I hunted doves on the opener and looked at several N. valley wildlife areas. All were extremely dry with almost no green veg. visible. Pheasant production on the areas should be about zero. The place I hunted last year that had Sudan grass and moist soil was fallowed and just sparse Star Thistle.
The only good outcome from the drought I saw was that there was a lot of farm land that was fallowed and more rank vegetation than I can remember seeing on private land. Did they get moisture at the right time to grow chicks is the question however. I doubt it because we didn't get any rain and they weren't going to irrigate a fallow field.
They raised the dove limit to 15 but it wasn't because there were more birds on public land anyway. I looked through about half the report cards at Gray Lodge and 0 or 2 was the most common report. I saw one card with 8 and one with 6 which were far and away the highest numbers on the cards I looked at.
I only talked to one guy who said he was shot twice which seems about right for public land dove hunting. Luckily the shooter was far enough away the guy wasn't hurt.
The only good outcome from the drought I saw was that there was a lot of farm land that was fallowed and more rank vegetation than I can remember seeing on private land. Did they get moisture at the right time to grow chicks is the question however. I doubt it because we didn't get any rain and they weren't going to irrigate a fallow field.
They raised the dove limit to 15 but it wasn't because there were more birds on public land anyway. I looked through about half the report cards at Gray Lodge and 0 or 2 was the most common report. I saw one card with 8 and one with 6 which were far and away the highest numbers on the cards I looked at.
I only talked to one guy who said he was shot twice which seems about right for public land dove hunting. Luckily the shooter was far enough away the guy wasn't hurt.
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