Been killin’ doves about every other day. I’ve got some pictures and a discussion or two but it will have to wait. After cleaning a limit of doves tonight I had to pack up my gear to leave early in the morning for Wyoming. Check back in a couple of days for an update.

So I did my usual tour of Eastern Kansas on Wednesday afternoon in preparation for Thursday’s dove opener. With public dove hunting it’s about a four hour season, so if you’re not there at sunrise on opening day you’re probably wasting your time. As such, it’s important to be in the right place. You want to shoot doves, but not get shot by the Mossberg toting idiot 15 yards away who’s shooting 3″ steel 2s.

Dove hunting is like pass shooting ducks in that it requires almost no hunting skill except you must be able to shoot. For today’s purposes we are going to assume you can shoot. The only other thing is that you must be where there are doves. Around here that is simple, find food. Public hunting areas in the region plant sunflowers, wheat or both. A few weeks before the season they cut the sunflowers and burn the wheat. A week before the season both Kansas and Missouri post lists of places with planted fields. Then it’s up to you to find figure it out.

First, hit the road. I start around 4:00pm so that I’m not hitting the mid-day lull. At each spot I look for a few things. First, obviously, are doves. Let’s say you’re looking at a 20 acre field, half wheat, half sunflowers. You should get at least 200 doves out of that field and the trees around the edges. If you’re not seeing the birds, get back in your truck and move to the next spot. If you are seeing them, notice where the concentrations are. Notice which way they fly when you spook them, but more importantly, notice how they come back. Doves will have strong patterns. If most of them enter a field from the Southwest and land in the middle of the sunflowers, you don’t want to be in the Northeast looking at wheat. I like to notice gaps in tree lines, particularly if you have to stand on the edge. If there is a section where the tree line is thinner or shorter you will have better visibility. Make a mental note of how you will get there in the morning, and how obvious your idea might be. Around here some diehard will be there at 3:00am if there is a spot that is clearly better. Outsmart him, then outsleep him.

The only other thing is to try and get a feel for pressure. The closer to town, the closer to big public areas, history of success, etc… all influence how many people will show up. A friend and I scouted Wednesday and then compared notes. We saw similar numbers of birds at a place near my house and another South of town a bit. There were four trucks scouting the place by my house and no sign of life out south. Even more, the place to the south is hard to find and requires you to shoot steel (which is a pain in the ass). I went South and my friend went close to town. I got there about 20 minutes before shooting time and walked to where I wanted to be. He said people were already filling the place up at 5:30. I had a limit by 8:00 and he finally quit after killing 8. There were about the same number of birds at each place, but one had more than twice as many hunters, and the place closer to town tends to draw more of the Mossberg type mentioned above.

One final tip: Mark birds. There is no easier way to make friends in a tense public hunting situation than to help someone find their bird. When you see a bird go down in your general area, mark it. Help find it if you can. And unless your dog is dead broke, leave him at home. For most dogs a crazy public dove hunt is simply too much action. You don’t want to be the guy yelling as your dog takes off after every bird that falls.

Good luck. Here was tonight’s dinner:

I don’t really do a lot of gear reviews anymore. When I first hooked up with Skinny Moose they were more aggressive about getting us to pimp various things, some of which we never even saw. I’m sure someone was getting a sponsorship or some free advertising or something, but not me. Now I mostly ignore their “releases” and stick to things I personally would like to read, namely stories and pictures from the field.

But when an outfit called Carson Optical sent me an email a while back asking me to take a look a product call the Pholster I was intrigued. It promised to be a great way to carry birds, particularly pheasants. And at the risk of sounding like a wimp, I sometimes have problems carrying pheasants. My shoulder simply doesn’t bend the direction needed to stuff that bird in the back of my vest and I hate having a bird bulging in the side pocket. So usually you have to either put your gun on the ground or ask the guy next to you for help. The Pholster promises to eliminate this problem!

So I asked them to send me one, and they did. I hauled it around with me from the start of upland season in South Dakota down through Kansas and into late December in Oklahoma. I killed a lot of pheasants this year. I had the Phoster on my belt the whole time.

And the Pholster does exactly what it promises to do. You clip it to your belt and when your dog brings back a bird you simply slide the neck into the gap. You can then walk another mile of the thickest CRP without worrying about that bird falling out. It won’t happen. You don’t have to stop the whole line of hunters while you try to unhinge your elbow and shoulder to jam that bird into your back. Just slip it in the slot and keep hunting. Very cool.

The bottom line is this: The pholster is a simple little product that is worth having. It’s not expensive and it is helpful and easy to use. They come in packs of two, which is just right. If you’re a serious upland hunter who doesn’t hire someone to carry your birds for you, pick one up. You can find them here.

Let me know what you think.

I’ll be honest. Two weeks ago I would not have known there was a pheasant in Oklahoma, other than the tame kind. Then I was lucky enough to be invited, along with The Old Man and some KC hunting friends, to join a group of Texans who had a lease of sorts in North Central Oklahoma. It actually turned out to be closer to my home than my usual Kansas hunting.

