Dove hunting - What gun are you taking?

[Tom Flanigan]

Being a New Yorker, I wasn’t a dove hunter. Doves are considered song birds there. But when I moved to Maryland about 25 years ago I decided I wanted to try it. Not having any contacts for private land yet, I went to McKee-Beshers WMA on opening day. I had trepidations. I had never before hunted public land and had heard horror stories from those who did. But I decided to grab a 12 bore DHE with 28” modified and full tubes and give it a try. It was worse than I expected. It was a real carnival atmosphere. Yelling and screaming from one end of the field to the other. Every bird that was hit, elicited loud hurrah’s from the clowns in the carnival. I had my setter with me to retrieve my birds and he seemed confused by all the shooting and hollering. The third bird I shot, a yahoo ran out and grabbed the bird before my dog could get to it. He set up way to close to me. He pocketed the bird. I told him exactly what I thought of him and left the field, vowing never to hunt doves again.

But I later met a guy who had access to great private land in Virginia and I shot doves with him there for a few years. I enjoyed it but never fully got into it. I guess my sub-conscious New England upbringing still considered them song birds. But I can fully understand why folks like it so much.

[mobirdhunter]

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.

[6pt-Sika]

Originally Posted by Tom Flanigan

Being a New Yorker, I wasn’t a dove hunter. Doves are considered song birds there. But when I moved to Maryland about 25 years ago I decided I wanted to try it. Not having any contacts for private land yet, I went to McKee-Beshers WMA on opening day. I had trepidations. I had never before hunted public land and had heard horror stories from those who did. But I decided to grab a 12 bore DHE with 28” modified and full tubes and give it a try. It was worse than I expected. It was a real carnival atmosphere. Yelling and screaming from one end of the field to the other. Every bird that was hit, elicited loud hurrah’s from the clowns in the carnival. I had my setter with me to retrieve my birds and he seemed confused by all the shooting and hollering. The third bird I shot, a yahoo ran out and grabbed the bird before my dog could get to it. He set up way to close to me. He pocketed the bird. I told him exactly what I thought of him and left the field, vowing never to hunt doves again.

But I later met a guy who had access to great private land in Virginia and I shot doves with him there for a few years. I enjoyed it but never fully got into it. I guess my sub-conscious New England upbringing still considered them song birds. But I can fully understand why folks like it so much.

The shooting of Mr Dove is not as important to me anymore as is the EATING of Mr Dove 😉