Photo by Steve Carpentieri

By Gerald J. Scott

Sept. 1, the traditional opening day of Missouri's dove season, is the most eagerly awaited date on the upland hunter's calendar. More dove hunters are afield during the first three days of September than are hunters of any other small game species during a similar period at the beginning of their seasons. Not surprisingly, more ammunition is expended on - though perhaps "at" would be a more accurate word - doves than on any other small game species, including waterfowl.

Conventional wisdom among federal wildlife biologists is that dove numbers are in a downward spiral that has persisted for at least 15 years. The Missouri Department of Conservation biologists who study the state's dove population aren't convinced that the situation in Missouri is that grim. To find out for sure, the agency is conducting a 10-year study not just to assess total dove numbers more accurately but also to determine the impacts that disease, lead-shot ingestion and a number of other factors make on doves.

Fanatical dove hunter that I am, I have high hopes that the MDC's study will result in better year-round dove management not just here in Missouri but throughout the nation as well. I know for sure that the MDC's increased interest in doves is already providing some huge dividends for public land dove hunters. In 2003, approximately 99 conservation areas scattered all across the state devoted at least some resources to dove management practices. Given that the weather cooperates, it's likely a similar number of CAs will do so this year.

Thanks to area manager Rick Bredesen - who's one of the few people I've ever spoken to who's as enthusiastic about doves as I am - doves and dove hunters have a very high priority. Rick provides "his" doves with between 100 and 120 acres of sunflowers and about 80 acres of wheat. Except for mowed strips, the entire sunflower crop remains standing in the field to provide food for doves and a host of other wildlife for the fall and winter months. The wheat is harvested by the farmer permittee, and the stubble is mowed and/or disked in mid to late August.

Dove hunting is allowed between noon and sunset, Monday through Friday throughout the season. Hunters must check in at the area headquarters and get a hunt card. They then are allowed to select the field they wish to hunt. The number of hunters per field is limited. Veterans begin arriving as early as 9:00 a.m., despite the fact that the area seldom completely fills out. After getting their cards and field assignments, they stake out their favorite spot until shooting starts at noon.

At the end of the day, hunters return to headquarters, where biologists examine and conduct tests on their doves. Note: These tests do not damage the edible meat, and cooperating hunters in effect have their doves dressed for them.

The half-day shooting hours and weekend closure are designed to allow doves time to feed undisturbed. This not only benefits the birds but hunters as well, by lessening the possibility that hunting pressure will drive the birds away from the area.

Ironically, Bredesen has a far harder time keeping hunters on the area. "Our dove hunters seem to think the whole season is a one-day shoot," he wryly commented. After the season has been open for, at most, 10 days, hunter numbers have dropped so low that hunters may hunt anywhere on the area they choose after checking in at headquarters. By the end of September, very few dove hunters are using the area. The same cannot be said for the doves.

Bois D'Arc's dove hunt is tailor-made for early birds. Shooting hours are one half hour before sunrise to 1:00 p.m., seven days a week throughout the season. Hunters must check in at area headquarters and pick a specific hunting area prior to leaving for the dove fields during the first seven days of the season.

Hunting pressure is heavy through the Labor Day weekend and then drops dramatically. Dove numbers may also decline by the end of the season's first week, but the birds return by the middle of the month.

Unfortunately, you may receive this magazine too late to participate in the first 10 days of the dove season at Columbia Bottoms. Would-be dove hunters here must fill out an application form during July. (These forms are available at the CA and at area MDC offices.) A random drawing is held in early August, and 50 applicants per day are selected. The successful applicants are allowed to bring one hunting partner. Shooting hours run from 1:00 p.m. until sunset.

The just-described restrictions provide for a high-quality hunting experience in the shadow of a metropolitan area. In 2003, they also provided for a highly successful hunt. Area manager Tom Leifield reported that hunters averaged slightly over 10 birds each. Given that the limit in 2003 was 12, this is phenomenal hunter success.

The number of dove hunters who want to use the area drops so much after the first 10 days of the season that the area is then opened to use without reservations or restrictions on the number of hunters. Another bit of good news about dove hunting at Columbia Bottoms is that one field is reserved for hunters with physical disabilities throughout the season. Area personnel will provide assistance to hunters who require help getting to and from their shooting stations.