After 3 days of hunting I still don’t really understand the exact nature of the arrangment but we had access to plenty of ground owned by a variety of people. Mostly it was very dry looking grass waterways, edges, and pastures. Many of the best spots were places you wouldn’t stop your truck for in Western Kansas but the pheasants were in there.

Friday I worked but the group of 10 finished just short of their limit (3 per person). Saturday people came and went all day but we again finished just short of a limit. In a couple of hours 4 of us scratched out a few Sunday morning as well. Considering it’s January and the birds have been shot at now for several weeks, I think everyone was pleased. The country was very dry and the birds were rarely very concentrated so we covered a lot of ground. By Sunday afternoon I felt like my dogs looked:

So it turns out there are quite a few pheasants in Oklahoma… More when I’m caught up on sleep…

I know, who knew? But apparently there are a few pheasants in Oklahoma and I’ve received a last minute invitation to chase them around this weekend. I’ve got my camera in my bag so hopefully I’ll have some pictures when I get back. This will be my first trip to this part of the state.

Now to finish the work day…

Remember when I said that I was probably done dove hunting for the year? I was wrong. The dogs and I gave it a try this afternoon and had a nice shoot. Most of the birds were gone but worked on the few that came by in range.

Upland bird hunters who thought we had a good season last year should be pleased to know that the trend should continue in 2010. The Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks (KDWP) has completed summer surveys, and the results, compiled in the Upland Bird Hunting Forecast, suggest that Kansas will have abundant upland birds for the second year in a row. Although some hunters have been concerned about a significant amount of federal Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) land turned back to crop production, this apparently has not hurt bird production to date.

The whole forecast is here.

Also note that the quail and pheasant season open on the same day this year after a couple of years testing the fairly stupid idea of splitting them up. November 13 opens both seasons, and the limits are the same as last year.

Well hmmm… I’ve spent a few days thinking about adding a link to my blog roll. No big deal right? Well it’s complicated… I’ve posted several dove related posts here recently, and I’ve been getting a ton of Google hits for, “dove recipe”. I’ve got a couple, but honestly, my cooking is something like level 1.

So I did a search for hunting blogs that also had some dove recipes and ended up with NorCal Cazadora. She’s a huntress, (Hunter? I’m not really sure huntress is a word?) writer, and professor, or so I gather. She also dates a guy who apparently is an accomplished cook. As I read through it is quickly apparent that Holly and I very different in the way we approach hunting and the outdoors, but I already knew that and it certainly is not a bad thing.

The bad thing? Well, she was part of the small group the Northern Californians who came rushing to the defense of high fence operator T. Michael Riddle a while back. Actually, even that isn’t a bad thing, she was standing up for her friend and I think she even knew someone who worked there or something… But then on a different blog she called me an, “Asshat”.

I’ll be honest, I get called a lot of things, some earned, some not. I’ve never heard that one before. I’m not even sure what it means. My offending behavior? Well I pointed out that shooting a tame buck wasn’t poaching, it was theft, or conversion. If you shoot a neighbors cow, you’re not poaching, why would shooting a fenced in deer be any different? Then she attacked me for hunting baited bears because, you know, we’ve all got to stick together… The exchange is at the link above, you can decide for yourself… I took leave of that conversation and I don’t think I’ve heard from, or thought about her since then (although it is interesting to note that Mr. Riddle posted polite comments on my blog in the months following the whole stir – more on that someday).

Ultimately if I couldn’t survive differing opinions I wouldn’t have a career, and I respect the work Holly does. The rest… well… I’ve shown before with Mr. Rasch that I can have a productive relationship with those who can disagree respectfully (even if the respect is mostly one sided). So, Asshat or not, NorCal Cazadora has been added to the roll under “Outdoor Blogs I Read”, and I do suggest you read it. You can decide for yourself on the baited bears, high fences, tame pheasants, and rabbits that aren’t scared.

Oh, the link that prompted all of this? Here’s a recent post of hers on dove hunting, that features several very interesting recipe links.

Which is good, because here is what I did after work today:

It’s been a fantastic dove season so far but it may be coming to an end. Sunday’s hunt showed that our Kansas hot spot had slowed down dramatically. Today’s hunt showed that the Missouri spot has also slowed down. I had a good shoot, but with all of the corn fields being cut, the doves had other places to go, and they went there. If today is the last dove hunt of the season it’s still been a fantastic year, and these guys certainly enjoyed the warm-up for the serious hunts to come, maybe as soon as 6:30 tomorrow morning…

Last Monday we had the “Dove Opener”. This hunt used to mark the start of all the fall seasons but in recent years I’ve had opportunities to shoot other places before this traditionally Labor Day hunt. Still, it’s a social outing and usually a very good hunt. The Old Man has been planting sunflowers on this place for many years and invites 15-20 of his friends and hunting partners for the shoot and BBQ.

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