Anyone have any tips or pointers on dove hunting Wisconsin? I tried dove hunting for the first time last year and saw little success. I spent most the time hunting dnr managed dove fields. Any help is much appreciated feel free to pm me. Thanks.
Upland/Small Game
Dove hunting
Hunted the opener in Rock Co. Arrived 90 minutes before dawn only to find 20 vehicles in the parking lot, some admitted to arriving at 2am! We didn't have a plan B location so we carefully took a spot up the hill in the field away from the field and crowd to wait for daylight to find a safe area. Our spot turned out to be better than most and we hunkered down and killed 8 doves. I think the State needs to put a little more thought into it's sunflower field planting and management. Granted they are always at the mercy of the weather, soil conditions and their budget, but they could definitely be planted and mowed differently too maximize the effectiveness and spread out the pressure...
I read an interesting article yesterday about the benefits to hunting doves later in the season. The author stated that October can be a great time to scout the sunflower and cut grain fields again for late migrating or native birds since they will still use those fields as a food source. I usually like to hunt the first two weeks of September. That was great when I had access to private planted sunflower fields. I tried the public fields a few times and they were overrun with hunters. Haven't gone back in a couple of seasons but now I'm thinking about trying to get after late season birds.
Anyone have any luck in October or even November? For that matter, is the season even open? Guess I should find that out first.
Hunted a sunflower field in Rock county in between the rain Saturday and Sunday. Didn't get out till noon on Saturday. More birds than I expected, picked up 8 before it got to hot and skeeters drove dog and I out.
Went to same field Sunday and don't see a bird till 8:30. Amazing how sensitive they are too pressure! Going to give it couple days off and try again later in the week.......