Bag limits change for 2008

By Jim Brewer For the News & Messenger
Published: August 28, 2008

For the first time in recent memory, the bag limit on doves has been increased. For at least the past 15 years, the limit has been 12 birds daily, 24 in possession. But for 2008, the limit has been set for 15 birds daily, 30 in possession. That means we need to bring more shells to the dove fields.
The 2008 season opens on Monday, Labor Day. Generally the season opens on the first Saturday in September, unless Labor Day is the first day of the month. This, in a way, is unfortunate because a lot of potential hunters have to work on Labor Day. I’ll be at work, too. Shooting doves.
Why the bag limit increase? One of the by-products of the rush to ethanol gasoline is more cornfields and the doves are prime beneficiaries. It also looks like Virginia had a good hatching season, and doves are plentiful this fall.
According to game biologists, hunting pressure has little to do with the rise or fall of dove populations. The weather is the main factor, followed by habitat and food availability. There are more places for doves to feed this year and there are more doves as well.
Since it has been so dry, crops will likely be harvested earlier this year, so hunters should have more options than in recent years.
For 2008, Virginia has a three-part dove season. The first segment runs from Sept. 1-27, the second season is from Oct. 4-31 and the late season extends from Dec. 27 through Jan. 10. During the September season, shooting hours are from noon until sunset. The late seasons allow shooting from a half-hour before sunrise till sunset.
Another bag limit has also been increased. Virginia hunters will be able to shoot 10 geese daily with a possession limit of 20 birds during the resident goose season from Sept. 1 through Sept. 25. This may be a mixed blessing. It’s fun to shoot geese and certainly the local population needs a good thinning, but at the end of the day, 10 birds represents a lot of goose picking and more goose meals than most hunters would care to think about.
Perhaps the Game Department should just make the limit on geese one a day.
One pickup bed. If three hunters get their limits (a total of 30 geese) that would fill up the back of a pick-up truck with enough goose meat to feed a hungry football team – for a week.
We can donate deer to Hunters For the Hungry, but I don’t think this organization is set up for geese. I personally would like to hear from my readers about any goose recipes that might render these tough birds edible. I have found that if you get a young bird, you can slice the breast thinly and pound it and cook it like a veal recipe.
But if you get one of those 15 year old codgers, it’s about as tender as a Michelin Steel Belted Radial Tire.
Make sure that if you are hunting geese, you don’t have any lead shot in possession, not even a straggler number 8 in your pants pocket. The feds are serious about the requirement that only non-toxic shot is used for geese and ducks. So check your pockets and hunting coat if you hunt doves and then geese, or vice versa.
There will be an early teal season east of I-95 from Sept. 20-30 – not much use unless you know someone in Virginia Beach with a duck blind. The woodcock season is split – from Nov. 8-22 and from Dec. 20 through January 3. Rail season is from Sept. 10 through Nov. 18 and the snipe season runs Oct. 1-13 and again from Oct 22-Jan. 31.
Hunters are reminded they must have a Harvest Information Number (HIP) in order to hunt migratory game birds, like doves, woodcock, waterfowl, rails, snipe and other traveling game birds, Get your license first, then call 1-888-788-9772 or go on line at www,HuntFishVa.com.