Dove Hunting Opening Day

[KahrMan]

The birds just were not flying for us today. Only saw a couple of birds all day. I did not even get a shot Anybody else have any luck?

[bersaguy]

Sorry you didn't get any birds today  KahrMan. I have not seen as any Birds this year as I normally do. I have sunflower plants out behind the buildings and normally I will have 15 or 20 birds hanging around out back but it's only been maybe 4 or 5 this year. With the hot weather coming late and having such a cool summer around here the birds may be late coming. Hope you do better next outing.

 

I talked to a buddy of mine up in Streator, Illinois and he and his 2 sons and 1 daughter and 4 grand kids 2 of each all limited out in less than 4 hours of shooting. They are a hunting family and his brothers and sisters all we when we were growing up. He is a buddy I grew up hunting with and hunted with ever since we were big enough to hunt and my Parents moved me away. They were hunting the family farms which between the families they own 10,000 on 4 different farms and they all border each other.

 

Each year each farm puts out a different crop for the hunters in the family and the hunting was always great regardless of which game you were after. The only drive they would have to make was the the Big Muddy to Duck and Goose hunt. This is the 4th year I have not made it up for Dove and Squirrel but I do get the invites every year just the same.

[Luke E.]

 Sidewinder and I spent all day in a TWRA field not far from home and there probably weren't 25 birds that flew through from 10:30 until 5:30 and none of them were in front of us. I made a few long shots just to get to pull the trigger but that was about as exciting as it got. I sure enjoyed the good company though. 

 When I walked into my house I got a call from a friend telling me to come to his place and that there weren't really any birds but they were just hanging around the barn. About 5 minutes after I got there the birds lit up. Long story short they went back to the spots they had been sitting in all day and I just kinda stayed back towards the barn. In 45 minutes time I had 9 birds and they each had 10 or more in their bags. I hope we can get everyone's schedule lined up to do that again one evening later in the week!

[Lumber_Jack]

I would love to have gone today, but was traveling home. Guess I'm gonna try to hit a TWRA field some day this week. Anyone with a good tip on wich one to try in the middle tn area, I'm all ears

[Luke E.]

I would love to have gone today, but was traveling home. Guess I'm gonna try to hit a TWRA field some day this week. Anyone with a good tip on wich one to try in the middle tn area, I'm all ears

 

 I can't say for sure that they are all this way but the ones that I know of were open today and then shut down all week then open back up for hunting Saturday and Sunday. Most of the TWRA leased fields that I looked at had parts of it chopped for silage and then wheat top sewn on it. I don't know how the weather was Saturday and Sunday everywhere else but it rained so hard around here that it drove every bit of the wheat into the ground. I didn't get out there and dig around but if they hadn't told us that they had broadcast wheat over it, I wouldn't have known. I didn't see a single grain of it out there.

[Lumber_Jack]

[quote name="Luke E." post="1185422" timestamp="1409626915"] I can't say for sure that they are all this way but the ones that I know of were open today and then shut down all week then open back up for hunting Saturday and Sunday. Most of the TWRA leased fields that I looked at had parts of it chopped for silage and then wheat top sewn on it. I don't know how the weather was Saturday and Sunday everywhere else but it rained so hard around here that it drove every bit of the wheat into the ground. I didn't get out there and dig around but if they hadn't told us that they had broadcast wheat over it, I wouldn't have known. I didn't see a single grain of it out there.[/quote] Most of the WMA fields are "same as state season". A lot of leased fields are Sept 1,6,7 http://www.tn.gov/twra/dovefields2.html#

[Fourtyfive]

I sure do miss dove hunting , took my son with me every year. We used to hunt with a family in Dickson , great people , I would take them a Honey Baked Ham every opening day as a way to say thank you. I need to get off my ass and start going somewhere again.

[USMC8672]

I wanted to go, but the wife said auction! we went and spent a lil money. They had a lot of guns(27) and I watched one guy spend 4K for 9 guns. Most went fairly reasonable, but the TN State Trooper comm. was way high as far as I was concerned. Of course I am a cheap son of a gun.

[Dennis1209]

Spent the last :30 minutes on the TWRA website trying to find WHERE and HOW to purchase a small game permit to hunt Dove's at WMA's / leases where required with no luck. I'm finding all the information I need except that. Am I blind or something?

[Luke E.]

Spent the last :30 minutes on the TWRA website trying to find WHERE and HOW to purchase a small game permit to hunt Dove's at WMA's / leases where required with no luck. I'm finding all the information I need except that. Am I blind or something?

You don't need any additional permits to hunt the "leased" fields. You only need a small game license and a migratory bird permit. I'm not sure how it works for WMA's. Call the number on their website and punch zero for the operator. They have been quite helpful in my experiences.

[deadeye111]

We had a good hunt in SE Missouri. There was not much corn harvested but I has permission to hunt a large corn field that had been harvested and the stalks were bush hogged. The doves were using the field and just up the county road was a sand plant that produces concrete sand. There is plenty of water and open sandy area for the birds. We quit hunting at 7:30 am with most people having a limit of dove.

[Luke E.]

We had a good hunt in SE Missouri. There was not much corn harvested but I has permission to hunt a large corn field that had been harvested and the stalks were bush hogged. The doves were using the field and just up the county road was a sand plant that produces concrete sand. There is plenty of water and open sandy area for the birds. We quit hunting at 7:30 am with most people having a limit of dove.

