How do you hunt doves?

[gmac]

Serious question. We've never had a dove season here in Ontario. Now we do and there's an awful lot of doves flying around right now. But short of tossing some corn on the driveway and popping them off with the pellet gun, I really have no idea how to proceed hunting them. I can stand out in the field and hope one or two fly by but that's about it. The season runs from early Sept until Nov, maybe now isn't the best time to start thinking about this, maybe I need to wait until the corn starts to come off? I really don't know.

Please give me your thoughts and advice if you don't mind.
Thanks

[2dogs]

Here in Idaho I scout freshly harvested grain fields for a few days before season and see which ones the birds are feeding in. Their prime activity time is the first couple hours of daylight and the best time is from about 4 till 5:30 pm. We set up a Mojo dove decoy and a couple ground feeder decoy about 20 yards out into the stubble field in the area we have scouted them feeding in and let the games begin. Opening day Saturday morning I was able to shoot my 15 bird limit in about 45 minutes. Great training for pups.

[Vikingoo168]

Here in Southern California we stand at the edges of freshly cut fields with about a thousand other hunters and wait for them to fly at us... In all seriousness we hunt the early morning and late afternoon when they are out and about before it gets to hot, then they rest in trees/brush. It really comes down to scouting, if there are no birds in the field move on until you see them in groups either on the ground or in some trees/structure then position yourself in between them and water/food/roost...

[gotpointers]

Water is scarce here so we put a mojo dove at the waters edge and few more on the fence lines. Plenty of birds always so the challenge is getting one per shot. As well as working on the type of shots we need improvement on. Way cheaper to practice with dove loads than duck loads.

[codym]

Like Mark said I always hunt them over a water source, but there was one occassion I hunted them in a milo field, them came in by the clouds and we were done in 15 minutes. I always enjoyed shooting them over a dirt tank so may lab could cool off, but im sure it's much hotter in S.NM than it is in ontario right now. Go scout a few water holes/stock tanks/ ponds with trees or brush around them for the birds to roost in. If you flush a few birds from around an area come back in the evening, set up and wait you should have some good shooting.

[deke]

We go out to a big cement bunker where a farmer keeps all the cut corn, pull out a cooler and a few lawn chairs.

[Legband]

I tried to quickly read the previous posts and I'm not sure you got a comprehensive answer.
You can kill a hand full of doves almost any where.
But if you want to have a hot barrel shoot go out early and watch the birds fly.
Doves use flight corridors and there is always at least one spot where the corridors cross that's the X.
The first day they may or may not flare off you but after they are pounded a few times they will.
So I like something behind me to break up my silhouette but not so big that I can't swing and shoot around it.
Movement is the biggest killer with doves if your dog is dancing around any movement can cause them to flare.
I like a small bore gun like a 20 or 28 gauge but that is hunter preference.
I use 7-1/2 shot and if you tend to trail or shoot behind birds the higher speed shells really help I like 1300fps on my small bore loads.
It's a great time to work your dog before waterfowl season.