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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

I doubt we will see dove anywhere that doesn't have water.

So, I guess we will have to go to Kansas!

Seriously, we do have a place just north of Ft Worth. I doubt we will see many birds, but if we do, I will be ready with my Bennelli Montefeltro in 20, and the other half of Crossfire will have the Stoeger Condor, also in 20.

Oh, yes, and Deep Woods Off. Buckets of it. I still have scars from the chiggers of LAST year's dove hunt.

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

AndyC wrote:Really looking forward to this year. A friend of mine usually takes me out to his land past Big Spring, other side of Abilene, for a couple of days. We'll see how it goes this year - here's him last year just about to get the drop on a bird with his German drilling:

Why does the sky look so strange? Parts of it are so dark...

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.

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'm totally depressed about this hunting season. The private land I hunted deer, alligator, ducks, and varments on is being leased out to someone by the new owner. For 7 years the original owner let me hunt it for doing small favors for him like fixing gates and fences, taking him and his friends out on alligator hunts, and just giving him phone call reports about his property and anything that seemed amiss.

Well about a year and a half ago he passed away (84 yrs.) and his daughter got the property. Last year I took her friends and her on alligator hunts, took one of the family out deer hunting (shot a doe during archery) and basically did the same for her as I did for her Dad.

I got a phone call from her 2 months ago and she told me she was leasing the property to a hunting club in the area that takes people on guided hunts. It was great while it lasted but......

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.

The white wings have been moving northward pretty rapidly over the past few years. 2 years ago, white wings were very rare here in the Austin area. Last year I saw a few, shot one. Now, they seem to outnumber the mourning doves. Yes, this year is different from years past. I'm hoping TPWD ups the limit on them this year.

mr surveyor wrote: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)

My curiosity got the best of me and i did a little research on the internet. It appears white wings are expanding northward and eastward, all the way to to Kansas and even a group in Galveston. I never saw one in the 20 years I had a cabin on Bolivar so maybe they're on the island. I always assumed them to be in south Texas and the RGV way south of San Antonio but they've moved into the Edwards Plateau from what I've read. I've seen Inca's around my home as well as a ring necks (collared).

NcongruNt wrote:

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.

The white wings have been moving northward pretty rapidly over the past few years. 2 years ago, white wings were very rare here in the Austin area. Last year I saw a few, shot one. Now, they seem to outnumber the mourning doves. Yes, this year is different from years past. I'm hoping TPWD ups the limit on them this year.

One of the sites said a 2000 count indicated 264,000 White Wings in Travis County.

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.

Sunflowers planted on my dad's farm, and all I need is my hunting license and a few boxes of shells. I am more than ready!!

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