Everything You Need To Hunt Dove

Hey everybody, it's Simon from Lake Hub

It's Dove Season and I wanted to share with you all of the gear that I take out in the field

when I go dove hunting. First off I'm going to take you from head to toe and then I'll show you what's in my game bag

So you can see I'm wearing camo. Now I'm here to tell you you don't have to wear a cammo when you dove hunt

It's going to help you. Whenever you're hunting anything it's always helpful to camo out

head to toe. But you really don't have to. You don't have to

Don't wear anything bright or light colored or anything like that. Birds can see full color, HD

They can see way better than we can. Pretty much every bird, every bird that I know of

Any bird that you're chasing can see better than you. But all that said, you wear a dark shirt, blue jeans, dark hat

You're on the edge of a field. You don't move. They don't think you're a threat

I'm here to tell you that for sure. certain but again if you camo out i've done the you know paint my face you know camo

neck gator the whole thing and you do have a better chance to shoot more birds so uh this is this is what

i usually go with like a mesh back you know kind of lighter lighter weight it's hot the beginning of

the dove season is hot it cools off you know by october you know then you can you start

throwing layers on and all that kind of stuff or just go with like a cotton you know cotton shirt instead of

this which is like a it's like a jersey really light the the wind goes right through it long sleeves

i don't care doesn't matter doesn't bother me uh short sleeves long sleeve doesn't really matter

the pattern you need this isn't deer hunting you don't need to match the terrain that you're in

you just need to kind of break it up a little bit that's all you're just trying to not look like a threat

as birds are passing over or stay still and you're just a non-issue

That's what you're going for when you're done hunting. Blue jeans, that's what I usually wear

I either wear brown or olive drab, cotton duck jeans like canvas, canvas jeans, or blue jeans

It doesn't really matter. Snake boots, definitely snake boots. you're going to be probably romping through some, you know, kind of jungle territory hunting down

some birds that you dropped and couldn't find or, or you're going through hayfield or something

like that, snake roots. So that's kind of my head to toe

And then what do I carry my bag? What are the bare essentials? And then what are the things that I found that have been really helpful to me

So first off, bear essentials. Ziplock bag. Something to clean in the field is so much easier than cleaning at home with birds because you got feathers everywhere

So cleaning is quick and easy. You don't need any tools. You got your tools right here

So take a bag with you, drop all your, you know, your dove breasts or if you're plucking a whole bird or whatever

Put them in here. Throw them to cooler or whatever. Even if you don't do that, if you don't have very far to go, not a problem

So definitely, definitely bring these. Depending on how much shooting you're doing

And depending on how much you want to protect your ears, bring some ear protection

I like to go simple, but there are some really great high-end, you know, hearing protection options these days, especially ones where you can like, it's kind of crazy the technology where you can talk to each other, talk

with your buddy but then the shooting you know kind of range and decibels and all that kind of stuff

it blocks us out i don't know how it works some kind of black magic but uh pretty cool all right

what else we got here i used to use one of these this is a sleeve goes on the butt end of your shotgun

it's got five pockets these are like neoprene and this is kind of an old elastic kind of deal

stretches over. I used to use this. I used to think, that's a really great accessory

That's going to be really handy. It's not. I stopped using it

It gets in the way. It slides up and down. It doesn't stay straight

And I never actually used them. And then I've got these shiny, you know, shells on the end of my gun

I don't know. I just don't like it. So that's something that I got

I don't really use. I keep it in my bag. I haven't used it in years, years and years

one thing that uh i did upgrade and has been awesome is a site is a fiber optic site so this one actually came in a kit is three different brands of of gun I gave one to a buddy and so I got one left over but just to show you for example

they have them they have universal ones that are magnetic this is actually a clip on

here's what it is it's a fiber optic see if I can get it to focus there it's not going to focus

that's okay so it's just a it's just like a little fluorescent piece right this this catches the light

and then what you see is that and it glows i'm telling you there you go so you can see i'll cover it up

and then let the light in that's what you see instead of your bead so you put it right in front of your

bead right on right on the um the vent rib rail at the end of your gun you just push it up to the bead

and then you see a little glowing bead. And let me tell you what, in the early morning light

I mean, that's just beautiful. It's a beautiful thing. This will improve your marksmanship more than anything else

