Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Dove hunting tips/techniques - public land

Anybody got any insight on finding, holding and shooting birds? I don't have any private or leased land to use so I'll be in the national forest or a WMA.

find water and food.

Small water holes with lots of bare ground around the edge for them to land are good for evening shoots, especially the last two hours of light. If there’s lots of water sources in the area, those water holes won’t be so good.
First 2-3 hours in morning, harvested grain fields or flyways to/from grain fields are good. During mid day, they’ll be resting in tree groves.

Scouting… Scouting, Scouting but given the birds migrate don’t do it until a week before season starts.
Most states have “dove field maps” for wildlife areas - get them… use them to scout.
Expect ALOT of guys - be courteous, and even friendly to other hunters…

If you hunt fields and tuck into tree lines with other guys you get the special pleasure of calling out birds flying behind them they can’t see so that they can shoot at them and speed them up for you..


Get spinning wing decoys - at least 2… 4 is better, put a couple of them up high, and a couple lower to the ground..

Take a bucket to sit on, make sure you have off & sunblock, morning & evening hunts are the way to go - but make sure you are on a tree line (if hunting fields.. wear camo & tuck into the tree line..

Shells & Chokes -
Most Wildlife areas require you to use Steel shot these days, so if you don’t have some decent choke tubes (like Carlson waterfowl tubes), it will benefit you to get some… (and don’t take lead).
The national average of shots on a dove to “take a dove” is crazy high … so get out and practice first, or take way, way more shells than you think you need. I used to shoot competition, and every year we have ALOT of doves - without fail one of the guys that comes with me for more shells… 8:1 is sadly not uncommon for newbs…


Zip lock bags, a couple gallons of water, paper towels, game shears - are all you need to breast them out …
Take a cooler with ice in it to cool the meat down.


Safety wise on fields - Don’t shoot below 45 degree’s… or below the opposite sides tree line…. Guys get tempted at shooting at low birds, but it’s
dangerous so don’t do it….

Excellent and accurate post. The only thing I can add is that your scouting (and hunting) is typically better early and late in the day. Doves tend to be on the ground feeding during mid-day. If you have to scout in the middle of the day, look for groups of doves sitting in trees or on wires. That means a lot more of them are on the ground nearby.

Wear shooting glasses even if you don't believe you will need them. I've been hit (indirect fire) countless times, have had family members hit (indirect fire) and two childhood friends shot by direct fire with one of those losing an eye while dove hunting.

People are nuts in the dove fields.

a gravel road, power wires, dead trees, are easy to spot. If they are close to water and food then you have all the pieces (except birds) needed

If the wma,s around your area have dove plots on em like here in Tn.
Should be on a website listed with x amount of acres and what is planted on it.
Stay away from soggy sunflower if it has been raining alot right up to the hunt.
Hunt by the hard seed like millet or corn.
Learned a couple years ago.
Dove around here wont hit squishy rain soaked sunflower.
Just a passed on experience that bit me in the azz a couple years ago.

They might even have leased feilds open to the public.
Those should be listed on a web site also


Have on the leased feilds.
It's always interesting .......

WMA fields are waaay less wild west here cause you gotta have at least a WMA small game permit

Which kinda cuts into the money your average public access leased field bubba wont spend.


Kinda thinking with Honk for Joey inflation and no stimmy checks.
The crowd might be somewhat culled this year.

It's always interesting on a leased field or a WMA.

The sheer humanity entertainment value is a added factor to it.

Try to have 2 or 3 guys with ya.
Or coordinate with guys who seem to have common sense around ya.
Space out about 50 yds apart and try to " own" some ground and also a safety factor.

But their are always gonna be people showing up late prior to the shooting.
Walking across the middle of the feild
They will still do it during shooting hours also.
Fughing up shooting and flaring off birds coming in 100 s of yards away.
People getting pissed off at em .
Telling em they are being unsafe and fugging up hunting.
Nothing like having a dumbazz popping up from behind a terrian mask in your feild of fire 50 60 75 yds out during shooting hrs after he has walked across the entire field and then setting up in front of you even if you have tried to put a terrian mask in front of you for safety to others and able to safely shoot at a low bird.

