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Mourning Dove Harvest Study: What the Numbers Say

| by Topics: Hunting, Waterfowl Harvest

mourning-dove-harvest-study

Do you love hunting Mourning Doves in Texas? We’ve got some good news for you….

At WaterfowlChoke we love everything about hunting doves, whether it’s making the perfect shot, learning to scout effectively, or buying the best choke tube, we want to help people in every aspect of dove hunting – so we know as well as anyone how important harvesting Mourning Doves is.

Harvesting a Mourning Dove is the most iconic achievement in upland bird hunting, especially when it’s a memorable hunt or you get a banded bird. However, there are a few people who have made harvesting Mourning Doves their specialty, and you’d be surprised just how many Mourning Doves have been harvested in America since the turn of the millennium.

So, to look deeper into the Mourning Dove harvest, we decided to do some research into just how many Mourning Doves are harvested each year and what areas shoot the most – here’s what we found.

For this research, we looked at the adaptive harvest reports for each state in 2021 in the United States, to reveal which American states are best for harvesting Mourning Doves.

Where are the Most Mourning Doves Being Shot?

We discovered that hunters who hunt Mourning Doves in Texas are the most likely to harvest the most amount of Mourning Doves per hunt, followed by in Georgia and California. Since 2021, those in Texas have harvested 3,385,000 Mourning Doves, whilst in Georgia and California, hunters have harvested 713,600 and 641,600, respectively.

The ten states that harvested the most Mourning Doves, and the number each state has recorded for 2021, are as follows:

  1. Texas – 3,385,000
  2. Georgia – 713,600
  3. California – 641,600
  4. Alabama – 512,800
  5. South Carolina – 493,200
  6. Kansas – 389,800
  7. North Carolina – 336,600
  8. Arkansas – 328,100
  9. Missouri – 268,000
  10. Oklahoma – 247,900

(Sources: USFWS Harvest Survey, AGFC, TPWD)

The data showed that the Mourning Dove hunters sticking to the ag fields of Texas are most likely to harvest a Mourning Dove. Shockingly, Oklahoma Mourning Dove hunters have fallen drastically on the harvest list and you have to wonder if they will even see many Mourning Doves on the average dove hunt.

More Waterfowl Harvest Studies
Harvest studies are conducted by the USFWS each year in the U.S. to gauge the number of ducks and geese that are taken by hunters. This aids in setting bag limits and managing migratory bird populations from year to year. Below are the most common migratory species with available harvest data. Please click the links below to see how many birds were harvested and where.

The Most Common Shotgun Used for Harvesting Mourning Doves

When looking at which shotgun people had used to harvest a Mourning Dove, the 12-gauge was revealed as the most commonly used shotgun, with over 60% of hunters choosing it. A 20 gauge and a 16 gauge shotgun rounded off the top three, with 20 gauge being the second most popular.

The 28 gauge came in fourth place with 12% usage, while the 410 bore came fifth, with 5%.

We also delved into which month people had been harvesting the most Mourning Doves, and discovered that September was the most common, with 63% of Mourning Doves harvested. The months of November (33%) and December (30%) came in second and third. This is likely due to dove season timing by state and hunter participation levels peaking at certain months.

states-that-shoot-the-most-mourning-doves

Waterfowlchoke editors, after reviewing the data, said:

“As any dove hunter will know, harvesting Mourning Doves is a seasonal achievement – unless you’re a well-known hunting guide, an amateur hunter with multiple limit hunts on Mourning Doves is quite the accomplishment.

“It’s interesting to see those in Texas harvesting so many Mourning Doves – especially the total is greater than the next four states combined – you have to wonder what tactics they’re using out there on the Central Flyway! We’re planning to make this research a recurring thing, so that we can track how Mourning Dove harvests in the US are changing – who knows, maybe Georgia will surpass Texas soon.”

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