Looking for some good Dove recipes.

[Moose1am]

Thanks for starting this thread.

How do you guys clean the doves you shoot?

I did a goggle search on "how to clean doves" and found one site that spoke to this subject. I didn't really understand how they separated the breast from the back in their discussion. Do you use your thumbs starting at the top part of the dove (nearest the head) and push down toward the tail in between the breast and backbone OR from the tail to the head between the breast and backbone? I can't remember how I did it, but I got the breast meat off in good shape.

I just soaked mine in some cold icy salt water after cleaning them to help remove the blood and then fried. I covered them in flour and used salt and pepper and they tasted pretty good fried in a skillet.

I am ready to go get some more.

I had not shot a shotgun since 1974 before I went out Sunday. I ended up shooting down three doves and only used less than half a box of shot gun shells.

I reloaded these shells myself back around 1969 when I was still in HS and did a lot more hunting. I used a lee loader to hand load them with $8 lead shot. It was a low powder load that I used. I have about 4 or 5 box of old shotgun shells that I reloaded and they worked good. I was really surprise that they even worked at all. They have been stored inside all these years. LOL.

I went out to the local fish and wildlife area where they had planted several fields of sunflowers this last April. With the help of some good folks of Waterfowl USA they (IDNR) was able to plant more fields this year than last year.

But the local farmers are harvesting their corn crops now in this area.

The doves I cleaned were full of corn not sunflowers. But these birds were landing in the sunflower plots with good regularity.

Thursday was the first day of open dove hunting in this area. The weekend before on Sept 1 they had a reserve hunt for the kids. Then on Sept 2 nd and 3 rd they had a reserved hunt for hunters that had applied and been accepted to hunt this area by IDNR's property manager.

So Thursday was really opening day. I got up early that day to go out and scout for deer and to just look at the local wildlife and was surprised by the number of trucks that were already filling up the parking lots and the roadways near the hunting areas. I was not aware that it was open day of dove season and that so many hunters had taken the day off from work to hunt. I didn't hunt until late in the day and even after all the shooting that had been going on there were still plenty of doves to shoot.

Everyone I talked to said they had shot about 10 doves. I hunted until dark and only shot three doves but man I had a good time getting out in the field again. I didn't have access to a shotgun until 3 pm that day as I had to borrow a shotgun from my neighbor

I had been getting ready to hunt ducks and geese this fall since they shut down the fishing holes to fisherman when waterfowl season starts up full time. So I decided to join the duck hunters this year. Anyway I have all my new camo outerwear to stay warm and I went to the store and got me some new summer camo clothing for early season hunting. So I was all prepared to go except for the shotgun. My Remington Model 870 12 gage Wingmaster was sold years ago. But my neighbor has the same gun only in a magnum chamber. It's even a modified choke and 28" barrel like my old gun. So I was able to shoot this gun pretty good.

Not having shot at any moving birds in over 20 years I picked it up pretty good. I missed my first 3 shots and then started to calm down and make sure that I was using my right eye (left eye dominate). I had to make sure that I closed my left eye and then aimed properly. It took me a while to figure out the amount of lead to use but the last bird I shot was at least 40 to 60 yards away and he was dead before he hit the ground. I heard him hit hard and he bounced twice as he was really moving fast.

It felt good to get to pull the trigger and then to take the birds home to eat. I look forward to going again soon. It should not be so busy next week during the middle of the week. Everyone can't take off work too many times. LOL. So I'll just have to hunt with the retired guys on the weekdays.

We are lucky to have the new Fish & Wildlife area near us. Wish it was bigger but I'll take the land that the IDNR gave to us.

Next year they may make us use non toxic shot. This year I called the IDNR and talked to one of the local CO about which type of shotgun pellets we were allowed to use. Some areas in IN may be requiring non toxic shot. I saw that on the online IDNR web site for some certain hunting areas. And the CO that I talked to said that THIS YEAR we could use lead shot. He emphasized "this year". So I got the impression that next year it may be different where I hunted.

Thanks for the recipes guys. I plan on trying some of them. Wrapping the breast with bacon sounds good. And adding mushrooms to the stew sounds good too.

I am interested in trying something new. I always just fried them like chicken. I am just trying to get some different ideas on some good eatin'.

Thank you,

Jason

[Bandit1]

The way I clean mine is:

I cut off both wings with side cutters, the I put the bird belly up in my hand, feet away from me, about right in between the legs, you will feel the back of the breast, put your finger in under that and peal the guts and all back, pull it off once you clear the breast, then skin the top. when you get all of the done, take them to the water hose and make sure you got all of the guts out, and wash the feathers off of them and you. It takes about 15 to 20 seconds/bird (not counting wash time) this way, once you get used to it. it is messy though, My hands look like they have been tar & feathers when I am done, but it is all worth it when I am chowing down.

My E-mail is [email protected], if you have any questions,

I hope this helps,

Jason

[Moose1am]

Thanks Bandit1. You give excellent and concise directions.

I think that's similar to how I did it. I was not sure which way to point the feet. LOL and I tore the head off first and got blood on my fingers. That made the featuers stick to my hands which was not pretty! LOL

The second dove I cleaned I left the head on. I cut the wings off like you said and that worked good.

I think that I also ended up seperating the breast meat from the backbone too. Not sure what I did. I'll have to watch some one that knows what they are doing someday to see if I am doing it the easy way or the hard way.

But breast up and feet away from me gets me orientated and ready to pluck the meat off the bird.

Thank you.

The way I clean mine is:

I cut off both wings with side cutters, the I put the bird belly up in my hand, feet away from me, about right in between the legs, you will feel the back of the breast, put your finger in under that and peal the guts and all back, pull it off once you clear the breast, then skin the top. when you get all of the done, take them to the water hose and make sure you got all of the guts out, and wash the feathers off of them and you. It takes about 15 to 20 seconds/bird (not counting wash time) this way, once you get used to it. it is messy though, My hands look like they have been tar & feathers when I am done, but it is all worth it when I am chowing down.

My E-mail is [email protected], if you have any questions,

I hope this helps,

Jason

[RickV]

Also while hunting is slow in the field, I start "flucking" the ones I have already shot, stick them in a zip bag drop, drop them in a cooler.