Across America, dove season traditionally begins on September 1st, after summer starts waning and begins to spare the land from its harshest heat. When this date finally arrives following grueling, arid August weeks, it probably feels like the First Sunday of Advent to most hunters, foreshadowing even cooler temperatures to come–along with the start of other hunting seasons for winged and hoofed game. For hunters, that first weekend of September might as well be a holy day of obligation, and in the state of Texas, dove hunting isn’t just a tradition, it’s a rite of passage. When former Texas governor Anne Richards was campaigning for office, she even took part in a dove hunt even in her 60s, and doing so was well-received by the electorate in Texas. Ultimately, dove hunting is an activity where the social component matters as much as the wingshooting.  

Texas Dove Hunting

Everything is bigger in Texas, as they say, and this includes doves. Due to these game bird’s wide habitat range across the North American continent, there are ample opportunities to hunt them all over the Lone Star State and its varied landscapes, from the red-dirt fields in the northern part of the state to the shrubland of the Rio Grande Valley, next to Mexico. Numerous dove-hunting enclaves stretch from Texas’ northern and southern bounds, along with the central part of the state. Hamilton County, west of Waco, claims the monicker of “dove hunting capital.”

Much like dove season serves as an appetizer for the rest of the hunting seasons, dove hunting itself stands out in a similar way too. This “appetizer” doesn’t require much in the way of specialized gear, so these hunts are more affordable, semi-stationary and casual. Nearly anyone who can raise a shotgun and be in a field can participate. I don’t come from a hunting background, but trying my hand at doves during September in Texas had been on my bucket-list for some time, so I finally made it happen this year. It came on the second weekend of the season. In accordance with tradition, much socializing occurred, with many beers consumed (after the hunt) and even more shotshells fired.

Things I Learned About Doves

Mourning doves and white-winged doves make up the two prominent dove species hunting in Texas. Both of these migratory species are extremely common and easily found all throughout the state in both rural and urban settings. Ironically, it wasn’t until I actually decided to go dove hunting that I made more of an effort to learn about them.

Doves primarily feed on grain from agricultural fields. In fact, on my first hunt, mid-morning after their “breakfast” time proved the best time to pursue them. Both mourning and white-winged doves enjoy healthy and robust populations. Their flocks comprise “of-least-concern” by biologists. As species, these birds are very proactive in procreating, much like rabbits. For them, survival is a numbers game as they’re prey to other birds like raptors. In Texas and most other places, bag limits for doves add up to 15 birds per day, per hunter during the season. Thanks to their prevalence and commonality, it was much easier than I expected to recognize doves’ silhouettes in flight. Above else, that the industry prints shotshell boxes with pictures of doves actually ended up being helpful for target recognition during my first dove hunt. Thank you, Remington!

Birds of Flight

Out in the field, it doesn’t take long for a hunter to observe how doves fly and flap their wings compared to other birds that follow the same feeding/activity patterns. (I’m looking at you, Scissor-tailed Flycatcher). From a distance, scissor-tails have long tail feathers and fit the side-profile of a dove, but every time they fly away or land they open their fork-tailed scissor feathers–an excellent don’t-shoot-me signal.

It wasn’t until my interest in hunting that I learned the mourning doves got their name specifically because of their forlorn “coo-oo-ooo” song that sounds like a sad cry; white-winged doves have a similar song and unless one is looking directly at the white sash of feathering found on their wings, it can be easy to confuse either species. Furthermore, it wasn’t until recently that I learned that doves’ whistling-flight sound comes specifically from the way their wings beat the air when they fly away.

There’s not much meat in a dove, and for the uninitiated, it can be a surprise when cleaning them for the first time. Dressing down a dove isn’t difficult either, but between 15 doves each after the hunt, it can become a laborious chore. Beer helps. The only prominent protein from a harvested dove is its red, iron-rich breast meat. As the breast is a dove’s power plant for flight, it’s extremely lean, so an external source of cooking fat is necessary. I broke tradition and skipped the poppers; I cooked my doves in bacon grease, sautéed with onions and spices and deglazed with Worcestershire sauce–all paired with a nice bottle of red wine.  

Shotguns, Gear And Wingshooting  

Because dove hunting is entry-level, there isn’t much need for speciality gear or clothing. The most “sophisticated” piece of kit present on our hunt were the MOJO dove flapping-wing decoys, Nearly any general purpose sporting shotgun will do. Becauae doves are migratory birds, the rules stipulate that the shotgun include a magazine-tube plug (if applicable). General-purpose birdshot loaded with at least one ounce of 7 ½ or 8 shot will suffice. Even apparel doesn’t need to be that technical, and weather appropriate earth tone garments work just fine. Besides the shotgun, the second most important piece of kit to bring on a dove hunt is a portable chair, stool or bucket to sit on in between flights of birds. While a bird-dog isn’t technically needed on this type of hunt, having one to retrieve birds is a luxury that should never be taken for granted. 

The beauty of the dove hunt is in wingshooting, the art of striking aerial targets with a shotgun. Wingshooting is arguably the purest form of shotgun sport-shooting that exists since shotguns are the only type of firearms that are uniquely poised to hit moving airborne targets by virtue of their ammunition. Entire tomes written about wingshooting alone stack hunters’ bookshelves.

