Dove Decoy Trickery

Not much beats a fast-paced dove shoot to welcome the fall hunting season, and a few tricks have shifted the odds in my favor.

- Garhart Stephenson

A dove shoot is one of my favorite ways to ring in the fall hunting season, and while we don’t have the numbers of doves seen east of here, I have always made the most of what we do have. Simply clipping decoys on the top wire of a fence or in low tree branches can pull doves into shotgun range, especially where they are already looking to land. More often, though, the grey speedsters just cruised on by my decoys, and I accepted that if I wanted more than a few in the bag, I would have to get out and walk ’em up. Then I tried using my head instead of my feet and discovered some tricks that made the decoys more effective.

Wyoming mourning doves are just as gregarious as the little buggers back East. But small gray decoys blend in too well with the prairie color palette. Much of the problem comes from the fact that decoys viewed from above all but disappear against the backdrop of our clay soil.

I needed to make my decoys more visible to catch the eyes of birds that sailed past. When the hamster in my head finally started to turn the old wheel, the first thing I realized was that I needed to get the decoys up above the surroundings, and the first worthwhile idea for doing that was to construct a phony elevated fence line. All I needed was a pair of tall posts that I could erect on site with a cord pulled tightly between them.

It seemed logical enough, but the first time I tried it, I must admit I had my doubts. And in the growing light of early morning, the phony fence didn’t seem to help much. But once a rising sun lit up the elevated decoys doves took notice, and the smile on my face grew as fast as the pile of hulls at my feet.

This was turning out well. But I knew the flight of early in-comers would not last, and it didn’t. While I sat pondering whether to get on with the walk-up portion of the program, the flittering of a lone dove’s wings tickled my ear.