One of things I recall most vividly from this particular dove hunt with my brother-in-law was looking way down the field to my right and wondering why one group of hunters seemed to be shooting so much.
I could see through the summer haze what I though was a tree with at least four or five doves perched in a small tree with one coming in to join them.
“It’s a dove tree,” my brother-in-law told me. “I saw them setting it up as soon as we sat down. It’s got some dove decoys sitting on some limbs, and the one at top is a spinning wind Mojo dove.”
If you thought ducks were mesmerized by spinning-wing decoys, you should see this thing at work: Just about every dove that flew by this thing swooped down to get a closer look.
Unfortunately, for most of them that meant they were heading right into a full load of No. 8 shot.
Our host later told me he has seen days when the Mojo doves just sucked them in. However, like all other decoys, they only attract birds and animals that see them.
“If we didn’t have the food, you could put out all the dove decoys you wanted to and never kill a bird,” he said. “But if you have food, which means you have doves, I’ve seen these things bring them to you in a field full of hunters that just aren’t getting the same number of birds.”
