re: Dove fields

Where are you hunting?

Gotcha. Maybe y'all's State Extension sets an earlier date. You can't spread wheat to hunt over in LA until at least a couple weeks in Sept.

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Gotcha. Maybe y'all's State Extension sets an earlier date. You can't spread wheat to hunt over in LA until at least a couple weeks in Sept.

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i guess so. Because we consulted with local game wardens. They told us as long as no corn/sunflower on ground 10 days before opener. And as long as wheat is broadcast in a manner it normally would be. No issues. We were checked by state wardens last yr, and federal year before. Outside of a couple guys no plugs.. never an issue with fields.

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Around here the Green Jeans would comb the field until they found one of those corn chops you put out a couple weeks before and throw the book at you.

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may bee diff your way. We have never had an issue at all with it.

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until you end up in federal court

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buddy of mine just lost his fishing and hunting privileges for 15 months over baiting doves he had crop of browntop, then "reseeded" an area that didn't take very well

the judge didnt play that game

screw all that shite for a little dove

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Until you end up in federal court.

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uf you read all the post you will see we have been checked the previous 2 years. last yr by state gw, year before by fed gw. nothing more than a few people without plugs. Fields never an issue. we have discussed this with local gw and its no issue

*Obligatory sarcastically surprised whistle*

They ain't ya frands baw, just remember that. They will move in when the time is right, and only when it's right will they truly move in. Oh, and it's illegal. Somewhere in that tilled up seedbed sits "illegal" if the law wanted to push the matter. What if they find corn and chops that still remain after the 10 day period? They still remain, mind you, and bootprints in the bait pile are scary scary because they mean that somebody is playing Detective Dove with you. If they know of you and want you, they'll go in and document the changes, if any, that break normal ag practices or the 10 day rule. One piece of a chop 8 days, 4 days out and you're done, or at the very least, if you're lucky, they'll shut you down. Their showing up on opening day is just a ceremonial delivery of your ticket once they recover that sunflower seed in its memorized location (or they'll produce the pics and videos and other evidence from where they searched in the nights before). And as another poster said, judges don't play that crap- they have little mercy on poaching and game violators. I know many many folks who got hit with 1 year bans and $1k+ in fines, and one guy who baited like yall do, via the whole damn county co'op's grain selection, who got a 3 year ban and over $3k in fines (but he was also shooting while they wrote him the ticket.)

Are you aware that rapid succession in the broadcasting of wheat is not a legal ag practice and is in fact illegal? Not for a farmer, mind you, but for a dove hunter? Under normal ag practices, barring a documented, region wide drought, etc., normal ag practices means that you, a bonafide agronomist who has a burning desire to shoot doves over your crop, are allowed to sow only ONCE over a properly prepared seedbed (i.e. no sunflower seeds broadcasted over a raked plot). If you go freshen up the "patch" and the boys in the bushes video you doing it, you're fricked. If they know what you do like you say they do, rest assured one of em will take it upon himself to make you his project- especially if yall are burning em up.

If they know your past practices because you told them 2 years in a row, they have all the more incentive to come in and hold you accountable on things like rapid succession of broadcasting, remaining bait, normal ag practice, etc., especially on a slow year. It's impossible to come out of that unscathed year after year. I've seen it fail time and time again. The thing is, you're kind of right in the fact that some of them don't rule with an iron fist when it comes to strictly wheat, but when you start slanging that yellar gold, etc., they get spicey about it. Many of the fresh-outta-the-academy grads are nowhere near as lenient on any kind of blatant baiting, wheat or not.

At that point it becomes a matter of them finding one single pile of wheat where you filled the hopper and you're toast. They've gotta list and they check it twice, and when they show up, they ain't leaving until they got the goods.

The overall gist of the dove field laws are BONAFIDE ag practices. A federal warden explained to me that the "bonafide" part (that is, with good faith and without fraud of carrying out AGRICULTURAL practices only) gives them a wide range of opportunities to determine whether or not the wide range of baiting opportunities are, well, baiting. He said that, essentially, if you're baiting and they come snooping around due to, say, intel from a prior year, regardless of a 10 day rule, regardless of your expressed intent to carry out ag activities, if it's BS, then when they decide to go in, they go in dry and there's nothing you can do to stop them.

I'll just cut the bs though and give the tldr: you're baiting, and that's cheating, and baited fields are for women and novices, and cheating is for whores.

(And I'd appreciate the invite.)

(But only in the best spot.)

(That also has the best escape route.)

(No seriously I'm not f*cking kidding or I'm going to narc you out.)

An MDWFP FAQ primer on baited dove fields fyi for yall MDWFP PDF on dove bait

Best way to get kill dove over a baited field is invite the game warden and his son.

Some of the dirtiest fields ive ever heard of had game wardens blasting away in them

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Then I figure the deer will eat 50% of em if not more

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We get hair from barbershops and hang around the field in cut plastic bottles along with fabric softener. Does a good job keeping them out. Also we have fences off the areas with mule tape and used malorganite to keep them away.

One year we had wind chimes.