Texas Hunting Forum

Looking at DJ Farms for dove hunting lease near home

Posted By: Khaiguy

Looking at DJ Farms for dove hunting lease near home - 07/05/16 09:29 PM

Has anyone dove hunted at DJ Farms north of Dallas? If so, what was your experience? They claim that they cut their fields just before Sept 1 and won't plow until after the first split is over. I've done Dove Blasters for the past three years for a local dove hunting ground but have decided it isn't worth the money because they do not manage the property for doves at all. They just give you access to plowed or undeveloped fields. I would like to hear if you've had experience with DJ Farms and if you think they would be worth the season lease for $225 (early registration) fee. How crowded was the hunting?
Posted By: Ty Webb

Re: Looking at DJ Farms for dove hunting lease near home - 07/06/16 04:21 PM

It's exactly what you would expect for the 'convenience' of being close to home. I passed on hunting with them last year because their fields weren't as they advertised if you catch my drift. A buddy and I had the opportunity to shoot 10 birds between two guys on the opener 2 years ago. After that I don't think I saw more than 5 birds inside 50 yds after scouting the flyways.
If you can shoot decently and want the opportunity to harvest 15 birds on a hunt, you gotta go west. Several dove guys on the forum have proven track records...schedule a hunt with them.
Posted By: beaversnipe

Re: Looking at DJ Farms for dove hunting lease near home - 07/06/16 05:08 PM

Go west and north west if you wanne shoot lots of birds.

Also this year the wheat and milo will be cut and plowed real early due to all the rain we had.

Best fields will be the ones who planted tons of sunflowers and are actually managing it for dove only.

Lots of shady ads on craigslist and newspapers about idiots promising you the best season ever

Same o same o every year. By mid sept they will stop posting and not even answer their phones.

Dove hunting is big business and fast cash in texas. Some greedy people will barely plant or use pics from last year taken in early august. I know of one place close to my house where the dude puts 200 people on opening day on a 50 acre patch. They shot 70 doves among them and the field was shot off within 2 days.
The guy does not care as he took $40,000 in one day and paid the owner $10,000 for the field for that weekend.
The dude blamed the rain 2 days prior.
This year he will have 200 new dudes hunting there.
Bet a lot of them dont pay taxes
Posted By: Khaiguy

Re: Looking at DJ Farms for dove hunting lease near home - 07/06/16 08:01 PM

Thanks guys, I have a guide I trust for dove hunting out of Breckenridge/Woodson. That's a 3 hour drive for me. I hunted with him six times last year. He has put me on a lot of birds the past two seasons. In addition to that, I'm looking for a place closer to home to go out and work my dog and shoot a few birds. I realize DFW is on the far edge of the central flyway so I don't expect to see the numbers I see in Woodson but if the property were managed properly (crops cut, not plowed), I would expect to bag a handful of birds each trip.
Posted By: ducknbass

Re: Looking at DJ Farms for dove hunting lease near home - 07/06/16 09:16 PM

I hunt over around my house south east collin county. Some years are better than others. But I find opening weekend to be great then dies off for a week or two. Then I can usually stay on them for a couple weeks depending on fronts and rains. Will I shoot dove like they do out west? No. But enough to keep me going back.
Posted By: Flock Knocker

Re: Looking at DJ Farms for dove hunting lease near home - 07/06/16 09:57 PM

We have season leases available in Gunter for $350/gun. All of our leases are private and we absolutely do not over crowd a field. We budget all of our fields to no more than 1 hunter per 10 acres to make sure it is not over hunted or blown out opening day, so for example 100 acre field only 10 hunters. We do not day hunt or guide on these private lease so you will not show up one weekend to 100 people in the field. It is a private dove lease only the hunters that lease it will have access to hunt it. I've hunted in the war zones, and I've paid for season passes just to show up to a 50 acre field with a 100 hunters and I would never wish that on another hunter.

We manage over 15,000 acres of dove properties and I'll be the first to tell you that we don't claim to be the Coleman Counties of the world, however in good years we have fields that will compete. We do work with our landowners on planning harvest, plowing, and cutting on leased fields, however mother nature doesn't always cooperate. Yes, a good amount of our lease holders have deer leases in West Texas and we are very convenient to people that live in DFW. If you want a place less than an hour from home, most of the time we have fields 30 minutes or less from most of DFW, where you can go out and shoot a limit a couple times a years and go out after work and shoot 6 or 7 birds in an afternoon, don't have to worry about getting shot or showing up an hour before shooting light to find a spot, and don't want to have to pay an arm and a leg we have available leases. If you want a place where your going to shoot a limit 7 days a week within an hour of walking into the field, we don't have anything for you.

