Took the grandson yesterday to dove hunt, left for Atterbury around 8:30 to get name in for draw. When we got there I drove to look at fields and saw some vehicles already parked next to where sunflowers had always been planted, so off to the office thinking, must not be a draw, but they never let people start shooting til noon? At the office I was told, "sunflowers didn't come up this year and we didn't mow, but you can hunt". I said no thanks..... Upon leaving a couple waterfowl hunters said they were headed to Crosley as dove hunting there is always better and less people than Atterbury and I was welcome to follow them. So off to Crosley only to find decent looking mowed weeds! And NO Sunflowers there either! We hunted until 3pm grandson fired five times (he likes to double tap my over under 20 gauge) and I had one shot. between us we saw less than 10 doves. Just a heads up for dove hunters........

With all the press releases DNR puts out it would be nice to give a heads up when dove fields are non existant. Property managers have known this since spring.

I'm not upset, they like to use the internet to keep us informed, they slipped up on this one IMO.

I shot Roush Lake yesterday and had a good shoot until it poured down rain about 4:15. I saw 200-300 doves but they weren't flying in to feed. All the shots were either high pass over or fast down wind.

I took my friends 13 year old grandson with me and he almost shot up his 50 shell limit and killed 2 doves. I killed 4. I hit 6-7 knocking feathers out but they kept on flying like nothing happened. First time Ive shot steel for doves and was using #7, next time I will use #6's.

Flowers looked good in most fields except a couple that were nothing but mowed weeds. I was drawn 33 and picked in the low twenties because of no shows. The line for the stand-by drawing was up to 55 hunters.

They had a youth field and a DAV field that was out of the drawing for the first day but opened up today on. They had 52 spots +youth and DAV fields the first day and 72 today on. h.h.

You are one of the lucky few to see and get any shots at doves at Roush. I called that opening morning and talked to the grounds manager (JEFF) and was told by him to stay home that things didn't look good. He said he drove around the grounds the evening before and seen less that 40 birds total. With the rain chances and hot weather and a hour plus drive I took his advise and stayed home. I was one of the reasons you moved down to the twenties I had a 17 pick. Glad to see the young boy got to shoot. It would have been a long day not to get any shots.

Jeff and I talked yesterday morning and he wasnt very optimistic about the doves being there. I knew what field I wanted to be in but wasnt sure if I would get to pick it. I was probably in the best field yesterday. Since I live 10 minutes away its easy for me to pre-scout. Ive shot doves at Roush/Huntington since early 80's and many times Ive went as a stand by and shot a limit. h.h.

We hunted Huntington opening day also. When we got to the field we must have flushed close to 100 birds. It was sporatic through the day, but as hornharvester said the birds were not coming into feed and would not react to the mojo decoys at all. I shot 22 times and only got 5 birds. I was taking shots I probably shouldn't have. Oh yeah that rain sucked.

I tried sunflowers for years winter wheat is the way to go. Week before season I will cut a little down to spread the seeds and they are all over it.

Joe - the notice of the cancellation of the Atterbury dove hunt was posted some weeks ago. Heck, I even knew and I don't dove hunt.

Jack

Parrot- You are correct on the winter wheat. Its easy and the wild finch dont eat them like they do the sunflowers when growing. Try burning your wheat. Makes it amesome. Burns all the foilage and just leaves the seeds. We killed an 8 man limit off my plot monday morning which is a little over a acre. So it dont take much.

I bet that stuff goes up quick.