Georgia 2019 Dove Season Dates Announced

Georgia dove season dates will see a change for the upcoming 2019-2020 hunting seasons, with the final season closing Jan. 31 instead of Jan. 15. Opening day will be still be the first Saturday in September, but this year that falls on Sept. 7.

The Georgia dove hunting dates for the 2019-2020 three split dove seasons are Sept. 7-30, Nov. 23 – Dec. 1, and Dec. 6 – Jan. 31.

The new dove hunting dates for Georgia do away with two weeks of season that had been in October, and shifts those hunting dates to later. Last year the ‘second season’ was Oct. 13-27.

Doves are a migratory bird, so the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) is charged with regulating hunting. The USFWS establishes a framework for opening and closing dates, the maximum season length and maximum bag limits for doves. States must set their seasons within that USFWS framework. According to DNR, “These frameworks are developed with input of state wildlife agencies and are informed using biological population, harvest, and habitat data.”

Recent changes to the maximum closing date for doves allows Georgia to adjust its dove season, so it now fits better with what hunters have been saying they prefer.

“For years our dove hunters have expressed a desire to end the dove season later,” said John Bowers, WRD Chief of the Game Management. “The recent framework change allows us to provide dove hunting opportunity until Jan. 31.”

He said that Georgia’s dove season provides the maximum dove hunting opportunity allowed by the USFWS framework.