Thread: It's Dove hunting food plot planting time again

Wish people still did good fields around here. Wish I had the ground to do my own for that matter.

Mojoe dove spinners (if there legal in your state) will bring them in by the truck load.

That wire loaded with dove is awesome. I have five acres that I plant for dove. I go with Egyptian wheat around the edges for cover because it gets around 10ft tall. I leave an acre of wheat to mow a week before season . I plant the rest with millet that I mow lanes through. I also use a resting wire between poles with decoys. Once I left the decoys out after the hunt and when I came the next day a hawk had ripped all of them off the wire. (Lesson learned)
Good luck!

Green if you need an extra gun... I’m not too far south of you

Originally Posted by tcounty

I can’t figure it out. I’ve planted sunflowers, milo, wheat and combinations of each. I’m surrounded by corn and beans. Hardly ever have any birds.


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We have them two weeks early when it is 78 and every power line covered and opening day it is 102 degrees and no birds .

Well I’m a sucker I guess. I skipped fishing this weekend to work around the house before it gets hot. Neighbor called and said he rented the drill from the county extension office if I wanted to use it. I planted four acres in sunflowers. We’ll see. Hopefully there’s less corn this year.


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UPDATE on foodplots : We've had a super wet spring and we just got another toad drowner over the last 2 days...3" to 5" of rain in 24 hrs

2 sunflower patches look good, each about 3 acres, planted on 40 inch rows with my 4 row food plot Deere planter( using corn meters). Both planted along different corners of an 80 acre corn field.
1 patch of winter wheat about 2.5 acres big with volunteer sunflowers heading out in the wheat. No milo strips , unfortunately, but I plan to drill some millet and buckwheat next to a field ditch that I can flood about a week prior to opening day( a Tuesday this year). I'll "rent" about 10 - 12 roundbales from a neighbor and place them strategically around the foodplots to act as 1) hunter positions easier to find at 5:30 AM, 2) some much appreciated shade at 10:30 AM, 3) hides from those grey rockets flying by, and 4) so I can keep better tabs on my hunters during shooting hours and everyone has a better sense of where everyone is while in the field shooting. about 9 and 10 I'll make a fast run thru the field on my Polaris Ranger with extra shells, spare safety glasses, and cold water. My son, a LT in NAVY plans to bring a few NAVY and MARINE buds from San Diego this year for the long weekend.....so..I need to clean up a few spare shotguns for the devildogs and squids....we will be very careful and not burn out the doves with to much shooting Tuesday thru Thursday.....Probably just a few guns hunt those first 2 days in the sunflowers for 2 hours each morning then get out of the field completely for the rest of the day.
I usually have a small backup field of mowed weeds around a 25 acre pond that is good for afternoon hunts that can be used those 1st afternoons also.

That is a great plan. My people are from fruitland/neelys landing area and spent best 7 years of my life going to SEMO starting in 1968. started dove hunting as a sophomore as my best friend was from sikeston and had tons of places to hunt. started each morning at Lammerts back when it was a small cafe only place opened at 3 am for dove hunters and owner was cantankerous old fart who when you asked for more biscuits and refills on coffee flung them at us and told us to serve ourselves! Had a cattle feeding lot near east prairie a grass field that had a swamp with high weeds in middle of field next to ditch and tons of doves would cross there and we had glorious incredible shooting! I had a great Lab who at noon when hunters went back to vehicles and ate I would send out my dog and he would scoop up a lot of downed birds other guys couldn't find and I always won the pool for most birds!! course you could only do that opening morning when you knew they were fresh.

Then we had places around Bell City as my BF's parents had store there and local farmers let us hunt their cut fields. but last few years hardly any doves around area there and not much shooting around Morley where my friend moved to.

Now we hunt up by my place in macon county and have had some great hunts and some really bad ones depending on if MDC has done good job planting sunflowers. still have same crew come up and hunt with us and if hunting not great we get on lakes and crappie fish so it's still a great time being with old friends and we eat well and swap old stories of past hunts. Thanks for the report and brought back wonderful memories.