Intro Dove Hunting Advice

[Garcia_8]

Try to find an open area that they fly through. I’ve noticed where I hunt they tend to fly through “alleys” in the trees. Basically the path of least resistance & spinners work great on mourning doves. Have fun!

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

Our entire group limited out in 90 minutes.

If you’re in AZ shoot me a PM.

 

[TreeDux]

Plenty of sound advice. Couple more ideas for you. Afternoons directly over a water hole can be good. Small with flat shallow banks and low vegetation or better yet, bare flat banks is ideal. Cattle ponds are good. The opening day hunt with lots of guns is good for comeradery and volume of shot opportunity. After the first day or so most dove hunters go chase something else. It takes the crowd away but crowds actually force them to fly. Without crowds and later season you can have some awesome hunting but you gotta be a bit more on the “x” and that just takes a little scouting and common sense.

 

[neandth]

I’ll add there are three rules to dove hunting with others.
1. Don’t shoot the low bird.
2. Don’t shoot the low bird.
3. Well you get the idea.

 

[MallardSX2]

I’ll add there are three rules to dove hunting with others.
1. Don’t shoot the low bird.
2. Don’t shoot the low bird.
3. Well you get the idea.

I took the girls to a big dove shoot last year and there were a lot of people shooting at low birds. It was a terrible experience for them.

 

[neandth]

I took the girls to a big dove shoot last year and there were a lot of people shooting at low birds. It was a terrible experience for them.

Believe me i have been there before. Speaking from experience.

 

[Mtns2hunt]

A big group around a cornfield can be fast and productive. But I too do not like all the crowd , noise and low shots.

Instead I hunt a waterhole in National forest. Limit in under an hour. This is an evening hunt of course.

 

[yfarm]

Whitewing season opened today. 90+ degrees, sweating in the shade and a hot dog

 

[Bidwell]

Thanks for the advice everybody. It's been a tough week but I've learned some things. All the comments have been a big help. One thing I learned is to make sure the environment around you is not so thick with vegetation that there's a chance you may not find your bird. Had a close call on this. Thinking/typing it out loud, it seems obvious, but when you're out there as a newbie and looking around for birds in the afternoon when they're not hitting open fields anymore, stuff happens fast and it may not be a consideration.