Gear Guide · Dove Hunting
The Best Dove Loads of 2026
Five steel loads, five lead loads, and what 5,094 recorded shots at wild doves say about what actually drops a bird. Shells you can find on a shelf, not unicorns you have to hunt down.
2026 Season · Field Tested In Capay Valley, California
The Short Answer
The best dove load is whichever shell puts the most pellets inside a 30-inch circle at 30 yards and reliably cycles your gun. In lead, that is 1 to 1⅛ ounces of #8 or #7½ at 1,200 fps. In steel, it is 1 ounce of #7 at 1,325 fps. Peer-reviewed field data says the two kill doves the same. The shelf says one costs about half as much.
Opening morning in Capay ran about a hundred and two degrees. That's the kind of hot where the brush smells like it's thinking about catching fire, and everybody ends up under the tailgate between volleys arguing over whose turn it is to walk out for birds.
Big group that day, on ground I've hunted for years. We had mourning doves and Eurasian collared doves working the same water, which meant everybody was shooting at everything, and for about two hours it sounded like a warzone out there. Constant hollering. A truly impressive volume of trash talk. I had my Franchi Affinity 3 and a couple boxes of Rio BlueSteel — 2¾-inch 7s, steel, because this is California and lead hasn't been legal here for anything since 2019 — plus a KUIU vest, KUIU upland pants, and the Dove Tree 3000 planted out front. That last one is a contraption we built ourselves and named with all the seriousness it deserves.
The Dove Tree 3000. Setup on the left, finished product on the right. Yes, that's the real name.
Fastest limit I've ever shot. I couldn't reload fast enough, and the gun never hiccuped once, which is worth flagging because that's an inertia action running steel in triple-digit heat. We'll come back to why that matters.
I also went through two boxes doing it. Fifty rounds for fifteen birds, and honestly I'd call that a good day.
Fifty shells for fifteen birds, and that's a good day. Which is the part nobody puts in the dove article.
Because here's the thing everybody repeats and almost nobody checks: doves are easy to kill. Texas Parks and Wildlife went and put real numbers to that, and the numbers disagree with the campfire. Working with Texas A&M and ballistician Tom Roster, they ran a double-blind lethality study across two full seasons, watched 53 hunters take 5,094 recorded shots, and X-rayed and necropsied 1,110 birds. It is still the largest study of its kind ever done.
Hunters bagged 1,146 doves and wounded another 739. Do that arithmetic and 39.2% of the birds that got hit were not recovered. Four and a half boxes of shells for a couple of limits. Those are not the numbers of an easy target.
I spend all of September chasing these things around Northern California and it's still my favorite stretch of the year — it breaks up the monotony of summer and kicks off everything good that follows. But let's stop pretending doves fall out of the sky, because the shells you buy should reflect that they don't.
Disclosure: some links below are affiliate links, and Hunt Bums earns a small commission if you buy through them at no extra cost to you. It hasn't changed a single pick on this page. Prices checked July 2026 and ammo pricing moves constantly.
RecommendationsOur Top Picks
| Award | Load | Payload & Velocity |
|---|---|---|
| Best Steel Overall | Winchester Xpert Steel 12ga | 1 oz #7 @ 1,325 fps |
| Best Late-Season Steel | Kent Upland Fasteel 12ga | 1⅛ oz #6 @ 1,400 fps |
| Best 20ga Steel | Winchester Xpert Upland 20ga | ¾ oz @ 1,325 fps |
| Best Value Steel | Federal Upland Steel 12ga | 1⅛ oz #6 @ 1,400 fps |
| Best Reach Steel | Fiocchi Field Dynamics 12ga | 1⅛ oz #6 steel, high velocity |
| Best Lead Overall | Winchester Super-Target 12ga | 1⅛ oz @ 1,200 fps |
| Best Light-Recoil Lead | Remington American Clay & Field | 1 oz #8 |
| Best 20ga Lead | Federal Top Gun 20ga | ⅞ oz #8 @ 1,210 fps |
| Best 20ga Value | Fiocchi Shooting Dynamics 20ga | ⅞ oz #8 |
| Best Pass-Shooting Lead | Winchester Super-X 12ga | 1¼ oz |
ComparisonAll 10 Dove Loads Compared
| Load | Type | Gauge | Payload | Shot | Velocity | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winchester Xpert SteelCA legal | Steel | 12 | 1 oz | #7 | 1,325 fps | Everything, all season |
| Kent Upland FasteelCA legal | Steel | 12 | 1⅛ oz | #5, #6, #7 | 1,400 fps | Late season, wind, 40 yd |
| Winchester Xpert UplandCA legal | Steel | 20 | ¾ oz | #6, #7 | 1,325 fps | 20-gauge dove guns |
| Federal Upland SteelCA legal | Steel | 12 | 1⅛ oz | #6 | 1,400 fps | High-volume nonlead |
| Fiocchi Field DynamicsCA legal | Steel | 12 | 1⅛ oz | #6 | 1,400 fps | Reach and wind |
| Winchester Super-Target | Lead | 12, 20, 28, .410 | 1⅛ oz | #7½, #8 | 1,200 fps | Best all-around lead |
| Remington American Clay & Field | Lead | 12 | 1 oz | #8 | Target-load | Lightest recoil |
| Federal Top Gun | Lead | 20 | ⅞ oz | #8 | 1,210 fps | Best 20-gauge dove load |
| Fiocchi Shooting Dynamics | Lead | 20 | ⅞ oz | #8 | ~1,200 fps | 20-gauge value |
| Winchester Super-X | Lead | 12 | 1¼ oz | #6, #7½ | Game-load | Pass shooting only |
Every load here cycles gas guns, pumps and over/unders. All five steel loads run 1,325 fps or faster, which clears every published inertia-gun minimum — see the cycling section. "CA legal" marks the loads that satisfy California's statewide nonlead requirement. Specs per manufacturer published data.
