Pennsylvania Game News - September 2013 - 3

I

STARTED out my hunting life
pursuing small game and deer
with archery gear. Of both activities, I did much better on small game
than I ever did with deer, and that is
still the case today. However, even
though doves became a big part of
the hunting menu, the main course
was pheasants and rabbits, and back
in the 1970s there were plenty of
places to hunt them, and close to the
house. But as the years passed, the
places became housing developments,
and I lost many of my pheasant and
rabbit hunting spots. Now, most of
my hunting for these species is for
stocked pheasants on game lands,
and catching the odd rabbit on various public and private properties for
which I have access. The truth is, my
hunting changed with circumstances,
and now I hunt mostly migratory
birds — doves, ducks and geese.
Doves were my first game ever and
are still one of my favorites. However,
unlike ducks and geese, their populations in the areas I hunt are not what
they once were, and now taking a
limit is relatively tough.
When I started hunting doves it
took me about two boxes of shells to
get a limit (12 back then), but there
were so many birds around that I
could almost guarantee a limit on any
September hunt. Now, in September, I consider myself lucky if I fire
one box of shells, and normally I go
through maybe half of that, and don’t
necessarily get a limit. But, over the
years I learned to hunt migrant doves
the second season, in November,
and the third season, in December.
Whether they were local birds or migrants, learning pass shooting routes
(narrow travel corridors that birds use
SEPTEMBER  2013 

to travel from roosting to feeding, or
resting areas) can determine whether
you will be successful or not.
With doves, I have taken more
than a few birds while jump shooting
along cornfield edges and hedgerows.
They like certain edges, obviously,
and you can get quite a few birds that
way, particularly in the early afternoon when birds aren’t moving much
on their own. The way to go, though,
is to find where the birds are traveling in the late afternoon and evening
and find a place to post.
Doves have a short lifespan, and
are definitely birds of habit, more so
than most other game birds. They
spend most of their time flying back
and forth from roosting places to
areas that have water, grit and food.
The only time they appear to deviate from their established pattern is
when crops are harvested. If the corn
is not harvested, then hunters need
to find the normal travel routes these
birds use.
A great way to find travel routes is
to go groundhog hunting in August.
While I am wandering around looking for my main quarry, I also keep an
eye out for doves as they fly around,
particularly during the evening. Once
I establish where the birds are traveling, I hunt those routes in September.
In most cases, unless grain is being
harvested, the birds will not deviate
from their daily routine.
Most of these routes are fairly easy
to figure out, even if you haven’t had
time to scout them. If an area has
a lot of hedgerows, which some of
my fields have, one of the keys is to
find the gaps in them. A gap could
be a space caused either by a field,
field connection, tractor path or
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Pennsylvania Game News - September 2013

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