Public dove hunting

[afishinman14]

What has been yalls experience with dove hunting on public lands? Obviously these are the public permit lands, not drawn hunts. There's a unit within 30 miles of my house I was gonna look into hunting this year. Do they ever plant anything? Do they make an effort to make it a good place to dove hunt? Or do they just say, "Here's some land, and I've seen some dove. Have at it."

[afishinman14]

This unit is only for dove btw. No other hunting allowed all year

[Tspurgin26]

In my experience when you buy the 50$ (I think) public pass you get the book and for the dove hunting all the fields we checked out in the book were either planted with maze or milo but make sure you fill out the required slip and put it in the box but in my opinion if you have no where else to hunt the 50 dollars or whatever it is will be worth it

[Patton]

I used to hunt the places of Engel road in San Marcos tx and it was ehh... Don't recall if I ever shot a limit, but often a good day involved 6-7 birds, and I'm a decent shot I wasn't missing a ton. Just not many targets

[32drawlength]

In north TX, the fields that were available to us about 8 yrs ago were corn fields that were cut 4-6 weeks prior to opener...we did see blackbirds though:-)

[boomerball]

only 30mi away, i'd go drive by and check it out. would suggest giving it a look ahead of time anyway have a little gameplan before going out to hunt it

[JustinJ]

I hunted them a bunch around Floydada and had some good luck. They never seemed to be too busy but I had a ton of pastures within 20 miles. I don't think there are that many down by Sweetwater. I think its a good buy every year though and still buy the APH. Too much land for too little money to not buy it in my opinion.

[Shake N' Bake]

There are 2 fields within a mile of my house. It seems like opening weekends are decent but after that you may only see a few birds.

[tloc1000]

I hunted a few in Ellis County by Lake Bardwell. I didn't see much and the fields were sunflowers with rows cut.

[HR3]

here,here

In north TX, the fields that were available to us about 8 yrs ago were corn fields that were cut 4-6 weeks prior to opener...we did see blackbirds though:-)

fields are cut waaaay too early.....

[Italianxbowuser]

after the first two weekends the pressure slows way down, expect a good public hunt to yield 6-8 birds

[79F250]

We hunt them every year. The places around the San Antonio area such as engel road can be good for a couple days but then the birds move out with the hunting pressure. Last year I limited out at engel road 3 days in a row. But engel road has no food around the hunting areas the birds just fly over on there way to a field somewhere.

The better dove hunts don't come till the south zone open. We hunted the mimosa farms one in dilley and have done real good it's a huge field with cut milo. The last couple years were good except this past year he never planted anything. But when the owner the plants that's place is as good as it gets IMO. Depending on how good of a shot you are you get easily get a limit in 30 minutes. Last year we hunted a spot in the Bigfoot area and did good the first 2 days then the birds just left.

It's best to hit these public lands the first couple days of dove season. Then not waste your time for a week or two and them hit it again when the hunting pressure dies off.

[79F250]

What has been yalls experience with dove hunting on public lands? Obviously these are the public permit lands, not drawn hunts. There's a unit within 30 miles of my house I was gonna look into hunting this year. Do they ever plant anything? Do they make an effort to make it a good place to dove hunt? Or do they just say, "Here's some land, and I've seen some dove. Have at it."

I looked of sweetwater Tx and realized its purdy close to san angelo. Is there a public dove hunting place other than the San Angelo state park and twin buttes by sweetwater. I'm going to school in San Angelo and have had good success with the dove hunting in some of the areas at the San Angelo state park.

[afishinman14]

I looked of sweetwater Tx and realized its purdy close to san angelo. Is there a public dove hunting place other than the San Angelo state park and twin buttes by sweetwater. I'm going to school in San Angelo and have had good success with the dove hunting in some of the areas at the San Angelo state park.

Yeah there's the Loraine unit just east of Colorado City. And there's Abilene State Park.

[Limbwalker]

I love it. I'm going to buy the $48 APH permit anyway, to hunt the Sam Houston and Somerville, so the dove hunting is just a bonus.

I had some pretty good dove hunts last season. Put more effort into it than in the past 20 years, and had a lot of dove breasts in the freezer to show for it.

It's not easy. I'm not saying that. You do need to SCOUT the areas before the season, and then, get there earlier than the next guy.

If you do those two things, and shoot halfway decent, you'll take home doves.

Dove hunting is one of the last remaining simple pleasures in life. And for $48 all season, the APH lands make it very easy to enjoy.