Photo by Mike Marsh.

Approximately 40,000 Missourians will go afield on Sept. 1 in order to participate in what has to be one of the state’s most distinctive outdoor sports. We -- and I use the word “we” because I’ll be among that 40,000 -- say that we’re going dove “hunting,” but our actual hope is that we’re going dove “shooting.” And there’s the rub.

As any veteran Show-Me State dove hunter knows all too well, locating enough doves on private land for even a small group to enjoy a barrel-heating shoot can be about as easy as downing an afterburner-powered left-to-right crosser at an honest 45 yards. It’s not that the former (to say nothing of the latter) can’t be done: I’ve enjoyed some private-land dove shoots right here in central Missouri that would (nearly) equal the sort of action that traveling hunters claim to find in northern Mexico. But that said, my friends and I have also trudged back to our vehicles at sunset with our shell bags full and our game bags empty when the corn-stubble field that our chief scout (truthfully) claimed had been “chock full of doves” on Aug. 31 contained nothing but field sparrows on Sept. 1.

Enter the Missouri Department of Conservation. As a result both of his own research and of his having taken part in a multiyear, multistate dove project, MDC resource scientist John H. Schulz has reached some surprising conclusions (surprising to me, anyway) about the best means of managing Missouri’s doves. During a recent interview, I asked him point blank why the MDC’s dove management programs seemed to be directed solely toward helping hunters kill the quarry as opposed to providing it with habitat, such as is the case with most other species.

“Doves are such habitat generalists that everything is dove habitat,” Schulz replied. “Therefore, there’s really nothing much we can do to create more year-round habitat specifically for doves. That leaves hunting as the only effective dove management tool.”

According to Schulz, approximately 90 properties owned or leased by the MDC will have some acreage managed so as to concentrate doves for readier accessibility by hunters. Almost without exception, the technique used involves mowing and/or disking strips through sunflower fields in order to give doves open ground on which to feed while affording hunters adequate cover from which to shoot. The results can be amazing.

Or, at least, they can be -- if several diverse elements come together. First of all, conservation area managers are given considerable leeway in setting priorities for their areas. As might be expected, the relative importance of maximizing the potential of whatever acreage is allocated for dove management varies. That’s a roundabout way of saying that, in the case of all hunting venues apart from time-honored dove producers (such as those mentioned in this article), a late-August scouting trip can save a carload of opening-day frustration.

Then too, the best-laid plans of area managers may be frustrated by spring and early-summer weather patterns, which can have a significant impact on a given CA’s ability to attract large numbers of doves. Sunflowers, a difficult crop to grow under the best of circumstances, must be planted as early as possible in order to be fully ripe by the end of August. A soggy spring followed by a parched early summer (not an uncommon combination in Missouri) can wreak havoc on sunflower production. Nevertheless, year in and year out, the Missouri CAs best managed for doves do an amazing job of producing exciting action no matter what nature dishes out.