By now, many of our Colorado sportsmen have already taken to the fields, particularly the Eastern Plains as the state’s dove season is in full swing.
Those fortunate to partake in an opening day shoot were out on Sept. 1. I’m not saying the Western Slope doesn’t have pockets of doves in huntable numbers, but our high desert Eastern Plains with irrigated crops formed by the South Platte and Arkansas Rivers and their tributaries produce the best hunting.
Highly productive for those pursuing doves are harvested winter wheat fields, along with the large areas of sunflowers on the prairies which offer plenty of seeds that attract doves.
I assembled my usual group of fellow hunters (along with a couple of new faces) to head back to the hunting grounds I was raised on in the Arkansas Valley, in an area spanning from Holly to Manzanol, on opening day.
Many of the area motels, especially in La Junta, Lamar and Rocky Ford, had plenty of camouflaged wearing customers occupying the morning breakfast areas.
Opening day saw a beautiful sunrise with good numbers of doves providing plenty of opportunities to expend shotgun shells, something that many folks found challenging to find. Most veteran hunters have a stockpile but it did crimp some folks in our group such as Sam Wigand, a young Arvada-based financial advisor who usually uses a .410 for going after the birds but found nary a shell in Denver area stores. Luckily, Sam had an uncle who owns a .28 gauge (the next smallest gauge up) to borrow and, for additional luck, Sam’s uncle had a nice cache of .28 ammo.
When our morning hunt was finished our group of 10 averaged right at 10 birds a hunter, which any experienced hunter would view as an excellent take.
By late morning the winds had kicked up into the 20 miler per hour range offering doves in the bag to only the true Olympic shooters. Luckily, by then our group had a good bag of birds which allowed for a mid-day siesta and then a trip to an isolated canyon along the historic Purgatoire River which offers an encampment nestled beneath historic Indian petroglyphs.
It was there we enjoyed a feast consisting of, of course, fresh grilled doves along with spicy Georgia deer sausage and fresh Louisiana yellow fin tuna sushi furnished by Jack Clark, a young hunter from Genesee. A true sportsman’s dinner.
The Colorado dove season will run through Nov 29. Without question some of the best dove shooting is yet to come this month. For new dove hunters, our state is blessed with an effective game-and-fish management program that offers a plethora of open walk-in areas.
