Ray Sasser

Archive | E-mail

There's a big change in Texas dove hunting regulations this year, and the change favors hunters. The entire state will enjoy a 70-day dove season with a 15-bird daily bag limit. In the past, North Zone hunters had 60 days and 15 birds while Central and South Zone hunters had 70 days and 12 birds.

The North and Central Zone seasons are now concurrent. This season's dove hunters will not need to be concerned with which side of the North-Central boundary line they are hunting. Seasons and bag limits are the same on both sides. The longer season won't help many North Zone hunters because most hunting occurs the first two weekends of the season, anyway.

It will be interesting to see how many hunters take advantage of the second split for the North Zone season Dec. 26-Jan. 9. This is the first North Zone winter dove season in several years. In the colder weather of the North Zone, migrant doves have a tendency to move south.

The bag limit change represents a huge bonus for Central and South Zone hunters. Their daily bag limit increases by 25 percent.

Stay safe. Even the small shot sizes used for dove hunting will pierce skin as far as 130 yards. Stay aware of where other hunters are located in the field and try to keep 150 yards apart. Avoid shots at birds flying between you and a nearby hunter. Wear shooting glasses to protect your eyes. Unload your gun as soon as you've finished hunting and leave the shotgun action open so everyone can see the gun is safe. Many dove hunting accidents occur around the vehicle.

Stay mobile. Watch how doves enter and leave the area and get into position to intercept them. Doves have distinct flight patterns. Observe how they fly and take advantage of the flight patterns.

Hide from doves. These birds have incredible eyesight and a lofty vantage point. Hundreds of times I've watched them fly directly toward me in a path that seemed as if it would offer a perfect shot, only to have the dove slide subtly to one side and pass just out of range. That's not an accident. It means the doves see hunters and recognize them as dangerous, then fly around the danger. Hiding means dressing in clothes that blend with the natural background but it also means using natural cover and remaining still as doves approach your position.

Find fallen birds by walking directly to the spot where the bird went down without taking your eye off the spot. Hunters are notoriously bad at marking fallen birds and often lose downed game as a result. When you get to the spot where the bird went down, mark it with your cap or carry a handkerchief as a marker. Laina Olinger of Dallas markets a nifty product called BirdMarker that consists of a metal washer with a length of orange ribbon attached. It has enough weight that it can be thrown toward the fallen bird. See this product at www.birdmarker.com. Walk in an ever-widening circle around the marker until you find the bird. Most hunters stop short of where the bird fell. If you're hunting on the edge of a sunflower field or other tall cover, try to position yourself so the birds fall in a place where you have a good chance of finding them.

Scout fields or waterholes by using binoculars to look for birds feeding in the far end of the field. Study trees, power lines and fences for perching birds. If you have a couple of hunting partners, split up the scouting chores to increase the odds of finding a huntable concentration of doves.

Take special note of where birds fly in and out of fields and what direction they come from. Getting to the best hunting spot early is particularly important in a public hunting field. Finding the best hunting spot in any field requires pre-season homework.

Most Texas dove hunting occurs the first two weeks of the season. Dove hunting often improves with migrating birds in late September and October. The weather almost certainly becomes cooler and more comfortable late in the season.

Valid hunting license, with a migratory game bird stamp. The stamp, actually a stamp fee, is now required of all dove hunters 17 or older. Make certain your license states that you're HIP Certified, meaning you've answered the mandatory harvest information program questions required of all migratory bird hunters.

Appropriate shotgun shells (gauge, shot size, quantity). Dove hunters tend to prefer No. 8 shot with No. 71/2 being the second choice. If you shoot an autoloader, make certain to use shells that work well in your gun. Many autoloaders do not handle light loads well.

Favorite shotgun for doves. If the gun is an autoloader or a pump, make certain it is plugged to a three-shot capacity. If you have interchangeable choke tubes for your shotgun, bring them along. Start with skeet or improved-cylinder and change to tighter choke patterns as the situation dictates.

Camouflage or drab-colored clothing to make yourself less conspicuous to doves. Like most birds, doves have very good eyesight. Include a camo or drab-colored cap or wide-brimmed hat in your gear. The cap will help hide your face from overhead birds and shield your eyes from the sun. A wide-brimmed hat serves the same function while providing more protection from the sun. Despite the heat, wear long pants and sturdy boots to protect your legs.

Insect repellent that protects against mosquitoes, ticks and chiggers. Mosquito repellents must be applied to the skin, but clothing can be treated with tick and chigger repellents before going afield.

Sunscreen to guard against sunburn. Early September is usually hot and sometimes brutal.

Lightweight game vest or belt with pockets or pouches for shells and birds.

Shooting glasses to help cut the sun's glare and to protect your eyes from errant pellets.

Ear plugs to protect your hearing from the loud shotgun report.

