And we are off, dove season 2025.

Since moving to South Dakota one of my favorite new activities is dove hunting. The first fall out here Caleb and I stumbled upon some ground that was open to the public and had just been hayed with tons of doves in the area. He, Eli, and I hunted it on opening day and managed to get my first 5 doves ever, and a new hobby began. 

Fast forward to this year, we have managed to make some new connections. Last year at the very end of dove season we had a fun hunt by asking the person we purchase eggs (produce, bread, and treats) from, if we could hunt her family’s land that had quite a few doves using the corn field. Well this year using my hunting app, I noticed that they had some land across the street from where we hunted that the river ran through and had some gravel banks next to it. Having learned from another friend that these spots are good to hunt doves in, by going with him to hunt a similar type location with some success, I had Kristin ask if we could hunt out there. Upon receiving the go ahead the kids and I were excited to have a spot for opening day. 

It wasn’t long until Labor Day weekend and Sept 1st were here. After a trip to Cabela's, and sorting through everyone’s stuff to make sure everyone had what they needed to go, Eli, Caleb, Brooke, and I were ready to hunt. This is Brooke’s first year going hunting like this. She got her blind bag, and loaded it up with everything she needed. I got up well before sunrise, but didn’t have the heart to wake the kids up that early. It was also just a little foggy so I figured getting out there a little before sunrise wouldn’t hurt. And that's what we did. We got there just as it was starting to get light out, found the gate we were told we could use, grabbed our gear and began the trek out to where we were hoping to hunt. We tried to take a direct line, and this turned out to be a bit of a mistake. We hit a spot where we could not get across the river, so we would have to go back a little ways to get up on a higher bank to get out there. Instead we ran into another spot of gravel with sunflowers next to it that we actually kicked about a half dozen doves off of when we got there. We decided we would start hunting here. We set up our 10 decoys and 2 spinners (this is what happens when a duck hunter goes dove hunting) and found a spot to hide.

First Spot

It was a little bit of a slow start and really not too many doves moving when I heard from the peanut gallery, “is this really going to work?”. I reminded them to have patience, and it paid off. After a little wait, our first dove came right into the decoys and we got it. Our spirits lifted a little with this, and before long we got another one.

And we are on the board.

At this point, the doves started moving more but they kept wanting to go behind us and further out. Where we originally wanted to get to. Eli then asked me if she could go explore and see how hard it would be to get out there and the other two said they would go with. I gave the kids the approval and before long they were coming back to me, saying we need to move. So we did. And boy am I glad they convinced me to do this. We picked everything up, walked back to the beginning of the river bank, climbed up and then walked out to the large gravel bar. And when we got there, it was beautiful. We re-set up the decoys and tucked back in the sunflowers.

Second spot

This move didn’t take long to pay off when a dove came right into the decoys and we harvested our third dove. When the kids went to pick it up, another one came in from the opposite direction they went. This was my first miss of the season. I think I was just too excited. When the kids got back in, we had our first flock come in and I got two more. After this flurry of action, things slowed down. We managed to get another single for 6, but the kids were starting to get antsy. They asked if it would be ok to climb a big hill behind us to see the view. I said sure, and while they did that I picked everything up and got ready to head in. The longer walk back to the truck was great exercise. And it was fun to head home to show off what we harvested. Brooke enjoyed the experience, and was looking forward to the next hunt. In which she actually brought her “stuffy” in her blind bag. 

Hey Dad!

Look at the view

Smiles all around

Before dove season started, I asked a farmer friend from church if he might have any spots we could dove hunt. After showing him our picture from opening day, a few days later he texted me a picture showing the success of a group of high schoolers that asked him to hunt his pasture for doves and informed me, we were welcome to try this spot as well. Well we decided to take him up on this offer. It turns out his pasture was next to a hemp field that was recently cut and when we got there, the numbers of doves flying around was astonishing. He was kind enough to show us around and where to setup, and it wasn’t long until we setup next to the creek, hiding down a little so it would not be so easy for the doves to see us. The best part was when we were doing this, the horses in the pasture came up to say hi. The cows also came up to see what in the world we were doing, but our friend escorted them out of our way. 

Coming to say hi.

We put the two spinners up on the gravel in front of us, and decided to not put the decoys out and just use the spinners. I think the amount of doves flying around had us hurrying up in a way. This was where I had to learn something. There were so many doves flying over it was hard not to just take passing shots. Well after being humbled by not hitting anything doing that, I settled down and waited for the doves to come to the spinners. They did, and I shot much better. We ended up getting our personal best harvest of 8 doves and had an absolute blast doing it.

New Record

Field to table:

The first 6 doves went into a pan and cooked in butter. We ate them with crackers and cheese. These didn’t last long. The next batch of doves got wrapped in bacon and thrown on the Blackstone. These also went quite fast. Both were delicious. Dove has also quickly become one of my favorite birds to eat.