Dove hunting is one of the most popular wingshooting sports in the U.S. Each season 1 million hunters spend 3 million days afield to shoot between 15 and 20 million mourning doves, according to U.S. Fish and Wildlife. And 40 of the lower 48 states have established dove hunting seasons. In Texas, where 250,000 people dove hunt, the opener might as well be a state-wide holiday. That’s because dove hunting is fun, relatively accessible, and doves make excellent table fare.

Finding access to dove hunting can range from easy to difficult depending on where you live. In states like Texas, the birds are abundant on many properties. If you don’t have your own property to hunt them on, there are public-land hunt to be had in the southern part of the state. You can also pay a day rate for as little as a $100 to go dove hunting in Texas. In other parts of the country birds and access can be sparse, but if you scout hard or have a few acres to plant a dove plot in the spring, there’s a good chance you can locate enough birds for a favorable shoot.

Finding doves and having access to them are the two main hurdles to clear, but there are a few more things to consider, like where to setup, which shotgun gauge to shoot, and managing hunting pressure. To have a prosperous dove season you need to take all of these variables into account and balance them equally. In our ultimate guide to dove hunting, we’ll cover the following. Read straight through, or click on a section to jump in.

1. How to Find Doves
2. How to Plant Your Own Dove Field
3. How to Set Up on a Dove Hunt
4. Dove Hunting Decoys
5. Dove Shooting Tips
6. Dove Hunting Shotguns, Chokes, and Loads
7. Managing Dove Hunting Pressure
8. Hunting the Late Season

1. How to Find Doves

Locating doves in late August is paramount. Plenty of hunters will simply show up to a sunflower patch on the dove opener and expect to shoot 15 birds. Get an edge on the competition by scouting several locations in the days leading up to Sept. 1. This is critical especially if you hunt public land, but it’s also worth finding private, fresh-cut agricultural fields. When you find birds on private land, knock on doors and ask for permission to hunt. Look for recently burned wheat fields and fields that have been disced.

Water sources, gravel roads (more on this later), and power lines are also good places to find birds. Doves must drink, they use grit to properly digest their food, and perch on the lines. If all three elements exist in one location, you’re likely to find good numbers of doves.

Once you locate the birds, don’t just call it good. Spend time studying their flight lines, that way you can get under the birds before the flight begins on opening day (you may have to arrive several hours before legal shooting time on public land to claim your spot). — J.G., M.P.

Natural Food Sources Are a Good Place to Locate Doves

Given the chance, doves will concentrate on natural foods such as foxtail, ragweed, wild sunflowers, and any native grass that carries a head of small seeds.

Monocultures—areas that are dominated by a single plant species—can provide doves with abundant food, but areas dominated by a single food source generally offer a boom-or-bust proposition for birds. When seeds are mature and available the birds will have plenty to eat, but when the crop is cleaned-up the birds will largely vacate the area. Wildlife biologists know this and generally plant dove fields with a variety of mixed seeding plants including browntop millet, barley, grain sorghum, and sunflowers. A good dove hunting tip is to pay special attention to areas where there are a variety of seeding plants in proximity to one another when you’re scouting. These areas will attract birds throughout the season.

Most hunters recognize agricultural crop fields will attract birds. However, if you understand which native plants are most attractive to doves, you’ll be able to identify a potential hotspot that might be overlooked by others. Doves feed on a variety of native and non-native plants in the fall, and very few hunters can recognize all of them. Pay particular attention to stands of barnyard grass, ragweed, Johnson grass, lespedeza, poke weed (identifiable by its purple berries and stems), sedges, and wild peas. All these plants are very attractive to the birds—and largely ignored by other hunters. —B.F., M.P.

Water and Grit Are Key Factors to Dove Hunting

Water is critical for dove digestion, and the birds will not nest or roost far from a suitable water source. In dove terms, a “suitable” source of water is one that has little vegetation around the shore to obstruct the birds. It’s not uncommon to see doves watering multiple times a day, especially during periods of warm, dry weather. Doves tend to seek out water more often during the morning and evening hours, so hunting near an open water source late in the day is oftentimes a great way to shoot a limit. Ponds and rivers will attract doves if their banks aren’t too steep and there’s little vegetation, but seeps in pastures, small creeks, and even puddles are all favorite watering points for birds. Set up well away from the water’s edge and use natural terrain to conceal your location. Oftentimes doves access water from the same direction when they come for a drink, and once you identify the flight pattern you can set up accordingly.

Mourning doves have crops, which are essentially enlarged muscular pouches that extend from the bird’s esophagus. Crops store food while the birds are feeding (one reported dove crop held over 17,200 bluegrass seeds) and, in the case of doves and pigeons, create “crop milk” which is a rich source of nutrients for nestlings. To help digest the seeds in their crop, doves swallow small stones known as grit. Grit is often collected along the sides of gravel roads, so these areas attract birds and can offer a hot shoot. Just make sure if you set up in a fencerow near the road that it is legal to do so. Some states allow you to hunt the ditch on either side of the road, others strictly forbid it. —B.F.

