An Introduction to Dove Hunting
by S p e n c e r T o m b
 Melinda
Harder shifted her weight to her front foot and started
to mount her gun. The lead dove saw the movement and
dipped ten feet, veered to her left and increased speed
with his companions following in close formation.
Now it was a longer crossing shot and Harder
struggled to catch up with the gray rockets.
Harder lowered her gun a little for better
vision, opened her stance, smoothly remounted
the gun, swung and fired. The leading bird
tumbled in a cloud of feathers at 35 yards.
It was a very fine shot as that dove had turned
her 150 degrees.
"One shot, one bird. That's 100%. I'm done,"
Harder said with an ear to ear grin. That
hunting scene was playing out over much of
the United States, as it was September first
and the opening day of dove season in much
of the United States. The dove opener is a
long anticipated day in many hunting groups.
The dog days of summer seem to drag on almost
endlessly until it is time to start scouting
for doves and practicing on clay targets.
Dove hunting is a family tradition in much
of the United States. It is usually the first
hunting season to open. Doves are plentiful,
tasty and a very challenging quarry. Dove
hunts are considered to be relaxed, late afternoon,
social events for family and friends that
end in a cookout and a recount of the hunt
by young and old alike. It is this relaxed
atmosphere that makes dove hunting an excellent
way to provide a first hunting experience
for a young hunter.
Most dove hunters in the United States hunt
one of the two almost indistinguishable subspecies
of mourning doves. In Texas and parts of the
southwest, white winged doves are also hunted.
The mourning dove is the most numerous and
widely distributed game bird in North America.
A recent estimate of their populations in
the United States places dove numbers at 470
million birds with the highest nesting densities
in the Great Plains.
Doves are hunted in most of the contiguous
states in the United States and all of Mexico.
Approximately 2.5 million hunters pursue doves
each fall. Since doves are a migratory bird
the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) manage
them. The USFWS establishes a framework and
then the individual states set their seasons
with in that framework.
The mourning dove is a difficult target due
to their speed, size and aerobatics abilities.
Doves are a shot shell maker's dream. The
national average is over 7 shells per dove
and with about 2.5 million dove hunters afield
that is a lot of shooting. The poor shooting
is easier to understand when you consider
that dove season is the first to open and
a dove can cruise at 45 miles per hour and,
turn dip and dive and get their speed up to
60 miles per hour. The top three shot shell
makers Federal, Remington and Winchester estimate
that 50% of their shot shells are sold to
dove hunters.
Dove Ecology
Doves are a short lived, prolific and monogamous
species. They apparently form a pair bond
that lasts through the nesting season. Doves
usually lay two eggs and the male and female
alternate sitting on the nest through a 14-15
day incubation period. The hatchlings stay
in the nest and are fed a special substance
called "crop milk" that is secreted by the
dove's crop. Both parents feed the young this
way and gradually start bringing them seeds.
By the time they leave the nest, their diet
is almost all small seeds. The "squab" leave
the nest at about 14 days and are still fed
by the male for another several weeks.
Female doves will lay another pair of eggs
and start incubating them soon after the first young
leave the nest. In the southern part of their breeding
range, doves may have five or more broods in a nesting
season.
Mortality of the young is fairly high. Nest predation
also takes a toll.
Dove populations will grow through the summer and by
late August, doves will gather on gravel roads and power
lines. It is not unusual to see hundreds of them near
good food, water and roosting sites in the late summer
before the season opens.
Doves are seedeaters and will only occasionally take
soft, green vegetation. Cereal grains like wheat, sorghum
and corn are preferred foods and other crops like sunflowers,
soybeans, and peanuts are used when available. Waste
grains from agricultural crops often make up over 50%
of a dove's diet.
Wild foods preferred by doves will vary by region and
through the season. The seeds of weedy grasses like
foxtail and wild sunflower seeds are often important
as are pigweed and ragweed seeds. Croton and spurges
(Euphorbia species) also can be important foods. Knowing
how to identify seeds in the crop of a dove and the
plants that produce the seeds can help you locate good
concentrations of doves.
Doves like to feed on open ground and in the company
of other doves. They will often land on a high place
in the middle of a field and start to feed. This is
one reason that dove decoys are effective
Hunting
Methods
The best hunting strategy for doves is first to focus
on finding a concentration of doves and then learn where
they feed, drink and roost. Doves will usually develop
a fairly consistent flight pattern. Doves seem to like
the same areas year after year.
Spending twenty minutes learning the flight lanes on
a good dove field before the opening day hunt is a good
strategy. Watch a large area with binoculars and count
the number of doves that move near potential places
to sit. By charting the activity you may find areas
where several flight patterns cross. These are excellent
places to sit and decoy doves.
It only takes a few decoys to increase the number of
doves that fly within range. Putting out decoys can
give the hunter the same type of shot again and again.
Decoys should be placed facing into the wind where doves
have been seen congregating. The decoys have to be visible
from where the doves are flying to be effective.
If the dove season opens in a hot, dry spell, ponds
with bare margins make great places to hunt during the
two or three hours before sunset. Woody pasture fringes
with dead trees or field margins with large numbers
of dead limbs near wheat stubble, or recently cut milo
or sunflowers are often highly productive because they
are used as loafing and roosting sites. Weedy areas
with sunflowers and ragweeds are good when the seeds
are mature and starting to drop (usually after the first
frost).
Later in the season, doves gather into larger flocks
and start to migrate. These flocks often linger around
high quality food (sunflowers and wheat seem to be favorites)
at the edges of barriers like cities, rivers or reservoirs.
Cold fronts tend to move these birds south, but if the
food conditions are good, it is often possible the have
good shooting to the end of the season, but you have
to find doves that have stalled their migration to take
advantage of an exceptional food source.
Good Camo gear is also important part of dove hunting.
Doves have good vision and will flare out of range if
they see you. Staying low and not moving until the last
moment will usually give better shots. If you hunt on
public land or in a large party, it is a good idea to
know where all the hunters are positioned and even place
some blaze orange tape in a tree next to each hunter
so their positions are obvious.
Dove hunting can provide a great tune up for retrieving
dogs. Dogs often do not like to pick up doves as the
feathers are dry and come off easily. Doves are good
marking and retrieving practice. Remember to keep the
dog in the shade and be alert for heat related problems
in the early part of the dove season.
Doves are mild-flavored dark meat. Dove breasts are
excellent cooked on a grill with a few hickory chips
for flavor. A strip of bacon attached to the breast
by toothpicks or a sliver of pickled jalapeno pepper
stuffed into each side of the breast meat are little
touches that many dove hunters like.
Dove hunting is a wonderful opportunity to provide a
first hunting experience for a young hunter. Dove hunting
is done from a stationary position and they are usually
seen for some distance before they are in range. Doves
usually provide enough shooting to develop good form.
Passing on the hunting tradition is important if we
want our sport to continue. Hunters are made one twelve
year old at a time. There is nothing quite like a good
dove hunting experience to start a boy or girl on the
path of being a serious hunter. Plan ahead this year
and take a novice hunter on a dove hunt this season.
Be sure and get out for several pre-season shooting
practice sessions. Stress safe hunting at every chance
and include the novice when you go out to look for places
to hunt. When the day arrives keep the hunting party
small, forget about your own shooting and focus your
efforts on the novice. Don't forget that camera.
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