probably got shot at 25 times before leaving. I suspect those numbers will rapidly drop as each day passes. I've hunted doves for almost forty years and learned alot about their behavior. I miss the days of the Sept 1 thru Sept 30 seasons. We would go every weekend until the weekend closes.

I've seen doves that have been blasted good by the third week, a few shots in the morning and they are gone. Or I'll see them fly over fifiteen minutes later a mile high and gone.

 

[calamari]

I don't hunt doves on the refuges so I am not really too familiar.

I think it is different on the northern refuges anyway. Area managers do things as they want to. One area plants food plots that are relatively small and advertises where they are. Another plants a variety of sizes with some as small as 50'x50' and they don't tell anybody where they are. You have to walk the whole 5,000 acre plus hunting area to find them. Those plots that aren't advertised can have a few birds for the whole 15 day first half. The ones on the area that are advertised get pounded and I just don't see anything, high or low.

I've hunted doves for almost forty years and learned alot about their behavior.

I'm 71 and have hunted the northern refuges since I was 16. We've both seen a lot in our times in the field and I guess I've just had different experiences as far as doves on the public areas. In my experience there is hunting possible on the areas for the whole first period but it is known almost exclusively to the guys who work on those areas that hunt and they don't talk about it.
I'll be going again next Tuesday to the same area I hunted on the opener to see if any new birds have found the food plots. It'll be more to give my dog a chance to get some exercise because I don't expect to see any other hunters or doves for that matter. I'll report what I see.

Ive seen doves that have been blasted good by the third week, a few shots in the morning and they are gone. Or I'll see them fly over fifiteen minutes later a mile high and gone.

Something to think about is that during the late season guys hunt the doves hard here in the north and, in addition duck hunters, are blasting all day long. The dove hunting holds up in the second part, I think, because there are new birds migrating into the area all the time. The first part is when it's hot and they like the conditions and they're accustomed to going to a specific field to feed. The second part they aren't used to the area so go to the first place that looks like a food source to them. I don't know if that makes sense but after the opener where they are shot hard I just don't see even high birds.
We'll see Tuesday.

 

[NewmanCA]

I think it is different on the northern refuges anyway. Area managers do things as they want to. One area plants food plots that are relatively small and advertises where they are. Another plants a variety of sizes with some as small as 50'x50' and they don't tell anybody where they are. You have to walk the whole 5,000 acre plus hunting area to find them. Those plots that aren't advertised can have a few birds for the whole 15 day first half. The ones on the area that are advertised get pounded and I just don't see anything, high or low.


I'm 71 and have hunted the northern refuges since I was 16. We've both seen a lot in our times in the field and I guess I've just had different experiences as far as doves on the public areas. In my experience there is hunting possible on the areas for the whole first period but it is known almost exclusively to the guys who work on those areas that hunt and they don't talk about it.
I'll be going again next Tuesday to the same area I hunted on the opener to see if any new birds have found the food plots. It'll be more to give my dog a chance to get some exercise because I don't expect to see any other hunters or doves for that matter. I'll report what I see.



Something to think about is that during the late season guys hunt the doves hard here in the north and, in addition duck hunters, are blasting all day long. The dove hunting holds up in the second part, I think, because there are new birds migrating into the area all the time. The first part is when it's hot and they like the conditions and they're accustomed to going to a specific field to feed. The second part they aren't used to the area so go to the first place that looks like a food source to them. I don't know if that makes sense but after the opener where they are shot hard I just don't see even high birds.
We'll see Tuesday.

You have way more experience hunting refuges than I do. I only began hunting refuges for pheasant around 2003 or 2004 because the pheasants disappeared from all the private areas we used to hunt over the years.