Lead shot is still legal for doves, so it is not necessary to go out and purchase some of the new exotic and costly lead substitutes that are necessary for ducks and geese. Number seven and a half or number eight shot, in low brass shotgun shells, are good selections. The low brass shells let you burn up a lot of ammunition, and not feel like someone has beaten you severely about the shoulder the day after the hunt. If you ordinarily do not hunt doves but are big into quail or pheasant hunting, doves are an excellent way to get sharpened up for the larger birds. After a few weeks of dove hunting, a quail will seem about the size of a chicken when it takes off from under cover.
Doves are also excellent eating.
Something else I would like to touch on is the general physical condition of hunters. Most of our exercise comes in the form of using a computer keyboard, telephone, or bending an elbow while holding a cup of coffee. Somehow that life style just isn t enough to kick the heart rate up to a point that will get us going and keep us going when we take to the field hunting. One really good exercise is walking. It produces less stress on the joints than jogging, which is important to those of us who are getting a little long in the tooth, but still gets our respiratory and circulatory systems smoothed out and working better.