Three days. That’s all the scouting time you’ve got before Montana’s mourning dove season opens September 1. If you haven’t put boots on the ground yet, don’t panic — doves are creatures of habit, and late August gives you every tool you need to pattern them before opening morning. The key is knowing what to look for and, more importantly, where to look in a landscape that’s been baking under a late-summer sun.
Why Drought Conditions Actually Help You Find Birds
Eastern and central Montana have been dry. Anyone who’s driven a gravel road in Custer, Treasure, or Musselshell County lately already knows that. But here’s the thing — drought concentrates doves like almost nothing else. When water is scarce, birds funnel to the same reliable sources day after day with clockwork predictability, and that kind of pattern is a hunter’s best friend.
In dry years, forget about wandering prairie potholes that may have dried up entirely. Focus instead on stock dams, irrigation pivot corners, and the riparian corridors along named drainages — the Yellowstone, the Musselshell, the Milk River, and their tributaries. Anywhere livestock are being watered is worth a look. Doves will pitch into muddy two-track stock tanks in waves mid-morning and again late afternoon, and in a drought year, a single tank can pull birds from a surprisingly wide swath of surrounding country.
The Three Things Doves Need — and Where to Find Them in Montana
Water
Water is your anchor point in a dry year. If you’re hunting Block Management ground in the Glendive or Miles City areas, pull up a satellite view and look for stock ponds with open, gently sloping banks. Doves don’t like to wade — they want to land at the edge and drink. Rocky or steep-sided tanks get far less use than open, silted-in ponds with exposed mud. Scout the bank for feathers and droppings before you ever pull a trigger.
Food
Harvested grain fields are the single best dove magnet in eastern Montana, full stop. Sunflower fields are particularly productive — any ground near Richland, Roosevelt, or Valley counties where sunflowers have been cut or are starting to dry down will attract birds. Winter wheat stubble is also worth your time. Walk the field edges, look for feathers, then look up: where are the birds flying from? Trace that line back and pick your setup. Mourning doves feed by walking, so fields with light residue on bare or sparse ground consistently outperform dense cover.
Don’t overlook weedy roadsides and CRP edges adjacent to harvested fields, either. Pigweed, kochia, and foxtail all produce seeds doves will readily work. Honestly, these unsung food sources hold more birds between field-feeding sessions than most hunters give them credit for.
Roost Trees
Doves roost in cottonwoods, Russian olives, and shelterbelts, and they return to the same roost evening after evening. In a prairie landscape, the cottonwood corridors along creek bottoms are obvious targets. Look for concentrations of birds sitting on dead or open branches near the tops of trees in the last hour of evening light. If you’re watching dozens of birds filter into the same grove at dusk, you’ve found a roost worth hunting. Set up on the flight lines between the feeding fields and the roost and you’ll have shooting in both directions.
Public Land and Block Management Access
Montana’s Block Management Program offers serious dove hunting potential in the eastern third of the state, where a mix of private agricultural land and enrolled parcels creates ideal habitat. Before you go, download the current Block Management maps from Montana FWP’s website. Access rules and participating landowners change year to year, and some parcels have restricted entry periods. Confirm details directly with FWP or the contact listed for each BMA before you show up at a gate — don’t assume last year’s access still applies.
On the public land side, the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge and surrounding BLM ground east of Jordan and along the Missouri River breaks holds doves, particularly where ranch operations have created water sources and grain crops nearby. The river corridor itself, with its dense cottonwood stands, provides excellent roost habitat. Check current access rules before heading to CMR, as some areas carry seasonal restrictions.
Gear, Regulations, and a Few Honest Reminders
Steel yourself for the heat. Late August on the eastern Montana prairie is still full summer, and early September won’t feel much different. Carry more water than you think you need, keep your dog in the shade between flushes, and build your hunts around the cooler bookends of the day. In my experience, the two hours after first light and the last hour before dark are when the birds move — everything in between is mostly just suffering through the heat.
On regulations: confirm your season dates, bag limits, and legal shooting hours directly with Montana FWP before you head out. Regulations change, and what held last season may not apply this year. Get your license sorted before opener — that’s non-negotiable. Non-toxic shot isn’t currently required for dove in Montana as of recent seasons, but verify current rules with FWP rather than taking anyone’s word for it, including ours.
The birds are out there. Eastern Montana’s grain country and river corridors hold solid populations of mourning doves every September — it’s just a matter of connecting the dots between water, food, and roost before opening morning. Get out and glass this weekend. An hour glassing on Saturday afternoon is worth more than any tip you’ll read online, including this one.
Montana's outdoor week, in your inbox at 7am Friday.