According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the average hunter fires six shots for each dove taken. Humbling, to say the least, because doves are fast-flying, twisting, and exciting targets. Killing a limit of doves using a single box of shells is a milestone few hunters ever reach. The many ways doves are hunted also makes the species interesting. In recent years I've had the pleasure of hunting mourning doves by pass shooting them along natural flight lines, hunting them over decoys, jump shooting them from standing or cut grain fields, shooting them in agricultural lands managed especially for doves, and flushing them from dense brush rows and shelter belts.
Hunting techniques vary widely from one region to another.
Those hunters who have eager legs and the desire to walk will find opportunities across much of the Midwest. The shooting is divided between doves that flush at your feet like pheasants and pass-shooting opportunities at birds moving in and out of the fields. Most sunflower farmers welcome dove hunters. Doves are strictly ground feeders that do not damage sunflower fields. The real culprits are the blackbirds that descend on the fields.