I keep getting Google hits on this topic because of this post. Unfortunately that link doesn’t really help you handle a dove with the feathers still attached. No worries, it’s an absolute no brainer to clean a dove once you’ve done a few.

1) Get some doves and a pair of game shears:

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So yesterday we covered the first part of the process for making jerky. Now we’ve got a bowl full of sliced goose meat and we’re ready for part 2…

Since goose has a heavy, greasy flavor and we cut the meat thick, we’re going to need a strong marinade. In this situation I use my “Jalapeno” recipe.

4 cups Soy Sauce
4 cups Worcestershire
1 Table Spoon Garlic Powder
1 TS Onion Powder
2 TS Coarse Black Pepper
5 TS of Jalapeño Powder

The jalapeño powder is obviously the secret to this flavor. With 4 T you’ll get a good flavor but it won’t be very hot. With 6 it will be hotter than some will like. I grow the peppers in my garden and dehydrate them myself. Once I have enough dried I’ll obliterate them in the food processor until I’m left with a very fine powder that is positively toxic. You may want to wear latex gloves and goggles when you’re dealing with it. You could use hot sauce or red pepper flakes if you don’t want to mess with whole peppers but the flavor makes it worth the work.

Put everything in some type of shakable container and mix it up real good then pour some in a Ziploc and add the meat. Make sure you mix and shake the bag so that all the meat is separated and coated.

I usually let it sit at least 24 hours but I’m not sure it makes any difference. I suspect as long as the meat was fully coated you could skip the waiting and still end up with good flavor.

After marinating you’re ready to start drying. My drying has evolved from a couple of terrible ideas. The first time I made jerky I used toothpicks and suspended the strips of meat from racks in my oven. It was time consuming, it made the whole house stink, and it was messy. I found that tactic on the internet somewhere but after one try it was clear I needed a new plan. Next I used an oven rack like so:

It was also messy, slow, and smelly. Part of the problem is that with these racks you can’t drop the temp low enough to keep from partially baking the meat.

Now I use this thing:

There is no contest, you need one of these. It’s faster, cleaner, and handles larger batches than any of the oven methods. It came with 4 but 6 racks makes a full gallon sized batch. You can add up to 20 racks, or so I’m told. It also produces a better product because you can control a lower temp. For today’s run we’re using 125 degrees for 5 hours. I’ll do about 3 hours one day, put the racks in the fridge over night, and do 2 hours the next day. I think it allows the moisture in the middle of the thicker pieces to spread out and get a more even level of drying. With thinner cuts 120 for 4 hours is standard.

When you’re done I put the jerky in the freezer for storage. I’ve never tested it to see how long it will last at room temp but I once sent two batches to Iraq and it arrived in good shape.

A few final tips:
- With heavy marinades (like those with tomato paste) it will take longer, sometime a lot longer.
- With sugary marinades either add oil or spray the racks with pam.
- With acidic marinades (like pineapple juice) don’t leave it soaking too long or the meat will get mushy.
- The type of pepper you add to pizza has a good flavor and sticks to the meat well. It can be substituted for black or red pepper.
- Write the recipe on the bag you store the jerky in.
- Don’t underestimate the effect the weather has on the drying time. Dry winter air is much faster than humid summer air.

Sometimes I just have to laugh when I read about how so-and-so just loves to eat wild game X. If you look online you’ll find guys who will tell you that shovelers, carp, bears, coots, whitetails, geese, etc are all, “better than filet mignon”. I understand that they may take extreme pride in their harvest, but most of those things actually suck to eat. Obviously it’s all relative; a nice young back strap is generally good, while a 5 year old buck’s fore-quarter might be barely edible.

But here’s my take on the subject: If you aren’t short on meat, make jerky out of the lesser quality stuff. If you have elk or caribou cut them into steaks and save the whitetail for jerky. Pick a big batch of teal and breast out the geese. You get the idea…

Now how to make that jerky?

First you’ll need the meat. Today we’re using goose breasts.

Make sure you wash the breast well then cut off the fat and connective tissue. If you breasted the goose well you’ll also want to remove the smaller piece of meat underneath because it has a tendon running through the middle of it. You can use that meat but you’ll need to cut that tendon free.

Don’t forget to check for shot. Generally I make a small cut across any pellet hole I see and then check to see if it came out the other side. You don’t want steel in your jerky and you really don’t want it in your electric meat cutter.