It's like a $10 investment. No brainer. Do it. This will get you more birds

All right. What else we got here? So some kind of light

I like this one right here. As I drop it on the table, I like it because I can drop it a lot and it still works

So there's that. It's a Phoenix brand. This is an E12 model

What I like about it is that it uses one AA battery. It's just really simple

It's got three settings and I'm not shining it. I'm not even going to shine it at my camera

It's bright. It's that right. You tell ghost stories and stuff. stuff. This is an awesome little pocket flashlight. This goes with me anywhere, fishing, hunting

camping. This goes with me all the time. Uh, headlamps are awesome too. It just depends on what

kind of situation you're getting into. Some people hunt off the back of their truck. You don't need

a light, okay? But if you're bushwhacking, like I find myself doing a lot in public land and stuff

you will need light. Speaking of bushwhacken, trail markers. Now, sometimes you don't want to give away your spots

you're in public land, but you can put these in kind of, you know

inconspicuous areas, mainly trail tax. I like to put them at the bottom of trees

because then I know to look for them at the bottom of trees and they're not at eye level where other people might see them

that's just me just kind of being sneaky about my spots um trail tax are really great these are

reflective too and so they they show up i mean in a headlamp even on uh this one's got you know red

light high and low and then a white light high and low so even in low red light i mean these

these things could show up i don't know 30 yards away um pretty easily and

these I use if I'm really not for marking spots or trails or anything like that

I mean marking like maybe maybe for marking trails. But like let's say you're tracking an animal

Usually deer. Like if I'm following a blood trail or something like that, then I'll mark every blood

spot so I can look back and I can see the path and then I can make a better judgment about

where to go next. You didn't really find yourself doing that a lot with Dub

I mean, sometimes you're off trying to find a bird that you're pretty sure fell this way or whatever

But this is really compact. And if you've ever been lost, maybe that's just what it is

I have posed traumatic stress from a hike that went sideways one time like 15 years ago

So I'm going to take my pinky with me. This is an inexpensive

machete uh short and what i like about it is that it's light it's really low profile

so this is just a like pericord wrapped around you know one one folding you know blade

without any hand of material and a nylon webbing sheath and this goes on my belt this goes on

on my the belt that is in my jeans underneath my game belt and if i find myself i mean again

you drop a bird and you might be back in the woods and vines and everything else

should i just come in handy quite a bit just depends on your train I always take a pocket knife with me everywhere I go any day anytime anyway

And when I'm out in the field, I usually take a bigger kind of full-handled

you know, one hand open, one hand closed, bigger pocket knife. So I've always got flashlight, pocket knife, machete, all handy with my right hand

that's how I roll. If you wear glasses, this right here, this is a handy little device

Let me tell you what. What it is, it's microfiber. How awesome is that

So it's just a little neoprene material pocket opened on the bottom

You just stuff it, you know? Just get your magician skills on right here

Look at that. and just it just stuffs away. It's so handy with a little clip

I needed this big time on opening day this year because it was so humid

It was like 87% humidity or something like that. My glasses fogged up

I want to get it to. Except wipe them off. You don't want to wipe them off in a dirty shirt, right

So you always want to rinse it with water first. Of course, before you get to microfiber in

but if you had this on you that's and in this this is one of those things this goes in

every hunting bag got I have because it's like four bucks and if you've ever if you've

ever missed an opportunity to take a big animal because your scope was fogged up because

you're sitting there going buck fever and then you go okay it's time

And you've been breathing on it? Yeah, you don't want that to happen

You want to have one of these handy really quick. If you wear glasses, even if you just wear it sunglasses

because sunglasses are a great thing to take, definitely, your eyesight, I mean, that's

you have to be able to see far and very well, right

The birds, again, they're going to outsee you. So you have to rely on your eyes

more than anything else you have to see the birds coming from from far away um and i'm talking like

i have like these little floaters you know you have those floaters in your eyes where you you look at

blue sky and you can kind of see some dots yeah that's what dove look like when they're on their way to

you so you have to be on top of your eyeball game um so clean your glasses clean your sunglasses

and then these are awesome this is eight it's called a reader rest uh like reader glasses

and you rest them on here and it's a magnet so you just put this on one side of your shirt

put this one on the front and the design is such that you hang them in here like that

and then you lean over to pick up a bird glasses don't fall out because if you tuck them right here

or you tuck them right here fall out so what I like to do when I'm hunting because um

