2023 dove hunting thread

My daughter and I made the annual trip to Yuma. The weather was interesting. Dust storms, thunderstorms and rain. Birds were slow and steady on south side of town opening morning. We switched to NW side of town for opener evening and had a great shoot. Lots of fellow hunters. Mostly middle aged and higher. I am very happy my daughter enjoys it and hope others can bring their kids and keep our culture going.
 

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Packing up the truck now for tomorrow morning. Every thing from the dog to coolers to red ryders. Sure was a lot easier when I was younger... a gun, some shells and a bucket to sit on. Good luck guys and post some pics up here. @mtmiller try to down play the pics a little you make everyone else's camera phone look like shit 😉.
Texas has been good this weekend!
 
I got up early on Friday and headed out to a spot where I had seen several flocks of doves the weekend prior. Not sure if the 20 degree temp drop, wind and rain overnight had anything to do with it, but I only saw a few birds. This spot doesn't have any real cover to hide in, so I sat on my little cooler in the middle of a patch of Russian Thistle and set my new decoy out in a cut cornfield. I had no idea if it was going to work, but not five minutes after sitting down a dove flew in and landed 25 feet or so from my decoy. I was unsure if it was legal shooting light yet so did not take a shot.

A couple hours of sitting in the wind and only having the occasional pair of birds fly by out of range was enough for me. I did scout a spot on a wildlife refuge that had a lot of birds on it, so the plan is to pick up some non toxic shot and head back there when I get a chance.

dove_opener_23.jpg
 
Yildiz YK-12, an inexpensive but well-made gun from Turkey. It’s foldable and lightweight but the recoil is bruise-inducing.
If your arms are long enough, you might want to take off the butt pad and replace it with a Limbsaver or Pachmayer recoil pad. This will lengthen your length of pull though.
 
Things I've learned on my second dove outing:

  1. Hunting doves (at least for me, solo) isn't a kick back and sip coffee while I wait for birds roll in endeavor. It's a sit and wait, and the moment my attention starts to wane, "Holy chit they're right there, where the hell did they come from!" and try to get off a shot as they fly away amid my moment of panic.
  2. Those motorized mojo decoys really do work. It's pretty cool watching the birds come in to investigate.
  3. Swallows and redwing blackbirds are a-holes, zooming overhead in flocks, toying with my emotions.
  4. I saw quite a few more birds this week at the chosen new location - part of a national wildlife refuge - but shooting at doves with nontoxic shot will get expensive quickly,

Doves - 5, Matt - 0
shells.jpg

While I didn't see any big flocks of birds, there was a slow, steady stream of ones and twos that rolled by to check out the mojo. I do need to get a bit longer stake as the grass was kind of tall and thick here.

NWR.jpg
 
i need to get out and do some dove hunting. One bird i have never really tried to go after but they taste so good. My cousin got a banded one last week that was 8 years old pretty neat!
 
Going to need some details on this please! I almost always make poppers or tacos with my dove but this year I have so many I need to branch out.
Wife made it so I’m not much help. She used a homemade orange chicken recipe and substituted dove/pigeon for the meat.
 
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