Palouse Outdoors:Enhance the Hunt with DIY Dove Decoys

A few years back, a social media friend began a wooden dove decoy migration event to raise awareness of the tradition and art of handcrafted wooden decoys for bird hunting. Each year around September 1st, he would send a dozen handmade dove silhouettes from Georgia across the country to be hunted over in various regions. Being a traditionalist, I thrust myself into the migration route, adding Washington to the list of states these well-traveled decoys have landed.

Aside from experiencing a new facet of bird hunting tradition, two things struck me about the endeavor. First, I was unaware that dove decoys were even a thing and never considered that decoys could work for doves. Second, I had only hunted waterfowl over decoys and never once experienced a bird committing to the spread. Hence, I had zero confidence in decoying doves but decided to seize the opportunity to learn more about this tradition's history and how to use them.

Brad Trumbo

Trumbo's roughly painted almond-colored dove decoys match the mourning dove plumage relatively well.

Wooden waterfowl decoys have a rich history dating back to the 1700s, beginning with American Indians who used natural materials like tule to form the bodies. Hand-carved wooden decoys entered the scene in America in the early to mid-1800s and seemingly coincided with market hunting. Market hunters deployed between 300-500 waterfowl decoys in a spread that were carved and painted in approximate detail to the real deal. The sheer number of decoys was likely more attractive than the paint job. While artistically carved decoys are still sought after today, hunting decoys continue to be mass-produced, although molded from plastic since about the 1970s, to include mourning doves.

Brad Trumbo

Scrap plywood cutouts make acceptable silhouette dove decoys.

The silhouette decoys that arrived from Georgia were painted approximately like a mourning dove with a bit of whimsy in the eyes, which fed my skepticism. "How would a dove possibly fall for this obvious imposter?" I thought. Nevertheless, I packed the little wooden birds in my vest and took to the field, hopeful that the decoys would work, "as seen on TV."

First light peeped over Oregon Butte and fell across the Tucannon River canyon through an acrid smoke screen from a nearby wildfire. A haze settled over the cut canola field before me, masking the small decoy spread set just beyond an overhead powerline. The campfire scent of pine resin filled my nostrils and blurred my vision, but a cool breeze kicked up, finally driving the smoke back to the east shortly after sunrise. Doves began to move with clearer skies, but none were headed in my direction.

Minutes ticked by into what felt like hours, offering ample time to agree with myself that the silhouette decoys were utterly useless. Regardless, I sat, seeing no benefit in revealing myself to move or remove the decoy spread, providing the doves ample time to spot them. This simultaneously reinforced the timeless lesson that patience, born of experience, intelligence, confidence, or simple logic, typically pays off.

The first mourning dove fell to Dad's old 16-gauge Savage Fox Model B as it descended left from the powerline. The shot, of course, set the small field into chaos, and doves began circling the entire property. Minutes later, a pair cruised down the powerline, circled twice into the wind, then floated right over the decoy spread.

Brad Trumbo

In keeping with traditional hunts, toting a vintage shotgun, like this old Savage Fox side-by-side, makes gunning over decoys a timeless endeavor.

To my surprise, the morning ended with a handful of birds in the bag that deliberately committed to the decoys and dropped in to feed with their statuesque wooden brethren. I had experienced success with a decoy spread for the first time. The following week was spent lining out, cutting, and sanding patterns as the wooden dove migration flew on silver wings to the Midwest.

Handcrafting wooden decoys takes two forms: one that is strictly business and another that is pure artistry. Artistry is beyond my physical capabilities with its minute detail in carved feathers and paint schemes, but decoys built for business are achievable. Silhouette decoys are extremely simple, can be made quickly with scrap lumber, roughly painted, and require no more attention to detail than one desires.

For the silhouettes, I used three-quarter-inch to fifteen-sixteenth-inch scrap plywood. A jigsaw adeptly ripped out the shapes, leaving minor sanding to smooth out the edges, which takes relatively little time, even when done by hand.

The paint scheme is best left to the imagination. Being practical and wanting to match the actual mourning dove coloration, I selected a battleship gray primer, an "almond" base, and a light spattering of dark walnut brown top coat. If the top coat went on too heavy, a spritz of almond overtop evened out the tone.

Black and white paint pens worked well to apply the randomly sized and shaped spots, and wing and tail feather "edges." An artist may prefer to mix precision colors and brush-paint the details, but "good enough" paint jobs have worked fine for me.

Brad Trumbo

A flock of wooden dove decoys sporting a somewhat whimsical paint scheme.

A quarter-inch hardwood dowel serves well as the "legs," and an eighth-inch dowel is good for the beak. Drilling a hole for each dowel, one-quarter inch deep for the beak and one inch deep for the leg, is good enough. The beak dowel should be about a half-inch long and secured in place with a dab of wood glue, but be sure not to glue in the leg dowel. The silhouettes pack easier with the leg dowel removed.

A variety of positions is favorable for the decoys, which means multiple patterns are needed. In this case, a feeding position and standing position are simple and effective enough, and the leg dowel can be drilled in at varying angles to give each decoy a slightly different position when they are set.

When placing decoys on the ground, pair them up with a few feet between pairs, generally facing into the wind. Dove pairs often travel together, and pairing decoys on the ground gives the spread a more natural appearance. This does not mean placing each pair perfectly side-by-side, but set in relative proximity to one another to give the decoys the look of feeding together.

Once the decoys are set, kick back on your favorite bucket under a shade tree and wait for the magic to happen.

When you get right down to it, dove hunting is one of the most family- and budget-friendly hunting endeavors available. Mourning doves offer one of the most versatile wingshooting opportunities of all upland birds, and decoying doves can be done simply, with minimal gear. If you've never used decoys, doves offer an easy, affordable opportunity to get started, and making wooden decoys can be a family affair as well. Molded dove decoys are available, but gunning over handmade wooden decoys is far more interesting and brings a timeless aspect to the wingshooting experience.