Water bottles that can be carried in the pocket of a hunting vest. Drink plenty of water to stay hydrated on a hot day. A Camelbak or other hydration pack that's worn on your back serves double duty if you fill the water bladder with crushed ice. It keeps you cool in hot weather and provides cold water as the ice melts.

Ice chest to keep drinking water cold and birds cool.

Large, resealable plastic bags to keep your birds dry while storing them on ice and to keep your birds separate from those taken by hunting partners. Use a water resistant writing pen to write your name and the date on your bird bag.

Rain gear, on the chance that it might rain.

Shotgun cleaning kit for after the hunt or for solving shotgun malfunctions.

Game shears to help while cleaning birds.

Battery-powered spinning- wing dove decoy. It's the best $40 insurance policy you can buy against a slow hunt.

Hand cleaner with high alcohol content for washing hands after bird cleaning.

Six common legal mistakes made by dove hunters:

Failure to plug the magazine of a pump or autoloading shotgun. For all migratory bird hunting, the gun must be plugged to a three-shot capacity. That means one shell in the firing chamber, no more than two in the magazine. Hunters who remove their plugs for quail or turkey hunting may forget to replace them for dove hunting. That's one thing you can be sure the game wardens will check.

Failure to keep your doves separate from birds shot by other hunters. This violation is called "co-mingling game" and it simply means that a warden cannot look in an ice chest where several bags of birds are deposited and tell which hunter shot which birds. Whether birds are cleaned or not, keep each hunter's daily bag segregated in a plastic storage bag with the hunter's name and the date the birds were shot written on the bag. If you hunt two days, label a new bag to hold your second day's harvest.

Violation of "possession limit." For migratory birds, the possession limit is defined as twice the daily bag limit. You cannot make an extended dove-hunting trip, hunt three days, shoot three limits and have them all in your possession.

Double dipping. This means shooting a daily bag limit of doves in the morning and another limit in the afternoon. Regulations once prohibited morning hunting of doves, just to avoid the potential for double dipping. It is now legal to hunt mornings and afternoons, but it is not legal to exceed the daily bag limit in any given hunting day.

Shooting from the tailgate of a parked pickup truck or from the seat or bed of an ATV. This is a federal rule adapted by TP&W. As stated in the regulations booklet "It is unlawful to hunt from or by means of motor-driven vehicles and land conveyances or aircraft of any kind."

Shooting too early or too late. Legal shooting hours are 30 minutes before sunrise until sunset. While doves don't often fly earlier than 30 minutes before sunrise, they frequently fly after sunset.

Resident doves are plentiful throughout the state in September, though East Texas tends to have fewer doves than other regions. The migratory funnel for doves flying through Texas and into Mexico is basically described as a 100-mile wide band stretching from Wichita Falls to Laredo. According to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service harvest surveys done from 1999-2007, Bexar County (San Antonio) boasts the state's top dove harvest. The overall harvest for Bexar County totals nearly 300,000 doves (both whitewings and mourning doves). Other top counties for overall dove harvest are Williamson, Hidalgo, Medina, Uvalde, Atascosa, Coleman, Frio, Tom Green and Taylor. Coleman leads in mourning dove harvest with more than 125,000 birds most seasons. Other top mourning dove counties are Bexar, Williamson, Atascosa, Frio, Taylor, Tom Green, Uvalde, Collin and Duval. Hunting may be better in other, more isolated counties, but the harvest numbers depend on large numbers of hunters plus an abundance of game.

Check closely for metal leg bands on the birds you harvest. The bands are small and not easily seen. Hunters are probably under reporting the harvest of banded doves because they never notice the band.

The dove bands include an identification number and also a toll-free phone number, 1-800-327-2263, to report the band. Hunters will be asked their name and address, the date of band recovery, method of band recovery (was the bird found dead or shot while hunting) and location of recovery. Hunters may keep the bands.

Reporting banded doves creates important information that's used in managing these game birds. Of 3,537 mourning doves banded in Texas last year, 57 were reported killed by Texas hunters and one was killed in New Mexico. A total of 125 banded mourning doves were reported by Texas hunters last year, including birds banded in previous years and migrants from other states.

Of 18,867 white-winged doves banded in Texas last year, 489 were reported killed by Texas hunters and 44 were reported by hunters in Mexico. Two were shot in Louisiana, one in New Mexico and one in Oklahoma.

Texas hunters also harvested two whitewings banded in Mexico. A white-winged dove banded in Laredo was recovered 813 miles away in the Mexican state of Oaxaca.

■ North America has an estimated 500 million mourning doves.

■ About 50 million doves migrate through Texas each fall, heading for Mexico and Central America.

■ In a good season, Texas hunters bag about 5 million doves.

■ Texas hunters will spend $7 to $15 million this year on shotshells used for dove hunting.

■ Doves fly as far as 10 miles to suitable food and water sources.