And though wingshooting is deeply nuanced, the concept is predicated on shooters being in visual agreement with their shotgun while also leading and anticipating the target’s flight path. This also makes the dove hunt fun, because there are so many ways doves fly to or from the hunting area, presenting different angles, paths and shots. Of course, muzzle awareness is paramount, especially when dealing with other hunters or bird dogs.  

My Hunt

My first dove hunt, the inspiration for this article, took place on the Texas-Oklahoma border near Childress, Texas. I hired my friend and professional hunting guide, Jim, from Straight Flush Outfitters, for a two-day weekend dove hunt on private land. My dove-hunting maiden voyage turned into the perfect excuse to rescue my 12-gauge Beretta 686 Silver Pigeon O/U from the back of the safe. Not only had that poor Italian shotgun been neglected and gathering dust in the back of my safe, but what better shotgun to take dove hunting than one that was literally created for wingshooting? I shot Federal Top Gun 12-gauge 7 ½ shells on both days, save for the 20-gauge I used to finish the last-half of my second day’s limit. We harvested only mourning doves.

Day 1

The setting of the first day’s hunt was just a few miles north of Paducah, Texas, on a rural property with cattle. We set up near a stock tank that was partially protected by some trees and shrubs on one side, and placed the MOJO decoys on the other side. Our stools and buckets were planted some 25 yards back. Our party of three had everything ready to go by 6:45 AM, shotguns, shells and water. Even as the sun creeped over the horizon and started painting the sky orange announcing the arrival of legal shooting hours, it would take some time for the action to start in earnest.

Birds didn’t fly in until after 8 AM, and the action rolled until 10 AM or so, especially as the heat began climbing. When the doves did start flying in, I taught myself a crash-course in aerial bird recognition to distinguish doves from scissor-tails or grackles. After all, when one is sitting on their bucket, shotgun in lap and lazily nursing a condensed bottle of water, anything that flies is suddenly interesting. It was nice to dust the rust off of my wingshooting skills, but I didn’t ace them all either. According to our guide Jim, it takes 8 shells for every downed bird on average from what he sees on a regular basis. In [bird] hunting, learning to visually determine birds’ distance is a skill that separates the men from the boys.

Bird Dogs & Full Bags

The morning of the first day also taught me just what a blessing having a bird dog to retrieve fallen doves is since there were a handful of them that I had to go and pick up myself. Searching for light-brown birds in brush isn’t as quick as one would expect, all while other doves freely fly overhead. By the time the high afternoon temperatures finally locked into the mid-90s, the doves had better things to do because we saw nary a bird. The decision to call it a day and head home came easy. We’d bagged 90% + of our limit anyway. Dan, our bird dog, needed some respite from the heat–and so did we. There were still 42 birds to clean after the hour-long drive anyway.   

Day 2 

The setting for the second episode was similar to the first day’s, with MOJO decoys being set up adjacent to a stock tank but on a completely separate property. That morning, the doves were late to the point where it felt like only the scissor-tails flew in to taunt us. Maybe dove-breakfast wasn’t ready on time, but by 8:30 AM I was convinced they weren’t coming. “Oh, this is what it feels like to draw the short stick,” I thought to myself. To kill time, we started talking about shotguns, and I encouraged one of the hunters to take a few shots with my Beretta 686 Silver Pigeon, as the opportunity arose. In turn, he put this family-heirloom vintage 20-gauge Remington 1100 in my hands–a true piece of classic shotgun Americana. 

Anyone well-versed in shooting semi-automatic shotguns knows that they each have their own quirks. Recoil-operated Benellis are sensitive to light loads, Beretta A400/1301s live and die by the actuation of their shell-latch, and Remignton 1100s get tricky to load under pressure.

Running the Remington 1100

Life comes at you fast, as they say, and I learned really quickly how to run the 1100! Around 9 AM, not long after borrowing my partner’s 20-gauge, the entire flock of mourning doves in Childress county decided they were done with life and headed specifically to our hunting spot. Maybe the sweet release of death was preferable to whatever grain they ate for breakfast, but they wouldn’t stop flying overhead. It was dove after dove, shell after shell and my fingers fighting the Remington 1100’s annoying latch, trying to keep it fed with yellow-hulled 20-ga shells.

Our scene was a cacophony of muzzle blasts from the Remington and two Berettas (our guide Jim, a true professional, hunts with an A400 Xtreme), feathers exploding and far too many doves for Dan to retrieve at once. What took six hours the day before ended by 9:45 AM that day. We shot our limits, picked up our hulls and went home. 

Postscript  

Dove hunting is a fun and simple way to spend some time in a field for a couple of hours on some September weekend and welcome the changing of the seasons. It’s a wonderful way to experience wingshooting and enjoy the company of those in one’s hunting party, be they friends, family or strangers. From a culinary perspective, doves can be a lot of work and birdshot for not very much meat, but hardly any carnivore would disagree with their taste. Next year, I think I’ll add more onions.