I got a chance to join a friend of a friend on some private land to partake in a little dove hunting this past weekend. We set up on a ridge between a couple of ponds and had a grove of evergreens not far off where the doves roost.
The reason this is a great warm up for the duck season is for many reasons. First, much like field hunting for ducks, we set up a spread of decoys in front of our blinds. Included in this were 2 Mojo Doves, which are a smaller version of the Mojo decoy that work so great for ducks. You also need to spot birds in flight, and scanning the horizon is very much like what you would do for duck hunting. Lastly, and most importantly I think, the doves actually decoy at times and are not that much different from what a teal would do once shot at. I don't care how many clay pigeons you shoot in a season, shooting at live birds is a completely different ball game.
We didn't slay them like we had hoped, but at the end of the day we had 4 doves in the bag. The motion decoys really seemed to bring in the doves for a good look. Before the doves were flying, we even had about 12 ducks in small flocks come cruising right over the decoys! I am considering adding my Mojo Dove to my duck hunting spread later this fall.