Doves not only roost in the trees, feed in the fields and water in a creek but also gravel. Doves like tiny rocks and gravel for their craws that help them grind their food. Doves prefer to come to places with pea-size gravel in a wide-open area where the doves can spot danger before they fly down to gravel. Although the doves will fly directly to the gravelling spots like slag dumps and railroad tracks much more readily than they will to watering spots, they’ll also try to locate a tree that they can light in and observe the gravelling spot before they fly to the ground. Then you can jump shoot doves by crawling or sneaking into a gravelling spot and shoot the doves as they flush. Or, you can take a stand near the lighting-in tree that the doves use as an observation post before they flew down to gravel.

Hunting Dove Highways:
To have more shooting than anyone else in a dove field, scout the field a day or two before the hunt. Watch the way the doves come in to and leave the field. Make note of landmarks along those routes. Often the doves will sit on power lines close to the field or light in trees and look over the field before they fly into the field. Too, doves may come in at one particular corner of the field when they want to feed.

Draw a map of the field on a piece of paper. Mark landmarks that you can see quickly and easily. Next, mark on your map the directions from which most of the doves come and go, since they'll travel the same routes each day. Then you'll identify the flight directions of the majority of the doves feeding in that field and the highways in the sky they use. On the day you plan to hunt that field, instead of taking a stand on the edge of the field as most hunters do, move 50- or 100-yards away from the field, and take a stand along the route that the doves use to:
* enter the fields,
* leave the fields,
* come to the power lines,
* go to the lighting-in trees where they look over the field before flying into or leaving it. This strategy enables you to bag more doves than the people who just go to the field and take a stand on the edge of the field.

For the most comfort while dove hunting, use a Hunter’s Specialties’ camo dove stool, camo dove chair or deluxe camo arm chair – all lightweight enough to carry into the field. Many dove hunters prefer a Bunsaver ground blind seat or a Tripod camo stool from Hunter’s Specialties.

The more you learn about doves in the area you hunt, the greater your odds for taking doves each time you hunt. You don't have to go to a traditional big-field dove shoot. You can enjoy productive early-season hunting by yourself or with one or two friends, if you understand why doves do what they do, when and where they feed, gravel, water and roost, and discover the invisible dove highways in the sky that the birds travel to get to each of these dove-magnet sites.