Outdoor Notes

Dove hunting season opens Sept. 1

LINCOLN — With the annual dove season opener on Sept. 1, the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission has some reminders for hunters, as well as recommendations for areas to hunt.

Doves are abundant statewide and, with generous bag limits, provide excellent wing-shooting opportunities. Mourning doves, Eurasian collared-doves and white-winged doves may be hunted statewide Sept. 1 – Oct. 30, 2025, with aggregate daily bag and possession limits of 15 and 45, respectively. Shooting hours are 30 minutes before sunrise until sunset.

Sunflowers, millet and wheat, which generally provide good food sources and dove hunting opportunities, were planted on numerous wildlife management areas earlier this year. For a listing of these “dove fields,” view the 2025 Dove Hunting Fact Sheet at Outdoor-Nebraska.gov on the “Other small game” webpage.

Preseason scouting is recommended due to changing habitat conditions.

All publicly accessible sites throughout the state – including federal, state, conservation partner and private lands enrolled in Game and Parks’ Open Fields and Waters Program – are displayed in the 2025-2026 Public Access Atlas, which can be found at Outdoor-Nebraska.org/PublicAccessAtlas. Private lands throughout the state, where permission is required, also provide excellent hunting opportunities for doves.

Nebraska residents 16 years and older and all nonresidents are required to have a valid Nebraska small game hunting permit, habitat stamp and Harvest Information Program number. Federal and state migratory bird hunting stamps, or duck stamps, are not required to hunt doves. Shotgun plugs restricting shell capacity to no more than three shells are also required.