You know, let's say like if you put them right here, I actually wore this at a theme park

Glasses on glasses. And I had my sunglasses, regular glasses. I just right here

And we're going on an inside ride, switch them. Outside ride, switch them

It was awesome. Didn't have to dig around for my glasses. I don't wear, I wear aviators, man

I can't put them like on top of my hat or anything like that. So when I'm hunting to get them out of my

the front you know so they're not in the way i put it right here we're back because you're

really going to switch your glasses one time um so if you're wearing sunglasses then you don't have

them on your hat or something like that then you're really going to put them on one time

read a rest really love that great little invention a couple more things

bugs skaters yes you're going to get mauled you're probably going to

get mulled. So bug spray. I also um one year I got chiggers really bad really bad like

two dozen sugar bites. It was gnarly. So I always spray the top of my boots

spread my waist and then give a little, what are these, little these? Good to go

Thermacel. This thing is awesome too. If you're going to be sitting in a spot for

a long time, then these are really great. I mean, if there's, if there's low to no wind and you're

going to be in the same spot for a while this will create like a cocoon of heaven for you All right Decoys You don need decoys but I had birds

flying too, you know. One thing to note is that the birds like to fly to, like to fly and land

and take off into the wind. So if the wind is, if you're setting them up and the wind's to

the back, Alex is unnatural. It's one of those things I do

just learned, you know, over the years of reading something, you know, I read an article in an

outdoor magazine or something, I don't know. So, and, and, and then started observing, it's totally

true. It's totally true. So if you can set decoys, set them facing into the wind. If you have

the, like those motorized mojo decoys, those are awesome. I've seen, you know, hunting with other

people who've had them. And, uh, those totally work. I, I thought they were a gimmick. Um, no

They bring birds in. They bring more birds in than these do. And that's just that

So what I like to do is with these, these are light and easy

I don't do the whole motorized thing. I mean, if I had like a really consistent, steady place where I hunted, I probably would

But since I don't and I kind of bounce around, kind of a vagrant

then I just clip them on to this lanyard. And then I loop this around my game belt

clip it on and it just hangs and kind of knocks around on the back and nice and easy they're

lightweight all right finally um not finally two more things one is a seat if you're going to be

hunting for a long time you're going to want a seat um if you've been sitting there for an hour

nothing's flying you're going to wish that you brought a seat if you didn't have a seat so little

folding chairs are fine. What I like is the tried and true most brilliant invention for

dove hunting ever, the swiveling bucket top. These things are great. And if you've been

deaf hunting with a group of people before, I guarantee you somebody's been using them with

these. So it fits on top of a five gallon bucket. You can throw all your junk in here, including water

and snacks and extra shells and everything you need right in a five-gallon bucket but if you're walking i would say

more than say more than 100 yards this gets really tired really fast you don't just mean tired like

i was tired i just mean the idea of it gets really tired really fast and that's when a folding chair comes in

handy but what's great with the swivel top is that you can track so much easier on a swivel top

so there's a brand of chairs called chama chairs they're really expensive for like 150 dollars

but they're a really nice swivel folding hunting chairs um i don't have one but they are really cool

Finally, a lot of people like the best, like the shooting vests, you know, Cammo Game

Fest with like the game bag on the back. It kind of, you just toss your birds in the back, right

We've got a couple pockets in the front for shells and stuff. For me, that's great later in the season

Early in the season, it's so dang hot. I prefer a game bag

And so this is like, some people call them a dove belt. So it's just a belt with three bags on it

It's a really simple device. I got just like an average price one 12 years ago

and it's showing little to no sign of wear at all. I put a dollar store plastic carabiner on here

This is what I looped my water bottle on, my not malady bottle. So spent shells and down birds going here in the back

right in the back and then shells go on the right just for easy i mean i'm always that's my that's my

shell bag nothing else goes in there because if you've been in a situation where you have to reload

quickly you need boom you need shells in gone no fumbling around everything else goes in here

sunglasses uh bug spray all my gadgets and gizmos all my other stuff goes in here snacks whatever

preferred a dove belt my controversial opinion of the day those are all the things that i used to go

out dove hunting dove hunting is so much fun get out there get some birds we'll see you outside