Preparing a dove field - legally

[TNReb]

I'm going to try and have some areas around my dad's farm specifically for doves this fall. We've got about 280 acres that will be soy beans & corn. I would like to section off some areas to try and have a decent little dove hunt - but I don't really know what is and isn't considered legal.

Any tips for things I can plant and legally hunt over? Or any links to other sites that explain it?


Can I plant things like milo and sunflowers (before the fall) and hunt over them as long as they aren't bush hogged for the purpose of distributing the grain/seed?

What else can I do to attract birds to specific areas rather than have then randomly flying over 200+ acres?

Appreciate any advice/discussion....

 

[ADR]

Highly recommend sunflowers. Follow chaneylakes previous threads for stellar results.

Standing crops can be bush hogged for doves, just not for hunting waterfowl.

 

[rukiddin]

I prefer wheat or corn. You can get "double duty" out of wheat. Plant it in the fall for deer, then let it sit all summer. Ragweed will come up in it. Bushhog it and the ragweed seeds and wheat will draw them great. Nothing wrong with sunflowers at all but when I lived in NC, we had a big shoot every year. My buddy would leave a few strips of wheat standing when he harvested it then bushhog it to dove hunt over it. Another guy always had a pay hunt about a half mile through the woods. We would have 10x's as many birds as he did. My buddy went to double cropping his fields so the hunts stopped and the other guy started having really nice hunts over sunflowers.
If you already got corn on the place, a picked cornfield is great also, but I've seen bird numbers increase greatly if you simply bush hog the stalks. Doves like open ground.

Millet works really well too. One of the best shoots we are ever had was when the state paved a dirt road that bordered my buddy's field and planted brown top millet along the right of way. The state mowed it and slung seed all over the pavement. The road might've seen 20 cars/day. Doves were thick and we shot several limits.
Don't overlook watering holes also. Ponds wiTh dirt banks. They gotta have water and grit.

 

[spoon]

Go to the food plot fourm...Chaneylake always spells out how and what he is doing on sunflowers. Follow his instructions and you will have a dam good plot

 

[mjwendorf]

Plant sunflowers mow them then top sow winter wheat.

 

[scn]

Plant sunflowers mow them then top sow winter wheat.

Not legal unless you disk in all of the sunflower heads and sunflower seed.

 

[Mike Belt]

Most of the above advice is good. When I planted dove fields I preferred sunflowers mixed with corn. Instead of cutting it all I preferred to cut strips basically leaving half the field still standing. Usually the first hunt will see birds migrate in and then out of the area. By the end of the last season you'll have the only food around and that's when you cut some of what's left standing. If you have a decent area you'll hold all the resident birds plus the late migrants. A few of the very best hunts I've been on were the last season because of this.