Any place to dove hunt?

[JBubba57]

A buddy from and I are looking for an active dove field for opening day (9/28) and the first Sat. in October, somewhere between Orlando and Lake City, roughly. I had some great hunts on paid fields in the Gainesville area years ago. The wife may want to join us, too.

And I sat for 5 grueling hours in the sun at a WMA "managed field" in North Florida and didn't see bird one, and only heard two other shots, a few years back, so WMA fields are not of interest. Unless you know that they're actually being sewed, harvested, or tilled, etc. near the time of the shoots.

Anyone know of a place, pay or otherwise, or someone want 2-3 more shooters to help with your hunt?

Let me know!

JBubba57@aol.com

[JBubba57]

Wow.
111 views of my post as of just now, and not a single response. In any fashion.
Just....wow.

[flcracker]

I have never heard of a non-WMA public pay field for dove hunting anywhere in Central Florida. Please let us know if you find one.

[JBubba57]

Now 154 views.

FLCracker, see your PM's.

[rug357]

I'm not sure what is available now but years ago my father and I hunted at my neighbor's pasture near Sebring where he planted few acres of sunflowers and other seeding plants every year for the purpose of hunting doves. There were other people in the area that did same. Last time I drove by that pasture it had dozens of homes on it.

[flcracker]

^^^^this.

The availability of any kind of hunting land south of I-4 has plummeted in the past 10-15 years as suburbia spreads into recently Tuesday areas and landowners discover that it's more profitable to grow houses than crops. Try finding a hunting lease for under $2000/year with less than a 20 members - even if it's just unmanaged woods with a few hogs and the odd random deer passing through. I found a place near Bradentucky with about 150 acres - half woods, half overgrown pasture - the price was $100/day and you can't drive on the property. But it looks nice and I'm somewhat tempted.

[JBubba57]

Yes, that has been my general experience, too, at least south of Gainesville. Add to that the increasing public and governmental antipathy toward guns, and it has almost made me want to just switch almost solely to fishing. Unfortunately, I’m boatless, and Florida does not lend itself well to freshwater bank fishing. If the idiot voters in Florida decide to make me a felon for exercising my natural and constitutionally-protected rights, I’ll be looking to move away.

[JBubba57]

So I ended up getting permission from a farmer in St. Johns County to use his field opening Sat. afternoon. Mix of cover crop (some kind of a tall seashore plant) and sweet potatoes. By myself. Could hear a private shoot a couple miles south and another a couple miles north of me, with regular but only moderate shooting. Saw where the birds were flying regularly across my field to go elsewhere, and set up there. Only had one box of shells (really wasn't prepared!), hunted 4-5 pm and used up almost the whole box, only knocked one down, couldn't find it, plus lost where my camo dove stool was in the cover crop, and lost 5-6 pm looking for the dove and the stool (had my driving eyeglasses in them) and so didn't try to shoot my few remaining shells, even though many were still flying over me. Was fun, but frustrating.

Anyone else want to report on how/what you did?

Anyone go to Tenoroc opening day? How did it work, how was the field, how many other shooters, very many birds, etc.?

Or any other WMA field?

Perspiring minds want to know.

[TACC]

Well at least you found a spot yo hunt, and you were reminded of a few important lessons regarding gear. Now you will be better prepared for next time.

In the mean time, sit back and enjoy the memories of the great trigger time outside.

Keep us posted on your next trip.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

[rug357]

Last year I shot 3 doves at my place because I didn't want to take time to run into the town to eat lunch.
I had few slices of bacon and a loaf of French bread in the cooler so I cooked all the breast with bacon and made a sandwich for lunch...I learned that you need at least 4 doves to make a man size sandwich
BTW I got lucky and got all three birds with one shot