damn birds

[bohica]

Went to my brothers field thursday with him to look at the birds, make the call on hunting. Doves in the field at 3, by 4:30 coming in flights of 10-15 until 6 oclock. Hell yes we thought..

Yesterday. Birds coming in ones and twos, high as hell no sense of urgency to get in the field. This lasted for 3 hours. Limits were had by some, others had no shooting. When the last car left at around 6 or so, birds came pouring in. Damn birds were acting like educated late season birds.

[Sportin' Woodies]

or it was just hot as hell.

[bohica]

I thought that too, but other clubs ( see palmetto bug) crushed em..

[Tater]

Were you in the special management area that restricts hunting past 1800?

[bohica]

damfino.

[Tater]

Ah, I gotcha.....that sucks.

[GobblerHntr]

You should hear what those birds have to say about the hunters!

[Duckman#1]

Were you in the special management area that restricts hunting past 1800?

I've been hearing from a few people about having to stop shooting doves at 6 pm, don't know where it come from but it's not true.

[bohica]

I thought that may have been a joke.

Most everyone was done before 6, but it was a 3hr grind to get the birds.

[Sportin' Woodies]

u talkin bout my field, tater?

[SCSwitchback]

We had a good shoot, but many of the birds acted the same way. High as hell, and didn't really seem to care to actually come into the field.

[smallwater]

They poured in at 6:30 Saturday.

[Tater]

I've been hearing from a few people about having to stop shooting doves at 6 pm, don't know where it come from but it's not true.

u talkin bout my field, tater?

No, like DM#1 I've heard of people that think they have to stop at 1800. I believe it's coming from the regs for the public fields, but NO ONE on private land has to stop at 1800 per the regs. Now, if the owner of said field says you gonna stop at 1800 then you gonna stop at 1800 but there's absolutely nothing legally that says you have to.

[buckshot1224]

We stop at 6 or 6:30 to let a few birds feed. No sense in pushing them all out till the last minute IMO.

[Swamp Rat]

We stop at 6 or 6:30 to let a few birds feed. No sense in pushing them all out till the last minute IMO.

Good move. There is some common wisdom that you should ALWAYS let them have a late afternoon unmolested time, you should NEVER shoot a field for more than 2 to 2½ hours in any given day, and you should either not shoot a field in the morning, or keep morning shoots VERY short.

[buckshot1224]

no morning shoots (one in the past 3 years)

every other weekend, unless it is late season and we have birds (migratory)

3-6pm is our usual

[2thDoc]

i call BS on the morning shoot thing messing them up. i think you can get in and out of there a lot quicker.

i agree shoots shouldnt last past 6pm this time of year. No reason to be in the field that late. birds needs to feed unmolested.

i have a club in town that ONLY hunts mornings and it does right well and i bet i spend half as much time in that field if you add it all up.

[12341234]

I only shoot my field in the mornings and have never had an issue with birds leaving.