Doves and Pigeons

[Johnch]

This morning a friend and I hunted his Sunflower patch
He planted 5 acres of sunflowers and just before Sept 1 he bush hogged the patch
This morning we went out to harvest some more Morning Doves

I had made a batch of about #7 1/2 or #8 shot
I put some graphite with it and used the brass vibrator to coat the shot

I had a Remington 1100 20 gau with a mod choke tube
Bill had a Beretta 302 in 20 gau with ( I think ) a mod choke tube

We both shot 1 oz of shot in Federal Top Gun 20 gau hulls
Federal 20S1 wads
Herco and CCI 209 primers

This load was what my press was set up for
But I had been loading #6 shot for LOW IQ released pheasants

A little before sunrise we put out 4 rotary wing Dove decoys on 5' stakes
We also added 12 foam dove decoys
We put out 2 dove "trees" ... 6' saplings stuck into the ground with no leaves
These each had 4 foam decoys
We also put 4 foam dove decoys on short sections of sunflower stalk about 1 foot long
To make it look like feeding doves

We can not start shooting till Sunrise per the hunting regulations
Guns plugged for 3 shells

About 15 min before we could start hunting the doves started to show up
Our phone alarms were both set for 7:16
So we stood up and started harvesting doves
For the next 1/2 hour or so we took turns shooting and also shooting AT doves ( we both missed a few LOL)
We then collected the doves and figured out we each needed 2 doves for out limits of 15 doves

No doves came in range for a little while , but were landing at the other end of the sunflowers
So we walked down there and each picked out sort of 2 easy shots each
While down there we also had 2 flocks of pigeons come in
We let the first flock of them land before we decided to also harvest them [smilie=1:
Of the 2 flocks of pigeons that came in
We harvested 7 of them between us

By 9 AM we were done dove hunting and had picked up our decoys
We each had 15 doves and 7 pigeons total also

Bill only wanted some of his doves and didn't want the pigeons
He is a Semi Driver and will be on the road for a while
So he told me to make sure I harvest some more doves while he is working LOL

I had Bacon wrapped Dove breast for lunch and froze the rest in meal size groups
I froze them after vacuum sealing them breasts in bags

It is great to have a close by place to hunt that I can hunt any time I feel up to it
And not have a bunch of other "Hunters" try and butt in
Or shoot at birds decoying to me , from 100+ yards away

John

[Texas by God]

I hope to find some dove this weekend at the lease. The first two weeks have been slim to none on the bird numbers in my corner of North Texas. Send us a Northern that includes some dove, please.
You had a great hunt- enjoy the meals and memories!

Sent from my SM-A716U using Tapatalk

[slim1836]

Sounds like a good time was had, congrats.

I'll be going the 25th, doubt I'll be that successful but will have a great time.

Slim

[Johnch]

I have gotten a LOT of places to hunt through other people and being friendly
Years back Bill joined the Gun Club that I am a member of that has the Marsh and upland ground
I had never met him before , but I invited him to join me duck hunting as I had drawn a good blind
I also had decoys , a Lab to fetch the ducks out of the 33 degree water and Duck calls

Dad was a Farmer , a German Farmer
NW Ohio has a Lot of German farmers
So when I was helping dad take loads of grain to the Grain Elevator
He knew a lot of the other farmers and knew who had woods with deer , fields with problem groundhogs or land along the river
As they had areas to go after ducks , deer , groundhogs and fish

Also I get into a lot of woods because I play Poker with a bunch of guys
As a lot of them drank to much Beer , my poker skill got better as the night went on LOL
They get to know me and I would get invited to hunt or fish with them
I would sometimes cast them sinkers or jigs and thank them with more of them when we were done fishing

John

[GregLaROCHE]

I never ate pigeons until I moved to France. Here they are very popular and served in fine restaurants. When I first tasted pigeon at a friends house I was hooked. What I had been missing out on for years. The are delicious and one of my favorite fowls now.

[Mk42gunner]

When it comes to the table, a pigeon is basically a large dove.

