Dawn was but an idea in my mind as Maude and I climbed the hill to the tabletop dove field. My partner Maude was a young black Labrador retriever, wild as a March hare, starting her second hunting season.

The air was warm, almost hot, and typical of Missouri's opening day of dove season. Only one other vehicle was in the parking lot, yet I knew more hunters would follow shortly.

Maude ghosted in front of me hunting both sides of the mowed trail to the dove field. I let her run to wear off some of her energy. The managed dove field held mowed strips of sunflowers and was large enough to handle a whole host of dove hunters. I called Maude in to heel. Another dog announced his presence from the end of the field. Maude responded in kind.

We snuggled down in the middle of the field in head-high uncut sunflowers, about 60 yards from an old phone line and 100 yards from the field edge. There we would await the dawn and Missouri's opening day of dove season -- and of fall hunting.

A dozen or so hunters joined us, settling into the field as the light in the east spread. I loaded my Browning 20-gauge side-by-side with two No. 7 1/2 field loads in anticipation of the season's first dove.

I heard shooting down in the valley in one of Missouri Department of Conservation's bottomland dove management fields, followed shortly by a shot behind me, near the field edge. Three doves flashed over and quickly out of range, too quick for me to locate and get off a shot.

More hunters joined us and doves began flying into the field in singles, groups of twos and threes, and that occasional flock of 10 or more. Shooting was almost continuous for the first hour, and I watched my first box of ammunition empty with little to show for my efforts. Only two doves and Maude was getting bored. She'd only retrieved two birds.

For me this was a typical dove opener, one of 35 I've attended. When I first started dove hunting in Missouri, it was on private lands. However, all that changed when Missouri began managing doves on public areas.

And my shooting hasn't improved. First, I'm the world's worst wingshot; the ammunition companies love me. And second, after the long layoff from the quail season 10 months before, I was rusty. Boy, was I rusty.

By the end of the season's second hour, I was well into my second box of shells as other hunters began to leave with their bag limits. I'd added three more birds to the pile. The odds of me reaching a full bag limit of 12 birds were slim, yet I felt a great deal of satisfaction as another hunting season gathered momentum.

Maude was just plain bored.

To kick off the 2009 dove season and learn where Missouri Game & Fish readers might find the best dove hunting, I visited with John Schultz, the Missouri Department of Conservation resource scientist who is responsible for dove management and dove research for our state.

I'm glad to say he's one of the nation's leading dove researchers. I hoped to learn where to find the best dove fields and regions, what the future of Missouri's dove management might bring, and how Missouri stacks up when compared with other states with dove seasons.