Any dove hunters in the house?

GC

GC

Well-known member
I absolutely love to dove hunt! What a good time that is. Unfortunately for me, there isn't a lot of dove shooting opportunity in my immediate area. My part of Missouri is timber and/or cattle country with very little cropland. But I still like to try to make a hunt or two somewhere nearby if I can scrounge up a place to set-up. An old feller once described himself a "dove shooter at 'er" and that fits me pretty well. Anybody else let loose a volley or two at them?
 
Oh yeah!! You might find this a little on the 'unfair' side of dove hunting, but, my hunting partner and I take two yard chairs, a couple of bottles of water, two boxes of shells each and go down by my chicken house( a converted 100 foot lambing barn); setup by the door in the shade and wait. Last year we got 60 doves in the first two days; 1.5 hours each day. MOST of them are those eurasian ringed necks. Not to smart, not to fast, and a whole lot easier to take than your average mourning dove. Four years ago there were only TWO of these non-american birds in our area. They multiply fast and stay the winter. Fish & Game has not listed them as a game or migratory bird, however, they are included in your dove count when taken. They eat good to. My partner and I break out of this chair pattern and walk the irregation canals to connect more with the mourning doves. To much fun.....
 
The dove hunt, to this day is the one thing I look forward too. I havent missed an opener since I was 12. I use to do alot of walking through sunflowers and grain stubble fields. About 10 years ago I got smart and found a pond on private land up in the cedars above all the sunflowers and grain. We go up the last few hours of the day setup with some coolers and lawn chairs and have a blast. I think there has only been two years or so we havent limited out. There is usually four sometimes five of us.
 
What theres other seasons beside Dove season??????????????

I can't wait for the silage to come off the dairy farm
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, we sit in our folding camp chairs with a bottle of water and a couple of boxes of shells, we put the mojo's out 1 at 20 yards and 1 at 30 yards. that way we know when they are in range
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. they fly between the mojo's in flocks up to 100 on the good days here. in the evenings we hunt by a open small creek. thanks now you got me wanting sept 1 to get here faster
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I have not missed an opening day of dove season since I retired in 93. I started dove hunting when I was about 9 or 10 and did not miss any opening days until I joined the army after college. Missed a bunch during the next 23 years.
I am counting the days until opening day this year. Sept. 5th.
 
cant hardly wait til sept here in ky we have 3 seasons now the dec was new last year. pretty easy hunting around cattle feeders that time of year.
 
They have raised the limit here in Texas from 12 to 15 birds so there must be a bumper crop. I know I have been seeing lots of whitewings around here. When I moved here there were no whitewings now they estimate there is over 50,000 living in the waco area. Global warming I guess.
Anyway I don't care that much about hunting them but MY DOG insists on going all the time.
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Shells are reloaded, clay birds have been busted and likely areas scouted. Eurasian collared doves are everywhere and almost as plentiful as mourning doves. The only thing missing are the usual thunder showers that roll through the area around the end of August.

Fish and Game did a study - 8 rounds expended for each dove killed. Yikes!!!
 
Originally Posted By: MartyCA
Fish and Game did a study - 8 rounds expended for each dove killed. Yikes!!!

is that ALL
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it used to be a box of shells for 1 dove :eek:, I guess people are getting better at their shooting skills
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dog1whkcr, we'll have to get together for a shoot come dove season. I've got a ton of 'em here that like to set down in my horse corral. You might laugh at this but, I think what draws them is the tiny expelled seeds from all of the wild mustard that we have growing this year.

Anyway...is there a good way to distinquish between the eurasians and the mournings? I always look for the square tail of the eurasians.
 
The eurasians are about twice as big and have a black collar on the back of their neck. Shoot em and check them on the ground. There is no limit on Eurasians in Arizona.

Dave
 
I love dove huntin more than any other kind of bird huntin.Mostly cause I dont have to walk around to find em' they find me.They dont taste as good as quail or pheasant but I'm still a fan of dove meat.Alot of people dont like it but I think its pretty good.

The best day I've ever had dove huntin was when me and 7 or 8 of my buddies went out to this old farmhouse.We started shootin birds at about 8:30 or 9:00 in the mornin and we all had our limit and were cleanin birds before noon that day.
 
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WYO Thanks for the invite. I'll take you up on it. Your welcome to 'lounge' with us 'chicken house lizards' on opening day as well. We start when we feel like it because the doves never stop coming - all day long.

The eurasian dove looks to be 50% to 100% bigger than the mourning, squarish tail like you said, and a much lighter gray coloration. There is a black band on the back of their neck as well; just as mousedipper stated. The dead give away is they are not spooked by us and fly about 50% slower than a mourning. Out of the 60 in the first two days last year? only three were mournings. Those were like trying to shoot a 90 MPH dark gray spitball.!!!
 
I breast them out, marinate in Italian dressing, wrap with a slice of bacon, and grill them... yum!
 
GC Bingo! Right on! The same way we do it. Can't beat it for eating. I've been wanting to add a couple of onion strips and green pepper strips to the wrapped meat, in the middle, for some added flavor - not that it needs anymore.
 
I cook them the same way but I merinade the meat in KC's Masterpeice BBQ sauce before I wrap them up in bacon.Sometimes I'll slice a jalepeno in half and put cream cheese in it and wrap that up inside of the bacon along with the dove meat before I grill them.Thats my favorite way to do it.I'm just so......lazy I guess you could say,that I dont like messin with all of that so alot of times I dont even bother with the jalepenos.When I'm ready to eat I dont have time to be messin around.
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