New season for mourning dove hunting in Ontario!!!

Would be nice to see a season open here as well since it appears we have a healthy population. Only dove we can hunt is the rock dove but mind you it's a year round season.
 
mvarley84 said:
There is a line in the migratory bird regs that specifically names doves as requiring non toxic shot.
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Correct and just under that line section 15.1 subsection 2a and b of the act state that exemption does not apply areas requiring non tox shot and to schedual 1 wildlife areas

Southern Ontario requires non tox shot for doves. As listed and required by the regulations and wildlife area designations. Thanks for coming out
 
I've shot both mourning doves (rabiche) and white-winged dove (alasblanca) in the Caribbean for years. Both are roughly the same size, succulent dark meat. Skin and gut them ... and get them cooled down as fast as possible in warm weather. They will spoil easily.
10 per person is kind of a rough estimate when we're doing a dinner down there. Braised in a red wine sauce, some can put away as many as 16 ! Charcoal grilled is also a favourite, but watch you don't dry them out & overcook. Best rare to medium rare at most. Any leftovers ... also excellent as sandwich meat the next day. My favourite is a big plate of dove with black beans & rice ( morros y christianos) and
cassava with garlic/lime sauce (yucca con moho) !
 
If you can't find doves in southern Ontario you must not go out side, I see 30+ in a day in my area (south of Hamilton)
 
I'm going to see if I can get out for these this autumn. Most of my hunting is done on the edge of shield country, so it might require some scouting to find and get access to the types of fields that they frequent.

For shells, I've got some reasonably priced #7 steel loads from Lebaron that I picked up just in case I wanted to take a break to hunt grouse when going after beaver pond ducks. A few more boxes will probably suffice for the amount of birds we'd come across in Southern Ontario.

Has anyone seen decoys for sale locally? I'm thinking that since the concentrations of birds won't be as thick as in the US South, and the unlikelihood that there will be enough hunters to keep the birds moving, that a small spread of decoys might make all the difference. I'm thinking of half a dozen clip on birds, one with wings that spin in the wind, and maybe 4-6 ground decoys.

I've got lots of camo and might even try to practice shooting from a ground blind for goose hunting, though I'd probably just keep it simple and shoot from the treeline.
 
It seems that 16 and 20 gauge guns would be ideal for doves, but where to find small non "toxic" shot in light loads for those gauges? Many states in the US still use lead for doves; I don't know why Ontario would finally open the season and yet limit our enjoyment of old classic guns and smaller gauges.

Bob
 
bluedcanoed said:
It seems that 16 and 20 gauge guns would be ideal for doves, but where to find small non "toxic" shot in light loads for those gauges? Many states in the US still use lead for doves; I don't know why Ontario would finally open the season and yet limit our enjoyment of old classic guns and smaller gauges.

Bob
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EXACTLY!!! There should have been NO requirement for non-toxic shot!!! I have checked LeBaron, SAIL and Stittsville and NOBODY HAS NON-TOX in size 6 or 7!!!

Frack!!!

Cheers
Jay
 
badgreenbird said:
uhhh, no. you'll just end up with a gawdawful mess (from what I've seen anyway). with such a small bird, it's pretty easy to make a cut along the bottom edge and remove the spine and guts from the breast meat... sort of like cleaning quail.

Good luck though! There's a dove season in BC but it's too far south of my location to make the trip worthwhile. I've eaten dove before and it was pretty good, esp for dark meat.
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The method he described works very well. In my teens I ate hundreds of grackles, starlings, and red winged blackbirds and field dressed them all without a knife using the "stand on its wings and pull the legs" method. To remove the wings I just snap the bones, give a couple twists and pull each one off.

It also works very well on pigeons so it should also work well on dove.
 
I am so pumped to try some dove on the BBQ! I had heard rumors of this season opening and I am so very happy to see it a reality now!
 
Anyone have a line on Non-Toxic 2.75 shells with shot in the 6 or 7.5 size?

I certainly don't want to hunt doves with #4 steel out of a 3.5 inch shell!!! Still shaking my head at the non-tox requirement...

Cheers
Jay
 
Jay said:
Anyone have a line on Non-Toxic 2.75 shells with shot in the 6 or 7.5 size?

I certainly don't want to hunt doves with #4 steel out of a 3.5 inch shell!!! Still shaking my head at the non-tox requirement...

Cheers
Jay
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I haven't been able to find anything smaller then #4 in Canada. The only option I can see is to order some nice shot or ITX from the states and load up my own shells. Which tbh might be more trouble then it's worth when I can just go and shoot lead at pigeons.
 
bluedcanoed said:
It seems that 16 and 20 gauge guns would be ideal for doves, but where to find small non "toxic" shot in light loads for those gauges? Many states in the US still use lead for doves; I don't know why Ontario would finally open the season and yet limit our enjoyment of old classic guns and smaller gauges.

Bob
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Not sure who carries it, but Winchester makes some small guage (28 and 410) steel loads. It's at the very bottom of the table:

http://www.winchester.com/Products/shotshell-ammunition/Performance/Super-X-Shotshell/Pages/default.aspx
 
If this helps.. I just picked up six boxes of Remington 1oz. 1365fps #6's steel from General Guns in Windsor. Tried site sponsors but no luck. They're also very low on stock when I was in. Happy hunting.

Jay said:
Anyone have a line on Non-Toxic 2.75 shells with shot in the 6 or 7.5 size?

I certainly don't want to hunt doves with #4 steel out of a 3.5 inch shell!!! Still shaking my head at the non-tox requirement...

Cheers
Jay
Click to expand...
 
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