PRDATR Report post Posted September 1, 2014 It started off slow but as it got closer to sunrise the birds started showing up. My son had to work and I had the day off so I made the best of it. After two hours I used up the 60 or so shells I brought which were a mish marsh of old shells I had collected over the years. I even had one Active shell, but I didn't shoot it. All in all I came up with 34 doves, 2 White Wings, 11 Mourning Doves and 21 Collard Doves. There were lots of pigeons but I didn't have any #6 shot. 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Antmo23 Report post Posted September 1, 2014 Well, our spot started off slow, mostly singles, then got HOT right around 830. I was done by 8 due to some darn good shooting, 1 whitewing, 14 mornings, and 9 euros. We got into the euros, had a few of our group get 15 euros to go along with a limit of doves. Anyone else get into the euros like that? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ctracingraptor Report post Posted September 1, 2014 Any luck from anyone in north phoenix? It was a little slow for us, i got 5 mourning and 2 white wings.... 15 total with 3 people hunting. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Devil Diver Down Report post Posted September 1, 2014 We started late hoping we'd miss the mass of people surrounding our spot near Maricopa but they were still there in full force when we rolled in at 7:30. Sounded like a war zone - at least 20 trucks and 60 people lined up on a 1 mile stretch of road by a dairy. We moved out of the shelling/flight path to a spot with fewer birds and people. I started hot hitting on my first 2 shots and 4 of 6, then struggled as the sun warmed up and the. Finished at 9am with 15 limit (9 mourning/6 white wings) + 3 collared on 37 shots with a used Benelli Nova 20ga I bought a couple months back - about 2 shots per bird. My dad only got 6 and neither of my kids wanted to wake up. More and more places down there posted No Hunting, so it really bunches people up in the areas we're still welcome to hunt. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
muledeerarea33? Report post Posted September 1, 2014 I woke up in a panic because I thought I missed my 4:30 alarm! Turns out I was up an hour and a half early. Made breakfast burros for the group I'd planned to hunt with but as 5:30 came around the phone wasn't ringing with calls from my hunting group yet? Thought it was odd so I went to check the phone for missed calls and it was missing!! I just saw it minutes before. I though oh crap and looked everywhere but found no phone. Drove out to a few different spots looking for familiar faces but only found lots and lots of hunters that I didn't know. Ended up going to a super secluded secret water hole at 7:30 by my self. Had a limit of mourning only by 11:00. Came home and found my phone sitting on the counter? The wife told me she took it away from our boxer/mastiff puppy after she heard her chewing on it haha! Eventful day but still fun. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CouesWhitetail Report post Posted September 1, 2014 I woke up in a panic because I thought I missed my 4:30 alarm! Turns out I was up an hour and a half early. Made breakfast burros for the group I'd planned to hunt with but as 5:30 came around the phone wasn't ringing with calls from my hunting group yet? Thought it was odd so I went to check the phone for missed calls and it was missing!! I just saw it minutes before. I though oh crap and looked everywhere but found no phone. Drove out to a few different spots looking for familiar faces but only found lots and lots of hunters that I didn't know. Ended up going to a super secluded secret water hole at 7:30 by my self. Had a limit of mourning only by 11:00. Came home and found my phone sitting on the counter? The wife told me she took it away from our boxer/mastiff puppy after she heard her chewing on it haha! Eventful day but still fun. LOL!!! too funny!!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wayno945 Report post Posted September 1, 2014 We started late hoping we'd miss the mass of people surrounding our spot near Maricopa but they were still there in full force when we rolled in at 7:30. Sounded like a war zone - at least 20 trucks and 60 people lined up on a 1 mile stretch of road by a dairy. We moved out of the shelling/flight path to a spot with fewer birds and people. I started hot hitting on my first 2 shots and 4 of 6, then struggled as the sun warmed up and the. Finished at 9am with 15 limit (9 mourning/6 white wings) + 3 collared on 37 shots with a used Benelli Nova 20ga I bought a couple months back - about 2 shots per bird. My dad only got 6 and neither of my kids wanted to wake up. More and more places down there posted No Hunting, so it really bunches people up in the areas we're still welcome to hunt. You must have been right behind my house, tons of shots this morning. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hntnIwlgo Report post Posted September 1, 2014 We had a successful morning. My son was done by 6:15. My husband done at 6:25. They made their way over to me at 6:30 and I had 14 bagged. It took me almost an hour to get #15!!!!! Not because there were no birds. They slowed down a lot but occasional birds were still flying over. I just couldn't hit a darn thing. Maybe it was the pressure of having an audience. Beats me. Finally at 7:20 #15 hit the ground. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
khmer6 Report post Posted September 1, 2014 Any luck from anyone in north phoenix? It was a little slow for us, i got 5 mourning and 2 white wings.... 15 total with 3 people hunting.It was crap. I couldn't believe it. A few single flyers. One double. And that's it. Nothing even on the ground or anything! Never seen a year this bad. I hope it gets better, my wife first time out and she got skunked. But she did get a shot off at a coyote. :-D 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
muledeerarea33? Report post Posted September 1, 2014 We had a successful morning. My son was done by 6:15. My husband done at 6:25. They made there way over to me at 6:30 and I had 14 bagged. It took me almost an hour to get #15!!!!! Not because there were no birds. They slowed down a lot but occasional birds were still flying over. I just couldn't hit a darn thing. Maybe it was the pressure of having an audience. Beats me. Finally at 7:20 #15 hit the ground. better opening morning than I've ever had!! Never been done before 8:30 or so 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Adicted Report post Posted September 2, 2014 just Shows. u have to scout for dove too Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Havasuhunter Report post Posted September 2, 2014 Wish I wad there. Save me some birds. For those that are wondering. Barn pigeons are just a bigger species of dove and I've found them to be fine to eat. Pretty cool some of you got into several species. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ctracingraptor Report post Posted September 2, 2014 I guess my next question would be, did anyone get on any hot spots in north phx, driving all the way to Maricopa for some doves is quite the trek lol... Probably round off to $3 a dove lol at that distance Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hoghntr Report post Posted September 2, 2014 Any luck from anyone in north phoenix? It was a little slow for us, i got 5 mourning and 2 white wings.... 15 total with 3 people hunting.It was crap. I couldn't believe it. A few single flyers. One double. And that's it. Nothing even on the ground or anything! Never seen a year this bad. I hope it gets better, my wife first time out and she got skunked. But she did get a shot off at a coyote. :-D Reallllllllly crappy.. saw 12 birds tonight shot 3x killed 2 birds the end. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ctracingraptor Report post Posted September 2, 2014 There was about 200 vehicles down carefree hwy opening morning, i wonder how they did.... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
