Glenn you see that pic I put up of my feet? Gangster barefoot deer cleaning..
I shoot about every gauge.. I don't really think any of them handicap me besides a .410. I'll shoot more 20s then 16s. It's mostly what I feel like that particular day. I tend to shoot more 20s in the winter, the last few times it's snowed I shot 16s. It's fine either way, I don't understand guys getting poetic about 20s. Half the guys I see shooting them need two boxes of shells anyways. That shit is silly.
FWIW, I hit the feedlots hard out here in Wyoming the first two years I was here, and the mourning doves here really highlight the effect the weather has on their migration, and they most definitely do migrate.
In the south, you may or may not see the obvious influence weather has on their migration because you are on the receiving end of it and you have a bunch of resident doves...kinda like ducks. I'm on the giving end up here; the doves are thick until the first strong cold front, and after that, they are gone. It is dramatic. We might get three to four weeks of really good mourning dove shoots where thousands are pouring into the feedlots and feeding on wild sunflower along the edges of the dirt roads, then the first strong cold front hits, and poof...they are GONE overnight and all you see after that is Eurasian Ringnecks.
When spring hits, one day you will see a couple of mourning doves, and within a week, they will be back in full force.
“I can’t wait ‘till I’m grown” is the stupidest @!#* I ever said!
Ive noticed a lot of guys shooting 20’s that really need to shoot a 12 based on what you just stated. A proficient shooter should be able to get a 15 bird limit inside of a box with a 20 consistently. It can become more of a challenge late season with migratory birds. It always amazes me how tough they can be.
Seems like an active thread- would love to extend an invite to DrDuck to dove hunt next Saturday. Come out of the Hole, but you can’t say BAWWWWWWWWWWWHA or post about Scar all day. Serious invite- no strings attached (other than those noted- all legal game laws apply).
Duck hunting is great out here. I hunted a bunch the first two years I was here, but haven’t since. It was more of a duck shoot whenever I went vs a duck hunt. I had access to a small depression in a grass field that irrigation runoff would accumulate in, and despite nearly zero cover, I could go and hammer a mixed bag limit and be headed home in a hour any morning. I have a freezer full of ducks, and I lost access to that spot, and with all the other critters out here to hunt, I just stopped going after ducks.
Call me crazy, but I was far more motivated and willing to work myself silly and cheat death trying to kill a handful of ducks in SC than I am to go sit by some water out here and pile em up in short order. After experiencing really good ducks shoots and duck Tornados a few times, killing an easy limit didn’t seem as special as scratching out a couple of woodies and the rare wild green head in SC.
In the spring when the ducks are headed back north, we get a couple of months of water holes slap full of fully plumed ducks of pretty much every variety you’d expect to see in the lower 48. We get a ton of cinnamon teal hanging out then; it’s beautiful. Then they move on up and we just have a few BWT and resident mallards until it starts getting cold. When the ducks come back in October, they get thick and stay thick through mid December/early January.
If you can come do some legwork and knock on doors and get permission to hunt the fields out here, I’d consider coming here or Colorado before heading to Canada. Plenty of color on the October ducks and plenty of them.
Last edited by WhitewaterDuck; 09-30-2022 at 09:39 PM.
“I can’t wait ‘till I’m grown” is the stupidest @!#* I ever said!
Well, Ian didn't blow my little dove field flat. In fact, it did very little damage at the farm. It didn't even blow the tarps off of my tractor implements. We had 4.25" in the rain gauge but the ponds don't look any higher. This is just west of Ridgeville.
I saw a few very fresh scrapes and jumped a deer while surveying for damage. Wind direction,temperature and solunar tables look like I need to be in a tree stand this evening. I was expecting to spend the day mopping and running a chainsaw. Woohoo!
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Our birds were gone this afternoon
We had a good shoot this evening 120 birds with 15 guns and several people should have limited. Some folks just flat out can’t shoot. All that matters to me is they had a good time. Our total bird count should have been more like 200.
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