All Things Change

[Nimrod71]

Dove hunting, oh how I love it. To smell the gun powder in the air, to hear the roar of gun fire as a dove passes high over the field, to see the bird go poff when hit by a full load of shot. OH I love it so.

Now the hard part: sitting in the middle of a corn field, heating to near death with the sun cooking me, not a dove in sight. When a bird does finally show up it is to high or to far out or someone far out of range starts firing at the bird I was going to kill, turns and flies off unharmed. Even worst I shoot the bird down and I can't find him in the corn. Or like a friend of mine, get rattle snake bit hunting the bird in the high grass, runt his day. I should have went fishing.

The reason for this post is I would like to remind you of the way dove shoots use to be back in the 60's. In the old days the season here didn't open until the first Saturday in October. The season ran into January and we only shot on peanut fields. Shooting time ran from 12 noon until sundown. A case of shotgun shells had 20 boxes. I ask a game warden one day why we couldn't shoot birds in the morning and he told me; in the old days you could shoot all day long and the birds were nearly wiped out. The state changed the shooting time to noon to sundown and it brought the birds back to good numbers and great shoots. It was not uncommon to use 2 to 3 cases of shells in a season back then. Sounds good to me.

I ask my uncle one day why we only shot in peanut fields? His answer was; have you ever tried finding a bird in a corn field, I had and it was very hard. Peanut fields are the best to hunt in, finding down birds is so easy, I believe a sight impaired person could find them easily.

Now, how many of you Dove hunters would be interested in seeing the opening day moved back to October and the starting time moved to noon? Bearing in mind the weather would be cooler, the fields more cleaner, and more birds to hunt.

 

[Mexican Squealer]

No to both. Just fine the way it is.

 

[guido5221]

No to both as well

 

[fountain]

Starting time on opening day is noon now...that's fine. I like the option to shoot mornings. Its cooler this time of year and they head to feed right off the roost in the winter.

I'm good with season starting just like it is now too. Deer season is another story...

 

[antharper]

October would be fine , but I love shooting at daylight !

 

[fowl player]

no to both as well already wait long enough it seems

 

[jollymon]

I like the October start and the slightly cooler temperature .
Noon start is more civilized then getting up at the butt crack of dawn would be fine with me too .
You mite get some migrating birds if they even do that anymore , just look at all the Canadian's that don't migrate .

 

[across the river]

I like the October start and the slightly cooler temperature .
Noon start is more civilized then getting up at the butt crack of dawn would be fine with me too .
You mite get some migrating birds if they even do that anymore , just look at all the Canadian's that don't migrate .

No one makes any of you go in September. If you want to wait until October to dove hunt, just wait until one of the later season come in and go when it is cold. That doesn't mean other people shouldn't get to go in September. Doves migrate, along with robins, hummingbirds, and a hose of other birds. Dove breed here and some of those doves hang out here all year, but a large number of the doves you see in December aren't the same ones you saw in September. They are birds that have flow south from up north to find food and escape the winter.

As far a geese go, resident geese are a product of the geese the DNR stocked here in the 80s and 90s. Geese that were stocked here, reproduced here, and had no reason to migrate, so you have them year round. They are essentially feral geese, similar to the mallards and other resident species that weren't traditionally resident year round. The geese that breed up North still migrate, there just aren't a ton of them that make it this far South.