Annual Dove Hunt

If you like to hunt Dove & have an annual hunt every year, share some exploits here. Also, if you have any great recipes post those too. For starters I'll brag on my son he got 5 this year, not bad for a 12 yr. old, using a o/u .410... , but had a little help from a gentlemen who is by all accounts considered a "designated marksman" in our circle. Although my son hunts with me regularly, this is the first time where he has been on his own. Of course Dad didn't do that well... All in all everyone had a good hunt and this was a good opening in our area (Louisiana), compared to the past three years where we have had bad weather knock us out.
So post 'em up and best of luck to all this season!

Love a good dove shoot. Here in Arizona we get both Mourning and Whitewing doves. What I really don't care for are careless dove hunters which unfortunately the Phoenix area has way too many of. So I gave up on it.

As far as recipes go, this is my favorite way. Please keep in mind that in Arizona, jalapeno peppers are considered one of the major food groups.

Using a small sharp knife, cut the breasts off your doves. With a tooth pick, spear through one breast then a piece of bacon cut to roughly the size of your dove breast, then a slice of jalapeno and finally the second breast.

Fry this up slowly in a pan or grilled. Serve as appetizers.

Congrat's to you and your son. Use to love dove hunting with my boys when they were young!

Texas Recipe

Dove breast
Thick sliced pepper bacon
Fresh jalapeno's
Cream cheese
Buttermilk (our your choice of marinate)
Box of round tooth picks (soak in water prior to use)

De-bone the breast of each dove - two halves each
Marinate breast halves overnite in buttermilk or your marinate of choice
Slice fresh jalapeno's into four pieces. (The "heat" is in the veins and seeds. Leave enough to suite your taste)
Cut the slab of pepper bacon in half ) pieces will be about 6" long
Cut block of cream cheese into slices the size of the jalapeno slices.
Stuff jalapeno slices with cream cheese
Wrap each half dove breast, jalapeno w/cream cheese, with a half section of bacon and pin with tooth pick (may take more than one toothpick)
Cook over hot coals until bacon is done. Note: you will have to turn often and watch while cooking due to bacon grease flaring up.
Try to not "overcook"
Serve immediately

WARNING!!: Friends and family will invite themselves over everytime you get back from dove hunting!
This can be done with anything, venison, chicken, pheasant, steak etc.... I think you could probably use pieces of "Goodyear Tires" and it would be edible...lol

Enjoy!

Thanks for the replies Phoenix Phil & Buff-Buster, and the recipes. We have variant of the ones listed which we use. On Sundays we prepare a stew or gumbo incorporating meat from the dove. One of my favorites, is a recipe using peppers, but with a slightly different twist. It is kind of like a Chile Relleno recipe.

I'm going to pull it and post it as soon as I get back home.

Sorry I'm a little late to this subject. Didn't join until later. I live in Wisconsin now, but go back to Kansas every year for opening weekend of dove season. Been doing this for twenty years. This is a get together for some old friends to see each other, drink iced tea and eat lots of good food or maybe I should say overeat some good food. We have several farms we hunt on every year so we have learned how the doves will fly. We usually go out in the early morning and return for lunch and rest up. You younger guys won't understand but its ruff on us older guys to be up all day plus this gives us a chance to visit the local gun shops. Then we go back out later in the day and hunt until dark. In the morning we will find the places where the birds feed on sunflower seeds and grains. In the afternoon we will look for watering holes as doves will water before going to roost at night. Because it has been so dry for the last few years the big thing was find water and the birds will come to you. Morning has never been our best time, but hey we traveled eight hundred miles to get here so we are going to hunt all we can. We are allowed fifteen birds per person each day and usually get them. This year we only fired four to ten shots each morning. The afternoons looked like some of those South American shows. We could have fired several hundred shots each. The birds came in waves for forty-five minutes to an hour. You could pick and choose your best shot, if you liked swinging left then shoot only left shoots and if you like shooting right then shoot right. After we shot our limit each night we would just put away our guns and sit and watch the birds fly until dark. A good time was had by all. In a later post I'll give some cooking ideas.

Shortride, here in the bayou state (northeast) we've been experiencing a dry period. As you correctly pointed out hunting around or in close proximity to a water source nets a better outcome. For me Dove hunting is my most favorite time, it is the only time where I literally get to take it easy. I refer to it as arm chair hunting, because I get to sit around all day.

I was supposed to post up a recipe, unfortunately it has been misplaced. We have searched all over the camp with no luck.

Thanks for sharing.

I hope it's not bad form to revive this ancient thread. But having a place to share a liking for dove hunting seemed like a great idea.

Only my second outing but I have caught the bug for sure. It's such an pleasant hunt - the weather is great, nothing beats sitting in a farm field in early fall. The action is exciting and the loads don't beat you up. It's a cool hunt. I only got 5 today but missed 5 as well. The doves then decided to take the day off! C'est la vie... C'est la chasse I suppose!

Glad you’re enjoying it! We had a good shoot on our farm last Saturday. Had one fellow burn through three boxes of shells. We need to get that lad a shooting lesson!

Dove season signals the beginning of Fall and the start of hunting in general. It is a social affair where being quiet is not mandatory and typically game is plentiful, depending on your location. For the uninitiated, it can be a humbling experience as well, as these grey darts scream by, defying the odds as hundreds of lead pellets are thrown at them. Usually accompanied by friendly banter from a companion wondering how much ammunition was brought along as the current rate of use would not fill the limit of birds allowed. My friend asked me to pipe down in the same friendly manner using some universal sign language.
Here in Colorado, we never know if we will have a month of good hunting, or a day or two. This year was good. The first cold windy push didn't arrive until late September. Took what will probably be the last dove for the year last week. Might get a eurasian or two later on, but they are more pigeon-like than mourning doves and certainly hardier as they will hang around most of the winter.