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sounds like a plan

fishman wrote:Should be good huntin as dry conditions are good for dove hunting. Hunt near water, bring lots of water to drink and try to stay in the shade. For those of you who use hunting dogs, be extra careful not to overheat the dogs. They will go till they drop, seen it happen and it's real ugly. Happy hunting.

yeah, the dry conditions late in the summer may be good, particularly if you have that water still available. My lease is in an area where none of the seed crops even survived due to early drought (so I've been told), and the late spring, drought caused wildfires burned off much of the native vegetation. Not much surface water made it through July either. But, you are 100% right about setting up camp near the water holes. I still figure our best option on our lease is the barren pasture near the city water plant. Hopefully they have water . Otherwise, I'm afraid we'll be sitting in flyover country this year.

Who knows... maybe this year a patch of East Texas goatweed may be a better play than the 300 mile trip to the "West side".

Have y'all been getting enough rain down there at the Southern tip of the world to grow sunflowers?

yeah, we've been seeing a few white wings for the last 3-4 years herre in Rusk County and 300+ miles West at Rotan. Always a bunch of ringnecks in the bag out there.

Even with the nasty drought conditions we've been having, one thing is for sure - the birds are still gonna migrate, but danged if I don't believe it's gonna be much later in the season this year and they aren't going to find a whole lot to eat on the way South.

puma guy wrote:Hope everyone has a successful hunt. I have a question for any one here. What's the northern range of white wings? I haven't dove hunted in decades and we only had mourning doves in the area we hunted but I've seen them visiting The Valley. I have a deer lease west of New Braunfels that sees some mourning dove activity, but I saw something I'd never seen last month while I was up there working. We jumped a pair of white wing doves while we walked to one of the feeders. I have never ever seen them there before. I like to "bird watch" while I hunt and when I am outdoors, so it's not likely I'd have missed them in past years.

not sure what you mean by "northern range", but we have white wings, mourning doves, ringnecks and rock doves crossing our lease north of Sweetwater. We also see scattered white wings mixed in with the few doves crossing Rusk County (NE TX)

I don't know if the drought conditions will really change the migration pattern a lot, but I bet it will some. Most birds will still follow their normal route, but will probably be high flyers if they don't see any reason to hang around. I've even been thinking about laying our a few pieces of concrete plastic or something else that may look reflective enough like a water surface and put a couple dozen MoJos around it. Either that or an anti aircraft gun... with a plug of course

Who's planning, whatcha carrying this year, and best of all... what in the world does your huntin spot have to actually hold the birds this year.

I go out to Rotan, about 25 miles North of Sweetwater every year with a a bunch of buddies that make it our annual pilgrammage. This year, four of the regular six of us that are all feeling the ravages of old shoulder injuries and/or the "itis boys" have decided to try the short stocks this year. One is taking an old 870 he "reduced" the stock on for his son about 20 years ago, one bought a "junior" Model 1100, I bought a Mossberg 500 "Bantam", and the fourth is still looking.And, we're all shooting twenties instead of twelves this year. Two of these guys are in what I would call the "top tier" of dove hunters, and they generally shoot the twenties most of the time anyway. But, to complicate matters, I've seen some pics of our Rotan area lease from the last month or so. What the drought didn't stunt or kill from the spring planting, the wildfires took care of a couple of months ago. The drought finished off the rest. That won't stop the "migration", but the conditions on the ground certainly won't stop the birds for a meal and a rest. It's liable to take a goose gun to knock down the "fly-overs", but fortunately we have a pasture near the "city water plant" which is most likely the only watering hole for the next 25 miles.

Whatever it ends up, it's still the four day highlight of my year.

surv