I was out at my dad's place building well actually REbuilding fences today and saw probably 1000 doves in only a few hours. I'm stoked because that's where I do the majority of my dove hunting every season and the last two years have been not so bueno. The neighbors (my brother and his wife) just did an addition to their house, including a basement, and all the dirt they removed was spread out across the pasture to level some low spots. Well, that area is now covered in sunflowers, probably 2-3 acres of them, and the dove are flocking to the patch. I'm all excited, but after finishing fences, I walked into Dad's garage and saw about 10 dove fly up off the ground under one of the trees in his front yard. It seems that he has hung a bird feeder in the front yard and all the neighborhood birds, especially dove are hammering it. It looks to hold about a pound or more of seed and they are emptying it EVERY DAY! I sat and watched as they emptied half of it in less than an hour!
Okay, that's the background information, here's the question. I read somewhere that there was a distance you had to be from feeders etc to be hunting migratory birds in order to be legal. While I don't think that little feeder is drawing this many birds, it's most definitely the sunflowers, I do want to make sure I'm legal. I looked, but didn't find where it said that I had to be 100 yards, 500 yards etc from any feeder. I know it has to be removed 10 days prior to the hunt, but what if the feeder is going to stay up?
I'm also planning to set up a deer feeder with corn soon in a remote corner of the property. I'm assuming I'd have to be the same distance away from that also, might get kinda tight on a small acreage, depending on how big the excusion zone is. If it's too big, I'll just hold off on the deer feeder, and or tell the old man to stop filling the bird feeder 10 days before season starts.
Okay, that's the background information, here's the question. I read somewhere that there was a distance you had to be from feeders etc to be hunting migratory birds in order to be legal. While I don't think that little feeder is drawing this many birds, it's most definitely the sunflowers, I do want to make sure I'm legal. I looked, but didn't find where it said that I had to be 100 yards, 500 yards etc from any feeder. I know it has to be removed 10 days prior to the hunt, but what if the feeder is going to stay up?
I'm also planning to set up a deer feeder with corn soon in a remote corner of the property. I'm assuming I'd have to be the same distance away from that also, might get kinda tight on a small acreage, depending on how big the excusion zone is. If it's too big, I'll just hold off on the deer feeder, and or tell the old man to stop filling the bird feeder 10 days before season starts.
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