It’s dove hunting season here in Central Texas.
I know some people dedicated to it. Me? It’s just not my thing.
First, I’m not really a shotgunner. I just don’t shoot them much, thus I don’t get much practice shooting flying things (be it clays or birds). The times I’ve shot skeet I really enjoyed it, but I just don’t seek it out (handguns are my focus). Second, shooting doves seems like a lot of work for little gain. All the feather plucking, cleaning, prep, and so on… just for a little nugget of meat? I guess that’s why if I’m going hunting I tend to prefer bigger animals (e.g. I am dreaming of elk hunting one of these days). The cost-benefit ratio just seems slightly better there. So the dove thing just hasn’t appealed to me.
However….
A guy I know from Scouts and church is an avid dove hunter. Last year we were talking about it and he made comments to me that I should go out with him; I passed. This year he started on me again and I said “why not?”. So I pulled the 18.5″ barrel off my Mossberg 500 (it’s a field version, wood furniture) and put the field barrel back on with a modified choke. I went out and bought some 7.5 shot shells. Got my hunting license with the migratory bird stamp. And… I’m ready. 🙂
Haven’t gone out yet. I’ll be talking with my friend tonight to figure things out, but it looks like maybe this weekend.
I figure why not? Try it. If I get something, great. If I don’t, it should just be fun to get out and try. Lord knows doves are not in short supply around here…. I’ve seen 2 dozen in my yard at times, and I must admit when I see that I have thought about how tasty that could be, if only I didn’t live in the city. 😉
We’ll see how it goes. If any of you are dove (or bird) hunters and have tips for me, please share in the comments.
Stuff From Hsoi 
I’d say 75-95% of the dove hunters out there just use it as an excuse to get out of the house and drink a few beers.
It can be some of the most frustrating hunting, or easy hunting. If they aren’t flying, not much you can do. Sometimes they’ll come in by the hundreds, even thousands, and it’s nuts.
My tip:
Wait, let ’em get close. Pretend you have a single shot. Most of my misses are from not letting ’em come in close enough. (Sometimes when they aren’t flying much, you just gotta deal with it and try some harder shots though.)
I shall use that excuse. 🙂
I do hope to come home with something, but if not well… no biggie. I’ll take the advice tho, to just wait and make each shot count. Heck, watching the doves in my yard this morning, I did a little observation and dry practice. 😉
Oh, and cleaning a dove takes less than a minute.
Push the skin over the breast back with your thumbs, pull the breast up, cut the wings with some scissors, rinse.
No need to even pluck ’em?
Nope, though some feathers will come off of course, but you don’t need to pluck it like a chicken.
Well damn. I didn’t realize it was so simple. Sweet!
and be sure to get them on the wing (flying). Unless you get lost and need a game warden and then you could take one perched.