Dove Hunting Is a Fall Tradition on the Plains

Around here, fall doesn't start with a cool front. It starts with the September 1 dove opener. The flat cotton and grain country that runs clean to the horizon in Lubbock County is exactly the kind of ground mourning doves want on their way through, and they drop in by the thousands. The season opens September 1 and circles back in two splits that carry on into January. Almost all of it plays out on private farmland, so the first thing you line up isn't a shotgun. It's a handshake with the landowner.

Three things ride in your pocket: a Texas hunting license, the Migratory Game Bird Endorsement, and your HIP certification, which costs nothing and takes about a minute. The dates and bag limits get reset every year by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Texas Parks and Wildlife together, so what was legal last fall tells you nothing reliable about this one. Pull up the Outdoor Annual and you're holding the version that's actually in force the morning you walk the stubble.