getting ready
 

as always i begin to get the fever yep hunting fever no known cure...to day i started bush hogging my dove field will soon put out some wheat...my grandsonseen several birds on the powerline last week... it is nt but 9 weeks till the big day...always some hard desionns to make like which gun to use..i usally shoot 2 differant guns in the morning and 1 in the evening..i always carry a spare gun in case of a break down one year i carried 2 single barrels both of the gunsquit shooting that day...now thats some luck aint it....well i m going to be like a boy scout be prepared....charlie

It will be here before you know it. That is for sure. Lots of negative changes around the field we usually hunt, but hopefully the birds will still come

It's great to be prepared Charlie. I'm getting the fever already too but for grouse. I used to brush hog a friends property but it was to clear the way so I could get to my deer stand easier. The tractor was a big old Ford from the 40's that still works well. You don't see many Ford tractors anymore. I love to bounce around on that old Ford. I am big into vintage tractors.

i have a big ford tractor we use to disc the fields with it will pull a 16 foot disc real good..i have a massey 135 i use with 5 foot bushhog it gets the job done but it takes lots of hours setting on it to cut our fields...i got lucky my son bought a 75 horse L S tractor a korean made tractor and a 10 foot bushhog with cab and air....bushhogged in the rain some today...did not even see a rabbit cutting the fields today i usally see a snake or a tarpin but no show today boy how them sweet gum trees can grow cut them down last fall but some had grown back to 8 feet or more but the big hog took care of them..one thing i do not like about tractors with a cab and air you cannot cut the outer row close on account of limbs and such hitting the air unit and the cab will have to use the little massey for that...well me and daisey my working partner gave it up come 6.30 this evening daisey is my granddaughters jack russel it stays with me by day and with her at night..shes put many a squirl up a tree...charlie

today i serviced my small ford tractor good thing i did its a 4 wheel drive and the front unit was dry the dipstick would not touch...greased the bucket on it a coupla did not want to grease but i fixed that....had a front tire about ready to blow out so i found another old tire and had it put on...was sure hot i could not stay in the sun aworking long at a time... got some trees down on some of our hunting trails gonna try to move them tommorrow if my grandson can help me...i got the power saw chain sharpened and a jig of gas and oil ready... so if the weather is good that is my plain to move the trees this is one of my main squirl hunting trails....charlie...

What year is your Ford Charlie? You don't see them much anymore.

Charlie

"Power saw". That's what my grandad always called them, and it has stuck with me also. It must have been late 50s or early 60s before grandpa got one and then it seemed like there was always two or three. However I never recall more than 1 being functional at a time. We had better luck with Ford tractors. There was a 2000 diesel, an 8 N, a 2000 gas, and a 4000 Select O Speed. That 4000 schooled me on Holly carbs!
I still have the 2000 gas, it was new in 67, and came to the farm with a yellow 6' Woods 3 point bush hog. There is little paint left on the brush hog, and the gear box lives on several tubes on grease and some bar oil each year. But it's like the man used to say about a Timex it takes a licking and keeps on ticking.

our first power saw was a sears and roebuck big heavy saw but that thing out cut anything we ever owned in a saw...it had the regular pull cord to crank with or a place to wrap a rope around a pulley and crank it with...my first dealings with a power saw was in the late 50 s my uncle and i bought a mercury 2 man saw and put the motor on a bicyicle...we pushed it more than we rode it the motor was wore out... my tractors that i have been around are a b john deere a 60 jd acoupla super a s a h farmall a 300 farmall...then we bought a new 544 diseal international in 68 i still have it...the tractors i have now is a 8 n ford 1949 model got it broke in half rite now clutch stuck in it from not being used...got a big 9600 ford dual wheel about a 1980 model bout seen better days but we still use it...got a 1921 ford 4x4 a jap made tractor bout the size of a 2000 ford.. got a 135 massey gas burner i use a lot for rough bushhogging... my boy bought a ls korean tractor with a 10 foot woods bushhog....also got a g alis chalmers motor in rear very small tractori bought this thing and a 130 farmall gona fix them up but they just are setting there .....today i got the grandson to help me cut 5 tress that had blown over a roadway by the creek...he had never run a power saw so he learned how today was some really dangerous sawing so i did the dangereous part...noy i can get it bush hogged and get them deer and turkeys comming down that road again....charlie

Charlie - You must have a BIG barn

I've always got 3 or 4 rifles sighted in ready for deer as we usually have some property we do damage control .

