Anybody see any birds yesterday? - opening day in Alabama

[PowPow]

How did you do on opening day of dove season?


I went to a corporate dove shoot; BBQ and door prizes.
First time doing that, probably 100 or more hunters over several fields.
Our field had about 25 hunters. I was in the middle of the field, and the birds seemed to be flying around the perimeter.
Lot of folks yelling "bird!", and a lot of shooting.
I thought i must just can't see very well anymore, because I just don't see any doves on this field.
Later on I hear someone yell "those aren't doves".
After that I turned to face the other direction, and only turned toward them if I heard a lot of shooting.
I ended up with 10 doves with less than two boxes of shells, which is my best dove shooting ever. Gave them to my guest.
Not as many birds as I have seen on other hunts. Of the ones I got, a lot were with the third shot. A few times, I would shoot 3 at a bird flying out of the field too far a way. But overall my shooting was personal best.
If I can repeat it Weds and Fri, I should have 30 doves in the freezer.

[kynardsj]

I don't dove hunt but some folks just up the road do. Good bit of shooting up that way yesterday afternoon.

[Graybeard]

That's why all those doves were in my front yard yesterday. They were hiding from the folks that still shoot them. I gave up on shooting doves a lot of years ago. On opening day season doesn't really open until noon and the birds are usually flying much before 4:00 PM anyway.

It got to where all the pay fields were opening at first light and if you weren't there you either not get a spot at all or one with no doves flying by. They also priced themselves out of my budget and the last several I went to there weren't enough doves killed to make up one person's limit much less all of us there.

I can't stay out in the sun all day, never could really. I can't walk much more than 50 yards and that's only if it's flat.

But yeah I did see a lot of doves yesterday they were just pouring into my front yard and my blueberry orchard. I guess they were hiding from the dove hunters. I'm sure not one anymore.

[PowPow]

GB, dove hunters would pay good money to shoot in your yard.

[Graybeard]

Too many houses and trailers too close these days. When I moved here I was able to do some wingshooting here but no more. I have safe back stops for my 100 and 25 yard ranges out back but can't even shoot a shotgun up in the air in that direction without the shot raining down on someone's house or tralier. Things sure have gotten tighter since I moved here in '94.

[PowPow]

Went out to the deer lease Sunday afternoon and set up decoys in a clear cut according to a F&S article fro malst year,  in a spot that I thought was a flyway; no food, no watering hole, no roost, just a place I had seen them fly over in June. Got 6, could have had if few more if I was a better shot. They are hard to find on gray dirt.