Buy the Flat, Not the Box
A case of 250 runs 15 to 25 percent less per shell than buying boxes, and at four and a half shells a bird that's about three and a half limits. If you hunt dove season the way I do — most weekends in September, wherever the birds are — you'll go through a flat and want another. Shelves also get picked over in the couple weeks before the opener every single year, especially nonlead, which fewer stores stock deep. Order in August. Anything you don't burn on doves gets shot on clays in October.
The EvidenceWhat Actually Kills a Dove?
Pattern density, not pellet energy. A dove weighs four to six ounces, and any pellet from #9 to #6 that arrives will reach something vital. What you are actually buying is the odds that three pellets arrive at all.
I've been shooting steel at doves since California stopped giving me a choice, and for the first couple of seasons I assumed I was giving something up. Everybody said so. Steel's lighter, steel doesn't carry, steel is what you settle for when the law makes you. Then Texas Parks and Wildlife put real numbers to the question, and the numbers turned out to disagree with the campfire.
Pierce, Roster, Frisbie, Mason and Roberson published the results in the Wildlife Society Bulletin in 2015, and the design was about as clean as field research gets. Double-blind, so hunters had no idea what was in their guns — and the paper confirms they could not tell. Every recovered bird went to necropsy. Three 12-gauge loads ran against each other: lead #7½ at 1⅛ ounces, steel #7 at an ounce, and steel #6 at an ounce. When the dust settled there was no significant difference between any of them in doves bagged per shot, wounded per shot, bagged per hit or wounded per hit, and that held as the birds got farther out.
| Load Tested | Avg Pellet Strikes on Bagged Birds | Through-Body Penetration | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lead #7½, 1⅛ oz | 3.0 | 30.8 mm | No advantage |
| Steel #7, 1 oz | 3.1 | 30.1 mm | No disadvantage |
| Steel #6, 1 oz | 2.6 | 30.7 mm | No disadvantage |
Pierce et al., Wildlife Society Bulletin 39(1):103–115, 2015, Tables 3 and 8. Penetration is mean depth of through-body strikes across all distances; the paper found no significant difference among the three.
Sit with that middle column for a second, because it reframes everything. A dove that made it into the bag had been hit by roughly three pellets. Not fifteen. Three. Which means that on most of the birds you fold, the difference between a clean kill and a cripple came down to whether one or two more pellets happened to be in the right square foot of air.
Our results demonstrate that when the ammunition type used provides sufficient lethality for pellets to penetrate vital organs, pattern density becomes the primary factor influencing ammunition performance.
That's the paper's own conclusion, verbatim, and it flips the whole buying decision. You're not shopping for energy, because a dove has no armor to speak of and everything in this guide goes through. You're shopping for the odds that three pellets arrive, and that comes down to how many left the barrel and how evenly they spread on the way.
One more finding worth carrying into the field, because it is the single most useful thing in the paper and nobody quotes it. The researchers had trained observers range every shot, then compared those to the hunters' own estimates. Hunters overestimated the range to close birds and underestimated the range to far ones, consistently, across more than five thousand shots. You are not as good at judging dove range as you think you are, and neither am I.
NonleadWhat Is the Best Steel Shot for Dove Hunting?
One ounce of #7 steel at 1,325 fps, which in practice means Winchester Xpert. Steel #7 carries about 420 pellets to the ounce — more than any lead dove load — and the velocity clears every inertia-gun minimum published.
If you hunt California dove country, this is your whole list. If you hunt public ground anywhere else, read the regulations section before you assume lead is fine, because a surprising amount of good dove ground is posted nonlead whether the state requires it or not.
Ranking the best steel shot for dove hunting comes down to two things once you accept that steel kills doves fine: how many pellets are in the payload, and whether the shell runs fast enough to work your gun. Everything below is sorted on that.
Winchester Xpert Steel, 12 Gauge
2¾" · 1 oz · #7 · 1,325 fps
Why it's number one: An ounce of #7 steel at 1,325 fps is the closest nonlead match to a classic lead dove load, and it carries roughly 420 pellets — more than any lead load on this page. Winchester's own product copy calls out "fast flying doves" by name. They built this for the job.
Pellet count is the metric that matters and this wins it outright, which is the whole argument for steel on doves compressed into one number. The 1,325 fps clears any inertia gun's threshold with room to spare, so Benelli and Franchi shooters can stop reading the fine print on the box. And it's stocked damn near everywhere, which counts for more than people admit on the Friday night before a hunt.
It's not a refined shell — basic wads, good-not-great patterns, and you'll hit the occasional inconsistent box. But at around 56 cents a round with more pellets in the air than shells costing twice as much, I have a hard time arguing against it.
What to buy: the 1-ounce #7 in 12 gauge. Grab a flat of 250 if you're hunting September the way I do — per-shell cost drops meaningfully and anything left over gets shot on clays.
Kent Upland Fasteel, 12 Gauge
2¾" · 1⅛ oz · #6 · 1,400 fps
Why we recommend it: 1,400 fps and an extra eighth-ounce of payload. This is the shell for the third weekend, when the birds have been shot at all month and won't come inside forty yards. Kent's Precision Steel patterns tight, and the speed flattens your lead picture.
