ShropshireSam Posted June 26, 2015 Report Share Posted June 26, 2015 Just back from another session on the peas. Numbers had built up since shooting it last Saturday and couldn't get out this weekend so took this afternoon off and was at field by 3 pm. Pigeons all over it. Spent 40 minutes setting some barrier tape up on canes at one corner I can't shoot, moved pigeons off and set up under a large oak in middle of field by 4pm. Set up with a flapper and 12 half shell decoys just sat on top of peas. Birds did no decoy well at first and I didn't shoot well. Partly as trigger mechanism seemed to be faulty and trigger would frequently not work on either first or second barrel. Then realised the adjustable trigger had come loose and was sometimes sliding on track instead of "pulling". Tried to tighten allen key screw with penknife but didn't do enough. Eventual figured I could tie trigger to front of trigger guide and this stopped it sliding back on the track. Then had a heavy rain shower and birds did not decoy well at first after that. Went round dead birds used as decoys and shook water off them and replaced a wet looking bird on flapper. Birds then came in much better and had a good hour til 7pm then stop start until 8 pm and backed up. I counted 103 dropped from 165 shots and picked 55 from tramlines and around tree. Total bag is 254 from 4 visits in 10 days. Peas are just finishing flowering now so expect pigeons will lose interest until ripening. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fenboy Posted June 26, 2015 Report Share Posted June 26, 2015 You only picked 55 out of 103 ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kitchrat Posted June 26, 2015 Report Share Posted June 26, 2015 You only picked 55 out of 103 ? Does that mean the farmer will find nearly 50 "very high" dead birds in his combine?? They have to cut the crop right at ground level and bodies will be entwined with the vines..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zipdog Posted June 27, 2015 Report Share Posted June 27, 2015 kitchrat, I very much doubt any of the birds will get picked up by a combine or pea viner (depending on the market). The headers use tines which generally results in heavy items such as stones or dead animals falling through onto the ground. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yickdaz Posted June 27, 2015 Report Share Posted June 27, 2015 why would you want to lose so many birds in the first place is my gripe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fenboy Posted June 27, 2015 Report Share Posted June 27, 2015 why would you want to lose so many birds in the first place is my gripe Exactly , they may be a pest but still deserve some respect and its a food source going to waste , unfortunately in the next week or two we will start hearing from those leaving piles in layed cereals too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Boggy Posted June 27, 2015 Report Share Posted June 27, 2015 Exactly , they may be a pest but still deserve some respect and its a food source going to waste , unfortunately in the next week or two we will start hearing from those leaving piles in layed cereals too Totally agree. I would rather not shoot if I thought that so many could not be picked. Outrageous and one for the antis to make hay with ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pigeon controller Posted June 27, 2015 Report Share Posted June 27, 2015 A good result but could you not drop them as they came to the tree so you could pick them up . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matty* Posted June 27, 2015 Report Share Posted June 27, 2015 Im gonna try shooting some pigeons on barley to day as some point if the numbers are still there, but ill be trying to decoy them on to a cover strip next to in so i can pick them. Last year i was invited by my boss to shoot over barley wich was very busy i asked if it was layed he replyed no. I didnt go. He clicked 325 but when i asked what he picked the reply was 125!! I couldnt do that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest stevo Posted June 27, 2015 Report Share Posted June 27, 2015 or do what I did , last night I went back over the barley I shot with my mate who lives at the far end of field I shot , we took his two cockers , I just stood back and watched , totally brilliant I love it .... so much I want to get myself one , just need to bring the missus round to my why of thinking , the dogs picked 14 . so I don't pretty well out of 50 odd birds . I know the farmers can put pressure on you sometimes to shoot , but I try to shoot over the low bits , I don't like leaving birds , it really does **** me off as I eat them and so do a lot of my mates to me , its my prize Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marsh man Posted June 27, 2015 Report Share Posted June 27, 2015 I have been on peas three days this week and I am not saying I havent lost any pigeons at all because I have lost one or two that carry on and you know in your own mind your more or less waisting your time by going that distance to try and find it , but shooting over the peas I cant think of any lost . Yesterday afternoon me and Lakeside1000 had a look on a pea field that was a bit quite but we did manage to shoot over 30 and apart from one lost up a tree we didn't lose one on the peas . Like fenboy says we are coming to the time of the year where the word vermin and crop protection is used a lot as a excuse for leaving wounded and dead bodies in tall crops . Really no need for it . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
