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Georgia Dove Hunter,
Georgia’s current dove season is 90
days long; is broken into three segments, and ends on January 15th.
Federal rules allow a maximum of 90 days and three segments. Our current
season structure (with an ending date of January 15) is as follows: First
Saturday in Sep + 15 days (16 days total); Second Saturday in Oct + variable
days (usually 19-23 days); and Thanksgiving - Jan 15th (usually about 51-54
days) for a total of 90 days.
Beginning with the 2018-19 season,
we expect the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service to allow states to select an
ending date of January 31 for their dove hunting seasons. We will still
be limited to only 90 days and up to three segments.
We have received past comments from
our vocal late season dove hunters that they wish to hunt as late as
possible. If we choose to go to a January 31 closing date, then we will
need to restructure our existing dove hunting season. A simple option
might be to keep the September and October segments as they are, and simply
move the late season segment back two weeks to end on January 31. However,
we know from previous dove hunter surveys that most of the hunting pressure is
opening day and the rest of September (75%), with some preference for late
season hunting (17%), and little effort during the October segment (8%).
Given these hunter preferences, a better option might be to remove the October
split completely, add days to the September segment, hunt a week at
Thanksgiving, and hunt early December through January 31.
We would like to know your
preferences and opinions on changing our dove hunting season structure.
Please click Here to complete a short survey.
Thank you for your input.
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