# Building the perfect dove field



## LHCLLLC (Jan 2, 2013)

I am clear cutting a pine plantation and planning on creating a dove field. I've got a 7ac pond within 100 yards of the proposed site but would like opinions of what you'd do, not do in creating a dream dove field. It's my understanding before this field was planted in pines it was occasionally shot on and doves really came to the field. You've got up to 30 acres, lets hear your suggestions. Thanks in advance


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## Gadestroyer74 (Jan 2, 2013)

your gonna have alot of cleanup and stump removal to get ready for  a field hard to beat millet sunflowers and milo


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## T Tolbert (Jan 2, 2013)

I would say leave a few trees hear and there on the thirty acres. If some how you could kill a tree or two and leave them standing the doves love dead trees. 

Also put up a "power line". 

When it comes time to cut the field be sure to burn it with a hot fast fire. 

I hope to do the same thing one day.


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## GLS (Jan 3, 2013)

I can't say this was the perfect field, but it was pretty close.  A buddy cleared land for a 15 acre field last summer.  The field has a wide apron of newly planted longleaf so it was not edged with mature trees.  It sat up on a rise in the landscape with large pines within 200 yards.  The field was rectangular in shape with a dummy power line running in the middle on the long axis.  Alternating corn and sunflower were planted and progressively cut strips insured food throughout the season.  We had 5 shoots on the field and the first 4 resulted in limit shoots for most guns.  The 5th was a stretch.  We had no more than 10-12 guns per shoot and restricted the kill to 12 birds per gun.  I believe this kept a core group of birds to attract migrants and locals.  We also cleared the field well early enough to allow them to feed before dark.  A pond with clean banks was nearby.  As this was a first year planting, deer predation on the crop was minimal.  Next year will require electric fencing strips.  Unless the field is going to be harvested for production, burning is not a good idea as the standing corn and sunflowers left in strips offers hunter hides and unspoiled legal food for the birds.  Corn needs to be silage chopped (better) or bush-hogged.  The sunflowers can be left up.  The birds' crops contained corn, sunflower and wild seeds throughout the season.  Good luck.  It's not cheap what my buddy did to create this field, but we had great hunts and his generosity is appreciated by those who were lucky enough to hunt it.


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## webfootwidowmaker (Jan 3, 2013)

pretty field


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## LHCLLLC (Jan 3, 2013)

GLS that is awesome, any other pics? Thank you for sharing!


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## BirdNut (Jan 3, 2013)

GLS Yep that looks fun for sure!


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## SLY22 (Jan 3, 2013)

Wow! Thats a good looking field!!


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## GLS (Jan 4, 2013)

The field was long and narrow which made it easy to cover with 10-12 guns staggered throughout its length.  The corn and sunflower planting was approximately 200 x 400 yards.  We were lucky with the rain and its timing.  One edge was planted in soybeans which was not a factor for the doves as it was left standing for deer and turkeys.  We drew for numbered stands each time.  Four poles supported two runs of cable strung between the poles.  Here's another photo showing two of the four dummy power poles in the distance:


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## Russ@R&R (Jan 8, 2013)

To begin with, you have got to have a field/area that the doves like. You can have the best food, water & roosting areas in the world, but if the birds don't like it, it's worthless. With that said, you mentioned that the birds already come to it, so you have a good starting point. After 40 years of watching birds come to & leave food sources, I have to say that they will leave ANYTHING for a freshly harvested peanut field. You could plant part in peanuts & part in brown top, sunflowers, etc.


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## grouper throat (Jan 8, 2013)

We use to have a 15 acre field that was rows of dove proso millet, bare ground, then field corn (all in alternating rows). The proso was for the early season, and corn for later on. We had a field for a decade or so, and my dad was a big experimenter; he tried rape seed, regular browntop, sunflowers, anything someone suggested. 

The biggest factor in his opinion was just keepin the ground super clean and not necessarily the feed(which is why a peanut field is optimal). I'd also suggest keeping a few older trees and putting up a fake powerline (if needed). 