As the cynical among you might suspect, there has to be a downside to dove hunting at Columbia Bottoms. Dove hunters must use non-toxic shot. Now there's a regulation that will either make you concentrate on your shooting or encourage you to make friends with a banker!

One of the reasons for the variation in the rules governing managed dove hunts from area to area is a deliberate attempt on the part of the MDC to accommodate the varying tastes of the state's dove hunters. The manager at Eagle Bluffs CA didn't have me in mind when the area's managed dove hunt regulations were written, but he certainly could have. In my unsolicited and purely personal opinion, this is the way to run a railroad.

During the early days of the season, a daily drawing for each of 40 shooting stations is held at 12:30 p.m. The timing of the drawing is set to allow potential hunters to come to the area on their lunch hour. The 40 hunters who draw positions plus, if they choose, one hunting partner can proceed immediately to their assigned station or may leave and return later. In either case, shooting hours are from 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Each shooting station is a metal post driven into the ground at the edge of one of the area's three sunflower fields. Shooting stations are a minimum of 40 yards apart and are on the same side of the field. A strip of sunflowers in front of each station is mowed to aid in retrieving downed birds. All shooting must be done within, at most, a few feet of the metal post. Hunters must leave their shotguns behind when entering the field to retrieve birds.

To me, this is quality-managed dove hunting at its finest. The at best unnerving and at worst dangerous rain of spent pellets that is an inherent part of many dove shoots is completely eliminated. Better still, the extremely irritating practice a few hunters have of "claiming" every bird that hits the ground is reduced almost to zero.

Eagle Bluffs is an unbeatable place for introducing youngsters to dove hunting. The area's staff recognizes this fact, and will bend the two-person-per-stake rule to allow an adult to take two youngsters. However, the limit of two shotguns per stand remains in force.

Normally, within a week to 10 days, hunter numbers have dropped to the point where the 12:30 drawing is eliminated. Hunters can arrive shortly before 2:00 p.m. and sign up for the stand of their choice.

Math majors may have observed that I have omitted to mention that Missouri has 94 CAs with some acreage devoted to dove management. I doubt that you want to spend your time reading a 94-name-long list of MDC properties. However, a few comments about what to expect from these areas are in order.

Super-independent types will be glad to hear that 73 of the 94 areas are governed by statewide hunting regulations with no additional provisos. Some of these areas, Wilhelmina CA in Butler County for example, have very limited acreage devoted to doves. Other MDC managed properties under statewide regulation have large amounts of land managed for doves. For example, the various units within the Truman Reservoir Project have a total of 752 acres devoted to doves. Whether large or small, count on having company opening weekend and on having the field you choose pretty much to yourself after Sept. 10.

Hunters must use non-toxic shot on all or portions of five of the 94 rural dove CAs. All five are primarily managed for waterfowl, and the non-toxic shot requirement will be posted. These CAs can become real dove magnets the second week of the season; as a result of the non-toxic shot rule, many hunters avoid them.

Hunter check-in and or record cards are required at 10 of the 94 CAs. Frankly, hunters should be grateful for this very minor inconvenience. The information gathered via this method is invaluable to the biologists trying to insure that dove hunting is available to our grandkids.

Two of the 94, Otter Slough CA in Stoddard County and Ten Mile Pond CA in Mississippi County, conduct urban-style managed hunts during the first half of September. Both are open for dove hunting from sunrise to 1:00 p.m. on intermittent dates between Sept. 1 and 15. Check with the area managers for the 2004 dates. Statewide regulations apply from Sept. 15 through October, at which time the dove season closes on both areas. Non-toxic shot is required.

If that's not enough dove hunting to keep you busy, don't forget that 95 percent of Missouri is private property. Private land hunters, like their public land counterparts, seldom go afield after Labor Day. If you're willing to wait until the second week of the season when the landowner's friends and family have had their fill, gaining permission to hunt doves is relatively easy.

Wherever you'll be hunting opening day, let me leave you with the words of the best wingshot I've ever known. "Shoot where they're going to be, not where they've been."