Heading out to dove hunt this afternoon, I'm so excited I couldn't sleep last night! I made the mistake this morning of telling my wife this is my favorite day of the year and now she's ticked at me lol. She said "What about our wedding day, or your daughters birthday? How come you enjoy doing stuff without us!!" I promised her I'd do whatever she wanted all weekend, that calmed her down a little. Hopefully this year is good, it all depends on if the doves show up and how I shoot. Last year the doves where there but I couldn't hold up my end, I borrowed a super nice shotgun and it took 75 shells to hit 15 birds. I'm going back to my Red Label 20ga this year, I've done as well as 15 birds with 22 shells using it. I'm taking my golden retriever out this year, it's the first time I've tried hunting with him. He's not gun shy and lives to retrieve, and I've been practicing with him and a dummy bird the past few weeks. It still could end up being a disaster though. Oh well, I'm off work, the sun is shining, and it's a high of 77. It's a good day!
Well this year was a wash. 2 days out in the field, I never fired once the first day and only fired 6 shots the second day and went home with one measly dove! Some years the birds fly so well that you can wait and pick your shots, this year there were so few birds in the fields it was a crapshoot if one would even come within range the entire day.
Are the doves like a regular morning dove that comes to a bird feeder in Maine? They must be good eating....but would take a lot for a meal.
I don't know how you find anything to eat after shooting a dove like those in Maine. I had one fly into the grill of my car. It was like busting a feather pillow! Not a trace of the bird after that splat.
Yeah, just a normal mourning dove. You need around 3-4 per person to make a meal. Last year I deboned them which produced 2 thumbtip sized breasts from each dove. Then took a banana pepper, covered it in cream cheese and placed one on each breast, and then wrapped each breast in a strip of bacon and grilled it. They made great appetizers!
I used to love dove hunting with friends when I lived in Pa. There's no season in NJ although doves are everywhere. I was told it's an archaic law written to protect possible surviving remnants of the flocks of now known to be extinct passenger pigeons. Could just be BS though.
If it's already banned, it's hard to get a dove season going. Since doves are the "birds of love" a lot of people don't understand why anyone would want to hunt them so there's a lot of resistance.
In my book,#1 they eat all the bird seed in a feeder, #2 they chit all over my car when they take off, #3 they probably are good eating...So I say lets hunt them....