2. How to Plant Your Own Dove Field

Sunflower and wheat are the two most common fields I see hunters shooting doves over, but you can also plant sorghum, millet, milo for dove hunting success. But for now, let’s focus on sunflowers and wheat.

The good news is that you don’t have to plant a very large field for good hunting. A quarter acre or less is often enough to draw doves.

The bad news is that planting can be tricky in the spring. This varies every spring due to weather (rain, snow, and cold), but if you’re planting a sunflower field ideally you don’t want to get sunflower seeds in the ground any later than the second week of May. Sunflowers have about a 100-day gestation period, so to get a good, full-grown head on the flowers (which means more seeds for the doves to feast on), you need to get them in by then. I try and plant in April (I live in Illinois), if possible, but in the Midwest you can get a freeze or even snow that time of year, so it’s important to keep an eye on the forecast. Folks in southern states can typically plant earlier without worrying about frost.

My recommendation is that when you have the chance to plant, do it. Don’t wait for a dry weekend. Take a day off work and get after it because the weather is volatile in spring. Our last few springs here have been especially wet, and I’ve learned the hard way you must plant at Mother Nature’s convenience or there won’t be a healthy crop come August.

Planting a wheat a field is much easier than sunflowers, because you can plant as soon as the ground is workable. Wheat seed is more like grass seed—it’s hardy and will grow whenever there is precipitation followed by a warmup and it won’t die off even if it gets buried under a foot of spring snow. If you want to spend less money (and time), broadcasting red spring wheat seed is the way to go.

Sunflowers take more time and money. To plant sunflowers, you will need to apply a chemical burn down on the field before the seeds germinate. This helps keep the field clear of weeds, which will stunt the growth of your sunflowers or choke them out altogether. Doves also like feeding in a clean field, not a weed patch, so you must use a burn down to have good hunts in September. You also might have to kill off your sunflowers in August to dry them out so the seeds will drop from the heads. That’s another added expense.

With spring wheat, all you need to do is get the field worked, spread the seed and some fertilizer, and cover it with dirt sometime in March or April. Then in August, you burn the field so all the seeds drop to the ground—doves love it. —J.G.

3. How to Setup for a Dove Hunt

Find the Right Hide

Doves have incredibly good eyesight so they can find tiny seeds while flying at speeds up to 55 miles per hour. Doves are good at spotting movement and avoiding predation, but research has also shown that doves may be able to see color, and the birds may avoid any hues that look out-of-place in their environment. This means that hunters need to take extra steps to conceal their location and most importantly, remain still.

Using natural vegetation is the best way to conceal yourself, so tucking in behind a screen of ragweed or goldenrod will make for a more successful hunt (provided you aren’t allergic to either plant species). You can also find a shady spot along a treeline with the sun at your back or use camo netting affixed to stakes and place it in front of your shooting position. Doves aren’t as wary as a late-season mallard, but they will avoid your field if you don’t conceal yourself. —B.F.

4. Dove Hunting Decoys

MOJO

SEE IT

Dove decoys will help distract the birds. Stationary decoys and spinning-wing dove decoys will put the doves at ease and bring them in close for a shot. Clipping stationary decoys to standing sunflowers, fence wires, and tree branches will help make your setup look more realistic. I’ve hunted many fields that had 15- to 20-foot wooden posts dug in the ground and a wire attached to either end to offer doves a comfortable landing spot before they feed. If you have a private dove field, I suggest taking the time to erect a wire in the middle of your field. It doesn’t have to be elaborate. Any kind of long wooden or metal posts with sturdy enough wire or rope will suffice.

Motion decoys work well the first few shoots of the season but eventually, doves will become wise to them. As the season rolls along, watch how doves react to the spinners. I always start off the hunt by using a spinner or two, but if doves shy away from them, I either turn them off or pull the decoys completely. —J.G.

5. Tips for Shooting Doves

Mourning doves are among the fastest and most acrobatic birds we hunt. They are agile enough to make even the most seasoned wingshooter curse their way through opening day. These birds dive, twist, change speed, change direction, and rise and drop so quickly and effortlessly that it sometimes seems impossible to intercept passing targets with any regularity. However, if you learn and practice the fundamentals of wingshooting, you’ll shoot more doves with fewer shells.

Keep your muzzle moving. The muzzle of your shotgun must be in motion before, during, and after the shot. One shotgun instructor that I trained with described it as stroking a paintbrush across the target rather than shooting the bird. This is the most fundamental principle for killing more doves, because if you stop the gun, you’ll shoot behind the bird every time.

Establish a solid cheek weld. Do this by bringing the gun to your shoulder and cheek as opposed to lowering your head to the gun. Practice mounting and swinging your (unloaded) gun prior to the season opener.

