Yes, there is a seedling in that cage

I ordered my crab apple seedlings from the Georgia Forestry Service. They sell a variety of trees at very good prices. Ten crab apple seedlings were $30, much cheaper than I could have gotten them anywhere else. They start taking orders in June for delivery to your nearest Forestry Service office in December or January, the time to plant them. i wanted to order some persimmon trees, but they were sold out by the time I tried to order.

Since my soil is poor I bought some bags of topsoil at Lowes and a bag of 10-10-10 fertilizer. I also took some wire I had and made tubes to protect the saplings from deer and other animals. To plant, I dug a hole a little deeper than the seedlings had been growing and much bigger than the root spread with post hole diggers. I put the sapling in and added topsoil, compacting it as I added it. When the hole was full I poured water on it to settle it good and sprinkled a cup of fertilizer around it about a foot out. After staking the cages down securely I flagged them with surveyors tape.

These wild persimmon trees are in my field

I hope to harvest venison around these trees in three or four years.

Did you get a chance to shoot at some doves yesterday? Opening day of dove season was always a highlight of my year while growing up. Although it was bittersweet, since it always was about the time school started back, I really looked forward to trying to hit the little gray birds. Opening day always bring back greet dove shooting memories.

Dove shoots were a big family affair back then. My Uncle J.D. always had a field and I got to go with daddy from the time I was able to walk to the blind and stay still. I was daddy’s retriever and I prided myself on never losing a bird he hit, no matter how thick the briars were where it fell.

I finally was allowed to carry my .410 shotgun on those shoots when I was about eight years old. On the first hunt that I was allowed to have my gun Uncle J.D. gave me an old army surplus gas mask bag to carry my shells and other supplies. Although that was almost sixty years ago I still use that bag when deer hunting.

I had a tough time hitting doves with my .410 since I didn’t get much practice shooting at flying birds. I was deadly with it on squirrel in trees but hadn’t learned to hit moving targets. And I didn’t shoot much since I think the adults put me and my cousins my age in blinds out of the main fly routes.

Sometimes I shot five or six times all afternoon, and didn’t hit a bird for the first couple of years I tried. I still remember the first dove that actually fell when I shot. I was very proud of it!

Daddy was the Agriculture teacher at the local high school and knew all the farmer in the area. So he got invited to many shoots and there were very few Saturdays during season we didn’t go after I proved myself at Uncle J.D.’s farm. On one exceptional shoot, when I somehow ended up in a good blind, I actually killed five doves. And it took only one box of .410 shells.

Back then most people didn’t pay much attention to the limit on doves and would kill all they could. Time were different and the doves provided good eating for the family, but you needed a lot of bird for a big family.

On one shoot when I was about 16 years old I killed a lot of birds. I was shooting a 12 gauge shotgun and it was more efficient, but at the end of the day I had shot five boxes of shells! Even on my best day I missed about three out of four shots!

My uncle Adron shot a 16 gauge shotgun and was deadly with it. I watched him many times in amazement. He almost never missed a bird – you could count on one dropping when he pulled the trigger!

Dove shooting is expensive, especially if you try to have your own field. It is bad enough shooting up several boxes of shells to kill a limit, but that is cheap when you consider the cost of plowing, planting, fertilizing and taking care of a field.

When I moved to Griffin in 1972 I wanted to go to a dove shoot that first fall but knew no one with a field. I saw an advertisement for pay shoot in the paper and went to it. Some farmers set up a dove field and charge people to hunt it to recoup their expenses.

That was my first and last pay shoot. I didn’t really pay much attention to the field, just watching the doves flying around when I checked it out. The day of the shoot I set up on a fence line and had killed two birds when I saw two game wardens coming across the field, checking each hunter.

I wasn’t worried since I was doing everything legally – I thought. But when the federal agent took my license and put it in the stack he was carrying I knew something was wrong. He said I needed to take my stuff to the parking lot and wait there for my ticket. The field I was on was baited.

The field owner had a legal field and sold all the spots on it he had, and had more people wanting to pay him to shoot. So he spread wheat on a nearby hay field and sold shooting spots on it. There were about 30 of us that got fined in federal court for being on a baited field. Each hunter paid a $75 fine and I heard the field owner had to pay a $2000 fine!

If you have a place to shoot doves, enjoy it. Make some great dove shooting memories! Just follow the laws. Don’t get that sick feeling I had when the game warden took my license! It is the only time I have ever gotten any kind of fine for anything related to hunting or fishing, and I never want another one!

“Behind you over the trees,” I yelled. When seven heads within earshot swiveled and 14 pair of eyeballs scanned the trees behind them, I realized I needed to be a little more specific. That taught me to say “Uncle Adron, behind you, over the trees.”

I was on my first dove hunt in a blind by myself and was about 12 years old. After many days in the blind with daddy over several seasons, acting as a retriever, then a season in the blind with him while holding my .410, I was allowed in a blind alone while dove hunting. Boy did I feel grown-up, and I was trying real hard to do like daddy taught me.