For me a full batch is a fairly full 1 gallon Ziploc of finished jerky. To accomplish that amount you’ll need about 5 larger goose breasts all cleaned up. Since breasts usually come in even numbers you’re probably looking for either 2 or 3 birds.

Next you’re going to have to cut the meat up. To make that job easier make sure you dry the breasts well and then put them in the freezer for about 30 minutes or until they are lightly frozen. It makes the meat easier to get consistent and clean cuts with.

Once frozen you’ll be ready to cut. If you want thicker jerky you’ll probably want to cut the meat by hand with a sharp knife. The thicker jerky works better with the more mild forms of meat like antelope and venison. It doesn’t work as well with goose because the flavor is strong and not particularly good. For today’s examination we’re cutting goose medium thick with a knife.

With a cut this thick we’re going to use a strong marinade to cover the natural stank. We’ll discuss marinade tomorrow. If you’re using mild meat or sweet flavoring you can use an electric slicer. It’s much faster, but it doesn’t give very consistent cuts at the thicker settings.

Tomorrow we’ll talk marinades and drying…

dihardhunter over at The Outdoor Smorgasboard is an actual deer scientist so when he talks about whitetails you should listen. He recent published an article over at the Realtree site on native vs. non-native food plots. Take a look here.

I’m not going to lie, this may be my favorite wild game dinner. First, you have to clean and breast the doves. Cut the breast off like you would on a turkey or duck. Make sure to check where you see holes and try to get any lead out.

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So I’ve been cooped up in court for most of the past several weeks. I did manage to get out and do some work for the upcoming Kansas turkey season on Thursday. I checked for activity, filled feeders and built blinds. I took a few minutes to take pictures of a feeder I put up on a piece of ground I’ll be hunting for the first time this year.

The first trick is to find a place where turkeys will find the feeder. This seems obvious, but it’s the most important thing you can do. Turkeys won’t travel far out of the way to find your feeder, so your best bet is to put it somewhere they already frequent. In the situation at hand I knew that turkeys used this area because we saw them there during that last season and heard them gobbling about a week ago. We also deer hunted this area a great deal this past fall.

Find a tree on the edge of cover that has a reasonably clear area below it. Try to keep from picking a tree that has thick cover around it. If it’s too wooly the turkeys will not be comfortable and it won’t work as well. You’ll see that I cleared the ground around this feeder to give it a more open feel.

For the feeders we use 5 gallon buckets with 4 – 1 inch holes drilled in the base. A lid and a “hat” and you’re good to go. The hats are semi-optional but they keep the rain from collecting on the lid and running down the side into the holes. The hats are just sheet metal riveted.

Generally you want to hang them about knee high or so. If you hang them too low the squirrels and raccoons will figure out how to use them. Here’s a close up:

Next you’ll want to throw a bunch of corn on the ground to help them find the feeder. This is true even with established feeders at the beginning of the season, but it’s especially true if you’re setting up a new feeder.

Finally, I built a blind about 30 yards away.

The toms will almost never use the feeder. That’s not the purpose. The goal is to keep turkeys traveling through a given area. The hens will absolutely use the feeders, but for the most part the toms will just stay back and watch the flock. In all the years I’ve been running feeders the only tom I’ve ever seen eat at a feeder was in Texas. Everything eats at a feeder in Texas.

To build the blind I hauled some locust limbs around a tree. Then I covered those limbs with Red Cedar branches. I like for the cover to be about eye level when you’re sitting down. It’ll cover your movement but won’t block your ability to shoot. I built this one wide enough for two hunters figuring that I’d take The Wife or someone else over there.

I’ll keep you updated on it’s progress.

I’ll be with family for the next few days. There will be bowhunting, duck hunting, maybe some quail, and probably a fall turkey drive.

What’s a fall turkey drive you ask?

When you see a group of turkeys let them see you and they’ll run into a tree line. Then it’s just a matter of blockers and pushers. When you get into a big group (80-100 are not uncommon) all hell can break lose. I’d say it’s the most fun way to fall turkey hunt although it wouldn’t work in places where there are no tree lines.

The thing I’m continually amazed at with hunting like this is how predictable they are. They will not leave that tree line even if two groups of people are closing in on them from either end. Usually when they fly they fly straight down the tree line. Frequently they’ll say put exactly where you last saw them go into the trees.