Kent loads it in #5, #6 and #7. For doves I'd take the #7 if you can find it and the #6 otherwise, since #6 is the conventional two-sizes-up conversion from lead #8 and it's the right call when you're stretching. Kent notes these are built to cycle smoothly in semi-autos and pumps, which at 1,400 fps isn't so much a marketing claim as physics. There's a 20-gauge too, ⅞ ounce at a genuinely wild 1,500 fps.
The tradeoff is recoil, and it's real. An ounce and an eighth at 1,400 fps is a shove, and a hundred of them in September heat will teach you what a flinch feels like. Save these for the days you need the reach.
What to buy: one box of #6 for the late-season days when birds hang up at forty yards. This isn't your everyday shell — it's the one that saves the third weekend.
Winchester Xpert Upland Steel, 20 Gauge
2¾" · ¾ oz · 1,325 fps
Why we recommend it: Three-quarters of an ounce of steel at 1,325 fps is plenty for a five-ounce bird inside 35 yards, and it's the softest-shooting nonlead option here. If you're running a 20 as a dedicated dove gun — which I'd argue you should — start here.
The 20-gauge steel math works out better than people expect. Steel's lower density means more pellets per ounce, which partly offsets the smaller payload, so you end up with a pattern that's competitive with a ⅞-ounce lead load at a fraction of the recoil. And that 1,325 fps matters double in a 20 — Franchi publishes a minimum recommended load of ⅞ ounce at 1,200 fps for its 20-gauge inertia guns, and light 20-gauge shells are exactly where cycling problems tend to show up. This one clears the bar comfortably.
What to buy: the ¾-ounce load, and buy more than you think. This is the shell to hand a kid or anybody who's been flinching by hour three.
Federal Upland Steel, 12 Gauge
2¾" · 1⅛ oz · #6 · 1,400 fps
Why we recommend it: Federal's product page for this load opens with two words: "Doves are done." They built it for high-volume nonlead shooting at a price that lets you keep pulling the trigger, and 1⅛ ounces of #6 at 1,400 fps delivers on that.
Spec-wise it's a near-twin of the Kent, and honestly the choice between them comes down to price and what's actually on the shelf when you're standing there. Federal's distribution is broader; Kent's Precision Steel has a slight edge in shot uniformity. Federal also builds a version with a paper wad that cuts down the plastic you leave behind, and if you've ever walked a dove field on September 2nd and seen the confetti, you know why that's worth something.
Same recoil caveat as the Kent, though. It's a lot of shell for a bird this small, so buy it for the days you're reaching rather than for close decoying work.
What to buy: a flat of #6 if you're shooting nonlead through September. Federal built this for volume and priced it that way.
Fiocchi Field Dynamics Upland Steel, 12 Gauge
2¾" · 1⅛ oz · #6 steel · High velocity
Why we recommend it: Fiocchi's Field Dynamics steel runs #6 at high velocity in a heavier payload than most of this list, which makes it the pick for windy afternoons and birds that won't commit. Fiocchi rates the practical window at 20 to 40 yards, which is honest.
Of the five steel loads here, this one and the Federal throw the heaviest payload, and I want to be straight about the tradeoff. On a bird decoying into 20 yards it's more shell than the job needs and you'll feel it by the end of the afternoon. On a 40-yard crosser with the wind up, it's the one you want in the chamber.
Fiocchi's been building steel a long time, and Field Dynamics is their value-priced workhorse. Patterns are consistent, the price is right, and it turns up at most of the big retailers.
What to buy: a box or two of #6 to keep in the truck for windy afternoons. Not your primary shell, but you'll be glad it's there.
LeadWhat Is the Best Lead Load for Dove Hunting?
A cheap target load in #8 or #7½, and it has been for about fifty years. One to 1⅛ ounces at 1,200 fps. Winchester Super-Target is the one I'd standardize on, at roughly 33 cents a shell by the flat.
Hunting somewhere lead's still legal? Then I have some genuinely boring news, which is the paragraph above. Pattern it, then spend the money you saved on more of it. Brand matters a great deal less than most articles pretend, and the five dove hunting shells below are separated more by what's on the shelf near you than by anything that happens downrange.
Winchester Super-Target, 12 Gauge
2¾" · 1⅛ oz · 1,200 fps · ~$83 / 250
Why it's number one: A true 1,200 fps at 1⅛ ounces, for about $83 a flat. That velocity is the whole reason it beats the cheaper stuff — it's comfortably above where inertia guns start short-stroking, so you can hand a box to anybody in your group without asking what they shoot.
Super-Target comes in #7½ and #8 — take the #8 early and the #7½ when the birds get educated and start hanging up. Winchester's white-box line isn't glamorous, but the patterns are consistent and there's no velocity roulette between boxes, which is more than I can say for some of the cheaper stuff.
At roughly 33 cents a shell it's the best cost-to-reliability ratio in lead, and it comes in 12, 20, 28 and .410 if you're shooting something smaller.
What to buy: the flat of 250 in #8, full stop. At roughly 33 cents a shell it's the best value in lead, and a flat covers three or four hunts without a resupply run.
Remington American Clay & Field, 12 Gauge
2¾" · 1 oz · #8
Why we recommend it: One ounce of #8 is about 410 pellets, which is all the pattern a dove will ever require, and the lighter payload takes real recoil off a hundred-shell afternoon. This is the shell I'd hand a kid or anybody who flinches by the third hour.
