Furk - what happened to your gun? Beretta?
Fall 2014 Dove Hunting Pic Thread
- Thread starter TXARGUY
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Im just not a very good shot with a shotgun, I can admit it. Clays I do pretty good but them damn dove do things those clays dont lol. My dad got one of those fancy electric throwers with the randomizer and wobble plate thats suppose to be much more realistic. Need to get in some more practice.
Also didnt help that this happened and wasnt shooting my gun
Good luck to you this morning Phillip.
Damn. Did the Dove attack and you had to use it like a bat?
Im just not a very good shot with a shotgun, I can admit it. Clays I do pretty good but them damn dove do things those clays dont lol. My dad got one of those fancy electric throwers with the randomizer and wobble plate thats suppose to be much more realistic. Need to get in some more practice.
Also didnt help that this happened and wasnt shooting my gun
Good luck to you this morning Phillip.
Appreciate it but I couldn't hit a thing.
Hunting the week in west Texas kinda ruined me for this morning's hunt. By the time I made the adjustment from low and steady with plenty of warning to high and blazing fast with zero warning they were done flying.
I was relegated to walking tree lines trying to pop them as they flushed.
Hit one early in that fell in the field right in front of me, never found it. Hit two flushing but both fell in thick brambles and I never found them either.
Oh, and they were done when I figured out I hadn't switched out my chokes from the west Texas hunts.
Kind of an all around fail.
I've picked out what I think is going to be a better spot for this evening so hopefully I get a chance at redemption for the day.
Chupacabra Hunter
TGT Addict
Bummer.... but better than being at work...
Met my uncle at one of his properties in Burnet this afternoon. We got there about 4 but the Dove didn't start moving until 6 or so. Drove through some nasty rain getting there but just had a sprinkle while there. A big storm front loomed the whole time we hunted. Not sure what that did to the Dove but once they started moving the hunting was pretty good.
My two retrievers and our take:
Daughter on the right hunts a little. Daughter on the left shoots a bit. Both get bored easily.
My two retrievers and our take:
Daughter on the right hunts a little. Daughter on the left shoots a bit. Both get bored easily.
We had light showers this evening. The birds didn't start flying good until about an hour before sunset. I took home 6, lost 3 in the brush (guess its time to get a bird dog) and missed a bunch of them.
I don't know if it was the weather or what but when the dove started moving they started moving about as good as they did opening morning.
Be back out there again in the morning.
I don't know if it was the weather or what but when the dove started moving they started moving about as good as they did opening morning.
Be back out there again in the morning.
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Chupacabra Hunter
TGT Addict
Met my uncle at one of his properties in Burnet this afternoon. We got there about 4 but the Dove didn't start moving until 6 or so. Drove through some nasty rain getting there but just had a sprinkle while there. A big storm front loomed the whole time we hunted. Not sure what that did to the Dove but once they started moving the hunting was pretty good.
My two retrievers and our take:
Daughter on the right hunts a little. Daughter on the left shoots a bit. Both get bored easily.
Thats great. At what age did your girls begin dove hunting? My 12yr old daughter shoots 22 rifles and pistols. She has even shot my 9mm. But I don't think she is ready to shoulder a 20 ga. I think she can do my son's 410g. As a dad, I'm sure your are proud. Good job.
They have both loved to retrieve (unless the Dove are still moving) for years. My older daughter is 12 and this is her first year actually hunting with a 20ga. My younger daughter shoots a .410 at stationary targets well and they both love .22s. My son is 14 and this is his third year hunting dove. He may take a deer this year too.
And yes, I am very proud of them.
And yes, I am very proud of them.
ROGER4314
Been Called "Flash" Since I Was A Kid!
I'm glad to see that the buggers are still hard to hit. I always thought it was my poor skill as a wing shooter!
This thread was real educational. When I lived in Kansas, we never hunted Dove like this. I used to walk the cut Milo fields with a little dog about the size of Jake, my best buddy. The dog would run ahead of me in the rows of cut Milo and flush the birds. Sometimes, we'd catch them at a watering hole or in a place where they'd pick up gravel for their gizzards.
However you choose to hunt Dove, they are always tough to hit. There's one kind of bird that's worse....Prairie Chicken. The open season counties in Kansas were few and far between and when we arrived at the county road, it looked like a parking lot! I saw dozens of hunters shoot at a PC (including me) as it flew down a hedge row. No one raised a feather!
Flash
This thread was real educational. When I lived in Kansas, we never hunted Dove like this. I used to walk the cut Milo fields with a little dog about the size of Jake, my best buddy. The dog would run ahead of me in the rows of cut Milo and flush the birds. Sometimes, we'd catch them at a watering hole or in a place where they'd pick up gravel for their gizzards.