When you get into a good bunch of them this type hunt is an absolute riot. I’d recommend it to anyone. My wife and I did a two person version of this hunt a few years back. I stationed her at one end then went back and started pushing. The bunch in this case was 40-50, most of which ultimately flew her way over the course of 15 minutes. I heard 2 shots. After I’d dropped my shotgun, fell in a creek, and nearly shot myself out of shells, I finally had my 2 birds (you’re actually allowed 4 now).

When I got to the end, my wife had two laying at her feet and was wondering what the big deal was.

If you’ve been reading and following my attempt to kill Big 9 you know that I’ve encountered him 3 times now, from the same stand.  I also have passed on several smaller bucks.  It might strike you as strange that the same stand can be hunted to such a degree and still produce.  Here’s why:

Here’s a closer look:

This particular stand is located in a natural travel corridor.  The deer, particularly when it’s cold, bed on the South facing hill, then travel past the stand to feed at night.  Obviously the opposite occurs in the morning.  Good location isn’t the only advantage.  Planting food plots is the real secret.  This plot is a mix of rye, wheat, peas, chicory, and turnips.  It’s maybe 1/4th of an acre.  I’ve hunted this particular stand 10+ days a year for 8 years now.  Most years it produces well, but the difference when food is present is dramatic.  Rather than passing by, at any distance, almost every deer you see is heading straight for you.  Yesterday alone I had 5 different deer walk under my stand.

There isn’t really any secret to getting the plots to work.  There are videos available, but if you’ve ever seeded your yard or planted a garden you have the skills required.  This particular plot was planted just over a month ago but it has been unusually wet here this year.  Most years it would need more time to develop.  Actually part of the reason I’ve hunted this stand so much this year is because the plots South of here are a week behind in development and are just becoming a viable food source.  I’ll post some pictures of them later this week, hopefully with a big buck incorporated.

Kodi got his first shot as a starter today.  He’s just over 4 months old but he did great.  Since opening weekend I’ve been taking both my dogs, Riley did all the work while Kodi just ran around having fun and occasionally stumbling on something.  I stepped up his training over the weekend and decided he needed some time by himself.  Most of the doves were gone, but we had enough action to eventually kill 9.  Kodi found them all but generally did not see them fall.  That’s going to be the next step.

People occasionally ask me about training their dogs.  Obviously there’s a great deal that goes into training a hunting dog, but there are two things that are more important than everything else: 

1) Your dog’s natural talent.  You can’t teach intelligence, drive, or nose.  If your dog doesn’t charge through ice or blackberry briars to get at something, there’s nothing you can do about it.  If your dog’s nose isn’t very sensitive you may need to get a new dog.  Strong genetics gives you the best shot at this, but there is no guarantee.

2) Your hunting.  This is the hang-up for most people training their own dog.  You have to hunt, a lot.  Duck hunting a few weekends a year won’t get the job done.  It simply isn’t enough opportunities for your dog to learn.  In addition, a well balanced dog needs to experience several types of hunting.  A dog that only retrieves ducks won’t know how to scan for pheasants and vice versa.  I’ve shot rails and pigeons just to have an opportunity to expand the dog’s range.

My advice in short?  Get a talented puppy and give it hell.  Let me know how it goes.

For those non-Mayans out there let me suggest this:  Fall starts on September 1.  I know, I know… Fall equinox, summer solstice, blah blah blah…  Who cares?

To me September 1st marks the beginning of Fall because it marks the first time I get to grab my shotgun, get up early, and head into the field.  It’s the dove opener, and it’s the start of a new hunting season.

So what to do?  Well the secret to killing doves is finding their food.  Cut agricultural fields are the old standby but the timing usually isn’t great for the September 1st opener.  Corn and milo are usually not cut in time and wheat has been cut too long and may have beans over-planted.  These days serious dove hunting is conducted over fields planted specifically for that purpose.  Sunflowers and wheat can both be mowed 10-14 days before the season putting huge amounts of food on the ground.  While it may seem like baiting, it’s apparently not.  The local conservation departments use the practice and they’re the ones enforcing the rules.

If you aren’t lucky enough to have spare acres, tractors, seed and planters you should check your state conservation website.  I’ve had great public dove hunts in both Kansas and Missouri just about every year.  If you get the chance, scout places out a day or two ahead of time and look for which fields are being hit the best.  Try to avoid the crowds but remember that doves don’t respond well to pressure.  After the first couple of days most of the public fields will be shot-out.

The rest isn’t complicated.  Any shotgun, any shot smaller than 6s, and some roughly earth colored clothing is all you’ll need.  The shooting can be fast and furious so take lots of shells and let it rip!