I have made simple safety suggestions to TWRA concerning their wma,s and leased feilds
1. 50 m between hunters unless in a group of 2 to 4.
2. No setting up beyond 25 yds from fields exterior border
3. No walking across feild during shooting hrs except to directly retrieve a bird.

Too simple
Too common sense.
And a warden would have to do his job with a little bit of monitoring.
Gawd forbid that😱😱😱😱


Everything from utter morons to ATV,s hauling a 20 ft trailer with a metal kitchen chair welded on it
AKA: The Xm 51 dove assualt vehicle.

Priceless.....


Camden WMA is a good one around here.
Some of the leased feilds can be a really excellent shoot.

The thing is to go check em out a day or 2 prior to the shoot.
See what the birds are doing.
Scope out kinda where you wanta set up.
2 or 3 spots in mind
Shade is a premium factor to figure in also.
Or create yourself some shade.
Homie dont get paid anymore to stay out in the sun for hours on end.

Watching people sit out in the middle of a field in the glaring unrelenting sun always happens.
They eventually wither by the wayside and are always moving.
Fugging up others hunts...
These are usually your late arriver types and have no other spot to sit than in the middle of a feild in front of numerous people on the edges.
People in the sun:

I will show sympathy to elderly types
People with kid types
People with a dog.
To come and sit by my spot in the shade or rotate out with them in the shade.
Even offering em my chair to give a spell from the sun and just stand off in the shade 5 or 10ft and continue to hunt and talk.

Some are hard headed outta stubborn pride.
Fine.... be all hardcore and schit like a set of woodpecker lips out their in the 93 100 ° blaring azz sun.
Roast for all I care now dumbazz.
I do feel sorry for a kid or dog with mr dumbazz.
I have a 2 man shade shelter that is camo .
Half moon dome able to sit in with 2 full size chairs.
Can cover 270° of skyline.
I'm offering outta my basic sympathy for a person to get outta the sun.
Bought it about 5 yrs to keep my bud Slumlord outta the sun.
If He ain't with me the spot is open.
I have let people use my tarps for their dog to create shade for it.
Black labs seem to need it too me in the sun.
Have given away my water to people with dogs who dont plan well.
We all know what sun exhausted dog looks like and it ain't good for em at all.

I have rarely ever had courtesies extended to me.
Safety, common sense, or equipment wise.
Equipment.... not needed really

Safety and common sense courtesy would be nice though.

I will go only so far with my being nice my patience is about 30 mins of dealing with dumbfuggery, then it is full blown dik head mode after numerous attempts to reason with a moron.
It is even more emphasized on a moron when you got 3 or 4 other hunters on your flanks getting upset and saying the same things to the dipschit
Peer pressure eventually makes the idiot leave and go mess up another group of like minded hunters who are trying to do the right things.


And get their early.
If it opens at noon the 1st day.
I'm talking like arriving between 7 to 8 am to get your " land grab"

That 1st day and the next morning dawn opening time are good shoots.
Also some wma,s and leased public feilds have staggered opening dates other than sept1 and basically those are fresh fields on their opener.


Dove hunting is fun

But can be aggravating on public leased access fields .
Not as bad on WMA fields by considerable factor.

They (doves) hang around until you have a night below 50 degrees… when that happens they move and go south immediately…

Plan accordingly

FTCKY dove fields are GTG.
0 absouloutly zeefugging ro dumbfuggery is tolerated.
Fed wardens control access time 1 hr prior.
Staked positions and people come to a mutual agreement on positions by order of arrival at the access point.
Kinda a dibs on this spot based on I got here before you.
And everyone understands that courtesy.
Only x amount of hunters allowed on the feild based on the # of positions anyways.
None of the positions are in the middle of the feild .
All on exterior border.
And you have a 25 yd radius from your stake to set up.
All permits, license, guns checked at access point.
Laws and rules enforced and not a blind eye turned to them at all.