The name tells you the intent. Remington built this to work on clays and in the field, which is exactly the double life a dove load ends up living, and the hulls are decent enough that reloaders hang onto them.
Dropping from 1⅛ ounces to 1 sounds like nothing written down. Fifty shells into a hot afternoon, it's the difference between still swinging and starting to duck.
What to buy: the 1-ounce #8. If anyone in your group is recoil-sensitive or new to wingshooting, buy them a box of this and watch their shooting improve by hour two.
Federal Top Gun, 20 Gauge
2¾" · ⅞ oz · #8 · 1,210 fps · ~$80 / 250
Why we recommend it: Seven-eighths of an ounce of #8 runs about 359 pellets, and at 1,210 fps it clears Franchi's published 20-gauge minimum. Roughly 32 cents a shell by the flat. For a dedicated 20-gauge dove gun, this is the shell to build around.
That velocity detail matters more than it looks. Franchi's published spec for its 20-gauge inertia guns is ⅞ ounce at 1,200 fps, and this sits just above that line rather than under it — which is more than you can say for most of the bargain 20-gauge shells sitting next to it on the shelf. Federal loads Top Gun in #7½, #8 and #9; for doves, #8 is the sweet spot and the #9 belongs on a skeet field.
What to buy: the ⅞-ounce #8 by the flat. If you're running a 20 as a dedicated dove gun, this is the shell to standardize on.
Fiocchi Shooting Dynamics, 20 Gauge
2¾" · ⅞ oz · #8
Why we recommend it: Fiocchi's value line does everything the Federal does for a little less, and their 20-gauge target loads have a reputation for clean, even patterns. Same ⅞ ounce of #8, same job, usually a couple dollars cheaper a box.
Fiocchi's underrated in the States, and I'm half convinced it's because nobody's sure how to pronounce it. The shells are well made, the shot's consistent, and Shooting Dynamics is priced to shoot in volume. One thing to check before you buy for an inertia gun: their 20-gauge target loads run in the 1,200 to 1,210 range, which is fine, but the line spans several loadings and the box will tell you which one you've got.
What to buy: the ⅞-ounce #8. Check the velocity on the box first if you shoot an inertia gun — you want 1,200 fps or better.
Winchester Super-X, 12 Gauge
2¾" · 1¼ oz
Why we recommend it, with a caveat: A quarter-ounce more payload buys roughly a hundred more pellets and real reach on late-season birds that flare at forty yards. Super-X has been Winchester's field workhorse since 1922. Just don't shoot it on opening weekend.
Everything else in this guide argues that lighter is better on doves and I stand by that for close work. This is the exception, and it's a narrow one: late September, birds educated, wind up, shots stretching past 35 yards.
The honest warning is that a hundred rounds of 1¼-ounce shells in that kind of heat will teach you exactly what a flinch feels like. Buy a box for the long stuff and keep something lighter in your other pocket.
What to buy: one box. Seriously, one. Keep it in your vest for the long shots and shoot something lighter the rest of the day.
Opening weekend in Capay. Hot, loud, and worth every minute.
SetupWhat Shot Size Is Best for Dove Hunting?
#8 in lead, #7 in steel. That covers the large majority of dove shooting anybody will ever do, and everything below is an adjustment for range or weather rather than a genuinely different answer.
| Shot Size | Pellets per Ounce | When to Use It |
|---|---|---|
| Lead #9 | ~585 | Close decoying birds inside 25 yards |
| Lead #8 | ~410 | The default. Best density-to-reach balance |
| Lead #7½ | ~350 | Late season, wind, shots past 35 yards |
| Lead #6 or larger | ~225 | Wrong for dove — see the safety note below |
| Steel #7 | ~420 | The nonlead default |
| Steel #6 | ~315 | Nonlead reach past 40 yards |
Lead counts per Federal Premium published charts. Steel #7 count per Winchester's published spec for the Xpert load; published steel counts vary by roughly 420 to 440 per ounce depending on source, and the shells Pierce et al. actually counted held 411 in a one-ounce charge.
A Real Safety Reason to Skip Big Shot
Dove fields are crowded. People set up along the same tree line, around the same water, within a couple hundred yards of each other. Lead #6 and larger carries far enough to reach somebody you can't see. That's not a performance argument, it's a safety one.
What load should I use for Eurasian collared doves?
Go up one size. A Eurasian collared dove runs roughly twice the weight of a mourning dove and tends to come in higher and straighter, so the shot that works fine on mourners can leave you chasing cripples. Lead #7½ or steel #6 is the right call if you're specifically after collared doves, and the good news is that both are already in your vest for late-season mourning birds. In California they're unprotected and don't count toward your limit, which is exactly why everybody in Capay was shooting at everything.
What about 28 gauge and .410?
If you own a 28, shoot it. Three-quarters of an ounce of #8 carries about 307 pellets, which is plenty of pattern for a dove, and the gun kicks about as hard as a screen door. The .410 is a different animal altogether. A typical half-ounce load holds roughly 205 pellets, and that thin a pattern asks for near-perfect placement on a target that specializes in being somewhere else. Fine challenge for somebody who already shoots well, miserable introduction for anybody who doesn't.
SetupHow Do You Convert Lead Shot Sizes to Steel?
The standard rule is up two sizes, because steel runs about 30 percent less dense than lead. On doves, go up one instead. Lead #8 becomes steel #7, not steel #6.
