Thankfully most of the other hunters at our dove fields on North Missouri WMAs are more polite and safe. You still need to show up early to get a good spot on opening day (especially on a Labor Day weekend), but having others around the field helps to keep the dove flying. After the first couple of days I frequently have the place to myself, especially if I go in the morning. We are pretty isolated here in my part of the State, but the hunting tradition is strong. There are actually less people in the top two tiers of counties in Northern Missouri than there were in 1900(!)
I've hunted dove in my home state of Virginia, and have fond memories of those times. The only bad thing about dove hunting around here is that usually a front will come through and move birds on sometime during the first week of September...and then the hunting is poor. But, hey, the teal season opens then! And the squirrel season started back at the end of May, so if you can stand the heat and humidity, it's a pretty darned nice place to live.
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"Doubtless the good Lord could have made a better game bird than bobwhite, and better country to hunt him in...but equally doubtless, he never did." -- Guy de la Valdene (from A Handful of Feathers )
"'I promise you,' he said, 'on my word of honor, I won't die on the opening of the bird season.'" -- Robert Ruark (from The Old Man and the Boy)
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