ShopPosts Tagged ‘dove hunting’
North Dakota dove hunting was great
Monday, September 12th, 2011
Dove hunting was great in North Dakota over Labor Day weekend. Luckily, a buddy and I found a harvested canola field to hunt. We drove around quite a bit, and it was the only one we could find in about a 30 mile radius. I doubt we would have had such great shooting without that field. The birds were so hot to get into the field that we hunted it parts of three days to great effect.
The field’s landowner is a big hunter and he was glad to let us shoot over the field. We harvested 70 birds (the daily limit is 15/person, 30/person possession limit). We ate our first day’s take that night (14 birds in two hours) simmered stove top in oil and soy sauce – very good.
Decoys help bring doves closer and slows them up, both factors which help hitting these speedy, acrobatic game birds.
On the third day, the birds weren’t in the field that morning, so we left. We never found a better place to shoot. But, when we came back in the evening, the doves were all over the field once again. We had one windy day, so trying to walk them up and shoot was impossible because of their incredibly fast take off. One calm day, we are able to get on them with the gun while jump shooting.
Yet, we shot most our birds from a stationary location in an area where they were coming in to feed or passing by. I also set out some decoys on bare patches so they were visible. I bagged several doves coming in to land and some flying over slow for a look at the ‘coys. My springer, Hunter, was a big help retrieving doves since the canola stubble/weeds were high and thick enough to conceal the diminutive, gray-colored birds. I also learned that Hunter retrieves much better if I don’t crowd him on the retrieve and just call “fetch” while walked back to the blind. If I crowd him too much, he hangs back. My late springer, Wolf, reacted the same, but not quite as much as Hunter.
Weather-wise, we had two low 40-degree nights, but the birds hung around anyway. Doves are notorious for bugging out in such cool air. During the hunt, I also spotted some sharptails, but no pheasants. We were northeast of the capitol Bismarck.
We did spot a few other concentrations of doves, but one was over a tall weedy field – hard to hunt and hard to find downed birds. I also noticed higher water, more than last year – great news for NoDak waterfowlers such as myself. Incredibly, a stretch of Interstate-94 near Medina was diked against a large flooding lake. Both sides of the highway were being raised some 10-15 feet!
For pheasant hunters, dove hunting is a great way to work out the bugs in your gear, shooting and dog. How was your dove hunt?
The Nomad blog is written by Mark Herwig, Editor of the Pheasants Forever Journal. Email Mark at MHerwig@pheasantsforever.org.
Dove opener was good – with a few surprises
Thursday, September 9th, 2010
The author after the dove opener in North Dakota. Limits were had despite evidence of a weak hatch.
A dove sped toward our deadfall set-up, which was decorated with 15 decoys. It banked hard right, then left…then dropped after my shot. I was only 15 yards away when a hungry northern harrier hawk dropped to the ground, grabbed the still flapping dove and flew off!
I immediately ran after the hawk, waving my arms and yelling, “Hey, drop that dove!” Gladly, the startled raptor complied.
Such is hunting – you have to fight for everything you get out there.
***
My buddy Kevin Auslund and I hunted the dove opener Labor Day weekend in central North Dakota. We ventured there to drop off a small house trailer for an upcoming duck hunt this October 14.
The doves were everywhere, as usual, but you need to find a hot spot for consistent action. We drove 30 miles before finding the deadfall, which was covered with 25 doves! As is our custom, we parked for a bit to see if the spot was indeed worth a set-up.
The deadfall was next to a dry pan that was mostly bare dirt with some weeds – perfect for doves. To our west was a cornfield. Luckily, a lot of it had been stomped by a farmer’s errant one-ton bull, which offered not only open spaces for doves to land, but lots of food. To the north was a grove of cottonwoods (doves love cottonwoods) a half mile long either side of a dead end gravel road.
Between the morning and evening pass shooting, we jump shot the corn (with the landowner’s permission). I bagged half my limit (15/day, 30 in possession) at the deadfall, half in the corn. During slow times, we took turns walking the trees to flush birds for the other guy – it worked every time.
My springer Hunter did a good job flushing the tight-holding doves in the corn. He likewise found nearly every bird I dropped. I probably would have lost half the birds without his nose. We did notice a lot of adult birds in our bag. Fellow PF employee Rick Young noticed the same thing during his Nebraska dove hunt. What does a lot of adults and few young birds mean: a poor nesting season.
Dove hunting is not only a great hunt in and of itself, but it also gives you a chance to sharpen your shooting skills for later seasons. Speaking of later seasons, while in the corn, Hunter flushed a young rooster, which cackled angrily as he flew. Hopefully, we’ll run into him later this fall!
Pheasants Forever and doves
The book Ecology and Management of the Mourning Dove by the Wildlife Management Institute (WMI) says “ground nesting by mourning doves is common, even in areas where there are trees, shrubs and other suitable sites for nest perches.” WMI also said doves prefer open ground sites in burn areas.
This all indicates that doves nest on PF project sites, which typically include grass, controlled burn, evergreens and shrubs. Become a PF member at www.pheasantsforever.org and not only help the King of the Game Birds, but the diminutive “migratory gray quail” as well.
Harvest time–September means pumpkins and doves
Thursday, September 2nd, 2010
The harvest from the author's summer garden has peaked, but the game harvest is just starting with a North Dakota dove hunt this Friday.
September marks the beginning of the end for the summer garden. It also marks the beginning of the game harvest, starting with dove season, which opened around the country September 1st.
This morning before work, I harvested some pumpkins and squash from the backyard garden. Yesterday morning, I was out there and popped a dozen or more cherry tomatoes into my mouth for breakfast. Sweetened by the soil and warmed by the sun, their flavor was incredible. For lunch, my wife and I ate a medley of garden produce that included eggplant, summer squash, hot peppers, onions and potatoes shredded and sautéed in butter then topped with a honey mustard dressing. Hungry yet?
I’ll sure miss these garden lunches come the first killing frost, which in mid-Minnesota can come anytime now that it’s September. But for now, there’s more garden produce to come, especially since the 2.3 inches rain that fell the last two nights got things growing again after a two week dry spell.
Yet, while the garden harvest wanes, the game harvest is just waxing, beginning with a dove hunt in North Dakota starting Friday. I’ll also set up a new duck camp there for when we return October 14th. After doves, I have a metro Twin Cities bow deer hunt to get ready for and then rifle antelope in Wyoming. In late September, I’ll join some U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service woodcock experts for a timberdoodle hunt and habitat tour near Minnesota’s famed Mille Lacs walleye lake north of the Pheasants Forever offices about 90 minutes. Woodcock is declining because of its aging forest habitat. Some of our pheasant habitat efforts happen to be helping this bird. Pheasants Forever members will read about this hunt sometime next year in the Pheasants Forever Journal.
And of course, I’m also looking forward to my pheasant and quail hunts. Shoot me some news from your garden and what hunts you are looking forward to in the comments section below. Thanks.
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