Your upper body and gun should remain fixed. Lateral muzzle movement is accomplished by rotating your hips left or right, and muzzle elevation should be controlled by flexing or extension of the back. When standing, keep your weight noticeably forward but not so much that lateral movement is impeded. If you typically shoot while seated, then take the time to practice standing up from a seated position and moving the gun. The neighbors may wonder what you’re up to, but you won’t get skunked on opening day.

Don’t worry about the bead on your shotgun. Your eyes need to be fixed on your target, and your gun should be moving with your body as you track the bird (this is why proper posture is so important). When you aren’t actively on target, practice “soft eyes” by relaxing your focus to scan a wide portion of open sky. You’ll pick up birds more quickly and will have more time to get on target as they approach.

Perfect your trigger pull. A bad trigger pull is often the result of choking the trigger with your shooting finger, flinching, or pulling the trigger at an angle—can move the muzzle enough to cause a miss. To remedy this, place a snap cap (they cost about $20 and quickly pay off) in the chamber of your gun and trace along the top seam of a wall, pulling the trigger as you do so. Pay close attention to the degree the bead deviates from the seam when you pull the trigger; ideally, the muzzle will keep moving on the exact same line as the trigger breaks.

Practice! You’ve heard it before, but here’s how to make your shotgun practice dove-hunt-­specific: For the price of a few trips to a high-end sporting clays range, you can purchase an electronic target thrower and position it on your range or property so that all the targets are angled shots or crossers, the primary presentation for most shots on doves. Having an electronic target thrower will help you keep up with practice year-round—and they’re also a lot of fun. —B.F.

6. Dove Hunting Shotguns, Chokes, and Loads

Shotgun Gauges for Dove Hunting

The gauge of shotgun you pick for dove hunting isn’t as important as making sure you shoot the gun you are most comfortable and accurate with. Opening day of dove season is no time to try out a new smoothbore you haven’t shot a single round of skeet with. Doves are some of the toughest birds to hit, so you want to use a shotgun you are confident with.

Doves are difficult bulls to hit, but not tough birds to drop. In fact, some hunters will say a 12-gauge is too much gun for doves, but a 2¾-inch 1- or 1 1/8-ounce load of lead No. 7s, 8s, or 9s is fine. Sub-gauge guns like 20-gauges and 28-gauges are also great choices for doves. But whichever gauge you choose, be sure to pair it with the proper payload and shot size. —Joe Genzel

Best Load for Dove Hunting

A 2¾-inch lead shotshell with shot sizes from No. 7s to 9s will get the job done on doves, regardless of gauge (a .410 shell is going to be 2 1/2 or 3 inches). For steel loads, you can move up to a No. 6 shot size if you want (a few manufacturers make 2¾- and 3-inch loads in this variant for teal season). Personally, I wouldn’t spend the extra cash on a bismuth load for doves. Same goes for tungsten. TSS is overkill on a dove. Where non-toxic shot is required No. 6 steel will do just fine. —Joe Genzel

Best Choke for Dove Hunting

I typically shoot an auto-loader with a skeet, improved cylinder, or improved modified choke depending on where I am hunting. If you shoot a double-barrel shotgun, that will give you the option of using two choke constrictions, which will allow you to pair your choke to the shot presentation. Small fields lend to offer closer shots; big fields, longer ones, so take that into consideration before the hunt and swap chokes accordingly.

However, every shotgun patterns differently, and no two shooters swing a shotgun the same. You must decide what works best for your style of shooting. The only way to do that is by patterning your gun on paper and shooting clay targets. Shooting skeet and five-stand are the best ways to replicate the shots you will take on doves. It’s worth spending time at the range with the gun, load, and choke you intend to hunt with. —J.G.

7. Manage Dove Hunting Pressure

Doves are not particularly sensitive to hunting pressure, but you can ruin a hunting area by taking limits from it day after day. By the end of the first week of dove season, most popular public fields will be shot-out and the remaining doves in the area will have decided to look for food elsewhere. But, don’t quit on public fields later in the season because most hunters will have moved on, and the birds might return. Or fresh doves may migrate in and utilize the fields.

 If you only have one field to hunt, then do so sparingly—allow a full day of rest before hunting again for optimal success (two or three days is even better). If you have multiple fields to hunt, then rotate between them so you don’t burn your best one. Sure, you might have bagged a limit on successive days in your honey hole, but it’s better to let the area settle before another shoot. Don’t exclusively hunt feeding areas either. Divide your time between feeding locations, grit sites, and water sources.

You can also extend dove season by limiting the amount of time you hunt. If you shoot 10 birds in an hour, get out of the field, and let the dove’s feed. That way they feel more comfortable and are apt to return. It’s the same philosophy some duck hunters use for late-season mallard hunts by shooting birds that are coming in to roost early—from 1 to 3 p.m.—and then pulling stakes to let the bulk of the birds return without hearing a gun shot. —B.F., J.G.

8. Dove Hunting the Late Season

At some point during the season, a cold front will come through and most dove hunters will move on to other game birds.

But don’t overlook dove hunting the late season. Somewhere to the north of you, hundreds of hunters are probably experiencing the same thing. That means the birds they’ve lost are likely headed your way.

