Many wing shooters live for September 1. This storied date marks the beginning of dove season in most states, and for those that crave barrel-melting wing-shooting action, few migratory bird species provide it like mourning and white-winged doves.

Fast flyers that dip, duck, and dive, doves present a formidable challenge for the shotgunner. Doves reach speeds between 30 and 55 miles per hour. If Mother Nature is producing any wind, doves use it and can flare quickly and be out of shotgun range in seconds. One of my hunting mentors told me once, "If you can kill your 15-dove limit with a box of shells, you're shooting well."

Whether you're new to dove hunting or a sage veteran, late-August is an excellent time to prepare for an opening morning that you won't soon forget.

Here's our dove primer list of to-buy and to-do items. Heed the advice, do your scouting and find a passel of birds, and chances are good you'll be eating dove poppers for weeks.

At Browning, we think of gun selection before we consider anything else. Fresh on dealer's shelves and ready to make your 2025 dove season one to remember is the A5 Hunter 20 Gauge.

A lightweight and streamlined autoloader, the A5 Hunter 20 Gauge showcases a beautiful Turkish walnut stock with a gloss finish and a vertical grip. The stock is adjustable for length of pull, cast, and drop, which allows for shooter customization.

The gloss black anodized receiver finish is stunning, and the humpback design ensures fast target acquisition as it melds seamlessly with the raised rib to extend your sight plane.

The blued barrel is available in 26 and 28-inch options, and it features a fiber-optic front sight that provides excellent visibility in all lighting conditions. The A5 Hunter 20 Gauge comes with full, modified, and improved cylinder Invector-DS Flush chokes. The chokes work in unison with a Vector Pro lengthened forcing cone and Back-Bored Barrel to ensure excellent pattern density.

Browning's Kinematic Drive System uses recoil energy and converts that energy into the mechanical motion needed to operate the action. The design is simple and reliable, and because energy from recoil is used to eject spent hulls and load new shotshells, that means less abuse on the shoulder. The Kinetic Drive System works with the Inflex II Recoil Pad to reduce recoil, which means a smoother swing and transition from one target to the next.

The 5-pound 9-ounce A5 Hunter 20 Gauge provides a flat 50/50 POI — half of the pattern above the target and half below it — and the Speed Load Plus system makes emptying the magazine fast and easy.

If you're on a hot dove field, water hole, or a flyway between food and roost, chances are good you're going to go through lots of shotshells. That's good! Part of the fun of dove hunting is getting to go boom a lot over a short period.

Browning's all-new Golden Clays shotshells are excellent for turning orange and black discs into puffs of dust and for filling limits of migrating doves. The 2-3/4" Golden Clays are available in 12, 16, 20, and 28 gauge as well as .410 bore.

Another excellent load for doves is Winchester's 2-3/4", 1-ounce payload Magnum Dove. Magnum Dove blends two popular dove shot sizes #7-1/2 and #9 to create ultra-dense patterns that doves can't slip through.

The last thing you want to do is beat up your new A5 Hunter 20 Gauge when you're transporting it to and from the field. Browning's Plainsman Shotgun case is an excellent budget-friendly soft case made from 600-denier polyester canvas on the outside and open-cell foam padding on the inside. The zipper doesn't stick and won't break, and the case gives you plenty of bang for your buck.

Lots of shooting means lots of cleaning. Doves make excellent table fare, and Browning's Back Country Fixed Micro knife is ideal for slicing off breast meat. The knife is light and sharp, and the orange ceramic blade finish makes it difficult to lose. The G-10 handle scales provide an excellent grip, even when the hands are bloody, and the Kydex sheath holds the knife securely.

A quality vest that will hold your shotshells, spent hulls, and birds is also a must-have. The Upland Strap Vest is a minimalistic upland game hunting vest with adjustable shoulder straps and an adjustable front belt with a speed buckle. The vest is lightweight and comfortable. The mesh-back game bag with blood-proof lining combines with the vest's open-design style, making it perfect for warm-weather hunts.

Now that you have your gear, you're going to need to break in that new A5 Hunter 20 Gauge and build confidence with it. This shouldn't be hard to do — the shotgun balances like a dream and swings smoothly.

Still, it's an excellent idea to visit the gun range and bust some clays. If you don't have a local gun range, get some buddies, buy some clay targets and a thrower, and spend time cracking clays going away and crossing from side to side.

Not only is shooting clays fun and inexpensive, but it will help hone your shotgunning skills and get you ready for the dove opener.

If you want a great dove shoot, you must find the birds. This isn't hard to do. Spend some time behind the steering wheel and locate likely dove food sources like cut wheat fields, sunflower fields, milo fields, etc. The best time to scout food sources is during the morning and evening. Doves will also hit water sources like prairie ponds, stock tanks, etc., throughout the morning and evening hours. If you can find where doves are feeding and watering, you'll be able to watch them come and go from the roost to the food and water.

We like to find flyways between the roost and the food/water. Flyways provide non-stop action, and you're not disturbing birds from their roosts or their primary food source. No, there's nothing wrong with a good field hunt, but if you can hunt flyway patterns, you'll have more good dove shoots in the same area because the doves can still feed, water, and roost without being bothered.

The best way to find a primary flyway is to sit between the roost and the food/water and use binoculars. Pay attention to how birds fly over the terrain. We also note areas where doves loaf between food/water and roost. Keep a keen eye out for power lines sagging under the weight of doves and fence lines dotted with these fun-to-shoot migratory birds.

Opening morning isn't far away. Get your gear and put in the work now, and you'll set yourself and your crew in a great location to make some new memories with that all-new Browning A5 Hunter 20 Gauge. Have a blast! The dove opener only comes once a year.