All of our dove fields range from $200/gun to $350/gun based on convenience, crop, expected dove harvest etc. I think $2-$3 per day is fair price to pay for what we offer. And all off our lease holders are encouraged to go out and view/scout property prior to signing a lease to ensure they know what they are leasing.

There are good and bad groups in North Texas offering dove hunts and dove leases, I encourage everyone to do your research. Last year was a bad year for most of North Texas, there no denying that. There was some people that had good hunts but for the most part it was hard hunting. On our opening morning BBQ hunt we scouted for two week every morning, come opening week we knew that the hunt was going to be far below average and we called every hunter to let them know the hunting conditions and offered to refund their deposit or they could come hunt for the day for half price just to cover our costs. We only had one group of 3 guys out of 100 hunts ask for a refund, everyone else came out and had a great time even though it was slow hunting because it was what they expected. Under promise and over perform! I'll get off my soap box now.
Posted By: Khaiguy

Re: Looking at DJ Farms for dove hunting lease near home - 07/12/16 07:55 PM

The THF search tool did not find this because it is too old but I happen to find it on a Google search smile

Old THF thread on DJ Farms

Still some useful info. I think I will give these guys a try this year for my weekday hunts and the weekends I'm not hunting in Woodson.
Posted By: Captain Chunk

Re: Looking at DJ Farms for dove hunting lease near home - 07/16/16 03:35 AM

It's been mentioned before, but you get what you pay for. If memory serves correct, this is just their 2nd season to charge $225 having come up from $150. At the opening day bbq they put on, I talked to many different people and none of the groups had more than 2 or 3 birds total. There are some good spots out there that past members all know and will be covered up on opening day. After a couple of weeks there won't be many people out there. They also have some rules that are rarely if ever enforced and broken constantly.
Posted By: pervis

Re: Looking at DJ Farms for dove hunting lease near home - 07/16/16 03:56 AM

If anyone wants a good dj spot pm me. Hunted there a few yrs ago got into more white wings than ever. It died off after that, everytime I went I d at least get 5. I own land now and won't be back, but if someone does want some spots I found, shoot me a pm
Posted By: Stump_jumper

Re: Looking at DJ Farms for dove hunting lease near home - 07/20/16 05:57 PM

DJ has it decent years and real bad years. Last year was a bad year. Ownership on my favorite field changed and new owners went in and bulldozed a tree line and in my opinion messed up a fly way. One problem with DJ is if you scout and find them before the season you better set up a tent and camp out on the night before. It did not use to be that way but has been for past several years. Probably if you do a lot of scouting you can find a good field but you will have friends and maybe lots of them. I think last year was a bad year for the whole of north central Tx.. I usually have a fair number around the house and can gauge by what I see there. Last year those numbers were way down.
Posted By: LarryCopper

Re: Looking at DJ Farms for dove hunting lease near home - 07/20/16 11:18 PM

I've been hunting with them for a few years now. It is what it is... a big lease close to DFW. I spend lots of time scouting so opening mornings have been good to me and the couple of guys I hunt with. You could say we have a scouting coop and it pays off.

But, you won't be shooting limits day in and day out. After the locals are shot out it's more or less over. That won't last through opening weekend. Yeah you can find some migrators later in the season but not in great numbers like you can out west. And if you get lucky and find an "out of the way" place that has birds, you will be boom scouted.

Not talkin' ya out of it, just tellin' ya what to expect... and that is a typical large lease around DFW.
Posted By: Khaiguy

Re: Looking at DJ Farms for dove hunting lease near home - 07/22/16 01:23 PM

Thanks all for your valuable input. I went ahead and signed up with DJ Farms and will be getting the tours in August. I'll decide after seeing the properties if I think it's worth the $225 to have a local place to knock around and shoot a few birds on the weekdays. They offer a money-back policy if you choose not to do the lease after going on the tours. For the weekends, I'm looking forward to some great dove hunting out in Woodson with Puddin's operation.
Posted By: Guy

Re: Looking at DJ Farms for dove hunting lease near home - 07/22/16 01:33 PM

It's a 1 notch upgrade from public, and priced fairly.
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