Finding dove hunt locations

Hello and good morning ladies and gentlemen! Was just wondering if anyone has hunting dove in the Collin county area. I have a annual public hunting permit but I’m up in the air on where I wanna go. Would I be better off paying to be on a dove lease ? Also the two fields I hunt in Collin county are really different. One is old corn field and is mostly dirt and the other is open field with grass and hay. Which would be the better option? Thanks for everyone’s time !

Scout, find birds, find the fields they are using, find the flight paths they are using, find the area of the field they are using, find what time of the day they are using the field.

If you find answers to all the above you will have successful hunts. It may take hours and days to find the above answers but once you do you will know where and when to hunt.

When it comes to public land you're not going to get a straight answer. If you want to know which field is better out of the two, then you better scout it. Your old corn field may be a great flyover as birds going to and from food/water or may be nothing. The field with grass/hay may be a great spot depending on the grass and hay or may be nothing....in the end you wont know which field is better or worse until you scout both of them.

As for your dove lease that's up to you if you want to spend money. Need to see what the lease provides...sometimes it's just land that is no better or worse then public land and other times it's managed land and you may have better odds.

While good advice in general - that's a futile effort the first 3-4 weeks of the season on any of the APH lands in the area.

IF (I refuse to) I were going to hunt any of the APH dove lands in Collin/Rockwall counties opening day - or the first few weeks - I wouldn't waste a bunch of time trying to scout for the best spot. Everyone knows about it. It's going to be very crowded. It's probably going to be very frustrating having ever public dove hunter in a 30 mile radius up your butt. The vast majority of these people dove hunt only and have zero respect for other hunters or for safety. Call it ignorance or call it [censored] - it is what it is.

If you take 2flyfish4's advice - and apply it at the end of September - you'll have some success and much more enjoyable time in the field because you're not dealing with every great white dove hunter from N Texas.

On Thursday afternoon, I was in one of the Collin Hunt fields the OP is talking about, and I was by myself. One other hunter showed up with is family about 45 minutes before sundown.

There was nothing to shoot at. I’m not an expert, but I haven’t seen much in those fields that would attract dove

Heard about 30 shots opening day. Went out again yesterday morning and heard 3 shots total. Hoping like others have said that cooler weather up north will push more down here later on.

Got ahold of a few in fannin county, also a few in the rockwall Royce city area.

Wish I could dove hunt the city with a high powered pellet gun. Its insane when you are out in the country fields and see nothing. Then when I start heading back to the city I will see tons and tons of birds flying and hanging on them lines. I think they are a lot smarter than people give them credit for.

This happens every time!