The Outdoors

By Scott Rall, Outdoors Columnist

Pheasant road side counts are completed and as we ease our way to the end of the month the next outdoor opportunity is the morning dove hunting season opener on Sept. 1. This season always invokes a fair amount of emotion between those who think it is a barbaric tradition and those who enjoy the ability to go out and participate in a renewable harvest of the most abundant game bird in North America.

Morning doves are the most hunted game bird in North America with a hunting tradition that rivals all others. Sure, the deer season or the waterfowl seasons garner thousands of participants but the dove season spans more hunters and more states than any other.

A few interesting facts about morning doves: They have a natural life expectance of only about 11 months. Natural mortality accounts for the majority of dove deaths. Dove populations across the nation exceed 350 million. Minnesota accounts for about 18% of those with the estimated population in Minnesota being 2.3 million birds.

Needless to say, this game bird is not suffering like many other native game birds in North America. Sage grouse which live in the western United States have seen populations decline more than 70% in the past 10 years alone. Sharp tail grouse and prairie chickens, which also used to total in the many millions, are now reduced to only a fraction of their original numbers.

Doves are hunted in Minnesota for only about two weeks even though the season lasts for several months. The reason behind this is that this bird has the least tolerance for cold temperatures. Give my county one or two solid frosts and 95% of the doves will be gone almost overnight. Below freezing temperatures will send them packing for warmer climates but there are other factors that determine how long they will stick around.

I missed opening day a few years back and the hunters on that weekend had very good results. On the following Monday, we had a 50 mile per hour wind that lasted for only one day and when I when hunting on Tuesday there was not a dove to be found.

Anyone who thinks dove hunting must be pretty easy has never tried it. If a really good marksman can harvest a limit of 15 doves with one box of shells, which total 25 rounds, they are a very good shot. The average is seven shots expended to harvest one single dove. It also takes a pretty special dog to hunt doves. My Labradors are super high energy dogs with tons of go power. When they retrieve a dove, it is so small in their mouths they tend to be pretty hard on them. Some dogs will actually swallow a dove whole although a dog owner would never admit to that.

I go get my oldest dog Axle who has retired at my mom and dads house and he is older and less intense and does a great job retrieving doves. I would not say it never happens, but to find a good dove hunting spot with a large area of short grass is pretty rare. I am planning on intercepting doves moving from a roosting spot to a feeding spot and where I will be sitting the grass is about three feet tall.  This means you only shoot one bird at a time and don’t shoot another one until the downed bird is in my game bag. Looking for multiple birds in the tall grass all at the same time is difficult because you loose your depth perception one you start walking around.

All it really takes is a gun, some shells and a five-gallon pail to sit on. You do need the proper licensing and rock solid hunting permission if you choose to hunt on private land. Great public land spots are not all that hard to find but if you found one it means a dozen other hunters have probably found it too.

There were close to 11,000 dove licenses sold in the state so you will likely not be the only one out there. Remember to be safe, hunt ethically, share the space with others and by all means take someone who has never hunted with you. There are few other hunting opportunities where sitting as still as a rock and keeping perfectly quite is not required. Dove hunting allows for a little more mistake forgiveness in those departments than other forms of fall harvest. October is approaching fast and then the opportunities will abound. For now, dove hunting is it and with my scouting efforts I think this should be a great year to be a dove hunter.

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If you have any questions, reach out to me at scottarall@gmail.com.