Hunting Washington Forum
Other Hunting => Upland Birds => Topic started by: huntingdog16 on August 20, 2014, 01:54:09 PM
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:hello: I was wondering if someone cohld help me out. I live in Skagit County and lately have been noticing alot of doves fly over a rock quarry next to where my mom lives. I was wondering if it would be legal to hunt there. Also if anyone could possibly giveme any tips on dove hunting as far as gear, ammo, decoys, and anything else that might go into dove huntin! This will be my very first year of hunting so I was wondering if anyone could help out the newb :chuckle:
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Lately there have been a lot of Eurasian Doves in the area. They are an invasive species, and can be hunted year around with no limit or closed season. They are about the size of a Mourning Dove, but have a black band on the back of their necks. As far as the regular Mourning Doves, find a flyway or water hole that they come into every evening on the way to their roosts. any shotgun works. I used a 20 gage and did well. They can be extremely hard to hit, especially if they have been shot at before. A dog is almost a necessity for finding them when they fall, especially if they fall into tall grass. :twocents:
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I used one of those decoys with the rotating wings (the ones that rotate with the wind). It drew them in like a magnet. Bought a MOJO dove to try this year. The couple spots I go, I sit against the tall grass and have my decoys out in a low cut field (wheat field, I'm out east). My spots are near dove watering holes.
As for the rock quarry, you probably need to find out who owns it and get permission from them.
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There are getting to be more and more doves out on Samish ..I used to dove hunt a lot years ago but I never took time to go and knock on a couple doors out that way ...Might want to go drive around and see if you can find some hitting the wheat fields and try and get permission ..
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There is one wheat field and about three corn fields around? And the Samish River is about 3/4 miles away. It is legal to shoot firearms there on the weekends since the workers arent there but im not quite sure about hunting there? I was thinking about making a decoy tree and just clipping a few decoys on them and having one or two wind powered decoys? Does this sound good? Thanks for the help! :)
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Gravel.
You already said it man.
All birds need grit to digest thier food, so an early morning hunt at that rock quarry you suggested would be perfect.
You already see them flying in and out.
If you do use decoys, put them on the ground so it makes it look like a safe landing spot to grab grit.
They should come in thick... assuming you can hunt there.
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Thanks guys !! :IBCOOL: is there a certain type of decoy any of you prefer or know worls good?
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You actually want your decoys up high, not low to the ground, so the doves can see them. If you put them low especially on the gravel the doves will never see them since they are the same color basically. They are more attracted to their silhouette to be social. I can't remember who makes my wind driven decoy, I think I bought mine at the Sportsman's Warehouse or ordered it through Allpredators.com or Midway.
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Thanks guys !! :IBCOOL: is there a certain type of decoy any of you prefer or know worls good?
You referring to the game range ?
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Game range?