Havent been in the dove plot in area 21 for 3yrs.
Couple others on post also.
21 seems to be the best one to me.
One of the wardens told me it was a good shoot last year.
Said he hadn't seen me on it for 2 yrs.
Told him been going to Camden.

Might be a option on opener for me .
Check out 21 a day or 2 prior

Watched a dumbazz pop a song bird about 4 yrs ago 2 stakes down on 21.
The bird flew over the like 4 or 5 positions on the feild.
Then blam like 2 or 3 stakes down from me someone blew it away
🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤣🤣🤣
Bout 30 mins later one of the wardens walked the outside border stopping at each position.
He got to me.
I just motioned with my thumb sideways to my left shaking my head and chuckling.
He just laughed a little and said "oh yeah I'm going to talk to mr songbird and make his day exspensive"

Dude got a 125 buck ticket and escorted off the field for all to see.

Talk of the town stuff and lotsa laughs at the end of the hunt by the vehicle parking spot.


Dove hunting is fun to say the least.
That and squirrel is something to do in the 3 week interim till deer season kicks off on FTCKY.

👍👍👍😄😄😄

Doves like to follow straight lines in topography. Sunflower and hemp fields attract them. Mojo doves if legal where your at helps attract them too. Place on 10ft pole or higher

Around here it seems to be real popular, at the public fields on opening day, to show up with 4-8 buddies and stay together in a group. The group will then fire en masse at every bird no matter how far away. On the rare occasion that a bird falls if it lands in the weeds or some distance away none of the group bothers looking for it.
Fortunately opening day is the only time a lot of those people hunt.

Damn I'm glad I hunt private property. Our biggest problem is having enough people to keep the birds moving. Frustrating to watch 100's land on the far end of a field and have to walk down there.

I'm kind of surprised nobody has anything like "use a trash can lid to bait them with whatever they like and remove it the evening before the hunt".

An actual quote from a brilliant man who charges (and gets) 3 grand a year per member for a dove club. His club is too far or I would be a member. When he was young and struggling to find birds he had lids with grit, water and millet out until the day before.

Anybody got any paid dove clubs or shoots in the Tallahassee/Bainbridge/Thomasville/Sopchoppy area?

I got a few tips

1. dont use spinning decoys. It makes the doves think a hawk is hovering and about to pounce on ground feeding doves
2. Go out NOW and start looking for resident doves. Those are the birds you’ll be hunting opening day.
3. After opening day, that fantasy of migrating, fat yankee doves is a fallacy. They all get blasted in Indiana on the way.
4. Don’t ride your atv, 6 passenger bad boy buggy, 6 wheeled ARGO, or other all terrain dove assault vehicle all over the [bleep] field or even leave it visible. How bout just WALK like a man.
5. Take all of your shît with in one trip
6. Get there before daylight even if opening day starts at NOON like it does in most AMERICAN places. Yeah I know tiddy babies out west have different times.
Either way. Get there early and make a land grab. Bring extra chairs and tell mooching muthfckers that your buds are running late. Spread those ghost chairs out 50 yards either side. Sometimes it works.

Wear glasses to protect your eyes from shots at low flying doves by other "hunters"

Lots of good advice already offered. Only thing I can add is that for some reason around here doves love to fly fence lines.
Hunting a spot between water and cover on a fence line is always a recipe for success.

I might not dove hunt

I need to stay home monitor Breitbart, Brighteon, gateway pundits, mother earth news, salem radio, wacko waco davidian network, minnesota public radio

Ya know

To keep my finger on the pulse and make jimmy olsen updates and barf up verbatim what the news releases say and copy paste it here. Asap

LOLOL - maybe I need to tone down the news reports for ole slumlord.

The mojo spinning wing motorized decoys work like crazy here for the early part of the season. The two guys that had them in the opening day shoot last year had doves landing on the pole/tree doohickey they were sitting on. Doves would come over me high enough to need an o2 mask directly from behind, hang a 90 degree turn, burn right into the decoy tree and flare and land on it by a regular decoy.

My buddy at the coast where there's a bunch of kites (50 miles away) says the same thing you do.