Hey All. The area I have an opportunity to Dove hunt in sits about 500 yards from a (not particularly busy) shooting range. It seems to close at 5:30pm each evening. Seeing that it's about 500 yards away, should I be worried about negative impact on the dove patterns in the general area, if all else is equal to a solid field that doesn't have that range activity? It's not an all-day-long noise maker over there so hopefully it won't be a problem. Thoughts?

Your best bet, if it's an option, would be to scout the area you intend to hunt a couple times to see how the dove activity is affected. Assuming the range is always open, birds in that area should be accustomed to the activity and migrating birds wouldn't know what they were flying into until it was too late.

Either way, I'd think you'd be fine to give it a go.

Dove fly all around Elm Fork with shooting going on. It's tempting...

I was at a pretty busy range just the other day and there were doves on the range eating with bullets flying overhead

There are more dove at the national shooting complex in San Antonio than most dove fields. I wouldn't worry about it one bit. If anything I might help you. If shooting goes on constantly, the local birds will be use to it.