Shotguns are as ready as they'll ever be , be it for deer or winged creatures .

I quit bush hogging my trails a couple years ago . I just ride the ATV thru three or four times a couple weeks before archery season .

Both my chain saws are sitting in the garage beside my big tractor in case they're needed . The last two weeks I spent cutting up tree's that fell in my yard when a mini twister (for lack of a better term) came thru . I do however have a rather extra large tree that was up rooted in my front woods close to the drive way and the road that goes by the front of our property . That one will get turned into burnable pieces after the first of the year . Now with that being said I can see a Stihl 391 with a 25" bar finding its way to my house soon as my Stihl 291 is only an 18" bar and that tree is a good 35-38" .


This year I'll do a first for me . I'll leave the country in the middle of Virginia archery and not be back in the country until the Monday before election day . Gonna leave for the PI on October 10th stay on Mindanao until the 28th , then back to Manila on the 28th take a side trip to Corregidor and Clark . Then on to Makati November 2nd and 3rd to attend the pre wedding and wedding of one of my nieces . Fly oughtta Manila early November 5th their time and land in Dullus the afternoon of the 5th our time .

this evening my grandson fired up the 9600 and hooked to the disc and started discing the dove field i could see large black clouds in the distance lots of thundering and lighting...he tried to beat the stornm by getting that tractor in high gear but mother nature beat him...rained us out but before the rain we had several birds on the powerline and on the field...when i came in from church there was 3 big turkeys on the field i never tire of seeing these these beautiful birds...so i m hoping for a good turnout of birds...my barn got tore down by the state highway department some day a four lane road is coming right in front of my house...my son has just built a 40x60 pole barn but for the last ten years my tractors have stayed outside in the weather..charlie

checked the dove field this evening had about 40 birds on the power lines and some feeding on the ground...now if they will stay....charlie

there was several birds feeding this morning i stayed far away so i would not spook them...got to go see a man about some wheat soon...i m bush hogging today grandaughters horse pasture look better than my yard...i m resting at the moment the air conditioning on the tractor went out blowed a hose...any way it hot in a cab with no air.... i ll fix it when i get time...charlie

I'm ready for a little shooting myself, need to get back to the trap field and warm up. Still doing a bit of fishing, heading out tomorrow for some walleye on the big lake with my ladyfriend.

I'm getting pretty anxious myself. I plan to start the season in Saskatchewan the third and fourth week of September. The ducks and geese will have not have started their migration south from the breeding grounds and I plan to be there to help them make up their minds to leave early. Let me know if you are free then Destry.

checked the field this evening wrong kind of birds on the field..a big flock of crows were really having a party...went to the house got my 22 rifle out filled the magazine up and shot the 22 till i emeptyed it ruined the party but i had not been invited...ha have a lot of trouble every year with them crows....charlie

Charlie I beleave someone on this forum listed some recipe's for crow. Might do a search and then post a couple of the recipe's on a sign in the middle of the field. I have also been giving a lot of thought to how you can keep the doves in your field till September but all I have come up with is double sided tape on the power line. If I could just figure out how to get them off the line in season we will have something.

crow might eat good with the right things cooked with it....now what that might be....i ve eat crow before but no feathers on it...had a big rain last night and this morning hope it aint drowned all the birds gona see right now if any birds is on the power line....charlie

The storms are starting to roll in. Next couple of days may get kind of rough.

went out to watch the dove field this evening boy it was hot and humid..daisey and me had jumped into the old 38 chevy coupe parked in a shade opened up both doors and watched for birds...i first saw a few singles then a pair of those big doves the euro asian ones came flying in...they didnot stay long they flew off and i wondered what made them fly..in just about 15 secounds i knew why they flew in come a big hawk lit down in the shade watching for his supper.... after this a few more singles came in i looked to my right and a young doe was checking me out...she watched us about 5 minutes and she whirled and ran back into the woods... it was just to hot the doves were not moveing much....charlie

