We’re a week away from the 2024 dove season opener in Texas and the doves have found my new .25 acre pond! My son and I are very excited as the dove season opener marks not only the beginning of the new hunting season, his birthday is Sept 1st as well. It’s been an annual ritual for us to spend his birthday shooting birds every year. We haven’t missed an opening day together since he was old enough to tag along. This coming opener is particularly special because our new pond was recently finished. Although only half full, the birds have found it! As you can see from the random 18 second clip I shot yesterday evening when I got home from the grocery store, we should have an excellent shoot this year unless we get an unexpected rain which would just scatter the birds.
Check out the clip (attached) and be sure and catch the article Bob Lusk wrote about our new pond in the upcoming (Sept/Oct 2024) issue of the Pond Boss Magazine! Wish us luck! Thanks!! 🙂
During drought years, when you have the only pond that still has water for miles around ... the doves will flock to your pond.
During wet years, when the ponds around you are flooded up into the weeds, draw your pond down a few feet so the doves have a nice bare landing zone to walk to the water and can easily pick some more grit for their gizzards.
Well, opening day was a bust. It rained before and it scattered them so bad, it’s almost as if they migrated out overnight! My son and I got only three opportunities within range and ended up 2 for 3 on opening day. The pond, as you see in the clip, was covered with birds just a few days prior. I’ve never seen such a drastic transition from having stupid numbers of birds to virtually none in such a short time. Oh well, the season is young. 🤷🏻♂️
Hang in there! It will turn around for you. They haven't forgotten where the water is in times of scarcity. Good news is that dove must have water every day. Being primarily seed eaters they don't get enough water from their food. They will return before the season is up.
It isn't what we don't know that gives us trouble, it's what we know that ain't so - Will Rogers
Passing shots are my bane. Very challenging for me. But a dove coming right at me ... pretty much dead ... especially if it is slowing down for a purpose (eg lighting in a tree, to get water at a pond, or to feed in a field. Fields are more tricky. You need to line up with funnel points where they predominately fly into the field. That set up doesn't always occur. I especially like pond setups.
When they are coming right at you ... draw the muzzle up from under the bird until the muzzle just covers it. Pull the trigger then and the bird is going to be dinner LOL! Also, you don't have to run so far to pick'em up. When coming right at you they tend to fall very near and sometimes in your lap. Not as sporting but fewer shells for sure.
It isn't what we don't know that gives us trouble, it's what we know that ain't so - Will Rogers
Agree, that doves coming straight at you, or quail/pheasant flying straight away are by far the easiest shots.
The only times I was ever truly "deadly" during quail and pheasant season were the years when I went out with buddies and we shot at a lot of doves! Passing shots on quail and pheasants seemed much easier after practicing a lot on doves.
I'm showing my ignorance here but I assume when shooting doves which are a smaller bird that you are using a smaller game 'shot' load. If the muzzle covers the bird then I'm guessing the shot pattern also covers the bird. How do you enjoy dinner if there are dozens of tiny steel BBs in the meat of the bird? Maybe they are easy to spot and extract while cleaning?
I'm showing my ignorance here but I assume when shooting doves which are a smaller bird that you are using a smaller game 'shot' load. If the muzzle covers the bird then I'm guessing the shot pattern also covers the bird. How do you enjoy dinner if there are dozens of tiny steel BBs in the meat of the bird? Maybe they are easy to spot and extract while cleaning?
I only use #8 shot with my improved cylinder for doves. (We can still shoot lead for doves in Kansas except for the big migratory "bottoms" that hold tens of thousands of ducks, geese, etc. during the migration.)
My pattern is pretty wide fairly quickly.
I also think doves are very "fragile" birds. I have seen them go down and then start walking while obviously injured. I try to quickly grab those birds and humanely harvest them. When cleaning, they may have a single pellet in their body.
Doves are very small birds, so we just breast them to eat. I will pluck an obvious pellet, or tug out an impaled feather, which sometimes extracts the pellet. Very rarely do I clean a completely "blasted" bird, which as you said should just be tossed.
OTOH, I have shot pheasants with magnum #4s and seen dust and feathers get blasted off of the bird. It pinwheels down to the ground, bounces, and then shakes its head and takes off running before the dogs can get there. I assume those birds die overnight, and I hate those shots. I want to only harvest, or miss!
I am sure there are many better hunters on the forum that can give you wiser advice for dove hunting, if you are perhaps wanting to start. It is a nice style of "family hunting" because you can generally sit and talk under comfortable weather conditions and watch for incoming birds. You can even do it with non-ambulatory people if you have a vehicle to get them to the hunting site.
Kids are also very good to take because their sharp eyes may spot birds that the adults never see. You would think flying doves would be obvious, but they are surprisingly tricky!