Finding yourself in the middle of a good dove migration can mean seeing hundreds, if not thousands, of birds. I’ve had hunts with morning limits pretty much filled before the first rays of sunlight covered the cornfield we were hunting.

One mid-September afternoon, four of us surrounded a small water hole on the Kansas prairie and watched as a massive cold front with heavy rain came in from the northwest. For two hours there was never a time when there weren’t southbound doves in sight. Limits of 15 came so fast. The last five minutes of legal shooting light, guns already cased, I counted more than 100 doves that passed within shotgun range.

But migrating doves aren’t prone to hanging around long, so don’t waste time. If your mid- or late-season scouting turns up a flock covering a field of freshly cut corn on Sunday night, you’d better call in sick on Monday morning. —M.P.

Dove Hunting Q&A: Your Dove Questions, Answered

Why is dove hunting so good in Argentina?

Doves thrive in Argentina because the country is full of perfect habitat for them. The brush country of Argentina provides ideal nesting cover. The expansive grain fields provide plenty of feed. The mild winters make it easy for doves to survive.

How many doves are there in the U.S.?

There were approximately 194 million doves in the U.S. as of 1 September 2020, according to the USFWS.

What is the best food plot for dove?

Sunflowers and wheat are the two most common fields that dove hunters plant, but you can also plant sorghum, millet, and milo for dove hunting success. A lot of hunters favor sunflower plots because they are easy to grow.

The post Dove Hunting Ultimate Guide: Tips and Tactics for Bagging More Birds appeared first on Outdoor Life.

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A Southern gentleman once told me that God’s greatest gifts are fine shotguns, smooth whiskey, and two-year-old turkeys. I agree, though I’m not sure he got the order right.

Long on beards and hormones and short on brains, the turkey world’s version of 19-year-old boys are responsible for most of our spring hunting success. In good years, two-year-old toms may make up 60 percent of the spring harvest. In tough years, knowing how to find and work a two-year-old can salvage your season.

How to Age a Wild Turkey

It’s tough to get a precise age on a mature wild tom in the field. However, two-year-old toms have well-rounded fans, like older gobblers, though their beards may be an inch or two shorter. Usually they weigh 15 to 20 percent less and look a tad shorter and thinner through the chest. Once the gobbler is down, the best option for hunters to estimate age is to look at spur length. According to the National Wild Turkey Federation: “Biologists generally suggest using the following measurements to judge gobbler age. Gobblers with spurs one-half inch or less are juveniles, 5/8 inch up to 1 inch are 2-year-olds, 1 to 1 3/8 inches are 3-year-olds and birds with spurs greater than 1 3/8 inches are older than three years. Gobblers with longer spurs (1½ to 2 inches) probably range in age from 5 to 8 or more years.

In other words, it’s easy to tell the difference between jakes, two-year-old toms, and older toms, but it’s difficult to age toms that are older than three.

Understanding Two-Year-Old Toms

Overflowing with desire, but generally denied hens by older toms, many two-year-olds gobble and strut just because they can, and often come to calls with a show worthy of a Super Bowl halftime.

Never discount what a two-year-old will do. I’ve seen them strut across a small tree fallen over a deep ditch, and I’ve had to swing through and shoot them in the back of the head when they’ve been so excited they’ve raced right past my location. Aggressive staccato cutting and long strings of excited yelps can amp their testosterone to meltdown levels. I’ve shot one of a pair of two-year-olds, and the survivor never broke strut, even when I revealed myself to pick up his very dead friend.

An hour into my son’s first solo hunt, he called a pair of two-year-olds across more than 500 yards of open ground, gobbling at every call, eagerly leaving a sizable flock of hens and an older tom.

But for every kamikaze, there’s a two-year-old coward, which probably has something to do with the emotional and physical scars accrued from bigger toms repeatedly gouging them with 16-penny spurs. Often those hard-gobbling birds that won’t budge to your calling or repeatedly circle like a satellite are two-year-olds walking with a limp and missing about half their fan feathers, afraid of getting another licking.

This aversion to bullies may cause two-year-olds to wuss out instead of coming to your full-bodied gobbler decoy. Jake decoys set horizontal to the ground, rather than upright, will seem less threatening to an approaching bird. If possible, arrange your setup so a shy tom has to pass you to get to the decoy if it hangs up.

Identifying Two-Year-Old Toms on the Roost

Early in the season, lone two-year old toms might gobble their heads off all morning. These are ideal birds to punch your tag on right away. Later in the season, when there’s competition over hens and mature toms roost near their harem or hens, listen for younger, sub-dominant toms roosted nearby (within a quarter-mile or so). The mature tom will likely gobble hard while he’s on the roost, but once he flies down and collects his hens, he’ll go quiet. This is a tough bird to hunt, because he’ll be unwilling to leave his hens. A satellite two-year-old tom will often gobble less while he’s on the roost, but he’ll often be more susceptible to your calling.