That dove shoot was on my uncle J.D.’s field behind his house in McDuffie County. Back in the 1960s almost all dove shooting was on family or friends’ fields and you always knew everyone in the blinds around you. That has changed a lot over the years and now, unless you pay to have a field or go to a pay shoot your opportunities are limited.

Fortunately, Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs) have dove shoots all around the state of Georgia. Many have managed fields that produce good dove shooting while others are open for dove shooting over areas where you might find doves, like recent clear-cuts, power lines and old fields that are not planted for dove but have natural food sources like weed seeds.

What makes a good dove field? State wildlife biologist Don McGowan works in Region 3 but specializes in dove management and is coordinating statewide dove banding and wing studies. And he loves to shoot at doves. He shared some of his thoughts on what makes a good dove field and how to select a spot to shoot.

You need a minimum of five acres to have a good dove field, and hill top and hill side fields seem better than bottom land for some reason. A nearby water source helps as does perching places like power lines and dead trees.

But the key is the food source.

“Seed available for an extended time is the main key to a good dove field,” Don said. WMA managers try to plant a variety of crops at different times so the harvest will be over as many months as possible. This keeps seed on the ground over a long time and attracts and holds doves. You should plan your field like this rather than waiting until the last minute to plant.

It takes planning and work to make a good field. Some WMA managers place a higher priority on dove fields and spend more time making sure they have good fields. If you plan on hunting a WMA dove field past history of dove shoots on the areas will help you choose one.

Once you pick a WMA to hunt, how do you decide where to place your blind on the field? Many WMAs have open hunts where anybody can shoot on any open day while others have quota hunts to keep fields from being overcrowded. Make sure of the kind the area you want to hunt has and watch the deadline on quota hunts.

“Dove flying patterns are random from field to field,” Don said. The only way to find where doves fly on a particular field is to scout it. Spend some time before season watching the field. Locate corridors where doves enter the field. It might be a head of trees, a dip in the tree line or something only the doves can see, but if you watch you will pick up the pattern.

There are no assigned blinds on WMA dove fields so arrive early to get your chosen spot. Don says hunters are very good on management hunts about spacing themselves in blinds at safe distances and they seldom have problems, but be respectful of those arriving before you. It is first come – first serve in picking out a spot for a blind.

When you find the spot where doves enter the field, set up your blind far enough from the tree line that you can spot a dove and have time to shoot it. Someone in the middle of the field is not as likely to let you know about incoming doves as we used to do when it was all family. After all, if you shoot it the dove can’t make it within their shooting range!

Many WMAs have youth/adult hunts, an excellent opportunity to take your kids to a dove shoot. Doves are the most popular game bird in the US and in Georgia. They offer fast action and younger hunters usually love dove shoots. A WMA hunt won’t be exactly like hunts of my youth where everyone on the field was a relative but with the youth/adult hunts everyone on the field will understand the importance of taking young people hunting. This is likely to make it a better experience for the younger hunters.

Take a kid dove hunting this year!

The only reason I deer hunt is for the venison. I try to kill three or four deer each season for the freezer, and have dozens of favorite ways to cook the meat. One of the most important things about good tasting venison is what you do after shooting the deer and the way it is processed.

I gut any deer I shoot immediately and wash it down carefully. Then I take it to a processor. I like for the deer to hang for a few days before being cut and packaged. Hanging in a cooler makes the meat more tender and flavorful.

For the past several years there was a very good processor, Done Rite, out near my farm. I was very well pleased with the way they handled my deer but they did not open this year. The three deer I shot this year were taken to three different processors with different results.

I shot a 115 pound doe opening day of season. I weigh each deer I kill and then weigh the meat I get back. I carefully gutted and skinned the deer and saved the heart and liver. Yes, I eat both and they are delicious! I also cut out the rib cages to cook.
This deer I took to a processor near my house that shall remain nameless. To be fair about the weight of meat I got back I asked if they cut out the meat from the ribs and they told me there was not enough to mess with.

I got the usual cuts, cube steak, ground meat, butterfly chops and a neck roast and the ground meat was packaged in tubes, something I like. But the rest was in the same kind of trays and wrap that you get from the grocery store. That kind of wrapping allows freezer burn too fast.

From a 115 pound deer I got 28 pounds of meat, only 25 percent of its live weight. And they charge $70 no matter what size the deer.

The second deer I shot was small, only 60 pounds live weight. I took it to Huckabys near Senoia since I had herd they charged by the size of the deer and did a very good job. They did. The meat was vacuumed packed, a very good way to protect it, and the ground meat was in tubes. I got 22 pounds of meat, over 33 percent of the live weight, and it cost me only $35.

Huckabys did not take any deer after Christmas and I shot a 110 pound buck on December 26, so I took it to York in Barnesville. They came highly recommended, too, and they did an excellent job. I got 49 pounds of meat back, almost 50 percent. And it was wrapped in butcher paper with plastic wrap on the outside, a good protection.

They charge $75 no matter what size the deer but they get every bit of the meat. And that included skinning the deer. They also told me they would rather gut it themselves, but most places charge a lot to gut a deer and I would not get the heart or liver.

Next year I will carry any small deer I shoot to Huckabys but, since York is closer to me, I will take bigger deer to them!