Did you get any of that big storm that we got this evening. It started hailing but no tornado that I saw.

we got a big rain but no severe weather...today i checked the field there was several birds but not the amount i would like to see...when that power line looks like its sagging pretty good from numbers of birds on the wire i will be satisfied...maybe....charlie

tempertures today were pleasant in the high 80 s today..good cool brezze the birds were out there but i seen a big hawk get a bird and then there must been a hundred crows after that hawk...got the 22 out and fired several times up in the trees to run all of them off...got to get the ole 10 ga out and do some crow thinning since they are eating my seed up...charlie

My neighbors put in a commercial sunflower operation a couple hundred yards south of my property.
Doves are looking good!

Man I have some great stories and memories of how to setup a field from some real pros. It was a rare combination and some smart creative folks that knew game and doves and what to do to attract and hold em. We were friends with a family that owned an explosive company. They had a good bit of land that was secured and had a network of roads between trailers and metal cargo containers for storing explosives. You could only store so much of it in one place so they had plots for storage setup all over the place with fields and gravel roads connecting it all.

They used to have customer appreciation slash family/friend hunts every year. For us lucky few we used to quail hunt there as well. They figured the perfect formula was bare ground patches in the middle millet and sunflower fields. It worked incredillbly well for them plus they did lots of other tricks that were all legal but effective if you were committed to wanting to attract dove for a great hunt.

There setups and blinds are almost proprietry and have never seen anyone do it the way they did. Some it appears to be alot trouble but it isn't if you enjoyed it and had a purpose and it paid off. Biggest trick and formula they used was sunflowers and millet fields mixed together and including bare spots. They were meticulous about keeping bare spots, especially in the southeast where we lived. Water, tree lines and power lines not that big a deal in our area but bare spots for them to feed, dust and gravel was paramount, especially in the middle of the dove field, which is harder to do than you would think.

They also figured what was the recipe for an ideal dove field and they had a perfect one setup with the bare spots and how they even precisely would situate the milet round bail blinds just before season opened, which I have never seen done since but they were perfect at providing shade, concealment and catching what little breeze a dove field can offer and capitalizing on it.

BTW back before there were dove decoys and robo decoys they made dove decoy/attractors to place and move around in the dove fields at those bare spots. They had location, habitat, food source, smarts, timing and patience. It paid off every time. Unforetunately it is very hard to recreate the location and habitat that is half of it, but I think if you properly and legally manage food source, smart about what a dove needs/likes and are cognizant of timing it can work in most dove fields.

They also had tricks to manage where hunters setup that I think worked and at least it kept people from sky busing knowing there was plan in place. Let the low ones and high ones pass safely and unmolested and they will doves will stay reasonable until later in the season. The smart ones will then learn to approach at Mach 1 and then learn some aerobatics that would put a Top Gun fighter pilot to shame.

it would be nice to have a setup like the one just mentioned but them kinda places are gone around my part of the woods...not 10 mile from my house is a huge farming property lots of grain cotton and corn fields the power lines are covered up with doves...but theres no hunting on this property allowed...small plots like i fix draw in some birds but not like when the fields around here were planted in crops...mostly now i enjoy the kids shooting at these doves we usally get enough for a good dinner..this evening i came by the fields and the power line had several on it the most i ve seen so far...charlie

