I'm a 74 year old disabled Vietnam vet and can't afford to buy those high priced dove trees. I decided to make my own dove trees this year.
I used 3/4-inch schedule 40 PVC. Bought 2, 10-ft lengths and 2, 4-way cross fittings. Cut the 2, 10-ft pipes into 5-ft lengths. Then cut 2 of those 5-ft lengths in half to 2.5 ft. Plugged it all together to make 2 trees. Painted them dark brown. Didn't glue them, in case I want to take them apart and move them to another property.
I bought 2, 36-inch lengths of 1/4 inch steel rod, and cut each rod into 4, 9-inch lengths. Inserted a rod up between the feet of each Flambeau hard plastic dove decoy. I drilled holes in the 2.5-ft horizontal pieces and inserted the rods sticking out of the decoy's feet.
Then I cut the "hooks" off of 2, 6-ft Shepard's hooks. I cut a small notch in the bottom of each 5-ft vertical PVC pipe. That notch would slide down over the Shepard's hook stabilizer foot and keep the tree from rotating around in the wind.
When I slid the tree over the Shepard's hooks, a 6-inch section of the pole stuck through the 4-way PVC cross section. Using just the top piece of the 3-section ground stake of MoJo powered or wind driven decoys, I slid the decoys over that portion of the rod sticking out of the cross section.
So now I have 2 nice, lightweight, inexpensive dove tree setups I can move around anywhere. I run the spinning wings during phases 1 & 2 and that seems to bring the doves in. But I don't spin the wings in phase 3. Those are the migratory birds coming in from way up north. They've been shot at through a lot of states on their way down here, and seem to be scared off by any movement. I still use the MoJos, just remove the batteries, and don't spin the wings.
I used 3/4-inch schedule 40 PVC. Bought 2, 10-ft lengths and 2, 4-way cross fittings. Cut the 2, 10-ft pipes into 5-ft lengths. Then cut 2 of those 5-ft lengths in half to 2.5 ft. Plugged it all together to make 2 trees. Painted them dark brown. Didn't glue them, in case I want to take them apart and move them to another property.
I bought 2, 36-inch lengths of 1/4 inch steel rod, and cut each rod into 4, 9-inch lengths. Inserted a rod up between the feet of each Flambeau hard plastic dove decoy. I drilled holes in the 2.5-ft horizontal pieces and inserted the rods sticking out of the decoy's feet.
Then I cut the "hooks" off of 2, 6-ft Shepard's hooks. I cut a small notch in the bottom of each 5-ft vertical PVC pipe. That notch would slide down over the Shepard's hook stabilizer foot and keep the tree from rotating around in the wind.
When I slid the tree over the Shepard's hooks, a 6-inch section of the pole stuck through the 4-way PVC cross section. Using just the top piece of the 3-section ground stake of MoJo powered or wind driven decoys, I slid the decoys over that portion of the rod sticking out of the cross section.
So now I have 2 nice, lightweight, inexpensive dove tree setups I can move around anywhere. I run the spinning wings during phases 1 & 2 and that seems to bring the doves in. But I don't spin the wings in phase 3. Those are the migratory birds coming in from way up north. They've been shot at through a lot of states on their way down here, and seem to be scared off by any movement. I still use the MoJos, just remove the batteries, and don't spin the wings.