Every steel conversion chart ever printed says two sizes, and on ducks and geese that rule earns its keep. On doves I think it's too conservative, and the study is the reason I'll say so out loud.
| Shot | Pellets per Ounce | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Lead #6 | ~225 | Too big for dove |
| Lead #7½ | ~350 | The classic dove load |
| Lead #8 | ~410 | Best lead density |
| Steel #6 | ~315 | The conventional conversion. More reach, thinner pattern |
| Steel #7 | ~420 | Most pellets of anything here |
Lead counts per Federal Premium published charts; steel counts per manufacturer published data.
Steel #7 was one of the three loads Texas ran, and it posted the highest average strike count of the bunch at 3.1 while carrying meaningfully more pellets to the ounce than lead #7½. That isn't a rounding error. That's the density advantage doing exactly what the researchers said it would.
So on doves, go up one size rather than two. Lead #8 becomes steel #7. You surrender energy you were never going to need on a five-ounce bird at thirty-odd yards, and you pick up the pattern density that's actually doing the killing. Steel #6 still has a job, and that job is pass shooting past forty yards when the birds have wised up and won't come in.
RangeHow Far Can You Ethically Shoot a Dove?
Forty yards is the honest ceiling for most shooters with a standard dove load, and 30 to 35 is where you should be living. The average shot in the Texas study was 31.9 yards, and wounding climbed sharply on the far side of 31 yards.
This is where the study earns its keep, because it split every shot into two distance buckets and the results are blunt. Inside about 31 yards, hunters bagged 28.4 percent of the birds they shot at. Beyond it, 16.6 percent. The wounding rate barely moved — 13.9 percent versus 15.1 percent of shots — which means the far shots weren't wounding more birds so much as simply missing more of them.
Run that as a share of birds actually hit and the picture sharpens. Inside 31 yards, about a third of hit birds were lost. Beyond it, closer to half. Same shells. Same guns. Just distance.
You Are Bad at Judging Dove Range
The study had trained observers range every single shot and compared them against what the hunters thought. The pattern was consistent across more than five thousand shots: hunters overestimated the range to close birds and underestimated it on far ones. Which means the forty-yard bird you're passing on is probably thirty-two, and the one you're stretching for is probably fifty. Step off thirty-five yards in the field before you set up. It's farther than you think.
RegulationsWhich States Require Nonlead Shot for Doves?
California requires nonlead statewide. Everywhere else it's property by property: dozens of states post individual wildlife areas nonlead, and doves are federally exempt from the nontoxic rule that covers waterfowl, so state and local rules are the only thing governing.
That federal exemption is what trips people up. Lead is legal for dove across most of the country, but state law and individual property rules override the federal position constantly, and that gap is where hunters get written up.
| State | Where Nonlead Is Required |
|---|---|
| California | Statewide. Every species, public and private, since July 1, 2019 |
| Washington | All pheasant release sites statewide, doves included. Mandatory $1,000 fine plus two-year loss of small game privileges |
| Missouri | All shotgun hunting on 37+ named conservation areas |
| Indiana | Dove on all Fish & Wildlife Areas |
| Kansas | State-owned and managed lands; dove fields by posted notice |
| Delaware | September dove on State Wildlife Areas |
| Illinois | Dove on some public lands |
| Louisiana | Dove at Pointe-aux-Chenes WMA |
Not exhaustive, and it changes. Dozens of states post individual wildlife areas nonlead; Kansas alone manages 90+ locations for dove. Confirm with the agency and read the sign at the gate.
Check the property, not just the state. The most common way I've seen people earn a citation is reading the state regulation on the drive out, deciding lead's fine, then parking at a wildlife area with its own posted rule on a sign they walked right past on the way to the field.
California Dove Hunters: The Short Version
California dove season traditionally opens September 1 with a second segment later in the fall, and the daily bag has run 15 mourning and white-winged doves combined in recent years. Eurasian collared doves are unprotected and don't count toward your limit. Nonlead is required statewide, no exceptions, on public and private land alike. Confirm current dates and limits with CDFW before you go, and if you still need paperwork, here's how to get your California license.
Don't Ask a Chatbot About Season Dates
On October 21, 2025, Idaho Fish and Game publicly warned hunters not to rely on AI or search results for season dates and rules. Hunters had been cited after AI answers served up proposed dates instead of adopted ones, and in some cases mixed in another state's regulations entirely. The case that triggered the warning was a waterfowl hunter in southeast Idaho caught hunting a day early, who told wardens he'd gotten the opening date from an online search. Read the actual regulations, or call the agency. Including after reading this page.
The Part Nobody CoversWill This Load Cycle Your Shotgun?
If you shoot a gas gun, a pump or a break action, everything in this guide will run. If you shoot an inertia gun — Benelli, Franchi, Stoeger, most Weatherbys — the cheapest shells on the shelf are the ones most likely to leave you with a stovepipe. You want 1,200 fps or better.
Back at Capay I mentioned the gun never hiccuped, and that fifty rounds of steel through an inertia action in triple-digit heat was worth flagging. Here's why.
Inertia systems use the gun's rearward movement against a spring-loaded rotating bolt. That takes a minimum recoil impulse. Below it, the bolt doesn't travel far enough and you get a stovepipe. Not a defect — that's the design working as designed.
A Spec Conflict Worth Knowing
Benelli's published guidance for 12-gauge semi-autos calls for 3-dram, 1⅛-ounce loads, roughly 1,200 fps. But Benelli's own Ethos page says the action cycles from ⅞ ounce up to 3-inch magnums. Those don't agree, and I haven't found a version that reconciles them. Treat 3-dram as the conservative number and function-test your specific gun before opening day instead of trusting either one.