Flying? I always used #6 or 7½ shot for pigeons, while mostly 7½ for dove (Dad didn't like #8 for some reason).

Robert

[popper]

pigeons Table food for settlers. Shot them all. Dove are import, even Eurasian. Last month one dove was seen flying south of Palestine. Think they are scarce this year. None on the power lines in dfw lately. Lots of crows.

[nelsonted1]

When I was a kid my cousin, dad and I would go from farm to farm shooting pigeons out of barns and silos. One day we hit the jackpot with the upper.story of a chicken house packed with them. We shot for hours. Came home with 80 of them. We took Mom out to the pickup and had her take a look. she stomped her foot down hard making us clean all of them. We had more pigeon than can be believed. They were great! Now, we occasionally shoot one or two out of our silo. Thank God for our memories!

[nelsonted1]

I put this pigeon shooting story on Facebook awhile back. This post reminded me. Now, we're all grown up, old even. Where'd the fun go?
Ted Nelson - Pigeon shooting could of killed me! I decided to...
Pigeon shooting could of killed me!

I decided to move the pigeon shooting story from my "Could-of-killed-ya! Stupid moves we did" post since it is kind of a stand alone story.

So one day alan malecha said I had to come over right away. He'd bought shotgun shells for my .22 revolver and I was to climb the outside of their old silo and shoot pigeons through the opening in the roof while Al, Mark, and John otting would pick up the dead ones as they fell from the floor of the silo. And they held the flashlights for me.

In order to get up the outside of the silo I had to stand on a steel fencepost and really stretch to grab the bottom rung. Later on that standing on the top of the fencepost was to be the end of our fun.

So I got myself on the little stand on top and looked in the silo and it was filled with pigeons all the way around the rim! JACKPOT!!! OMG!!!

I asked the geniuses if they had the goggles and earmuffs on. They stupidly shown the flash lights into each others faces and told me to get going . Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. Reload. Shoot. Reload. Brush back the pigeons in my face trying to get out. I guess it sucked for them some. Then kept shooting til the ammo was gone. The echoing and blast inside silo deafening! They said the bbs were raining down like sleet. The falling blood, guts, feathers and dead and dying pigeons was enlightening.

Shadows were going up and down and around in the flashlight beams. Everyone was yelling, dogs were barking, gun banging away then Eugene showed up and began bellowing. Man was it fun!

Later on we learned only one bolt held the ladder on the 40 foot silo. When I was going up it swung way around the silo. When I was coming down it was way worse. Lowering myself down, down, down until my foot found the end of the steel post and then jumping down from that onto dark ground I couldn't see was scary as hell.

Also, Eugene, the father to the kids couldn't catch up to me before I got down. He had bad legs- read old man legs, at least 50 yr old ones- so he had to run through the old barn attached to the silo in the dark and around everything to get to me before I hopped down. When he got there I was standing around like he was living in two universes simultaneously.

The next day Eugene called dad up and cursed me for standing in the end of a steel fence post and climbing the ladder. He said when the wind blew it would swing way out from the silo. He'd planned on pulling down the ladders from the silos with a tractor but never got to it. Well, after my stunt he pulled the ladders down. He was out of breath over how stupid I was. But I lived.
Ted Nelson

p.s. I, we, never considered how bad it would have hurt if I'd of dropped the pistol on one of their faces. No way theyd have seen it coming. Some of this wasn't thought through completely.

[Buck Shot]

Is pigeon meat dark like mourning doves? Mourning dove meat is like liver in color ... kind of like Canada geese. Maybe it's because they're migratory. That's why I ask about pigeon meat, being that they're not migratory, or at least not to my knowledge.

I used to keep pigeons to train my pointers, but never ate one...

[GhostHawk]

I was in my early 20's, working for a dairy farmer JS. One day we are in the yard and his neighbor DH drops in. Mentions that there are about 150 pidgons in the silo at night. Ladder to the roof is gone. So we assembled at midnight with a good supply of .22birdshot and 9v flashlights.
We slipped into the silo and in 5 minutes learned to only take shots where we could see eyes. At that height the birdshot did not have much oomph. But it would put eyes out. Once blind the pigeon would step over to the edge and flutter down to be collected.

