Virginia dove season 2026
Open (statewide, three-segment split season)
Virginia's mourning dove season runs Sep 5-Oct 24, 2026; Nov 21-29, 2026; Dec 19, 2026-Jan 18, 2027, with a daily bag limit of 15 per day, 45 in possession. DWR publishes 5 named public dove fields — here's every one.
The season
When does Virginia's dove season open?
| Window | Dates | Days |
|---|---|---|
| Window 1 | 05 SEP – 24 OCT 2026 | 50d |
| Window 2 | 21 NOV – 29 NOV 2026 | 9d |
| Window 3 | 19 DEC 2026 – 18 JAN 2027 | 31d |
As publishedSep 5-Oct 24, 2026; Nov 21-29, 2026; Dec 19, 2026-Jan 18, 2027
- Daily bag
- 15 per day, 45 in possession
- Shooting hours
- The September 5 opener is afternoon-only, noon to sunset. Full shooting hours begin September 6.
- Restricted — these are not standard hours.
- Season segments
- 3 split segments
- HIP registration
- Required
- Public fields
- 5 named
Public fields
5 public dove fields
Managed Dove Fields
Virginia DWR operates a Managed Dove Fields program on Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs), planting food crops including sunflower, millet, sorghum, milo, corn, and peanuts to provide habitat for dove hunting. Fields are planted annually and updated every summer. As of 2025, DWR is shifting from intensive sunflower fields toward less-costly alternatives due to budget constraints, with changes progressing over multiple years. No permit or draw is required; hunters access fields per standard WMA regulations.
DWR publishes no consolidated named dove-field list, and its historical dove-field map PDFs are gone. These five records are therefore at WMA granularity rather than individual-field granularity; each was confirmed on that WMA's own DWR page, which carries a dove-fields map link. Dove hunting is excluded entirely at Hog Island and Princess Anne.
Amelia Wildlife Management Area · 1 field
| Field | County | Access | Planting | Acres |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amelia managed dove fieldsStatewide: Sep 5 opener is afternoon only (noon to sunset); full shooting hours from Sep 6.DWR's WMA page states "Dove fields are planted annually." | Amelia | Walk-in | Sunflower, millet, sorghum, milo, corn, peanuts (DWR program crops; per-field mix not published) | — |
Clinch Mountain Wildlife Management Area · 1 field
| Field | County | Access | Planting | Acres |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clinch Mountain managed dove fieldsStatewide: Sep 5 opener is afternoon only (noon to sunset); full shooting hours from Sep 6. | Smyth, Washington, Russell, Tazewell | Walk-in | Sunflower, millet, sorghum, milo, corn, peanuts (DWR program crops; per-field mix not published) | — |
Dick Cross Wildlife Management Area · 1 field
| Field | County | Access | Planting | Acres |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dick Cross managed dove fieldsStatewide: Sep 5 opener is afternoon only (noon to sunset); full shooting hours from Sep 6.DWR's WMA page states "Dove hunting is generally excellent but expect heavy hunting pressure early in the season." | Mecklenburg | Walk-in | Sunflower, millet, sorghum, milo, corn, peanuts (DWR program crops; per-field mix not published) | — |
Powhatan Wildlife Management Area · 1 field
| Field | County | Access | Planting | Acres |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Powhatan managed dove fieldsStatewide: Sep 5 opener is afternoon only (noon to sunset); full shooting hours from Sep 6. | Powhatan | Walk-in | Sunflower, millet, sorghum, milo, corn, peanuts (DWR program crops; per-field mix not published) | — |
White Oak Mountain Wildlife Management Area · 1 field
| Field | County | Access | Planting | Acres |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| White Oak Mountain managed dove fieldsStatewide: Sep 5 opener is afternoon only (noon to sunset); full shooting hours from Sep 6. | Pittsylvania | Walk-in | Sunflower, millet, sorghum, milo, corn, peanuts (DWR program crops; per-field mix not published) | — |
Where in the state
Reading Virginia at region scale
DWR's own Dove page and its most recent Dove Hunting Forecast contain no regional distribution or density statement. The forecast's only geographic language is that conditions varied around the state for habitat/crop timing and that good numbers of young doves were banded throughout the state, with no per-region breakdown. DWR's Managed Dove Fields program itself, rather than pointing toward a natural concentration, spans essentially every landscape type in the state. The current WMA list includes Coastal Plain/Tidewater sites (Chickahominy, Cavalier, Ware Creek), Piedmont sites (Amelia, Featherfin, Powhatan, C.F. Phelps), and western-mountain sites (Clinch Mountain, Highland, Little North Mountain, Hidden Valley, Gathright, Goshen) alike, suggesting the program is built for statewide public-hunting access rather than concentrated on the species' best habitat. So an active in-house field and hunting program exists, but neither it nor the species' own agency page states a sub-state concentration, despite dove favoring agricultural open land that is not evenly distributed across Virginia's coastal-to-mountain gradient.
Issuing agencyVirginia Department of Wildlife Resourcesdwr.virginia.govRecord year 2026
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