What goes wrong is predictable. Light 1,145 fps loads short-stroke, and it's worse when the gun's cold, dirty, or shouldered loosely. Limp-shoulder a light load and you'll induce a failure in a gun that runs fine when you drive it in — which means it shows up on the awkward twisting shot, right when you needed that second round.
Three fixes, best first: buy a faster shell (1,300 fps gives the action a lot more to work with than 1,145), break the gun in with 100 to 200 rounds before it counts, and mount it firmly, because your shoulder is the backstop the whole system works against. If you're still deciding between platforms, we ran a gas gun against an inertia gun head to head, and there's a full dove shotgun roundup if you want the long version.
Which brings me to the thing I didn't expect until I'd lived it a few seasons. Nonlead quietly solves this problem. Steel dove loads run fast out of necessity, 1,325 to 1,400 fps across nearly everything in this guide, because the manufacturers are compensating for lighter pellets. That velocity happens to be exactly what an inertia action is hungry for. So if you're a California hunter who's spent years grumbling about the lead ban, here's a small consolation: the regulation that took your favorite shells away also handed your semi-auto the most reliable diet it's ever had.
SetupWhat Choke Is Best for Dove Hunting?
Improved Cylinder. At 30 yards an IC choke still puts roughly 85 to 90 percent of the load inside a 30-inch circle — about 350 pellets with a #7 or #7½ shell — and a dove dies to three. Tighter constriction buys you pellets you already had in surplus and costs you the pattern width you actually need.
Walk a dove field on opening morning and count how many people are screwed down to Modified because they're worried about the long ones. It's most of them. Here's the pattern data from the study, which fired ten replicates of each load through each choke at each distance:
| Distance | Improved Cylinder | Modified | Full |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20 yards | 410 pellets (100%) | 411 (100%) | 411 (100%) |
| 30 yards | 355 pellets (86%) | 385 (94%) | 403 (98%) |
| 40 yards | 259 pellets (63%) | 310 (75%) | 330 (80%) |
| 50 yards | 177 pellets (43%) | 209 (51%) | 238 (58%) |
Pierce et al. 2015, Table 2, steel #7 (411 pellets per shell). Counts are pellets registering inside a 30-inch circle, mean of 10 replicates; distances converted from 18.3, 27.4, 36.6 and 45.7 meters. Lead #7½ tracked within a few percent at every combination.
Read the 20-yard row first, because it settles an argument. At twenty yards every choke prints essentially the whole load in the circle. Constriction buys you literally nothing on a decoying bird. At thirty yards — roughly the average dove shot — Improved Cylinder is still delivering about 355 pellets where you need three.
Now the honest part, because I've seen this section written dishonestly. The study did not run a controlled test of which choke kills more doves. It measured pattern counts on paper and it recorded which chokes hunters happened to be using. What it found on the field side is that ammunition and choke combinations producing higher pattern density yielded more hits per shot. Taken alone, that is an argument for tighter chokes, and anyone who tells you the paper proves Improved Cylinder outshoots Modified is quoting something that isn't in it.
The argument for opening up is a different one, and it's about the target rather than the pattern. A dove is a fist-sized thing that changes direction twice on the way past, the average shot is inside 32 yards, and the study demonstrated that hunters misjudge that range constantly. What you are short of at thirty yards is not pellets — you have a hundred times what you need. What you are short of is margin for a swing that's four inches off. Modified narrows the only resource that's actually scarce.
So: Improved Cylinder from the opener through most of September, and screw in Modified when the birds are genuinely hanging up past forty. That's a thirty-dollar part and ninety seconds of work, and it's the cheapest change you can make to how you shoot.
Steel Patterns Tighter — Open Up, Don't Close Down
Steel doesn't deform going down the barrel like lead does, so it holds together and prints tighter through the same choke. The study measured exactly this: pellets of the same size and count but higher hardness produced higher pattern efficiencies at every choke and distance. The instinct when you switch to steel is to tighten up and compensate for lower density. Do the opposite. If you shot IC with lead, IC or even Skeet is right with steel.
The MathHow Many Shells Does a Limit of Doves Take?
About 4.4 per bird bagged, so roughly 67 shells for a 15-bird limit, or three boxes. That's the measured figure from 5,094 recorded shots, and it was set by volunteers who knew somebody was counting. Plan on five a bird in the real world.
Nobody publishes a straight answer to this, which is strange, because it should drive your buying more than anything printed on the box. My fifty rounds for fifteen birds at Capay was a good day by that math, and I've had plenty of afternoons that went the other direction.
| Load | Roughly Per Shell | 15-Bird Limit (~67 shells) |
|---|---|---|
| Winchester Super-Target (lead) | $0.33 | $22 |
| Federal Top Gun 20ga (lead) | $0.32 | $21 |
| Remington American Clay & Field | ~$0.40 | $27 |
| Winchester Xpert Steel | $0.56 | $38 |
| Federal Upland Steel | ~$0.70 | $47 |
| Kent Upland Fasteel | ~$0.75 | $50 |
Assumes 67 shells for a 15-bird limit at 4.4 per bird, derived from the study's 5,094 shots and 1,146 birds bagged. Buying by the flat knocks 15 to 25% off. Daily limits vary by state. Prices July 2026.
Two things jump out. Lead runs about half the cost of steel, which over a season is real money — and there's nothing you can do about it if you hunt California. And within steel, the cheap option and the expensive one are separated by about $12 a limit, which is less than most people assume.