Sounds like you guys had a phenomenal hunt!

[deadeye111]

The hunt was outstanding. The weather was warmer than usual but it was cloudy and a good breeze from the South helped one stay fairly comfortable. The sandy soil was loose and hard walking to retrieve the birds but no one complained.

[Luke E.]

The hunt was outstanding. The weather was warmer than usual but it was cloudy and a good breeze from the South helped one stay fairly comfortable. The sandy soil was loose and hard walking to retrieve the birds but no one complained.

 

 Doesn't sound like there was much to complain about at all. I walked out to fetch a bird yesterday and by the time I returned to my seat I had 3. No complaints from me.

[whiskey]

We had a good shoot. Had birds all day, just enough to keep us up and busy. I got close to a limit. I stopped shooting around 4 trying to get the kids with me to shoot more. Overall, it was the best shoot we've had in a few years. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Luke E.]

We had a good shoot. Had birds all day, just enough to keep us up and busy. I got close to a limit. I stopped shooting around 4 trying to get the kids with me to shoot more. Overall, it was the best shoot we've had in a few years. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

 I would much rather have a moderate steady stream that lasted than a really heavy hour or so. This goes doubly so when there are kids involved like in your situation. They can get bored easily especially when it's hot out and I always strive to keep them occupied to try and help keep every thought and memory of their hunting experiences, positive. Good for you giving up some of your shooting time for the next gen!

[Slappy]

I had to work on Monday.  To be honest, I don't really have a "dove field".  We have some acreage that has a gravel road and a power line that run through it planted in cowpeas and sunflowers (few and far between), so I'm not sure how that would be for a dove hunt.  We have this long creek that splits a 30 acre soybean field in half and along the creek are lots of shrubs and saplings that we have flushed out lots of dove in.  So I may go out Saturday morning and see what I can come up with! 

 

Next year we are planting the entire field in sunflowers for a true dove field.  It takes a few years usually for hunts to become productive. 

[deadeye111]

_{From what I have seen if you plant sunflowers in a sizeable patch the doves will find them.  The best hunt I have had was on the edge of a 20-30 acre sunflower field.  No way you could shoot doubles and find them as the sunflowers were thick and still standing.  The Federal and State wardens were in a field not far away checking other hunters so we shot one bird and retrieved it and then picked another to shoot.  The doves were bad wanting to feed on the sunflowers.  SE Missouri used to have hunters from all over fill the hotels/motels for opening day but not so much any more.}

Edited September 3, 2014 by deadeye111

[Dennis1209]

Ah sunflowers!

 

The first spring here at our retirement property, I planted a large area of sunflowers when I planted my garden in late April. Had a great crop of sunflowers and was all excited for September 1st. Not far into August all the sunflowers were down and dead and the seeds long gone. Bummer...

[Sidewinder]

 Sidewinder and I spent all day in a TWRA field not far from home and there probably weren't 25 birds that flew through from 10:30 until 5:30 and none of them were in front of us. I made a few long shots just to get to pull the trigger but that was about as exciting as it got. I sure enjoyed the good company though. 

 When I walked into my house I got a call from a friend telling me to come to his place and that there weren't really any birds but they were just hanging around the barn. About 5 minutes after I got there the birds lit up. Long story short they went back to the spots they had been sitting in all day and I just kinda stayed back towards the barn. In 45 minutes time I had 9 birds and they each had 10 or more in their bags. I hope we can get everyone's schedule lined up to do that again one evening later in the week!

Thanks Luke, for an enjoyable day in the dove field. Even if we didn't get to do a lot of shooting, nor see a lot of birds, it was still fun. I enjoyed listening to the volley of gunfire when a bird ventured into other parts of the field! I knew right then I wouldn't have to be too embarrassed when I missed on a shot. Like you said, I believe the heavy rains, just before opening day, played a big part in the scarcity of birds. Enjoyed it anyway...thanks again.

[Luke E.]

Thanks Luke, for an enjoyable day in the dove field. Even if we didn't get to do a lot of shooting, nor see a lot of birds, it was still fun. I enjoyed listening to the volley of gunfire when a bird ventured into other parts of the field! I knew right then I wouldn't have to be too embarrassed when I missed on a shot. Like you said, I believe the heavy rains, just before opening day, played a big part in the scarcity of birds. Enjoyed it anyway...thanks again.

Had a great time with good conversation.

[JPS]

SOMEBODY must have seen some birds - Metro PD's phones were buzzin with people reporting gunshots being fired around the Percy Priest Lake area right after noon on Monday...

[mikegideon]

SOMEBODY must have seen some birds - Metro PD's phones were buzzin with people reporting gunshots being fired around the Percy Priest Lake area right after noon on Monday...

 

Not birds. Hubcap thieves. I think I got one of them too :)

[Oh Shoot]

All the hunting must have scared more of them into the urb than usual.

 

Though they are here year round, would be particularly easy pickings the last week or so.

 

Prob is, if I shoot them with pellet gun,  I break state hunting law. And Knoxville law too, but rather quietly. ;)

 

- OS

[bigcdaddy]

We had a great shoot on my cousins chopped corn fields. I limited out and helped the kids try and hit a few. We left around 6 and the sky was still full of birds. Several folks had their limits as we were leaving.