Aggravating Doves

I have had a bunch of doves around for a couple of weeks and just figured out today was the last day of the season. Anyway, I spent the afternoon trying to shoot them by myself. You would have sworn I was hunting turkeys. The bastages would literally fly around the corn field, light in trees 80 yards away, pitch down in the other end of th field. I walk down there, flush 75 birds, go to the other end, repeat a couple of times and then they circle up high and take off. Zip, nothing, not one decent shot. I should have covey shot the first time they flushed but I was wanting to get back to the tree line for cover. Suckers looked like pigeons. Amazing, glad early season birds are not that wary.

Bet some Aldeer members would have been there on short notice to help ya out!

Dr. B

Dove hunting is not a one man sport, for that reason.

Bingo

You could have called me and I would have helped you out.

I've had that same situation before where I didn't really have enough birds to host a shoot, but didn't mind trying to kill a few by myself. If you get in that situation again in second season, I have had my best luck shooting birds like that in the morning. They are gonna come in there at daylight, and if you are there ahead of them you can get some shooting. I always try to leave some cover of some kind in a field; just a few corn stalks can help hide you.

Hunting doves by myself is something I've always enjoyed. It becomes real hunting, instead of just shooting. I had fun last winter walking them up on cutover and shooting them like quail. I never killed but a few in one day, but it beat deer hunting. I've had a lot of good hunts over the years hunting with just one other person. You can get a lot of shooting even on a big field if you can run them towards each other.

My dove season this year was pretty lousy. We just don't have many birds in the places I can hunt.

I dove hunt by myself all the time. I just circle the big field slowly, they fly up and I shoot enough for supper. I'm not into big group hunts -