For scale, the study opens by noting that roughly 100 million shots are fired at mourning doves in the United States every year. That's the number that made a half-million-dollar lethality study worth funding, and it's the reason the three-pellet finding matters beyond your own vest.
ChecklistHow to Pick and Test a Dove Load Before the Opener
Five steps, about thirty minutes at a patterning board, done in August rather than the night before. It's the difference between knowing what your gun does and hoping.
- Check whether nonlead is requiredCheck the state regulation and the specific property you plan to hunt, because they are two different rules. California requires nonlead statewide. Many public dove fields elsewhere are posted nonlead by notice even where the state allows lead.
- Pick your shot sizeUse #8 lead or #7 steel as the default. Drop to #9 lead for close decoying birds inside 25 yards, and move up to #7½ lead or #6 steel for late-season shots past 35 yards or for Eurasian collared doves. Skip lead #6 and larger entirely.
- Match the load to your actionGas guns, pumps and break actions run any dove load. Inertia-driven semi-autos such as Benelli, Franchi and Stoeger need roughly 1,200 fps or faster. Every steel load in this guide runs 1,325 fps or better and clears that easily.
- Pattern it at 30 yardsShoot the exact shell you plan to hunt at a 30-inch circle at 30 yards, which is close to the measured average dove shot distance of 31.9 yards. Start with an Improved Cylinder choke and count what lands in the circle. A dove needs three pellets to reach it.
- Buy enough shellsPlan on 4.4 shells per bird bagged, which is about 67 shells for a 15-bird daily limit, or three boxes. Buying by the flat of 250 cuts the per-shell cost by 15 to 25 percent, and shelves get picked over in the two weeks before the opener.
TransparencyWhat Dove Loads Should You Skip?
Anything over 1¼ ounces, lead #6 and larger, the slowest promo loads if you shoot an inertia gun, leftover waterfowl steel, and tungsten. Four of those are wasted money and one is a safety issue.
Heavy upland loads. Fiocchi Golden Pheasant at 1⅜ and Federal Hi-Brass at 1¼ are excellent pheasant shells, and every September somebody shows up to a dove field with a box of one or the other because the label says high brass and high brass sounds serious. By the third hour their shoulder hurts and they're flinching, and they've spent forty cents a shell to accomplish nothing a thirty-cent target load wouldn't have done better.
Lead #6 and larger. Only about 225 pellets an ounce, patterns full of holes, and they carry far enough to reach a hunter you can't see. Dove fields are crowded — that last part isn't a performance argument, it's a safety one. (Steel #6 is a different story, since steel pellets are lighter at the same diameter.)
The slowest promo loads, if you shoot inertia. Winchester Universal and its cousins turn up over and over in reports of semi-autos failing to cycle. Fine in a pump, a gamble in a Benelli.
Leftover waterfowl steel, and anything tungsten. A 1⅛-ounce #2 duck load isn't a dove load no matter how much is rattling around your blind bag from October. And TSS is magnificent stuff in a ridiculous application — three dollars a shell for a bird that dies to three pellets.
Bismuth, usually. It's denser than steel at 9.6 g/cc against 7.8, but that edge shows up past 40 yards and the average dove is shot at 32. Bismuth blends run roughly double what plain steel costs. It earns the money in exactly one case: a vintage fixed-choke gun that shouldn't be fed steel at all.
Bottom LineWhat I'd Actually Buy
California, or any nonlead field: a flat of Winchester Xpert Steel in 1 ounce of #7. More pellets than the lead you're replacing, fast enough to run any gun made, and stocked everywhere. That's the whole answer, and it took me a couple of seasons of overthinking to get there.
Where lead's legal: Winchester Super-Target, 1⅛ ounces at 1,200 fps, about $83 a flat. Pattern it at 30 yards and quit thinking about ammo.
Shooting a 20: Federal Top Gun ⅞ oz #8 for lead, Winchester Xpert Upland for steel. Both clear the inertia thresholds and both kick like nothing.
Late season, wind, birds flaring at forty: Kent Upland Fasteel or Federal Upland Steel in #6, or Winchester Super-X if you're shooting lead. One box, not five.
Whatever you land on, go pattern it before September. Ten minutes at 30 yards will teach you more than this whole article did.
See you out there.
Quick AnswersDove Load FAQ
The best dove load is whichever shell puts the most pellets in a 30-inch circle at 30 yards and reliably cycles your gun. In lead that is 1 to 1-1/8 ounces of #8 or #7.5 at 1,200 fps, such as Winchester Super-Target at roughly 33 cents a shell. In nonlead it is 1 ounce of #7 steel at 1,325 fps, such as Winchester Xpert. A peer-reviewed Texas Parks and Wildlife study found no significant lethality difference between lead #7.5, steel #7 and steel #6.
Number 8 in lead and number 7 in steel. Lead #8 carries about 410 pellets per ounce and balances density against reach better than anything else for a bird shot at an average of 32 yards. Drop to #9 lead for close decoying birds inside 25 yards, and move up to #7.5 lead or #6 steel for late-season shots past 35 yards. Avoid lead #6 and larger: it patterns thin at about 225 pellets per ounce and carries far enough to reach a hunter you cannot see.
Yes. The largest dove lethality study ever run, published in the Wildlife Society Bulletin in 2015, tested lead #7.5 against steel #7 and steel #6 across 5,094 recorded shots and 1,110 necropsied birds and found no significant difference in birds bagged per shot, wounded per shot, bagged per hit or wounded per hit, even as distance increased. The authors concluded that once a load has enough lethality for pellets to penetrate vital organs, pattern density becomes the primary factor. Steel #7 carries more pellets per ounce than lead #7.5.
