Don’t Shoot Overhead Lines During Dove Season

With the excitement of dove season’s arrival, many are looking to fill their hunting bags and freezers. Bandera Electric Cooperative wants to keep its members informed regarding the dangers of hunting near overhead lines.
Doves often perch on high lines to take a break from flying, scout fields for food and congregate in preparation for migration. Although these feathered line dwellers make for enticing targets, the risk of damaging electric and fiber-optic equipment, as well as causing harm to the environment, is far greater than the reward of bagging one more bird.

Electricity and internet access are cornerstones of our fast-paced world. Every year, homes and businesses are cut off from these essential services when shotgun pellets hit electric and fiber cables. The interference halts communications, causes food to spoil and interrupts essential medical devices, and the damage has the potential to contaminate water.

When lines are severed or weakened from a shot, they may sag or break, becoming a hazard to people and animals. Line damage can also discharge electricity and ignite fires, potentially devastating the environment and nearby infrastructure.

Lineworkers report some hunters attempt to use high lines to set bird decoys. This is an extremely dangerous tactic as contact with power lines can cause serious or even fatal injury.

Although electric wires may appear harmless when birds safely sit on them, humans can’t reach those same lines without a connection to the ground. It’s that connection to the ground—by ladder, tree or truck bed—that makes the human body a path to the ground for the voltage coursing through electric lines.

BEC encourages you to be considerate of neighbors and mindful of your own safety before hunting near overhead lines and leaving the area without power or internet. Do your due diligence: Scout the area and direction in which you plan to aim your gun. The risks to property and life are far greater than the reward of fowl targets.