We planted it back in pines 5 years ago as the field was costly and my dad got tired of keeping it up with as we grew older and wanted to deer hunt. 

I've shot alot of fields and alot of the peanut and dove proso fields were the best.


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## GLS (Jan 9, 2013)

On the peanut fields I've hunted, and they have been good shoots, it is ironic that the crops of the birds rarely have peanuts in them.  There seems to be very little spillage of the peanut outside the hull and there is no way a dove can open a peanut hull.  The fields are clean as you state, but there is a often a very small seed in the crop, a wild seed. I don't know if the field is the source of the seed or it's picked up elsewhere.  The clean fields are also a source of grit necessary for the bird to "chew" food in the gizzard.


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## BirdNut (Jan 9, 2013)

Some of my best dove hunting memories were made on harvested peanut fields.


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## LHCLLLC (Jan 9, 2013)

Awesome info, thank you. Is a 20 acre field too big? From my personal experience I've had better hunts on big fields but we had it covered with shooters and it seemed late season hunts were better on bigger fields. Do you see the same thing? If so any idea why?


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## coveyrise90 (Jan 10, 2013)

GLS said:


> On the peanut fields I've hunted, and they have been good shoots, it is ironic that the crops of the birds rarely have peanuts in them.  There seems to be very little spillage of the peanut outside the hull and there is no way a dove can open a peanut hull.  The fields are clean as you state, but there is a often a very small seed in the crop, a wild seed. I don't know if the field is the source of the seed or it's picked up elsewhere.  The clean fields are also a source of grit necessary for the bird to "chew" food in the gizzard.



I noticed the exact same thing on the closer shoot. Most of the birds had that same small seed. But many also peanuts. However, the host of the hunt did drag the field prior to the shoot which, of course, would have busted the hulls.






Adam


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## coveyrise90 (Jan 10, 2013)

And the best shoots I've been on were over peanuts.


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## coveyrise (Jan 10, 2013)

GLS said:


> On the peanut fields I've hunted, and they have been good shoots, it is ironic that the crops of the birds rarely have peanuts in them.  There seems to be very little spillage of the peanut outside the hull and there is no way a dove can open a peanut hull.  The fields are clean as you state, but there is a often a very small seed in the crop, a wild seed. I don't know if the field is the source of the seed or it's picked up elsewhere.  The clean fields are also a source of grit necessary for the bird to "chew" food in the gizzard.



Most of the peanut fields I have hunted on the birds had small peanuts in their craw. Almost like somebody took the splits [centers] of the peanuts and ran them thru a Troybilt self propelled wood mulcher and blew them out the side like a sillage chopper. Not sure but it looked like that.


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## GLS (Jan 11, 2013)

The only negative aspect of peanut fields is that it is a late harvest compared with other suitable dove food.   However, as far as a production crop doubling as a dove attractant, it is hard to beat.  For a dedicated dove field without regard to commercial production of a food crop, other dove foods stretch the season longer by starting earlier.  20 acres is not too big as long as you have gun coverage.


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## grouper throat (Jan 11, 2013)

One of the best secrets my uncles had were peanut fields that had hogs turned in them after harvesting. The hogs will chew up the leftovers and spread them around.. Another method is to chop them up with a bush hog.


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## coveyrise90 (Jan 11, 2013)

grouper throat said:


> One of the best secrets my uncles had were peanut fields that had hogs turned in them after harvesting. The hogs will chew up the leftovers and spread them around.. Another method is to chop them up with a bush hog.



I heard about this from nearly every older dove hunter around here. Then the hog market died and that was that.

The host of our last hunt is a farmer and he built quite the drag for busting peanut hulls... it works REALLY well. On the closing shoot, We shoot a 200 acre field. But ALL of the birds headed for the strip of land (about 100yrds x 200 yrds) that had been drug.

Works like magic.

Adam


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## Russ@R&R (Jan 11, 2013)

Just tie a few old tires together to make a cheap, but effective drag to bust up peanuts.


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