Often times a hunter will set up on the boss tom, fail to call and decoy him in, but then have a two-year-old tom sneak into his setup instead. With a little good shooting, the hunter goes home happy. If I have the option of trying to hunt a boss tom with hens or a sub-dominant two-year-old tom that’s all by himself, I’m picking the latter every time. Fine tuning your turkey scouting will help you target easier birds (read about how to scout for turkeys here).

Two-Year-Old Toms Will Give You Multiple Chances

Unlike older birds, the two-year-old you don’t kill at one setup will probably give you another chance. Last opening morning, a two-year-old circled wide of my setup, intimidated by my strutting fake.

That afternoon I came from another direction, setting out a lone hen decoy. The gullible gobbler sounded immediately when I called. When he came into view, I saw he had a bigger, and probably older, tom cautiously following behind. No doubt the veteran gobbler would have been in range shortly if I’d given him a chance.

As soon as the two-year-old strutted to 25 yards, I folded him up like a clean pair of socks. I never turn down a gift from God.

From the May 2012 issue of Outdoor Life magazine.

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Cold weather, current-scoured river holes, and giant blue catfish—it’s a combination that’s been targeted by veteran catfish fanatics for decades. Indeed, some of the biggest blue cats in the world are caught each winter in just such places at just this time. The 40- to 50-foot depths of the Cumberland, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Ohio rivers are some traditional blue-cat hotspots.

There is, however, another way to skin a cat, and Kansas guide Ryan Gnagy believes his tactics for taking huge blue cats in shallow water will work in reservoirs around the country. It’s hard to argue with his success.

“It’s not uncommon for us to have 40-fish days, with 10 or more weighing 30 pounds or more,” says Gnagy, who has caught blues weighing more than 50 pounds from water as shallow as 15 inches in late winter. “And I don’t think you can ever fish too shallow when the bait and the blue cats are up at that time of the year.”

“Everywhere you have reservoirs with expanses of shallow flats and you have blue catfish, you’ll have that kind of excellent shallow, late-winter fishing,” says Jeff Williams, owner of Team Catfish, an Oklahoma-based catfishing gear company. “It’s a great fishing pattern that happens year after year, and it’s not too complicated. Just about anybody can get out and do it.”

Gnagy, owner of Prime Time Catfishing service, at Milford Reservoir in Kansas, credits the water turbidity created as heavy winds blow into the shallows for the hot bite. The dark sediment in that water holds heat much better than does clear water. The lake’s blues follow schools of big gizzard shad that head to the shallows for the warmer water to feed.

Williams, who’s fished the pattern in at least eight states, from Virginia to Texas, says the blues will also head shallow to feed on small shad that have died from shock as a lake’s water cools and warms. Many get trapped under the ice and are washed to the shallows.

Both anglers say blue cats can be found in such windswept shallows—10 feet deep or less—within just a few hours after ice-out.

Shallow Hunting

While some catmen drift the shallows, dragging baits until fish are found, others prefer to anchor up and fan-cast to various depths until a bite pattern emerges. Gnagy relies heavily on side-scanning sonar to begin his search for fish concentrations. Once catfish are located, he’ll drift along at a snail’s pace, utilizing an electric motor or drift sock to control his speed. When conditions are right, he’ll spend most of a day casting baits into water a few feet deep.

Although the fishing is not necessarily complicated, the best baits are often unusual. Some fishermen use chicken breast or thigh meat marinated in a secret homemade sauce. Oily pieces of snow goose entrails, chunks of Asian carp, or skipjack herring are also favorites. But Gnagy opts for native species.

“You can’t beat fresh cut shad—ever,” he says. “And it’s got to be stuff that’s never been frozen. That’s what the blues are already feeding on, and what they’re hungry for.” Using sonar to locate bait schools, Gnagy cast-nets his fresh bait. The shad are then cut in to 2- to 3-inch chunks and impaled on hooks as big as 8/0. His main line is comprised of 80-pound-test braid. A sturdy barrel swivel connects the braid to an 80-pound-test monofilament leader. A 2- to 3-ounce weight sits above the swivel, rigged so it can slide freely. Most of his fishing rods are 8 feet long, and stiff enough to shoot a game of billiards.

Read Next: North Carolina Angler Catches Back-to-Back Giant State-Record Catfish

Land of the Giants

The day may come when anglers will need even heavier tackle, because America’s blue cat fishery is growing, both in quality and quantity.

In 2001, the world-record blue catfish was an Arkansas fish that weighed 116 pounds 12 ounces. That record was broken at least four times before the current record of 143 pounds was caught in 2011 on Lake Kerr, in Virginia.

Williams believes it’s only a matter of time before that fish is topped, maybe by several pounds. When it happens, it’ll probably come from a reservoir because the waters are so fertile and food sources are so abundant.

In many places, 50- to 70-pound blue cats have become so common, many don’t warrant a photo before they’re released. But don’t worry, says Williams. There are plenty of smaller blue catfish out there for those who want a dinner or two for their efforts.

