how was your dove opener

[chocolab]

so how was everyone's dove opener.

it was awesome to get back out there,

my brothers and i went out in the southwest region

and we ended up with bout 30, definitely missed more than

a few as well.

so how did everyone do, interested to hear your stories.

[123fish]

One shot, one dove. Recovering from knee surgery so not much of an effort was made.

[tybo]

Only was out for a little while. ha a few shots got one. My firned missed a perfectly decoyed dove, 3 shots 3 misses. He looked at me and I just smiled - welcome to the club. I could have set us up a little better so I think I have a better plan for the next outing, SAT morning. I think we could gte a limit ir two with the numbers we saw but we'll have to shoot very well.

There weren't a lot of doves but we could have had 3 or 4 with a little better shooting. I have dirven many, many miles looking for some good fields. I just haven't seen large number sof birds grouped up yet. I'm not sure if it's the heat, if the cold spell a few weeks ago drove them out or if the small grains were harvested too early for them. Anyway, I will scout some more and see what we can find.

Good luck to all!!

[YoMan]

Was out south of Marshall, used a box of 25 and bagged 7, dog couldn't find the 8th..

Will be missing duck opener so it was good to be out.

Its amazing how fast the doves caught on to things. It was a flurry up until 10am, then it was a staring contest with them sitting on the electric poles.

[tybo]

Last year they were sitting on the polres and some guy drove down the road and saw us in the adjacent field and did everything he could to scare them off the lines, honking, swirving, etc. It livened things up again for a little while. I don't know who we was but i owe him a beer.

[CRAZYEYES]

The bugs were bad. I can tell you that much. Got a few yesterday morning near glenwood but were'nt seeing too many so we headed west of morris near gracevill and there seemed to be less the further we went. Figured there would be a lot more out near the border with all the cut wheat but notta. We ended up back near glenwood near dark. 16 all together for 2 of us. Not like last year when 4 of us limited out easily.

[troutkingmaster]

Similar results for my group in South Central MN. Hunted all day and did not see anywhere near the #s we did last year. Ended up with 12 for 3 guys.

[Huntin&Fishin]

How many of you guys yse decoys to attract the doves? Or just pass shoot?

[jparrucci]

Hunted a WMA just north of the metro, never fired a shot. Was there for 2 hours around dusk and dawn. The dog did kick up/point a number of pheasant though. Also met a skunk (no spray at least) and a raccoon. Only spotted a few doves in the evening, none in the morning, and never in range. It was still nice to get out though, but man were the mosquitos out of control.

[YoMan]

Had 4 decoys set up on a smaller tree outside wheat field. One wind activated one. The groups of doves did not care for the decoys, but I had a couple of solo flyers go over the decoys. Position in the field decided success.

Ditto on the mosquitos, could barely wait till the sun came up.

[PierBridge]

Sounds like last years Dove season to me for you guys in which we didn't have many birds around.

This year we have an amazing amount of doves in our haunts. Just have to wait until after the Goose opener weekend as we don't want to spook the large numbers of Honkers we are going to punish tomorrow morning!

[trolloni]

So you guys have been seein quite a few birds, that sounds good havent seen hardly any down here in northwest illinois with this cold snap should get em moving a little,Tybo youre story brings back memories of my old shorthair ,the doves would always land on the wire about 400 yards down on the neighbors property she would see em land and start sneekin down there and of coarse i would tell her go get em in a real low tone she would sneek all the way and get under em and start barkin like crazy flush em out and run back to me flat out to get into position to make the retrieve, man she was awesome she loved makin those retrieves.[couldnt shoot on the neighbors but they loved watching the dog work after i explained what she was doin]

[R. Miller]

Got a couple yesterday in western MN. Not nearly as good as last year for me. I had a couple spots scouted about 3 weeks ago that had many...hardly any there this weekend.

[LandDr]

I hooked up with a fella from Worthington for our 7th Annual PLM Dove Invite. I think we had 22 hunters and ended up with 221 doves.

There were some fields with hundreds if not even thousands of birds in them. It was a good shoot. We cleaned up all the birds for lunch...grilled some and fried some along with sweet corn and some sides for a great finish!

I started out good with my first 4 shots having 4 birds but dropped off to finally getting my 15 birds with 24 shells. Great hunt and a lot of shooting opportunity.

Land Dr

[x1957x]

Kyle, glad you guys came! what a fantastic time, couldnt have got any better. Matt and Troy took them out again that night and the next morning and I think the correct amount of doves for 2 mornings and one evening was an unbelieveable 401 doves!!!! Jeff ---Kyle, we have to get together and talk when you have time. How was your fishing trip? Give me a call when you have time or send me an e-mail. That really opened up the door to some new ideas. Thanks again and let me know how things went.-----jeff n.

[123fish]

We were in the hot field you guys shot up Saturday evening. Shot 34. Could have used a Mojo. Didn't see a real large number of birds but that's understandable after seeing what was shot out of there before we hit it.

[1eyeReD]

A bit late but on opening day, wife and I hunted a bit South of Brownton. WMA and private. The WMA had tons of fog in the early morning, but I did see some nice high flying flocks of 20 doves or so per flock. Didn't even get a shot until a lone flyer broke off and I dropped him in the thick stuff. You guessed it, couldn't find him.

We then knocked on a door and got permission to hunt a cut corner of a corn field next to another WMA. There were tons of doves in the dirt when we first drove by. The 2nd time around when we drove by again, they all took off. I told my wife, "I'm sure they'll come back".... Well, about 2 came back within range and popped one. The rest landed on power lines about 200 yds down on the neighboring property.

So 1 dove to show. Tasted good marinated with chinese BBQ and a Summit IPA. I'm done with the doves. Can't wait for pheasant.