There is not much to add to FishingRod's reply. My shotgun doesn't shot a tight pattern either. I occasionally do/did get pellets in dove and quail. Just deal with that when it happens. Actually haven't been hunting for dove for about 6 years and for quail even longer. On the incoming shots where you black them out with the muzzle the barrel is moving when the trigger is pulled and one is aiming in front of a bird where the bird flies into the path of some of the shot. Not uncommon to only get one or two pellets in the head and neck area that downs the bird. Not all birds downed are dead. Sometimes you have to finish them off by hand.
It isn't what we don't know that gives us trouble, it's what we know that ain't so - Will Rogers
I imagine there is also a delicious way to prepare the breast of dove, is it closer to duck than chicken? is it marinated and grilled then?
Because they are a migratory bird the breast is dark meat (like a duck), rather than white (like a chicken). They have a little gamey flavor but are much less greasy than duck or goose.
They are actually so lean, that my wife usually marinates them for a day, and then wraps them in bacon, and then I grill them. Very tasty!
I am sure there are tons of excellent recipes. I suspect that DeerTexas shoots way more than I do, so probably has multiple good recipes.
P.S. Only when we get older do we finally get wise enough to realize how smart are parents were. When we used to eat game harvested via shotgun (usually quail), my father would bring a stack of dimes to the table. Anyone that got a pellet in their meat got a dime. Instead of kids being worried about getting a pellet, we would chew our meat very carefully and then get a big grin if you got to spit a pellet on your plate and get a dime!
I suspect that DeerTexas shoots way more than I do, so probably has multiple good recipes.
Very cool idea about the dimes! 👍🏻
With practice, it’s easy to breast the doves out at the end of your shoot. I always remove the head AND the craw as soon as I retrieve my birds regardless of whether they’re stone cold dead or not. 1, it prevents slightly wounded birds you thought were dead from escaping from your dove vest and causing your buddies to laugh hysterically as you try to chase down your “dead” bird. 2, it’s the humane thing to do for those birds just mentioned, and 3, the craw is the quickest part of the bird to spoil and that can be a factor in early September in Texas. Anyway, at the end of the shoot, I break both wings near the body and discard, then pull the skin down the breast, stick my thumb just below the bottom of the breast and push it through the skin to the backbone, then pull. This separates the body and remaining attached entrails from the breast. Once back at home, I rinse the breasts of all blood feathers. Once clean, it’s a simple task to peal the breast meat from each side of the breast. Rinse again, taking care to remove any blood, bloodshot meat, feathers and pellets.
Some folks soak the meat in Italian dressing overnight, but it’s not necessary in my opinion. Slice some fresh jalapeños and onions, then wrap 2 pieces of breast meat (from 1 bird) a slice of jalapeño, a slice of onion and a dollop of cream cheese with a strip of bacon and secure the bundle with a toothpick. Grill until medium rare - DO NOT OVERCOOK. If cooked past medium rare, like most wild game, the meat dries out, gets tough and can take on a livery or “wild taste.” Most of the time this means removing from the grill BEFORE the bacon is crispy. The purpose of the bacon is to add fat and flavor to the ultra lean morsels while preventing the meat from becoming overdone and dry. For this reason, I personally choose to discard most of the bacon. Some folks prefer crispy bacon and don’t mind the dry, livery tasting meat, but I’m not one. I suppose that’s more about personal taste, though. Anyway, that’s my favorite way to enjoy a mess of doves. Bon appétit!!
My favorite is to role them in flour (or panko) then fry them. DO NOT OVERCOOK them! As DeerTexas said that is the downfall to many people who claim to not like dove or duck. When frying I let it set in hot butter until blood starts to seep out the top, flip it a few seconds then pull it out of the pan. Salt immediately while there is still some butter or grease on it. Absolutely wonderful eats!
Everybody that shoots doves really should go shoot a bunch of rounds of skeet. (vs trap or sporting clays OR hand thrown clay birds). That will give you a lot of practice on shooting left to right passing shots. When shooting skeet use a cylinder or skeet choke and #9 shot. I tend to use a slightly tighter choke when shooting doves, and use a larger shot size, typically 7 1/2's, but I might go up to #6 shot. IC or light Modified choke. I reload all my own shells, so it's easy to just change shot size and keep the rest of the load the same.
Larger shot retains it's energy further away from the gun, and also tends to go through the bird vs. entering and staying inside. I use a slightly tighter choke to keep the pellet density about the same as a more open choke and smaller size shot.
To cook, we'd breast them out, wrap them in bacon, marinate for 4-5 hours in Teriyaki Sauce and grill until just pink in the center.