“Fisheries biologists have done a really great job of stocking blue catfish in reservoirs where they weren’t already native,” says Williams. “States are also starting to protect those really big fish with limits of maybe only one per day of more than 30 to 35 inches.” Most follow the unwritten code that only fish under 10 pounds can be kept.

“There are a lot of fish that size out there that people can enjoy eating,” he adds. “And at the same time, anyone fishing for them has the very realistic chance of catching one that’s 50 pounds or bigger.”

And the opportunity to catch them may never be better than in shallow water, in the late winter.

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I know Remington Bullet knives are supposed to be collectibles, but to me a collectible knife
makes as much sense as a collectible crescent wrench or chain saw. When my friend gave me this blade in 2000, I saw it as a tool just like my beat-up shotguns and rifles or my F-150 with 307,000 miles on it.

Plus, the lock-blade knife was so perfect. It came to a very nice point—ideal for getting slits started in deer hide—it held an edge, and it had just a bit of flexibility. The blade was long enough to be functional, yet I could carry it in my pocket. I can’t remember the first time I kissed a girl or hit a baseball, but I remember the first time I opened that knife.

Naturally, I took the knife hunting and it brought me great fortune. It was in my pocket when I shot two 360-class bulls three weeks apart. I used it to slice the breast meat off the Osceolas that filled grand slams for both of my kids when they were 14.

I was as well known for the knife as I was for having one of the best Labs in Kansas. I was always the guy who was asked to clean the ducks and the deer, plus elk, moose, doves, geese, squirrels, pheasants, and prairie chickens. A buddy even asked to use the knife to cut up a tough $40 ribeye in some fancy restaurant.

And then it was gone. A piece-of-trash distant relative stole the best knife ever made from the seat of our farm truck. Of course he denied it, but I knew where my knife was all the time as surely as if it had a tracking chip. But I had no proof.

Figuring all was lost, I went online and bought another, an identical Remington Bullet knife from 2000, and paid about $80 for it. It was okay, but it was kind of like marrying a trophy wife and letting the spouse that had made me who I am wander off. It was an imposter. Even though it looked and felt the same, I felt differently about the new knife.

So I went and stole my original knife back. It was like pulling Excalibur from the stone as I seized and pocketed it, and I know that if God has ever had a really good knife, He will understand.

Last fall, during my first season back with the old knife, I got a heck of a mule deer with my bow, had great hunts for ducks and geese, and filled all four fall turkey permits on toms. I used it to clean a limit of four roosters I shot the last day of the season, too.

And then I got to worrying that I might lose the knife again. So I put it away, and planned on its being as much a part of my will as the Hatfield side-by-side 20-gauge, a few custom fly rods, and whatever cash I’m worth when I die.

Earlier this summer I was on a wild hog hunt in Oklahoma and was using the new Bullet knife when it slipped while I was skinning an old boar. After a long afternoon in the ER and two weeks of healing, I put away the new knife and began carrying the old one around again. No way in hell would it have taken off like that and stabbed me so deep. Knives have a built-in loyalty, you know. The good ones do, anyway.

For more lucky charms, click here.

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As a kid, I thought my dad could do just about anything, and usually he could. If I broke something, he could fix it. If there was a sport, he could coach it. When I sought advice, his was almost always spot-on (though it’s taken me years to realize it), no matter if it was about money, girls, or grades.

But we both always knew he was a piss-poor shot. I remember boxes of shotgun ammo shot for a lone dove. He was usually worse with a rifle.

Opening day of the ’95 firearms deer season found us on a great western Kansas ranch with one of my best friends as a guide. Hunting here was my gift to Dad for his recent retirement. We were trying to find a herd with a nice mule deer buck we’d spotted from afar in a rugged canyon. I hoped the broken country would let us sneak close enough for a near point-blank shot. But as we were moving, the buck simply walked out of an arroyo about 180 yards away.

That would have been an easy mark for me, for most of my friends, or even for my kids. For Dad, it seemed as makeable as kicking a field goal in a hurricane.

I was about to tell Dad it was too far when he dropped to one knee and fired his .280. The buck began to stagger. In the seconds it took the buck to fall, Dad shot three or four more times. All those shots missed the buck badly. No matter. Walking up, we saw the first bullet had gone perfectly through both lungs. It may have been the only time I got to say, “Great shot, Dad, great shot!” and really mean it. It was also his last shot. Cancer came the next summer. We never hunted together again.

But that remarkable last buck made my father the talk of his small hometown of Tonganoxie, Kansas. He had a framed photo within sight of his deathbed. An enlargement of that photo was by his casket, too.

At his funeral service, many commented on the picture. To each one, I got to say, “My dad made a helluva a shot on that big buck, too.”

For more opening day traditions, click here.

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Just below the skin of any good flushing dog is a turkey-hunting dog just waiting to come out. So it was with my Lab, Hank, when he got his first flush on a flock of hens and poults.

