Finally got a good stand after years of planting them too deep
Anyone grow flowers for dove?
- Thread starter BurtGummer
- Start date
I grow flowers to attract hippies. Hippies are free meat. Plus no one misses them and with enough savory spices they don’t taste terrible.
Sirhr
Sirhr
Well, I guess so. My only time in NV was when I was TDY for a few months at Nellis AFB from Jun-Aug. I don't care what they say about the humidity, when its over 110 F out...its the fucking heat! hahaBest of luck with your sunflowers. You have a lot of dove in NV?
Trying to help their population
Best of luck with your sunflowers. You have a lot of dove in NV?
Best of luck with your sunflowers. You have a lot of dove in NV?
They're all over the west, but being migratory they are hit and miss. Whomever set up the dove season in MT must have been a jokester, as 90% of the time they migrate a week or two before the season opens.
I plant some sorghum. But, migration of birds here in Montana is difficult to pinpoint. Especially Geese and ducks.
Sometimes I skip spraying Russian Thistles. Not much grain grown around here anymore. We usually get as many Eurasians as we do wild dove on the one weekend we get to hunt them. They sure do taste good though, quite a delicacy out here in the desert
I plant them for goldfinch. Tasty little things. I broadcast wheat and rocksalt for dove.
We’ve had great success in the past hunting them over sunflower fields but the best was a wheat field that didn’t get harvested that year. Millet is good as well.
Down here folks plant millet if they want to bait..... but not "bait" a field.
I live in peanut country and doves love peanuts too.
I can remember when I was really young driving through a peanut field with a trash can full of shelled raw peanuts in the truck bed. There would be 4 of us throwing handfuls of the peanuts out in the field as hard as we could go after the field had been picked and the hay rolled. The next weekend we would have a dove shoot for the ages.
At least where I am, there aren't a lot of good dove shoots anymore. I guess is has fallen out of vogue. Used to, there were shoots almost every weekend and every farmer didn't mind if you hunted their field after they were picked. The folks that do have good shoots nowadays are a very tight knit group and it is tough to get in.....supply and demand, I guess. There are so many dove around now (because so few dove hunts take place anymore) that I'd bet you don't even really have to bait anymore. I could sit out in my in-laws' front yard and kill 10 a day. Dang things are everywhere.
I've graduated to several quail hunts in GA and one pheasant in SD per year to get my bird hunting fix.....but it isn't the same....not near as challenging....as dove hunting. I have been invited to a small hunt later this year. I can't wait because I want my son to experience it. Hope it's a good one too. When there are a lot of dove, it is pretty exciting.
I live in peanut country and doves love peanuts too.
I can remember when I was really young driving through a peanut field with a trash can full of shelled raw peanuts in the truck bed. There would be 4 of us throwing handfuls of the peanuts out in the field as hard as we could go after the field had been picked and the hay rolled. The next weekend we would have a dove shoot for the ages.
At least where I am, there aren't a lot of good dove shoots anymore. I guess is has fallen out of vogue. Used to, there were shoots almost every weekend and every farmer didn't mind if you hunted their field after they were picked. The folks that do have good shoots nowadays are a very tight knit group and it is tough to get in.....supply and demand, I guess. There are so many dove around now (because so few dove hunts take place anymore) that I'd bet you don't even really have to bait anymore. I could sit out in my in-laws' front yard and kill 10 a day. Dang things are everywhere.
I've graduated to several quail hunts in GA and one pheasant in SD per year to get my bird hunting fix.....but it isn't the same....not near as challenging....as dove hunting. I have been invited to a small hunt later this year. I can't wait because I want my son to experience it. Hope it's a good one too. When there are a lot of dove, it is pretty exciting.
We do Sunflowers, Millet, Field Corn, Grain Sorghum, and Wheat on our dove field.
I have had good luck planting the peredovik sunflowers, if I can keep the deer off of them.
Millet is super easy, if you're putting it in a low spot that may hold water from time to time, use Japanese, if no chance for excess water, browntop will be fine.
Wheat is also very easy as it will grow in the back of your truck when spilled... Broadcasting it on top of dirt feeds them for a while, but if it starts to sprout, disc it back under and re-sow. It will slowly grow through the winter and have a nice head during the spring.
I have had good luck planting the peredovik sunflowers, if I can keep the deer off of them.
Millet is super easy, if you're putting it in a low spot that may hold water from time to time, use Japanese, if no chance for excess water, browntop will be fine.
Wheat is also very easy as it will grow in the back of your truck when spilled... Broadcasting it on top of dirt feeds them for a while, but if it starts to sprout, disc it back under and re-sow. It will slowly grow through the winter and have a nice head during the spring.
You just have to plant a bunch of wheat right before season starts. Plant it right on the surface. Then replant it again once a week or so after it washes away or gets eaten.
- Nov 3, 2010
- 10,522
- 23,053
I've been hosting a Dove hunt for the last 12 years or so. Usually about 20 of my Friends and their Families and my Family with their Friends. I usually plant Sunflowers and fertilize and spray them as recommended. Last year I fought the weather, worked way to hard and spent way too much money. And had a poor stand and a low yield and we still killed birds. Like the Farmers say, too wet too wet too late!
This year was also too wet so we'll be hunting over Wheat. I've already disc the fields 3 times and plan on once more before I broadcast .
