Dove Season

[Benelli 4 Life]

Won't be long till openin day , less than 2 months away. Been seein a bunch of birds along the roadsides and its got me wantin september 1st to hurry up. Hadn missed an openin day since i was 5 yrs old and dont plan on it either.

 

[pressfit]

back in the late 80's I had a personalized tag on my truck that read DUVHNTR.. I was obsessed with hunting them..lol..

 

[Grizzly Johnson]

Used to be when I was growing up, dove hunting was a right of passage..... You were someone when you got to hunt with the guys for the first time and shooting you own gun.

We have had some good hunts in years past..... seems like other things, as time goes by, people get older and lose interest.... and it's just not the same hunting as it was when I was younger. I try to hunt when possible.... but over the last few years, for whatever reason, the hunts were just so-so.

Maybe this year I can find a decent field to hunt for the Mrs. & I..... Public fields for the most part, have just gotten too dangerous for my liking.... especially now that the wife hunts with me some.

 

[easy45]

I love hunting them, I just usually have to work opening weekend

 

[Benelli 4 Life]

Used to be when I was growing up, dove hunting was a right of passage..... You were someone when you got to hunt with the guys for the first time and shooting you own gun.

We have had some good hunts in years past..... seems like other things, as time goes by, people get older and lose interest.... and it's just not the same hunting as it was when I was younger. I try to hunt when possible.... but over the last few years, for whatever reason, the hunts were just so-so.

Maybe this year I can find a decent field to hunt for the Mrs. & I..... Public fields for the most part, have just gotten too dangerous for my liking.... especially now that the wife hunts with me some.

We used to have some awesome private shoots then bout 5 or 6 years ago we started going to a pay hunt bout 2 miles from my house. At first the guy wouldn let but bout 80 people in the field but 2 yr ago there was 150 people. I didn go down there last year we had a little private shoot with bout 15 people. I wont be back to the pay hunt if I dont have to ,150 is just to many people and if ya got a good spot seems like all the idiots just crowd around ya.

 

[Benelli 4 Life]

I love hunting them, I just usually have to work opening weekend

I always take off work on opening day. If I cant get a vacation day then I just lay out.

 

[mike243]

i always take off,been a long time since i missed a opening day.50 yards between shooters if they are respecful,100y if they are not.also i dont mind a lot of folks if spread out,it keeps the birds flying.trying to decide where to go this year.will be off 4 days & would like to hunt.been seeing a lot of birds this year,

 

[timberjack86]

Its on a saturday this year! Cant wait!

 

[rukiddin]

I saw on the news last week where a lot of the Dairies in East TN were having to cut silage early. Kinda makes me wonder about the TWRA lease fields in that area. A 2 month cut silage field is useless. I don't hunt TWRA fields but I do wonder how the drought and early cutting will do to the lease situation.

I love dove shoots. Private hunts or semi-private pay shoots are the only way to do it though, imo.

 

[Weaz]

Speaking of Dove season. Anyone know of any reasonably priced pay hunts around middle TN?

 

[catman529]

I see plenty of doves, especially in the city, except during dove season in places I can actually hunt.... however I still want to shoot some if I get the chance.

 

[PickettSFHunter]

I cant wait. Ive got a decent field planted in millet and buckwheat.

 

[stik]

we have hunted the loudon co. twra fields the last couple of years will little to no luck. guess we'll do it again this year.

 

[arctic_cat]

we have hunted the loudon co. twra fields the last couple of years will little to no luck. guess we'll do it again this year.

dad and I did a pay hunt year before last and it was a great shoot.I had a limit in hour 1/2 and dad had 12 before the flying slowed down. it was just down the road from some of the twra fields. we went to it last year and I shot at one bird. He said he will move it back the the field we hunted the year before for this year. I cant wait.

 

[rukiddin]

I think I was in the same field with ya'll year before last.....One of the finest shoots I have ever been on. We had 3 limits in 1 hr 15 minutes and we were back home by 930!! I checked the fields out last year the day before the hunt. We sat there all evening and saw 3 birds. We never even went on opening morning......But the guy that puts on the hunt was very honest about the low bird numbers. Probably be back this year!

 

[Bone Collector]

Speaking of Dove season. Anyone know of any reasonably priced pay hunts around middle TN?

yeah i want to know too. i know Sloan's Harley Davidson ( i think that is right) puts one on, but it only for specific days so if you cant be there on that day too bad.

want to know if there are any others, but finding them is hard.

 

[pcrc]

we have hunted the loudon co. twra fields the last couple of years will little to no luck. guess we'll do it again this year.

Not many doves at the Forks of the River last year either. TWRA agent said he figured many of the nest were wiped out by the hail storms. Hunted up in Anderson County at one of the best shoots I have ever been on. No hail storms up there so it kind of made sense to me why the bird numbers might have been low in those parts of East Tn.

 

[Kimberman]

I hunted opening day at Snake's last year, and got a limit fairly quickly, but it wasn't a barrel burner. Went back 2 days after and got 2. Since season opens on a Saturday, I would bet the public fields will be even more crowded than usual.

 

[redblood]

i am gonna sew a couple acres of wheat

 

[Phil1979]

Didn't get to make it out last year opening day. Hope to make it out this year.

 

[Chaneylake]

photo taken today

 

[TITANSFAN2104]

Its on a saturday this year! Cant wait!

Works out great for me. UT football and a pre hunt party on Friday night, hunt all day Saturday , my girls birthday party Sunday, rest Monday and back to work Tuesday night all that fun and it only costs me one vacation day!!! Looking forward to that weekend , God willing it will be a great one!!

 

[Casey82]

Unless your gonna squirrel hunt in the AM, dove season opens at noon like always. With opening day being on saturday this year I wish it would open at daylight

 

[BamaProud]

I love it! Ain't much better than listening to college football on the radio and shooting doves. I have a couple of fields in South Alabama I will hunt but would love to get in on a hunt in west TN.

Here is an article from Outdoor life Dove hunters(those planting fields) might find interesting. I have planted fields roughly (very roughly) based on this design with success.

 

[spitndrum]

Talked to my opening day hunt property owner today and he said with the dry summer his field looks surprisingly GREAT!

 

[WingNut]

My sunflowers are looking good. I planted about 3 acres with about and acre of millet, should make for a good little hunt.

 

[93civEJ1]

ok...can someone fill me in on this. I have never dove hunted and I am looking into it since its close and it will get me out. How does this work? twra leases fields and then everyone goes and just shoots at birds flying around? I need more info on this please.

 

[TN Whitetail Freak]

Im with 93civeEJ1, I too have never shot dove but after visiting my local deer spot on a WMA Im gonna try it....I was hoping beans were going to be planted but instead sunflower strips were in it...all the sunflowers were dead and dried up but there were still dove flying everywhere so I went oit and bought a shotgun gonna be on that field Sept. 1st

 

[mike243]

93civEJ1 twra will lease a few fields for dove hunting but theres some pay fields around that normaly have better hunting.some wma's do a great job of planting bird food ,best hunt on 1 was buffalo springs 12-14 years ago.may end up going to chuck swan & camp out that sat nite & be back at em at day lite sunday morning,its a lot of fun & take lots of shells lol

 

[93civEJ1]

yeah, my thought though is wouldnt small little leased fields get crowded with people shooting and fighting over the same birds??