Texas dove hunting started on September 1st, a Thursday this year. From all the reading and pre-season sightings, I was expecting a good year.
I headed down to a location near West, Texas (thats north of Waco) with a group of friends to see if my expectations would come true. I was very happy with what I saw. I managed to easily get a limit on the first day, with plenty of day light left to burn. I bagged primarily white wings with a couple of mourning doves mixed in. That was also the case with the other 2 guys on the hunt. We even managed to bag a few of the Eurasian collard-doves, that are considered nuisances with no bag limit. The evening hunt was much more active than the morning hunt.
The second day my group of 3 hit the field early in the morning, and the action was pretty slow. Two more hunters, for a total of five hit the field for the evening hunt. I can easily say that this was the best hunting we’ve had ever had at this location in the 7 years that I’ve been there. We all limited out, 1 hunter for his first time ever. The action was the hottest from 5:30 to 6:30, by which time I had already unloaded my gun and sat to watch the rest of the action. For me it was a very good afternoon, I managed to get 2 doubles, both from flocks of white wings.
The Saturday morning hunt was probably the slowest hunt of the opener. We heavy hunting pressure all around the birds were already becoming cautious and flying around or very high. We still managed to take a few birds. Saturday evening was a different story, the action was once again very hot and I think everybody managed to limit out for the day.
Overall the hunting was great and the birds plentiful. I hope to be back in the field again soon.