Doves... Where are they?

[DeerCamp]

I don't hunt doves really seriously but we do try to get after them a couple times a year.

However a buddy of mine is very serious about it and has six acres of sunflowers planted up in lake County.

So far on both of my hunts I've only seen 1, and he said on opening day over the sunflowers they only saw five the entire morning.

Anyone else seeing a similar pattern?

 

[TNGunsmoke]

Yep. Ida and a cold front right before season opened blew them all out.

 

[younggun308]

Surprised if more haven't come through since Ida. Just a couple days after it blew through we were covered with them here in the SE of the state.

 

[Chaneylake]

The week of cold weather back in February wiped out a large part of the breeding population.
Everyone across the state found dead doves from that major cold front.

 

[rukiddin]

I'm on the other side of the state but I've held numbers of birds this year unlike anything I've ever had. I shoot my birds sparingly, but I've Had 4 great hunts so far and there's still a hundred or so on the line of a morning. I can count birds on my fence and on the power line from my house. At one point late august, I counted over 700 sitting on my fence and the power line on a drizzly morning about 9:30am. I understand I may be a anomaly, but for just as many bad hunts ive heard of this year, ive heard of just as many good hunts too.

 

[WilcoKen]

I'm in SE Wilson County and this year seems to have been better than most. I've heard several good hunts this year. The youth hunt at Barton's Creek was a good one.

 

[chimneyman]

5-7 of us have shot 4 times in the same field so far this year. All have limited out in less than couple hours. We still have birds. McMinn co

 

[Remington700]

I went to three fields in west TN and all were busts. One in Benton county and saw one bird. One in Gibson county saw one bird. One in Dyer county that had a lot more, but not a whole lot.

 

[nso123]

I am still seeing them pretty thick in SE TN.

 

[m_allison71]

I spent last week in Key Largo. I'm pretty sure they are all down there. You could probably go down there and smack them with a yardstick to get your limit. Too bad they are protected there.

 

[DeerCamp]

I went to three fields in west TN and all were busts. One in Benton county and saw one bird. One in Gibson county saw one bird. One in Dyer county that had a lot more, but not a whole lot.

The theme here seems to be the Western part of the state. Interesting.

 

[jemo4570]

Hunted just outside of Nashville Saturday with 40-45 other hunters and took 200+ birds. Lots of misses also. This was the first hunts on these fields.

 

[middleTNbowhunter]

I hunted a private field down near Lynchburg on opening day, and even though it was a "down day" for this farm, everybody who was a decent shot limited. I've seen far fewer birds in the last 7-10 days around where I live (Brentwood), though--I just assumed it was a big kill-off from opening day and opening weekend.

 

[TAFKAP]

First year I've ever dove hunted where I didn't shoot a limit

 

[kbradley]

Yep. Ida and a cold front right before season opened blew them all out.

Back when i hunted them thirty years ago , we had a cold front just about every year before the opener or just after . Very disappointing but these days it is too hot to hunt them early . Maybe the cycle is coming back around .

 

[GUNNERX2]

No idea where they gonna go now. Never got above 75 here at the house and we got 2" of rain.