At 2 am I called dad, Going to be late dad, we have a whole load of pigeons to clean.

I got home at 3:30, apoligised to mom and dad for the late return.

The next morning dad looked at the big bag of pigeon parts in the fridge. 50 breasts, 50 sets of legs. The other 2 guys did not want them so I had 150 gizzards and hearts. And all was well, I'd had some fun, returned hom safe with meat for the table. Nothing wrong with that.

Mom would brown them, put them down in brown gravy (Roue + tomatoes) Let them cook until the meat falls off the bone. Served over mashed tators or rice. We ate GOOD that winter.

After that I mostly hunted them with 20 ga Rem 870 Wingmaster and 7.5's. We did not get as many, but had a steady trickle.

I miss them. Wish I could find a place local where I could hunt them with airguns.

[waksupi]

We used to go into one of the barns with a lot of pigeons. One would shine a bright flashlight at one, it would fly towards the light, and it got stuffed into a burlap bag. Didn't take long to have as many as you wanted to eat.

[popper]

Pidgeon is same genus as dove and dodo. 1914 all the 'american' pidgeons were gone due to hunting. They aren't as smart as dove. Kinda surprised Franklin didn't want the pidgeon as US bird vs the turkey.

[444ttd]

i used to hunt doves when i was younger. boy, they are good eatin!!!!! woodcock, if you can find them, too!!! years ago, the PA game commission came out with federal bird stamp that included dove and woodcock. since then, i haven't hunted them(i was going for deer/archery).

pigeon is a dirty bird. i see them in cities(esp parking garages and park statues) and the droppings/feathers are everywhere. well, they used to be, until the game commission introduced hawks. its rare to see pigeon in my area(rural). i don't know if game commission allow hunting for them or do they consider them to be nuance bird.

[Buck Shot]

Pidgeon is same genus as dove and dodo. 1914 all the 'american' pidgeons were gone due to hunting. They aren't as smart as dove. Kinda surprised Franklin didn't want the pidgeon as US bird vs the turkey.

Most pigeons you see (blue rock) are genus Columba. Dodo was genus Raphus. Mourning dove is genus Zenalda.

Not many birds smarter or more wary than a turkey.

As for bald eagles, they're like turkey vultures around here. You see them all the time eating carrion on the side of the road or picking up chicken bones from the KFC parking lot. An eagle would rather steal a fish from an osprey than catch one himself

[Geezer in NH]

55 years or so ago [in high school at the time] I hunted with a bunch of off duty firefighters. One had permission of several piggeries in eastern MA out side Boston. Once a week we hunted a farm/feed lot with a portable 12 volt 45 rpm record player.

Using crow calls we shot hundreds of crows per day, pigeons spooked from the barns at the opening shots many hundreds of them, the farmers wanted then shot also due to the filth they made.

All the birds fell in the feed pens. No one in their right mind would enter one to fetch ANY bird. Hogs ate well those days we were there.

Understood John Ross's book on feeding the HOGS right away from experience.

Eat a pigeon No way!!!

[Stephen Cohen]

Your lucky you still legally able to hunt them as we in Australia are not. As a young lad I loved hunting Doves and Pigeons for the pot and ate many over the years. We never used decoys we wandered the bush picking them off as we found them until I learned to call them in which was very productive, around March each year the Pigeons would gather in great flocks and fly over my Gran Dads house on their way to feeding locations in the morning and evening, some of those flocks were so large they would block out the sun. I have fond memories of my uncle and I sitting on the roof of the house waiting for them to fly over in their thousands at times. In my state of Queensland Down Under all native animals and birds are totally protected and only non native animals can be hunted. I envy you and Countrymen having a sensible system of harvesting game. Regards Stephen.

[dale2242]

Stephen, do you have Asian Collared Doves?
Since they were released/escaped here as pets they have grown in numbers.
They seem to be everywhere.
As a nongame species, there is no season or limit on them here in Oregon.