Decoying Doves Over Soar No More Decoys - Dove Hunt - Video

dove hunting silage fields in ohio with mojo decoys

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Dove hunters ready for early start

By Peter Ottesen

The most anticipated upland game bird hunting season in California opens Sunday when the first half of the mourning dove shoot gets underway and runs through Sept. 15. Approximately 87,000 shotgun enthusiasts are expected to go afield.

"There is greater participation among hunters who seek doves than for any other upland species," said Scott Gardner, upland game bird coordinator for the state Department of Fish and Wildlife. "It's the first shotgun hunting season of the autumn and people experience a high success rate. They usually harvest some."

The daily bag is 10 doves per day. The possession limit is triple the daily bag after the first two days of the season. The second half of the season runs Nov. 9 through Dec. 23.

San Joaquin County residents, especially those near the outskirts of towns or in rural areas, should expect plenty of gunfire when the season opens at 6:05 a.m. Sunday, a half-hour before sunrise.

"The dove hunting tradition is extremely strong," Gardner said. "People plan trips around the season, perhaps to the desert or Sierra foothills. Many enjoy an after-hunt barbecue with neighbors and family. Since a typical dove shoot can accommodate quite a number of hunters, camaraderie is a big part of it."

State and federal scientists cooperatively band and annually assess the dove harvest and its effect on the overall populations.

"Doves are among our closest monitored birds," Gardner said. "There are plenty of them."

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Kentucky Dove Hunt - Video

Football aside, if its dove season, it's officially fall. To kick off the Sept. 4 opening day, the "Kentucky Afield" TV crew was busy nabbing its limit. Host Tim Farmer, who didn't hunt because he was recovering from minor surgery, kept everyone else in stitches in the field.

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IL Area Outdoor: Annual dove roundup shows promise

By CURT HICKEN

The dove season opener (Sept. 1) is, once again, nearly upon us. And as in the past, area hunters will find numerous public sites offering excellent gunning for these fast-flying targets. Early reports indicate large numbers of doves congregating at many of the public hunting areas throughout the River Bend. This can only mean exciting opening-day action!

Veteran dove hunters often spend as more time traveling the back roads searching for concentrations of doves as they actually do hunting. Fresh cut silage (though rare) and recently harvested wheat fields also serve as huge dove magnets. Feeding doves will swarm to these areas during the late afternoon and evening hours.

Gaining access to these types of hunting lands can be fairly simple if the landowners are approached in a appropriate manner. In fact, many times the landowners may also wish to join in on the hunt.

Good action can also be found at many federal and state managed public hunting areas. Most of the top public hunting areas offer gunning over carefully groomed sunflower fields. As even better news, most public hunting areas are reporting good to excellent stands of sunflowers. There are a few, due to a late planting, that may be less than ripe by the season opener.

Though regulations at many public sites require permits for the first few days of the season, a limited number of standby opportunities are usually available. In addition, many sites offer hunting on a first-come or daily draw basis after the opening-day crowds disappear.

Rules at most public hunting areas permit hunters to use only shotgun shells containing shot sizes 7 1/2, 8 or 9, or number 6 or smaller steel. Hunters using shells containing bismuth shot must use size 7 1/2 or smaller.

Some areas including Des Plaines, Green River, Horseshoe Lake State Park, Kankakee River, Mount Vernon Game Farm, Sangchris Lake and Silver Springs also require the use of shells containing only non-toxic shot. Hunters should always check for site specific regulations before planning a trip to any public hunting area.

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Kentucky dove hunt season opener may be abnormally ... norma

If the weather forecasters are on target, the upcoming week should be hot and dry across most of Kentucky. That means conditions leading up to the Sept. 1 dove season opener will be close to normal — unlike most of this summer.

The strange summer weather — very wet and surprisingly cool — probably won’t have any measurable effect on the doves or the 55,000 or so Kentuckians who chase them each year.

“The weather has made some of the crops late, but most of our (public dove) fields are in good shape, especially in the west,” state migratory bird specialist Rocky Pritchert said. “I’ve had reports from Ballard (Wildlife Management Area) that some of those fields were holding up to 200 birds.”

Doves are migratory birds that are fairly weather-sensitive. A field can be loaded with them one day and seemingly empty the next.

Or vice versa.

“It’s true that it is hard to predict about doves, but I guess you could say that about ducks or geese or any other wild critter, too,” Pritchert said. “But the forecast is for hot and dry weather all this week, so I think we should have some good bird numbers.”

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Texas Sportsman Fred Rodriguez White Wing Dove Hunting - Video

Texas Sportsman Fred Rodriguez goes out for a weekend of white wing hunting in the South Texas brush during the first weeks of the season, 2012.

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