In the mountain region, Kip Hollifield is the commission's management biologist for districts 7 and 8. He said the most popular game lands for doves in the mountains are Perkins Game Land in Davie County and South Mountains Game Land in Burke County.

"At South Mountains Game Land, the dove field is in the Burke County portion near Morganton," he said. "The 20-acre field is planted in millet and sunflowers."

The dove hunting is usually good. But in the mountains, the birds could leave at the first cold snap, so hunters should check the fields before hunting. It's an open hunt, with no special permit required. Hollifield said he has been trying to manage the South Mountains Game Lands fields for late-season dove hunts.

"We seem to get more birds in December and January," he said. "We've had some success by leaving standing crops for the late season. But that's always contingent on the weather."

Perkins Game Land is located off Highway 801 near Mocksville in Davie County. There are four fields totaling 18 acres planted with sunflower and millet at Perkins Game Land. Dry weather has an adverse impact on the game land fields, so hunters should visit the fields ahead of hunting season to see if doves are there before showing up to hunt on opening day.

Isaac Harold is the management biologist for the Piedmont region, which includes districts 3,5 and 6.

"We have 30 dove areas with a total of about 300 acres," Harold said, "at Falls of the Neuse, Jordan, Caswell, Sandhills and Uwharrie game lands dove fields."

Harold said dove fields are planted close together. Some large fields are located at Falls of the Neuse and some of them are very big compared with other Piedmont game lands fields, up to 20 acres in size. Piedmont game land fields are planted with winter wheat, buckwheat, millet, sunflowers and corn.

Butner-Falls Game Land is the best Piedmont dove area because it has the most and largest fields and therefore holds more birds than other game lands. It is a six-day-per-week game land with no special permits required.

"Brickhouse Road Peninsula is a good place," Harold said. "But if it's a good year, all the dove areas are good. We plant a total of nine or 10 fields there. Besides the sizes of the fields, the fact that they are adjacent to Falls Lake and the amount of timber management we do on the property produces lots of doves."

Sandhills Game Land in the southern Piedmont had good dove hunting at 10 fields scattered throughout the game land. Soil moisture is a key component in producing grain crops for attracting doves. Most summers, the fields grow well. Sandhills Game Land is a three-day-per-week game land and no special permits are required for hunting.

Caswell Game Land in the northern Piedmont attracts many doves. But it is not as consistent at holding them as some of other Piedmont areas.

"Some years are quite good and others are not so good," Harold said. "We've had lots of doves using Caswell fields ahead of the hunting season, then they've disappeared before opening week."

The crops at Caswell are typical of the other game lands. There is usually good shooting at Caswell because it has large fields so hunters have room to spread out. Some Caswell fields are as large as 18 to 20 acres in size, with a few even larger.

"There are two particularly large fields at Caswell," Harold said. "The Scott Tract is about 30 acres and a newer one, called the Barker Tract, which we have only had for the last few years, is about 45 acres. The Barker Tract has been really good for dove hunting. We rotate crops around in those larger fields and leave some of the field areas fallow from the previous fall. Sometimes we leave winter wheat standing from the previous fall, and that also attracts doves. We mow strips in all of our dove-hunting fields three to four weeks ahead of season, with a goal of having half the crop mowed by the time the hunting season opens."

Jordan Lake and Uwharrie National Forest game lands do not offer dove-hunting opportunities that are as good as other Piedmont regions, but there are some small fields planted for doves at these game lands. The thinner, rockier soils do not tend to produce the quantities of small grains needed to attract doves. However, hunters can find clearcuts or controlled burns on these tracts and have some good hunting.

Find more about North Carolina fishing and hunting at: NCgameandfish.com