I was recently having a discussion with a friend and we were debating if when cleaning doves if you have to leave a wing attached to the bird until you reach final destination. Question came up talking about going to do a hunt that an outfitter provided and then helped clean before leaving. Do they need to leave a wing attached when transporting home or can they breast out the doves and put them on ice and take them home? There is not a commercial or professional cleaning station, just an area where you can clean the birds to take them home. Any help would be appreciated as best i could find online was about transporting the doves when coming into the state of Texas, not about transporting from a field to house when cleaning at the field before heading home. Thanks!!!

For dove you don't need to leave a wing on. See link below and scroll down to "Species Identification".

https://tpwd.texas.gov/regulations/outdo...s/general-rules

We had the same issue cause we shot our limit and a hand full of Eurasian doves on opening weekend. We didn't want to get accused of having over our possession limit so we took pictures of the birds before we cleaned them. I don't know if that's legit though cause we never got stopped

We kept the wings on the Eurasians, which the outfitter told us to do that in case you did get stopped.

Good idea. But if you are going to do that, just leave the bird whole on ice. Cleaning the bird and leaving a wing on is a pain. Just put the birds on ice, clean them when you get home. Birds are fine like this for a week. I normall clean my birds when I get home, if I clean them away from home I only do that if I'm bored. But cleaning a bird and leaving a wing on, I'll never mess with that.

No wing needed for Doves, also this document is good to use if you are driving a good distance from your hunt to your home and have different hunters in your vehicle with game limits. Most good outfitters will provide these to their customers as well..

TP&W Wildlife Resource Document

Just to keep things simple, and the end of hunt of day, we usually just put the birds all that i shoot in a large plastic bag. Keep it on ice, stays fine for the day or til i get home. If spending a night i keep each days birds in different bags. That way eliminates confusion when the GW stops you or checks your group out, i can support my story.
Just not worth the hassle of giving the GW a sad story or play games with them. Believe me they have heard all stories hunters can dream up.

The hearts, gizzards, make great giblet gravy if making a skillet diner!