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Best set up for drilled peas??


yidoharry
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After pestering you all with my earlier posts and being overwhelmed by the response, help and guidance offered Ive finally started to knock a few down! I now have got to fields of peas to have a go at. Question is what would be a decent set up.........rotary or not? Flappers? Or just go in with a decent decoy pattern. The reason I ask is that I'm thinking, would the rotary look out of place on a bare field and spook them or am I giving our feathered friends to much respect. Would be interesting to hear everyone's view on how would they approach it. I know that each day is different but want to give myself the very best chance to have a successful day for myself and the farmer, so would be great to hear your opinions, cheers

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I rarely use a rotary on drillings unless birds are not decoying. Others will swear by them. Some will swear at them.

Is that because you feel it would look out of place or "obvious" to them and spook them or more that you feel they just decoy better without one?

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On drillings the pattern should be "no pattern".

By this I mean to say make the area look busy, but leaving gaps for the Pigeons to land.

Small groups of decoys facing different directions, I suppose Random is the word I was looking for.

A flapper can help , but on a timer.

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On drillings the pattern should be "no pattern".

By this I mean to say make the area look busy, but leaving gaps for the Pigeons to land.

Small groups of decoys facing different directions, I suppose Random is the word I was looking for.

A flapper can help , but on a timer.

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YH you need to guide the pigeons in to range, get them to come to your killing zone.

 

 

If the sun is on a newly drilled field 12 decoys should pull them in, I put more out if it is dull to improve the chance of them being seen from the flightline.

 

 

Good luck

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Shooting over any sort of drilling i will start with around 12 flexicoys and two flappers, ill wait for the first few birds and see what happens. But i have no problem at all putting the whirly out and find it makes no difference to using it on any other sort of crop at any at stage in growing.

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I don't think a rotary looks any more out of place on drill than it does on 3" tall peas/rape. Give it a try. If it doesn't work, try something else.

 

If it looks busy it will be busy is my motto.

 

But you have to re evaluate all the time.

Try different things and find out what is best for you

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With 30 decoys, I’d set out two random patterns with a 10-15 yard gap (directly in front of me) between them. The angle of the two patterns would be determined according to wind speed/direction.

 

 

We had a day on drillings a couple of weeks ago and started without the rotary and though birds were coming in, a lot more were choosing not to. As soon as the rotary was put out then they started to pour in. But that’s what worked on that particular day, another day the opposite could work better!

 

 

For me it all depends where the birds are coming from and how close you are to a flight line. If the flight line is at distance I would start with the rotary to attract their attention, if you are under or close to the flight line then I'd probably start without and watch the ratio of birds which decoy and those that don't. I work on majority ratio, if I’m drawing in say 2 out of every 10 birds that see my decoys then the pattern/set-up isn’t working, if I’m drawing 8 out of 10 then I’m happy; Anything in between those ratio’s is up to you how much you want to tinker with your pattern to improve that ratio.

 

 

What I also do is every 2-3 real birds I drop, I take out 4-5 plastics, preferring even two smaller patterns of real birds over plastics, but I would keep adding dropped birds building up that pattern until I see it’s putting birds off.

 

 

Whatever you do, go out and enjoy your day, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t, there’s definitely no “one method fits all”, it’s about adapting to the situation on the day.

 

 

Cos

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Always best to adapt and not to be fixed in your ways. I routinely try the magnet from the start this time of year irrespective of the ground I'm on....but if I have a long walk, I may travel light with just a flapper and small battery and leave the magnet in the vehicle and only return for it if the birds are not decoying well.

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Decoying is all about pulling pigeons in, so IMO movement is important, on small fields spring stick decoys decoys may be enough, but on all big fields (any crop) I start with a rotary.

As has been said, be flexible, if something doesn't seem to be working try a change, thats the way to build your experience up.

Don't over think things, remember to enjoy it.

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I Don't use a Rotory on drillings...never again...

 

Just a good horseshoe pattern of some decent decoys... and a low mounted intermittent flapper does the trick for me.

 

I've always found the birds flare way at height if you use a rotary or even wands, whereas with decoys they seem to just drop in.

 

Make sure the birds are feeding on the field first or you will be sat there all day for nowt.

 

Make sure also this time of year your hide matches the hedgerow or background.

 

There was a guy shooting the field opposite me last week and his camo netting stood out like a sore thumb against the barren hedge...If I could see him I bet the birds could easily.

 

I shot 57 he shot 11 and there were plenty of birds around

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I Don't use a Rotory on drillings...never again...

 

Just a good horseshoe pattern of some decent decoys... and a low mounted intermittent flapper does the trick for me.

 

I've always found the birds flare way at height if you use a rotary or even wands, whereas with decoys they seem to just drop in.

 

Make sure the birds are feeding on the field first or you will be sat there all day for nowt.

 

Make sure also this time of year your hide matches the hedgerow or background.

 

There was a guy shooting the field opposite me last week and his camo netting stood out like a sore thumb against the barren hedge...If I could see him I bet the birds could easily.

 

I shot 57 he shot 11 and there were plenty of birds around

If there are birds on the field I assume they're feeding??? When I went on Monday I sat on a smaller rape field that they've been on but after a steady start they disappeared so I decided to call it a day. After packing the gear up I thought I take a drive down to the drilled fields to see if any were about.......the larger of the two had the odd crow and occasional pigeon flying over but the smaller field was half full of pigeons which rose in unison on my arrival as expected! Would they just sit around on it or if they're on it would they be feeding?

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I Don't use a Rotory on drillings...never again...

 

Just a good horseshoe pattern of some decent decoys... and a low mounted intermittent flapper does the trick for me.

 

I've always found the birds flare way at height if you use a rotary or even wands, whereas with decoys they seem to just drop in.

 

Make sure the birds are feeding on the field first or you will be sat there all day for nowt.

 

Make sure also this time of year your hide matches the hedgerow or background.

 

There was a guy shooting the field opposite me last week and his camo netting stood out like a sore thumb against the barren hedge...If I could see him I bet the birds could easily.

 

I shot 57 he shot 11 and there were plenty of birds around

I will always disagree with this type of comment. I would agree if pigeons had the reasoning ability of humans.

I have shot many pigeons whilst my hide has 'stood out like a sore thumb'. In fact, I remember quite clearly (maybe 10 years ago) shooting on some growing peas. My dad was to be joining me. When he arrived he started moaning that my hide 'stands out like a sore thumb' and 'I can see that hide from 500 yards away'. The pile of pigeons next to the hide seemed to make no difference to his views.

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I will always disagree with this type of comment. I would agree if pigeons had the reasoning ability of humans.

I have shot many pigeons whilst my hide has 'stood out like a sore thumb'. In fact, I remember quite clearly (maybe 10 years ago) shooting on some growing peas. My dad was to be joining me. When he arrived he started moaning that my hide 'stands out like a sore thumb' and 'I can see that hide from 500 yards away'. The pile of pigeons next to the hide seemed to make no difference to his views.

 

But Motty, if you had followed FMs point you may well have shot 300!

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For me on drilling I've found dead birds and maybe a bouncer works best but there have been times when a magnet has helped, every day is different . On a crop I tend to start with a magnet or even two if I haven't got to walk far. Watch what the birds are doing coming to the decoys you will see if you've got it wrong. As for hides blending in , I shoot in the fens and often times your hides going to stick out like a sore thumb regardless , doesn't mean that the birds won't decoy , I would rather have a poor hide in the right spot than a palace of a hide the wrong end of the field. As a side note I use a desert camo net I've found it works well all year round

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