However you choose to hunt Dove, they are always tough to hit. There's one kind of bird that's worse....Prairie Chicken. The open season counties in Kansas were few and far between and when we arrived at the county road, it looked like a parking lot! I saw dozens of hunters shoot at a PC (including me) as it flew down a hedge row. No one raised a feather!
Flash
Tejano Scott
TGT Addict
This thread is awesome! Makes me miss dove hunting.
Pouring rain here this morning so I took the opportunity to sleep in because I've pretty much been sleep deprived since opening morning.
Hopefully they're flying tonight like they were last night. We had sprinkles and light rain in the area and they were everywhere. If I was a better shot I could have easily limited.
One cool thing though; I had my truck parked in some trees down the hill from where I was shooting and had been tossing the ones I'd shot into the bed to keep them out of the ants till it settled down a bit for me to put them in the cooler.
I hit two right side by side and watched in thrilled amazement as they both dropped right into the truck bed with the others.
Good times.
Hopefully they're flying tonight like they were last night. We had sprinkles and light rain in the area and they were everywhere. If I was a better shot I could have easily limited.
One cool thing though; I had my truck parked in some trees down the hill from where I was shooting and had been tossing the ones I'd shot into the bed to keep them out of the ants till it settled down a bit for me to put them in the cooler.
I hit two right side by side and watched in thrilled amazement as they both dropped right into the truck bed with the others.
Good times.
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Been working the same tank almost every evening this week. Starting to notice some turning and going wide around it.
Can't decide if I want to work it again this evening or give it a rest.
Can't decide if I want to work it again this evening or give it a rest.
Trying to decide if I want to go to Burnet again. Guess I will check the weather and probably go. With my schedule I never know when I will be able to go again. And my youngest is bugging me to go. Gotta go for the kiddos if for no other reason.
Just curious, how do you guys prep them for the fridge or freezer after filleting them? Ziploc bag in water? No water just the bag?
Just curious, how do you guys prep them for the fridge or freezer after filleting them? Ziploc bag in water? No water just the bag?
They're migrating.
Odds are the ones you've shot at and missed have moved on so is it possible they're spotting you?
Are you camo'd up?
Dove have great eyesight and have no problem picking out bright or un-natural colors. They can also pick out the human shape so good camo and a good backdrop of trees or brush to help break up your form helps a lot. Just think of it this way; if you accept that they are sharp eyed enough to pick out and be attracted to your decoys you have to accept that they are sharp enough to pick out your ugly mug.
I can't tell you the number of city slickers I've had out who showed up in jeans and Hollister t-shirt and couldn't figure out why nothing would come in range for them.
One other thing to consider if you're using mechanical decoys like MOJOs; make sure you're not overdoing it and that if you're using more than one that they're spaced correctly.
You should use no more than 2 MOJOs per shooter and the MOJOs should be placed about a 3rd of your effective range with a Modified or Improved Cylinder choke (about 30 - 40 yards give or take) out from your shooting position to your left and to your right which should put the decoys about 50 to 55 yards apart.
If you're using only one mechanical decoy set it the same 30 - 40 yards out anywhere in your field of fire you think it will be the most visible to incoming birds.
Also, don't forget the non-mechanical decoys. They're an important component to your mechanical setup. Go spend $16 on a 6 pack of clip on decoys and set them out in the brush, trees or whatever you have around you. You can clip them in pairs, small groups of no more than 4 or individually but don't overdo it by placing all 6 on one tiny bush.
The key is to make your area look as normal and natural as possible so place your decoys the same way you see the birds placing themselves when they land in the trees.
If you carry a bunch of crap out with you like chairs, cases of shells, coolers, anything white or un-naturally colored, etc make sure they're covered either under brush (Eastern Red Cedars on my place make great stashes
Camo netting is your friend. I use it a lot.
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Lol, I'm a city slicker I guess, lmao.
Never have to much effort to camo for dove hunting, just find a place to sit relatively out of site. I don't see enough birds in my area to justify that much effort.
Now, I could see how they are paying a little more attentions after being blasted at for a week, but would be tough to break my slacking nature of hunting. I'm not completely incompetent though. Other than 1 absent minded day when I got home from work and went out in a bright yellow shirt, I wear some type of earth tone. Usually green or brown.
Full camo is just beyond the level of my ambition sandwiched between a shooting berm, tank dam, and two big oak trees.
Back in Burnet. Ended us being just my youngest daughter, my son, and me. Had a good time even though it was very slow. I shot about 20 rounds and only got 1 bird. My son shot 5 rounds and got 3 birds. So he is grounded now.
