GoTres

I got 10 on opening morning and then finished my limit early that afternoon. I went back to the same place Monday morning and got 2. Not much flying on the second morning at all, but I've seen more birds on afternoon hunts anyway. Going again this afternoon to a public spot about an hour from here. I'll lt y'all know how that one goes.

luny2nz

My first hunt, too. Sutter county,n.Ca.I have a friend thats invited me to hunt his property for years. Got to the foot of the sutter buttes at 5:30. Sunup-my buddy got one. Then the other guy got one. Here comes mine-miss. Another one-miss. Mid morning we were hot and done for the day. The freind that limited out was invited to our Bucks lake cabin that night. While he barbequed the doves,he told the story of my 2 box and no bird first hunt. monday I got to hear every "Broadside of the barn" joke you could think of. Even the wives got in on it! Anyway-I had a great time,was safe,and can't wait to get out there and try again!

GoTres

Went Wednesday afternoon to a new place (actually two places) about an hour northeast of my house and got nothing. It had just rained, a small shower, but enough to mess up the shooting for the rest of the day. Never fired a shot.
Thursday afternoon, I went to a place that I hunted several times last season with pretty good success. Once again, it had rained and the birds had bugged out for the day. I was disappointed to see that this guy has let his sunflowers take over one of his fields. Last year, there were small patches of sunflowers with HUGE stalks, but they made for great cover because they were about 6-8 ft tall and I could sit down between three or so plants and be pretty well hidden. This year, that entire field (approx. 100 acres) is solid and he shredded the edges and a few walkways through it. Actually too much cover and you'd never find a downed bird without a dog. (First season without mine) He's sold off most of his cows, so the other pasture is high too but that might be my best bet if I go back there before the northern birds blow in. Shot once at a flushing bird in the sunflowers and missed.
I might go re-scout the Wednesday night fiels again. I've got company coming this weekend and they want to do some shooting. I think if I can get up there without the rain beating me to it, I'd be ok. I'll let y'all know.

IndyHunter

Stepdad and I killed 59 birds over the first 3 days. I think the best is yet to come though. They are just now starting to harvest the seed corn, and the melon fields will be plowed under next week which will bring in tons of birds.

-Man who fight with wife all day get no piece at night-

drdan

I took three friends. There were much fewer doves than usual due to the drought but really not too bad. It was very hot and we thought the doves would follow their usual pattern and come into the group of trees we had surrounded. Unfortunately they found that the open ground under the patches of wild sunflowers were more to their liking. They had food AND shade there. I was the good host and periodically went out and routed them out of the shadiest patches of sunflowers. By midday it was so hot I practically had to shoo them out into the close to 100 degree heat. But they would then head to the clump of trees where my friends waited. I still haven't quite recovered though from walking that much in the heat. We did all right. Me and the other chiropractor limited out and the sporting clay instructor and her husband that I also invited went home with 26 between them so they were four short of a limit. We quit about 3:00 so they could have finished their limit easily but it was too hot and they had to get all the way back to Denver. I also flushed a lot of pheasant including a good many immature roosters so it's looks like we'll have some pheasant hunting in a couple of months. In one corner I had 5 pheasants and about 15 doves taking off in stages and Bud, who I had been keeping at heel because he was already too hot, started running every which way. I was shooting at the doves and was so flustered I only hit one dove even after reloading and emptying the gun again. Between the heat and no pheasants falling and me trying to get him to retrieve when he clearly saw that no pheasants fell, he started getting a little wild eyed. I had to laugh at him. He retrieved probably 40 doves that day and did a great job but he could not understand why I was messing with those doves when there were REAL birds getting up. LOL

Going again in the morning.

duckhunter74702

Killed ten Saturday, birds were flying pretty good, didn't go yesterday was raining all day.

GoTres

I went Saturday too. There were two of us and we found a public spot that had water, trees, and sunflowers. Looked pretty promising and then about the time we started seeing birds flying, the bottom fell out. We had actually sat through one small shower by hiding under a tree, but this one was a real soaker. We slipped and slid our way to the truck and decided that even if it quit, the mud would take the fun out of it, so we headed home (no birds to show) to clean the wet shotguns. Dang near stuck ourselves trying to get out of the pasture. More rain forecast for this weekend. Gggrrrooowwwwwwlllll.

JoeA

Going this weekend. Found another dairy to shoot at. (it's a place I once got barred from by a buddy who went alone & unannounced and somehow my name got mentioned...but that's another story) They just got a depredation permit from the state, so it's always dove season now. Our special dove season starts Oct 5,and reg bird season Nov 2nd.

Howler

Well, I didn't get to hunt them until the 2nd weekend of Sept., but went back to Ks. and did very well, due to the drought, any windmill that was running was good to sit by in mornings and eves., and then just yesterday afternoon, got off work here in Colo. and went out and got another limit in 2 hours. Em Emmmm good. Loves those doves, especially the ones wrapped in bacon off the grill!!

JoeA

The "new" place was slow. Mostly had to watch and wait for 'em to fly out of some trees and woody scrub. Very few places to see 'em coming from even 100yds off. It took me 4 hours to put 10 in the bag. Lost 3 in tall grass, and another dropped behind me. Saw it fall & heard it hit the ground but musta crawled off. I can't wait 'til my regular place opens up.