| Window | Dates | Days |
|---|---|---|
| Season | 01 SEP – 30 OCT 2026 | 60d |
As publishedSept. 1 - Oct. 30, 2026
Unlawful to shoot mourning doves resting on utility lines or fixtures adjacent to those lines. HIP registration required for all MT migratory bird hunters. Eurasian collared-doves (an unprotected exotic species, no license/season/limit) do not count against this bag.
Montana FWP publishes no state-specific dove survey or zone map, but current hunting-press sourcing (Montana Outdoors, 2026) gives a real, consistent, agriculture-and-water-driven regional signal rather than a uniform-statewide answer: dove concentrations track irrigated grain and sunflower country plus reliable water in a drought year, converging on the same Golden Triangle grain belt, the same eastern-Montana prairie counties, and the Yellowstone River corridor.
Montana dove numbers are up over the last decade, at +2.66% per year from 2016 to 2025 on the federal survey. The full 59-year record is flat, at -0.03% per year, so the gain is recent rather than long-running. These figures run through 2025, one season behind this fall.
Recent decade up 2.66% per year against a flat long-term record.
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