I’ve seen it happen to other hunting dogs, ranging in size from tiny Boykin spaniels to a Chessie with a frame the size of a decent whitetail. Turkeys are addictive to flushing dogs. I’m guessing it’s because the flocks are often large, the birds are big, and together they carry enough scent to be detected 100 yards away.

This fall 30 states are allowing the use of dogs during their fall turkey seasons. That’s up from just 10 about 20 years ago. (Check your state’s regulations before heading afield.)
For decades, Appalachian hunters have bred dogs to find and scatter fall flocks, which are then called back together. Their dogs range widely and bark at the flush site. But across much of America, hunters can find birds feeding in open crop fields, then watch their dogs have their fun.

Spot, Stalk, and Scatter
On most of our hunts, which are numerous since Kansas has a 3 ½-month fall season with a four-bird limit, we’ll spy the birds from a road or hilltop. We stalk with the dogs at heel, then send them in when we’re as close as we can get.

The birds usually scatter like a well-smacked rack of billiard balls because a dog won’t stop chasing as long as there’s a bird in sight. Then it’s time to set up at the site of the flush and start calling. Hide your dog in a quick brush or pop-up blind.

Letting a dog scramble a winter flock just prior to fly-up can make for some vocal hunting the following dawn as the lonesome birds call before flydown.
**
The Re-Flush**
If the birds scatter in thick ground cover, get the wind in your dog’s face and take the game to the birds. In tight cover, turkeys–especially young-of-the-year birds–often burrow in and hold like oversize quail. Hustle to stay with your dog because he’ll get the scent many yards out and rush to the flush. Lay off the straightaway shots and take the angles that expose the head and neck. With a decent load, even a mature bird will fold like the owner of a pair of deuces.

Hang back and give your dog the joy of the retrieve, even if he struggles a bit with the heft. Since his first turkey retrieve, Hank has considered himself a turkey dog that also fetches waterfowl and pheasants. Once your dog gets a taste of fall turkey action, he just might feel the same.

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Many duck hunters are leaving the marsh just when they should be arriving. Midday can be the best time to swat a limit of mallards.

The reason for this is that modern mallards are behaving increasingly like snow geese, traveling in big flocks and often leaving their watery roosts before shooting time to feed in fields far away. They’re typically not back until noon or so, after most hunters have left for the day. Here are two tips for hunting smart when everyone else is gone.

Hunt the Roost
• Get a good vantage point some afternoon to see where the birds are roosting. Set up on the roost the next morning and you may be surrounded by more greenheads than there are at Chicago’s St. Patrick’s Day parade.

• Although they often fly out in big flocks, mallards trickle back to roosting and loafing sites in small, easily decoyed groups.

• Some mallards are flushed by other hunters heading to their trucks at midday. Setting up in an overlooked pocket could bring the spooked birds in.

Hunt the Layover
• Set up a small decoy spread on pockets of water between feeding and roosting areas. These can be great spots for midday action on birds that are thirsty from eating all morning but don’t want to fly all the way back to their distant roosting areas prior to the evening feed.

• Many of these layover areas are shallow potholes. If there isn’t enough cover to hide in, use layout blinds camouflaged to match the surrounding area, and place a few loafing decoys around your blind.

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The world over, it’s a fact of life: Daddies don’t want the kids hanging around when it’s time to get busy with their mama.

You can turn that knowledge into a useful barometer of the rut if you keep your eyes on how fawns are acting where you hunt. Here’s what to look for, and what it tells you about the progress of a deer hunter’s favorite time of year.

▶ SEE THIS: Fawns with does

If you are seeing deer in family groups, then it’s still early in the breeding season, or even pre-rut. Cast your mind back to high school–the boys are way more ready for action than the girls are, and they’re on the move, looking for a dame that is ready to dance.
▶ DO THIS: Rattle, use buck decoys

Tickling the tines may trip Mr. Testosterone’s trigger, making him think that there are other rut-ready bucks in the neighborhood.

▶ SEE THIS: Fawns going solo

If you see a fawn wandering aimlessly, looking as scared as you did the first time you saw the Flying Monkeys of Oz as a child, or you see an increase in road-killed fawns, then the productive chase phase of the rut is on. Bucks are chasing these fawns away from the first does in estrus.

▶ DO THIS: **Hunt travel corridors, call **

This is a great time to hunt downwind of bedding and feeding areas, as bucks troll through all day. Post up on travel corridors, such as where a saddle cuts through a ridge. Farm-country creek bottoms that connect woodlands can also be great. Take all of your deer calls, including the fawn bleat. If you can flip the maternal switch in a doe being dogged by a buck, she might bring him right into range.
_
▶ SEE THIS: Fawns rejoining does_

The first days that you see fawns glued to their mothers’ side again is when you’ll have some of the best hunting of the year, as bucks are roaming for one last fling. This is when many “never seen him before” brutes get taken.
_**
▶ DO THIS: Hunt transition areas**_

Hunt the same kind of transition areas as in the chase phase. If you see a solo doe on the move, set up along her trail and multiple bucks may be along shortly. Calls can help, as can a doe decoy if you are bowhunting.