Improved Cylinder for most dove shooting. In the Texas study's pattern testing, an Improved Cylinder choke put about 86 percent of a #7 load inside a 30-inch circle at 30 yards, roughly 355 pellets, and a bagged dove averaged only 2.6 to 3.1 pellet strikes. At 20 yards every choke prints essentially the whole load, so constriction buys nothing on decoying birds. Screw in Modified only when birds are genuinely hanging up past 40 yards. If you shoot steel, stay at Improved Cylinder or open to Skeet, because steel patterns tighter than lead through the same constriction.
About 4.4 shells per bird bagged. The Texas Parks and Wildlife study recorded 5,094 shots by 53 hunters and 1,146 doves bagged, which works out to 4.4 per bird. For a 15-bird daily limit, plan on roughly 67 shells, or three boxes. The same study recorded that 39.2 percent of the birds hunters hit were wounded rather than recovered, and that bagged doves carried an average of just 2.6 to 3.1 pellet strikes, which is why pattern density beats pellet energy.
Forty yards is the honest ceiling with a standard dove load, and 30 to 35 yards is where you should be shooting. In the Texas study the average shot was 31.9 yards. Inside about 31 yards hunters bagged 28.4 percent of the birds they shot at; beyond it, 16.6 percent, while the wounding rate held roughly steady. The study also found hunters overestimated the range to close birds and underestimated it on far ones, so step off 35 yards in the field before you set up.
Steel #7. The conventional rule is to go up two sizes from lead, taking #8 to steel #6, but for doves we recommend going up one instead. Steel #7 carries about 420 pellets per ounce and produced the highest average strike count of the three loads in the Texas study at 3.1 pellets per bagged bird. Save steel #6 for pass shooting past 40 yards and for Eurasian collared doves. Steel patterns tighter than lead, so open your choke rather than tightening it.
No. Nonlead ammunition has been required for taking any wildlife with a firearm anywhere in California since July 1, 2019 under AB 711, on public and private land alike. For doves use 1 ounce of #7 steel in 12 gauge, or 3/4 to 7/8 ounce in 20 gauge. Winchester Xpert Steel, Kent Upland Fasteel, Federal Upland Steel and Fiocchi Field Dynamics are all California legal. Confirm current rules with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife before you hunt.
Doves are federally exempt from the nontoxic shot rule that covers waterfowl, so this is set by state and property. California requires nonlead statewide. Washington requires it at all pheasant release sites statewide, doves included, with a mandatory $1,000 fine and a two-year loss of small game privileges. Missouri requires it on 37 or more conservation areas, Indiana on all Fish and Wildlife Areas, Kansas on state-managed lands including posted dove fields, Delaware on State Wildlife Areas in September, Illinois on some public lands, and Louisiana at Pointe-aux-Chenes WMA. Dozens of individual areas elsewhere are posted nonlead, so check the property and not just the state.
Go up one shot size from what you use on mourning doves: lead #7.5 or steel #6. A Eurasian collared dove weighs roughly twice what a mourning dove does and tends to come in higher and straighter, so a load that folds mourners cleanly can leave you chasing cripples. In California collared doves are unprotected and do not count toward the daily bag limit, which is why hunters there often carry both sizes.
Because it is probably an inertia action: Benelli, Franchi, Stoeger and some Weatherbys. Inertia guns need a minimum recoil impulse to drive the bolt, and budget loads at 1,145 fps often fall below it, which produces a stovepipe. Benelli's published guidance calls for 3-dram, 1-1/8 ounce loads at roughly 1,200 fps, though Benelli's own Ethos page claims the action runs from 7/8 ounce up, so the published specs conflict. The fixes, best first: buy a faster shell, break the gun in with 100 to 200 rounds, and mount it firmly. Steel dove loads at 1,325 to 1,400 fps solve it outright.
Yes, and most experienced dove hunters do. Winchester Super-Target, Federal Top Gun and Remington American Clay and Field are all target loads and all excellent on doves. The one thing to check is velocity. Light target loadings run as slow as 1,145 fps and can fail to cycle inertia semi-autos, so take the 1,200 fps version if you shoot a Benelli, Franchi or Stoeger. Target loads are also the cheapest way to shoot doves well, at roughly 32 to 40 cents a shell by the flat.
Sources and disclosures: Dove lethality, pattern, distance and choke data from Pierce, Roster, Frisbie, Mason and Roberson, "A comparison of lead and steel shot loads for harvesting mourning doves," Wildlife Society Bulletin 39(1):103–115, 2015, with study background from Texas Parks and Wildlife. Shells-per-bird (4.4) and wounding rate (39.2% of birds hit) are derived from that paper's Table 3. Lead pellet counts per Federal Premium published charts; steel counts per manufacturer published data and vary by source. California nonlead requirement per CDFW under AB 711. Washington pheasant release site rule and penalty per WDFW. Kansas public land rules per KDWP. AI regulation warning per Idaho Fish and Game, October 21, 2025. Load specs per Winchester, Kent Cartridge, Federal Premium, Remington and Fiocchi published data; pricing per retailer listings, July 2026. Manufacturer performance and pattern claims are marketing and have not been independently verified. Contains affiliate links; Hunt Bums may earn a commission at no cost to you. Always confirm current regulations with your state agency and check posted rules on the property you hunt.