Finding Hot Dove Hunting Action on the X

It was a scene straight out of a John P. Cowan painting, the late, great Texas sporting artist whose craft remains in much demand by serious collectors of hunting, fishing and wildlife-oriented artwork.

As the heat built, the September 1 scene was a riot of erratic flight as mourning doves and white-winged doves whipped about on the sultry breeze as they flew into and out of a cut grain field with nearby water and roost cover present to complete the habitat trifecta.

While I had chased Lone Star State doves for many years, the hunt was early in the career of my two sons, and they were wide-eyed with anticipation as we made our way to an assigned spot under a North Texas scrub oak. My eyes were wide open too, because I had rarely seen the number of doves that were buzzing about that day in a field where thousands of doves were being greeted by a dozen plus wingshooters hoping to knock down a limit of the birds corkscrewing their way through the early autumn sky.

I’d like to tell you that all three of the Burkhead’s limited out that day, but it wouldn’t be true if I did. Part of our failure to do so was because two members of the clan were newbies, one of us still occasionally shoots like a newbie, and also because we were the last invites to this treasured spot and had to take our hunting spot as assigned.

As that afternoon progressed—and a few more like it since then—I gave some serious thought about where the best spots can be found in a dove hunting field. In fact, it’s a question that I've asked myself countless times in more than a quarter century of chasing mourning doves during the wilting late summer and early fall heat.

And while the words have varied, the general idea of my mental gymnastics is simply this: "If 'X' marks the proverbial spot for a good dove hunt, then how do you land on the 'X'?

After hunting in fields I’ve gained permission to hunt after a polite door knock, on family ground, on land owned by friends, in public hunting tracts and with a few outfitters here and there, here are a few answers that I've distilled down through the years:

Look First, Hunt Second

A few years ago, while interviewing a nationally known white-tailed deer hunting expert, I learned something that I think applies to every form of fall hunting, including scattergunning for migrating doves.

Here's what this gentleman told me: "I'd rather give up a day or two of hunting so I can intensively scout from afar so that when I do finally hang a stand to hunt (on new ground), I'm right where I need to be from the word 'Go.'"

This same lesson applies to dove hunting too. When you arrive at a field or a waterhole location now, spending a few moments to gather intel as you watch the flight routines of doves already rocketing their way into and out of the area is one of the best investments of time you can make.

Once you've located a good spot, get to that spot promptly because if you don’t, someone else likely will. Doing so can certainly help aid you in becoming the wingshooting Top Gun in that field before the sun goes down and the barrel of your Browning A5 20-gauge shotgun cools off.

Adjust Quickly

Doves adjust their flight routines in short order as hunting pressure mounts. You should do the same thing as their travel corridors change over the course of a week or even a few hours.

A rule follower and contemplator by nature, I’ll admit that in my younger dove hunting years that I was somewhat reluctant to change my location in a dove field. Why? Usually, because I was thinking that it would only be a matter of time before a few birds were winging my way.

Today, realizing that I don't live in an epic dove hunting region—North Texas agriculture is quickly giving way to D/FW’s explosive suburban growth—I’m much quicker to pull the trigger, so to speak, and make a move.

If a moderate time period—say 15 to 20 minutes—goes by and the majority of the doves fly "over there," it will not be long before I'm on the move to that spot.

Hunt the Edge

Many forms of wildlife are creatures of the "edge effect” that famed naturalist Aldo Leopold championed. But while Leopold was generally referring to less mobile critters, I’ve discovered that even migratory doves are affected by the edge idea.

Meaning, in my estimation, that doves will often be found flying where two types of cover and/or habitat converge. Where they do, and where the doves are flying, that's always a good place to start looking for the wingshooting “X.”

To illustrate this, let me use a bass fishing example. One way to locate bass relating to underwater structure is to fish along a break line, that is a spot where shallow water quickly falls into deeper water. Ditto for fishing a region where the bottom composition changes from something like sand to hard gravel.

In dove hunting, I'm quick to look for the edges, or lines, too, demarcations that are made by standing grain versus harvested grain, the edge of a grain field against the start of a grassy location or even something like a crevasse or ditch running through the middle of a field. Get there promptly, and you'll likely burn less of the Winchester or Federal upland game loads sitting in your hunting vest.

Discover Irregularities

Sometimes, the edges, or lines described above, aren’t as noticeable. But some sort of irregularity in an otherwise similar spot can be a key component of separating the best dove shooting from the dove action that is only so-so.

Again, other wildlife and even fish species can illustrate this idea. Like a mossback largemouth bass, for instance, that is holding tight to a lone stick-up on a shallow water flat. In similar fashion, I’ve discovered that doves are also attracted to isolated and irregular features too.

From a lone dead snag in a field or around a dwindling waterhole to a gap in a solid tree line/hedgerow to a utility pole in the middle of an old field to a circle of sunflowers crisping in an otherwise bare region. Something out of the ordinary can often attract the attention of a dove on the wing.

Find the Food

When most dove hunters think of food for mourners passing through—or even white-winged doves in Texas and parts of Oklahoma—they tend to think of harvested corn fields, old wheat fields or recently cut milo/sorghum fields.

I do too—the first limit of doves that I ever took many years ago came in a recently harvested milo field. 

But in more recent times, I'm steadily learning from experience and discussions with guides and outfitters that migratory dove also like more natural food sources, things like native sunflowers, croton (or dove weed), ragweed, pigweed and more. Examining the crops of each dove I’ve harvested lends proof to this idea and also directs me to fine-tune my efforts the next time out.

And as the fall season wears on, learning to identify more subtle feeding spots not far from roost sites and watering holes can be a key ingredient to successful late-season dove hunting.

Keep Hunting

One of the ironies of dove hunting in the North Texas region that I call home is that the vast majority of hunters consider dove season something that runs from the traditional Sept. 1st opener, on through Labor Day, and maybe to the following weekend. ).

In other words, they give up on dove hunting after opening day, retiring their Weatherby Orion Side-by-Side until next year as they move on to bowhunting, deer hunting, duck hunting, quail hunting, and more as the fall season deepens.

In my humble opinion, it’s one of the bigger mistakes that a dove hunter can make each fall season, because you can have the "X" all to yourself. And I’m not alone in that belief either, because biologists with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department friends of mine that are serious dove hunters and outfitters scattered through the region all tell me that the dove hunting action often gets better as the calendar moves into late September and October.

And while it’s true that a good number of the locally raised native birds will be in the freezer by then, or have headed south, it’s also true that the season’s first autumn cold fronts will have kicked into high gear the annual migratory push of doves heading south, something we call “Kansas birds” where I live.

In fact, all across the country, millions of other migrating mourning doves will also be pouring down the flyways as fall progresses this year. Better yet, these birds are well-feathered and plump specimens that will make some prime dinner table fare after a few minutes on the grill over hot coals.

While those migrant doves are winging their way through your part of the world this fall, it can offer some of the best dove hunting action of the autumn season—wingshooting so good that it has to be experienced firsthand.

And with nary another wingshooter—besides you, of course, as the unofficial welcoming committee—left in the local fields to greet them as they arrive.

When that happens, it’s the stuff of legend straight out of a wildlife painting. And as the star of the day's wingshooting show, you’ll have the real-life “X” of a dove hunting field all to yourself.

---

---