▶ SEE THIS: Fawns chased by bucks

Roughly four weeks after the primary rut gets cracking, the secondary rut begins. The tactics that worked last month–calling, rattling, hunting travel corridors–can all work now.

▶ DO THIS: Blow fawn bleats

The older fawns will be cycling for their first estrus. A few bleats could pull a lecherous old buck into your sights.

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If you can’t see the ground for thorny brambles, you’re in the right place to hunt cottontails. But scratching a rabbit out of these knee-grabbing tangles takes more than a good beagle and a quick-pointing shotgun. Break out tactics you honed in deer season for limits of these brush-bound bunnies. Here’s how…

1. Find the Rabbitat

You can shoot more cottontails in an hour in perfect habitat–what I call “rabbitat”–than you can all day in fair covers. Scout your spots well.

A key element of rabbitat is a brushy, knee-high overstory that offers rabbits protection from flying predators. The more thorns, the better. Thickets of blackberry, wild rose, and other prickly brambles are perfect.

Basically, if you can toss a hat three times and it never hits the ground, you’re in the right spot. Scattered brush piles and these gnarly jungles are even better.

2. Take a Stand

For every rabbit that flushes near boots or beagles, many more flush farther out and quickly skedaddle out of sight and out of range.

For that reason, it’s a good idea to position hunting partners ahead of the regular line, especially at places where rabbits can follow features like ditches or fence lines to other coverts.

3. Get a Hawk’s-Eye View

Forget the hippity-hoppity. When a cottontail runs flat-out, it hugs the ground like a Ferrari and can easily pass you unseen. Even a few feet of added elevation will help you see and shoot more of these freedom-bound rabbits.

Sit atop rocks or brush piles, or use a lightweight climbing treestand. Missourian Fred Baum, of the famed Baum Squad packs of beagles, often carries a lightweight stepladder with a suitcase handle attached for portability. He sets up his ladder over particularly tight cover and shoots limits of rabbits from this vantage point.

4. Shoot ‘Em on the Rebound

Cottontails are homebodies. That’s why they circle back to where they were flushed when pushed by hounds. You can take advantage of that instinct when a rabbit dives into a thick brush pile or other gnary covert.

Leave a hunter to quietly wait with a good view of the pile. Often, as the sounds of the rest of the hunting party fade, the rabbit exits the mess and heads back home.

5. Hunt Early and Often

Don’t let too much of the season slide by before you hit the briars. Rabbit populations fall quickly through the fall and winter as predation takes its toll.

The later in the season you hunt, the more important the above tips will become to finding success.

–Illustration by Andre Malok

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The walk-and-stomp and wait-for-the-hounds-to-circle-it-back brigades shoot a lot of rabbits. They’d shoot a lot more if they’d hunt cottontails with the same tactics they reserve for pheasants and whitetails.

1. Find the Rabbitat

You can shoot more cottontails in an hour in perfect habitat–what I call “rabbitat”–than you can all day in fair covers. Scout your spots well.

A key element of rabbitat is a brushy, knee-high overstory that offers rabbits protection from flying predators. The more thorns, the better. Thickets of blackberry, wild rose, and other prickly brambles are perfect.

Basically, if you can toss a hat three times and it never hits the ground, you’re in the right spot. Scattered brush piles and these gnarly jungles are even better.

2. Take a Stand

For every rabbit that flushes near boots or beagles, many more flush farther out and quickly skedaddle out of sight and out of range.

For that reason, it’s a good idea to position hunting partners ahead of the regular line, especially at places where rabbits can follow features like ditches or fence lines to other coverts.

3. Get a Hawk’s-Eye View

Forget the hippity-hoppity. When a cottontail runs flat-out, it hugs the ground like a Ferrari and can easily pass you unseen. Even a few feet of added elevation will help you see and shoot more of these freedom-bound rabbits.

Sit atop rocks or brush piles, or use a lightweight climbing treestand. Missourian Fred Baum, of the famed Baum Squad packs of beagles, often carries a lightweight stepladder with a suitcase handle attached for portability. He sets up his ladder over particularly tight cover and shoots limits of rabbits from this vantage point.

4. Shoot ‘Em on the Rebound

Cottontails are homebodies. That’s why they circle back to where they were flushed when pushed by hounds. You can take advantage of that instinct when a rabbit dives into a thick brush pile or other gnary covert.

Leave a hunter to quietly wait with a good view of the pile. Often, as the sounds of the rest of the hunting party fade, the rabbit exits the mess and heads back home.

5. Hunt Early and Often

Don’t let too much of the season slide by before you hit the briars. Rabbit populations fall quickly through the fall and winter as predation takes its toll.

The later in the season you hunt, the more important the above tips will become to finding success.

–Illustration by Andre Malok

The post Brush-Country Rabbits: Thicket Picking appeared first on Outdoor Life.

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