The Simple Dove Fields

[Trapper John]

I'm just curious how many of you have ever had a successful hunt over a simple field. For example:

I've planted millet, sunflowers, foxtail, buckwheat and about half a dozen other grains in order to have a good dove field. And they were good fields. However, I don't attend big dove shoots often. Usually it's just myself and two or three friends and family members hunting a one or two acre field.

One of the best dove hunts I ever went on was over a one acre field that had gone to Johnson Grass over the summer. About a month before the season started we'd gradually mow down that field and disc over the mowed portion. When dove season came around myself and two others limited out on three September hunts. The doves were thick. Didn't plant a thing. Nature took care of it. Johnson Grass is a pest, but it sure is loaded with seed and the doves enjoyed it.

Another time we did nothing but till under a 3/4 acre strip of land bordered on woods by three sides. We just exposed the dirt. It was a similar scenario to the Johnson Grass. The dove would come in to walk around on that fresh dirt and we had a blast for a few hunts. A few limits were taken there too.

Now I know planting grains is a very popular method and I do it myself. Personally, buckwheat is the plant of choice this season. But, I'm curious how many of you hunt over little simple fields every now and then. I can't find many who do.

 

[VolDoug]

Another time we did nothing but till under a 3/4 acre strip of land bordered on woods by three sides. We just exposed the dirt. It was a similar scenario to the Johnson Grass. The dove would come in to walk around on that fresh dirt and we had a blast for a few hunts. A few limits were taken there too.

We had great success a season or two a few years ago when the county was building an industrial park, They had removed some of the topsoil and leveled several different locations for spec buildings.

There would be puddles of rainwater scattered sporadically and also small rocks/gravels exposed on top of the dirt. The birds flocked to it.

Can't remember how we got permission to hunt it, but we did.

 

[rukiddin]

I have'nt really thought much about it. Before I moved here, all my friends were farmers. Every spring/summer when they cut their wheat, they would leave 1-2 foot wide strips of wheat standing on about every other pass with the combine. The field would sit all summer and grow up with ragweeds and such. Then we would bushhog or disc the fields and we allways had a lot of birds.

We also had a good hunt by hunting a power line that run down the edge of a newly paved road that bordered one of their fields. The state planted millet along the side of the road and then they mowed it. It was a great hunt and all we did was get out of the truck.

 

[catman529]

Just put up a lot of power lines over the field, dove magnets :grin:

 

[Trapper John]

Our main field has three dead trees in the wood line. Two seasons ago on the last hunt of the year I counted 34 dove between two of them.

Who knows how long those trees will remain standing with that much 8 shot in them...