Opening Day of Dove Season

Well, I didn't know what to expect on my first Illinois dove hunt. My friend Alex and I met another friend at Moraine View State Park and wildlife management area, about 30 miles east of Champaign. On the first 5 days of the season, you can only hunt doves from 12 - 5 PM, and you have to request a spot to hunt (at least at he place we were hunting). One of the guys with us had hunted there before, so he picked us a spot with a nice big sunflower field surrounded by nice trees. We picked a line of trees to hunt that was sandwiched between two sunflower fields.  I brought a fishing poll just in case we didn't see any doves.  As it turned out, I didn't need it (vide infra).

The remnants of hurricane Isaac were moving through the area on that day, but we didn't get much violent weather. Instead, it was turbulent, windy, and drizzly all day. Apparently, doves love that sort of weather, because we saw hundreds and hundreds of doves.  HUNDREDS OF DOVES. However, only about 500 of them flew within shooting range. I shot my limit and most of my friend's limit within about 2 hours.  I was a little rusty, though - it took me a little more than 2 boxes of shells to shoot 25 doves. At about 3 PM, the doves really started flying. There were several different times when there was well over a hundred doves flying over the field we were hunting.

My friend Alex shot these pictures while we were leaving. Had we been a little more lawless, we could have easily filled a substantial portion of my truck bed with doves. It kind of reminds me of those old pictures you see of guys with hundreds of dead passenger pigeons.

That night, I plucked them all whole. The following night I pot roasted them, and by 3 nights later, they were gone.