You can legally bait here but it has to follow standard agri practices in the amounts you can use. You can't use multiple things and whatever you plant has to be mowed, burned or disc.
My hunts follow the old Southern tradition of surrounding the field with the hunters. Any Dove that flies the length of the field runs the gauntlet. We start the afternoon before with a skeet shoot followed by burgers and beer in my back yard. Then after the opening mornings hunt we have a fish fry and we grill Dove breast for anyone that wants to donate to the cause. Its a good time of Shooting and Fellowship.
One of the best hunts that I have has was on an old grass airstrip where my buddy loaded his Rice into the grain trucks. You always spill some and this was legal because it was an agri practice. I think I hit 13 straight, missed one and ended up with a limit of 15 for 16 shots!
Wow, I can't hardly wait!
This year was also too wet so we'll be hunting over Wheat. I've already disc the fields 3 times and plan on once more before I broadcast .
You can legally bait here but it has to follow standard agri practices in the amounts you can use. You can't use multiple things and whatever you plant has to be mowed, burned or disc.
My hunts follow the old Southern tradition of surrounding the field with the hunters. Any Dove that flies the length of the field runs the gauntlet. We start the afternoon before with a skeet shoot followed by burgers and beer in my back yard. Then after the opening mornings hunt we have a fish fry and we grill Dove breast for anyone that wants to donate to the cause. Its a good time of Shooting and Fellowship.
One of the best hunts that I have has was on an old grass airstrip where my buddy loaded his Rice into the grain trucks. You always spill some and this was legal because it was an agri practice. I think I hit 13 straight, missed one and ended up with a limit of 15 for 16 shots!
Wow, I can't hardly wait!
I wasn't joking. Years ago in KS I went with a couple of guys to one of their leases. Made my way into the bush at the edge and ended sitting around some MJ.
Later when we breasted the doves we killed we found MJ seeds in their crops. Some that's all they had in there.....
Shooting doves over a freshly turned field full of cucumbers is more self defense than it is hunting.
We have Dove Season in September here in SD for like a month or 6 weeks. You start seeing them pile up on highline wires and fence lines next to sunflowers, soybeans, and wheet fields in late August.
You use dogs simply because you shoot them in packs. I wouldn't waste my time walking fields without a dog.
So dropping a pair or more is commonplace. Limit of 15 per man and when its hot and heavy....limits fill in an hour easy. Eurasian doves are invasive and almost double in size and don't count against your limit. Taste the same.
You can look up videos of the doves they got in South America. You pay money to shoot 1,000 or more shells a day and they don't put a dent in them.
You use dogs simply because you shoot them in packs. I wouldn't waste my time walking fields without a dog.
So dropping a pair or more is commonplace. Limit of 15 per man and when its hot and heavy....limits fill in an hour easy. Eurasian doves are invasive and almost double in size and don't count against your limit. Taste the same.
You can look up videos of the doves they got in South America. You pay money to shoot 1,000 or more shells a day and they don't put a dent in them.
Bring $350 to give to mr green jeans. That was the cost the last time I got caught hunting over bait. :-D
In my spot they plant sunflowers and kill them all on on August 15th every year. It’s important to kill them and give the seeds some time to dry out so the doves start feasting on Sept 1st. If you don’t actively kill them they may go into late September before they’re ready. Also disking the field around the sunflowers is critical. Doves won’t light unless the ground is very smooth and unobstructed.
I hunted it for ten years and it was ok (took all day to shoot a limit), but about five years ago the guy dumped a couple of loads of sand around one of his cattle ponds and turned it into a circular beach. Now they come from miles around to get that sand, and land where there’s no obstructions to the water. Now it’s crazy. We’ll go out an hour before sunset and shoot a limit in five minutes. By the time everyone limits and cracks the first tailgate beer there will be 500-1000 doves around the pond and lit in the sunflowers.
It pisses my friend off to no end, but now there’s paid hunters on all the neighbors lands around him to get at the doves he’s been cultivating for a generation. He’s in his 80s now. Burns him up.
I hunted it for ten years and it was ok (took all day to shoot a limit), but about five years ago the guy dumped a couple of loads of sand around one of his cattle ponds and turned it into a circular beach. Now they come from miles around to get that sand, and land where there’s no obstructions to the water. Now it’s crazy. We’ll go out an hour before sunset and shoot a limit in five minutes. By the time everyone limits and cracks the first tailgate beer there will be 500-1000 doves around the pond and lit in the sunflowers.
It pisses my friend off to no end, but now there’s paid hunters on all the neighbors lands around him to get at the doves he’s been cultivating for a generation. He’s in his 80s now. Burns him up.
Hunting doves over bait around here is a big no no. And, an area is considered baited for something like 60 days after the last spec of bait is removed. I’ve hunted wild sunflower fields- just fields left fallow where sunflowers grew. I’m not 100% on the legality of planting sunflowers for doves, but we’re not in position to sacrifice a cattle pasture for doves anyway. Hunting a “wild field” was ok but never as productive as hunting over a pond in the evening- especially one with a sand/gravel bank. Sadly, the doves just haven’t been around for the last several years. We see a few, but not enough to get a hunt going.
@hlee Beef cattle? Scratch up a spot and put some feed troughs on it. Feed wheat to the cattle. 100% legit.
This is probably as good a place as any to drop this. Federal regs for baiting doves...