got a bad start this morning could not find the keys to my sons 4x4 ford it has the fuel tank in it...after an hour hunting those keys looking in all of my dirty pants no keys. relooked the key peg were we hang the keys back to the truck for the 3 rd time..this was getting tiresome but what do you do...no keys finally called my grandson to see if he might have got them for some reason he said no keys...finally went to the tractor with cab on it looking around just grabbing at straws...i seen my big straw hat in the tractor picked it up and there was my keys..i rembered then the keys were hurting my leg while i was bushhogging and i pulled them out of my pocket and pulled off my hat and layed over them...thank goodness....got cranked up loaded my helper up dasisy the little squirl dog..shes my right hand man she never complains got more patence than i have...we got over to the tractor we checked the oil in motor ok..we checked hydralic oil just 3 gallon low out of brake fluid...got this took care of we then greased that big disc take me 30 minutes to grease this big piece of iron....finally backed fuel truck close to tractor to fill it up put clamps on battery turned pump on got on tractor out of fuel in the tank just filled it up the other day so i thought...very few doves on field at about 10.30 so i cranked the tractor dasisey loaded up and we cut about 2 more acres for the birds...went home loaed up the seed sower on the other tractor a 135 massey...put them seed out drove back to the house spied a big water melon on the porch and thats what i had for dinner just now...birs are comming in good if they dont decide to go to south america....charlie

done some more bush hogging this morning just about to finnish at my house next it s my grand paws farm...today i done my good deed..when we bought my grand paws farm it was over grown with 4 years of growth...needless to say it was thick brush and trees..i needed what is called a bush and bog disc..my friend had one a pull type disc with 24 inch blades on it wt which is my frienda real name just the letters wt....i went to his house got the disc and used it to help get the fields cleared again...the disc done a fine job after we was through with it i told wt i would carry the disc back he said i might need it some more...i never used it again...every year since i tell him i m going to bring it back he keeps saying if he needs it he knows were it s at...this morning i told my wife i was carrying the disc back twenty years that disc has set in one place time for it to go home...got it there ok but aint seen my friend to tell him his disc is home... coming home by the dove field i scareed up a lot of doves eating gravel...i felt like i should get a medal for carry that old disc home guess seeing those doves were enough....charlie

got a early start this morning the big tractor ford 9600 throwed a fan belt..my grandson said if i would get one he would put it on this afternoon...as i drove up to the tractor it was setting in the edge of the dove field there must have been over a 100 doves on the power lines...this is the most doves we have had in a few years....if they stay well have a fair shoot but one big weather front and there gone....we tried to put the belt on but it was to short gota go back in the morning and trade it for a little longer belt...charlie

was bush hogging around my dads old orchard this evening a big cloud was coming my way lots of lighting and such but no rain at that time...i looked over at the dove field and the power line was covered up....been a while since that many doves were on that power line...things are looking goodwe also found another spot to make a dove field the boys burnt off a 30 acre field last night for them...we will shoot at my place on saturday and at the new place monday.....gona have a dinner on saturday i always enjoy the dinners....hope every body else have good dove numbers....charlie

was bush hogging yesterday come by the dove field that evening it had been misty rain on me for an hour or more...when i came by the field i was amazed i never seen as many doves on that field in all the years we have been useing it...it looked like a big covey of blackbirds when they flew up...made me feel real good...i know these birds were just makeing a rest stop but they were a lot of them...maybe a few will hang around for a few more days its looking good so far....charlie

Charlie; You keep talking and we are all going to show up there opening day. I love to eat and shoot birds. What is that address? Gerald.

north mississippi i had a guy from georgia come up last year and hunt with me..we did not have a lot of birds last year but we had a good time and ate to much... i love opening day of dove season lots of great people and good food...this evening i watched the field and there was several birds on it but that big bunch has left....charlie

Only 18 more days and our season opens.
Lots of birds. Morning and Whitewing dove.

Ordered two cases of RST's and a case of Herter's for the trap gun yesterday. It may be still hot outside but the feeling's in the air!

i d better check my supply of shells i think i ve got enough 20 ga but may be short on the 12 ga. got some 16 ga but probably will not shoot a 16 save it for squirl season...charlie

checked the field this evening lots of birds if we can hold them to opening day we should have a fair shoot...its looking a lot better than the last few years...got to check my ammo supply wif says surely i didnot need more shells as many as i buy..i told her i have most of them up at dr pepper cans...charlie

If you aren't careful you will come home one evening and find stewed Dr Pepper can for supper.

never thought about haveing dr pepper stew i had better start hideing my cans better....hope i eat doves before i eat the stew...charlie

done some disking today not as many birds as there has been theres a weather front coming thru our area...hope the birds stay with us...charlie