# The perfect dove field



## LHCLLLC (Jun 6, 2009)

If you had a blank slate, how big, orientation, surrounding elements, what would you plant, etc...


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## Nitro (Jun 6, 2009)

Blanks slate????

3 fields- 30 acres each ..

Bordered by Pines and Hardwoods. For roost and rest habitat....

A Pond on each border, a gravel/sand road bisecting the property.  A fake powerline though the middle of each field. 

Each of the fields would be planted in alternating ten row sections of Corn , Sunflower, millet, sorghum and Benne.......that should provide food and cover for most of the season. I wouldn't cut the corn until after the season to provide shooting positions. 

Rotate harvest, bushogging and discing by food source to extend the use of the property by the Doves. Each field could provide more than one hunt for the twenty shooters I would permit to shoot.

The DNR would not be able to find my Dove utopia in this imaginary scenario............. I would make every attempt to keep this Dove club legal....


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## Dustin Pate (Jun 6, 2009)

Nitro said:


> Blanks slate????
> 
> 3 fields- 30 acres each ..
> 
> ...



I don't see anything wrong with that!


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## Medicine Man (Jun 6, 2009)

That would pretty much do it.


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## Nitro (Jun 6, 2009)

Dustin Pate said:


> I don't see anything wrong with that!



Pretty much how we have done our SC Dove club and I am hopeful to get my GA club in the same set up....

We kill a few


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## chase870 (Jun 6, 2009)

With a blank slate????  Bare dirt and feed wheat. Other than that cedar trees gravel and water near the property, sunflowers they tend to last longer, 50 acres worth. Limit the hunts to 25 or so shooters and only 1 shoot a week. 20 gauge guns or smaller and limit each shooter to 75 shells


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## Nitro (Jun 6, 2009)

chase870 said:


> With a blank slate????  Bare dirt and feed wheat. Other than that cedar trees gravel and water near the property, sunflowers they tend to last longer, 50 acres worth. Limit the hunts to 25 or so shooters and only 1 shoot a week. 20 gauge guns or smaller and limit each shooter to 75 shells




You are advocating baiting????

I like the shell limits...... We have had a bunch of one box limits on our clubs....I have had a few


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## Rip Steele (Jun 6, 2009)

Nitro said:


> You are advocating baiting????
> 
> I like the shell limits...... We have had a bunch of one box limits on our clubs....I have had a few



We had a limit too, but you know I could fit nine shells in one sock


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## chase870 (Jun 6, 2009)

Nitro said:


> You are advocating baiting????
> 
> I like the shell limits...... We have had a bunch of one box limits on our clubs....I have had a few



The planting date for wheat in TN is a bit sooner than here, I have hunted on their WMA's and it looks like bait. Plowed dirt and drilled wheat. Not much different here when they plant wheat cut it and burn it.


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## LHCLLLC (Jun 7, 2009)

Thanks for the great response. Is water near by that important? Does the pond/water source need to be next to or actually in the field to make a positive influence?


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## texasbirdhunter (Jun 7, 2009)

I have another criteria I would like to throw out there – a town close by.  Doves are in the same class as pigeons and sparrows in that they thrive in the urban environment.  A field of grain on the outskirts of town is going to get a lot of city birds.  As I watch the birds in my back yard, virtually every tree has an active dove nest and I feel it is representative of the entire neighborhood.  It is just the beginning of June and I am already finding a second round of broken egg shells dropped everywhere.  It is entirely possible that there will be 3 hatches this year.  Since the parents have staked out the trees as their territory, when the youngsters are kicked out they have to go some where else to live and feed.  My point is that it seems like a city is a huge dove factory and all those first and second hatch fledglings can’t live in the same tree as mom and dad.  So they have to leave the city with all its bird feeders and pet food bowls and look for other food sources like your field.  During dove season I can see swarms of doves winging their way of the city and towards the milo and corn fields just outside San Antonio.  The same thing would happen on the field next to my grandparents farm in Eastman Georgia, in the morning the doves would all come pouring in from the direction of Eastman.  

I guess my point is that a city or town will have a higher concentration of birds than the surrounding farm land and if you have a grain field close enough for those doves to find then you will have plenty of shooting.


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## Jeff Raines (Jun 7, 2009)

texasbirdhunter said:


> It is just the beginning of June and I am already finding a second round of broken egg shells dropped everywhere.  It is entirely possible that there will be 3 hatches this year.
> .


We've already been thru 2 hatches,starting 3rd nestings now.Last year we had nests with hatchlings a week before opener.
Every year we have a dove nest on a catwalk ledge.You can lay down with your head just inches away from the nest and watch'em


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## Hooked On Quack (Jun 7, 2009)

When I had my field built 20 years ago I left white oaks, red oaks, and persimmon trees in it.  Doves love to "stage" in these trees before hitting the ground. Also provides blinds and SHADE which is great early season. Over the years I've noticed that the birds seem to like to feed in the shade too!  Cost wise, wheat is hard to beat and easy to sweeten up.  Nitro described the perfect field, but with the drought the last few years that's alot of money to invest for possibly nothing.  Last, but not least, when you got 'em, shoot 'em.  My main problem are hawks, I can have a field full of birds everyday for a week, then they disappear and I'll spot a hawk sitting in a tree, or a pile of dove feathers on the ground.


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## proline123 (Jun 7, 2009)

I plant about 200 ares of bird feed every year,sunflowers,millet,peanuts,seseeme,orn.By the way I an spell My keyboard has a letter that has failed .I have been doing this for about ten years.I reomend shooting over sunflowers the first season and peanuts and seseeme the seond season.


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## Dustin Pate (Jun 7, 2009)

LHCLLLC said:


> Thanks for the great response. Is water near by that important? Does the pond/water source need to be next to or actually in the field to make a positive influence?



Closer by is better. It doesn't have to be on the property so much. The perfect pond to me would be one with plenty of bare bank with small grit.


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## Mwaldrop (Jun 7, 2009)

a pivet of sunflowers always tend to be the best that i have been too. also some areas of georgia just aint got the birds like others. so find them first


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## Jim P (Jun 7, 2009)

All of the above, plus me.


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## zzweims (Jun 7, 2009)

I agree with all of the above but...If I had 90 acres to plant, I would divide it into 5-6 fields of 10-12 acres each with plenty of trees and water in between.  30 acres is a BIG field.  Unless it is long and narrow, the dove learn after one or two shoots to avoid the edges.  They will still come and feed in the middle --out of gun range.

And BURN, BURN, BURN.  Nothing attracts dove like scortched earth.  The later the better, but even early season burns will draw the birds like candy.


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