picardy Posted June 27, 2015 Report Share Posted June 27, 2015 I'm sure Charlie would sort that out Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andra Posted June 27, 2015 Report Share Posted June 27, 2015 (edited) Exactly , they may be a pest but still deserve some respect and its a food source going to waste , unfortunately in the next week or two we will start hearing from those leaving piles in layed cereals too Have came across similar before big piles of birds just dumped (not in the crop but nearby)..... No need for it, as you say respect is deserved. If they aint going to be used / offered up to others etc go shoot clays. Edited June 27, 2015 by Andra Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mossy835 Posted June 27, 2015 Report Share Posted June 27, 2015 they will be gone by the time the combine gets there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenholland Posted June 27, 2015 Report Share Posted June 27, 2015 won't shoot them if i carn't pick them i hate to lose birds but if you have got to protect the crop just have to get on with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salopian Posted June 27, 2015 Report Share Posted June 27, 2015 They sure will be gone. I went home and collected my Wife , Cocker and Labrador . The dogs made short work collecting 37 pigeons from around Sam's area , but more pleasing for myself was Purdey (Super Nose) the Lab found a single bird that I had shot earlier a L-O-N-G way back. I think we are all agreed that to not pick dead birds is wrong , but we also have to take into account that pigeons are a crop pest and need to be attended to . Is it ethical to shoot pigeons and then trample down a crop? Or is it better to leave them to gorge themselves and destroy a crop ? It is Pest Control first and foremost . Tin hat on! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fielddweller Posted June 27, 2015 Report Share Posted June 27, 2015 No need for a tin hat Totally agree with your actions. Fielddweller Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kdubya Posted June 27, 2015 Report Share Posted June 27, 2015 Does that mean the farmer will find nearly 50 "very high" dead birds in his combine?? They have to cut the crop right at ground level and bodies will be entwined with the vines..... this time of year a pigeon will be nowt but a maggot riddled mush in two days. KW Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
motty Posted June 27, 2015 Report Share Posted June 27, 2015 this time of year a pigeon will be nowt but a maggot riddled mush in two days. KW More like a week or more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wilts#Dave Posted June 27, 2015 Report Share Posted June 27, 2015 I've never understood how people find their birds when they leave picking up till the end? If I'm shooting on any sort of crop that means I can't easily see the pigeons that fall I'll go out and pick them up either every half a dozen or so shot or in thick barley/peas every time I shoot one. It may trample a little of the crop down and obviously won't shoot as many by leaving the hide so regularly but I only ever count the number of birds I take home not just ones I might have dropped. I'm gutted if I leave with more than half a dozen lost birds! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marsh man Posted June 27, 2015 Report Share Posted June 27, 2015 I've never understood how people find their birds when they leave picking up till the end? If I'm shooting on any sort of crop that means I can't easily see the pigeons that fall I'll go out and pick them up either every half a dozen or so shot or in thick barley/peas every time I shoot one. It may trample a little of the crop down and obviously won't shoot as many by leaving the hide so regularly but I only ever count the number of birds I take home not just ones I might have dropped. I'm gutted if I leave with more than half a dozen lost birds! I fully agree with the above post , I pick up after four or five shot , any more than that I tend to forget where they are and I would get more satisfaction shooting fifty and picking most of them up and shooting a hundred and losing fifty just so you can say you shot a ton which at the end of a day is only a figure and also like the above I only count what I pick and not what I lose . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fenboy Posted June 27, 2015 Report Share Posted June 27, 2015 Me too Marsh man , only count what is actually in the bag , if their is 50 in the bag and 50 left in the field ( which there would not be in my case) then I have a 50 bag , not a 100 bag ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marsh man Posted June 28, 2015 Report Share Posted June 28, 2015 I can understand S / Sam excitement of getting a hundred + bag and good luck to him and well done on that score , but I would imagine he is a lot younger than most of us older ones on P W. I was brought up where whatever we shot we done our best to retrieve it , if we didn't there wouldn't have been a lot of point in shooting it in the first place , cartridges were expensive ( and still are ) and we very rarely had more than a couple of boxes of 25 in the house so on the rare occasion I did get something to eat I made sure I done my best to get it home and in the oven . That was more than 50 years ago and things have moved on where I now buy cartridges by the 1000 instead of a box of 25 but the feeling for what I shoot have never left me , if anything more so as I have older and I have lost count of the times I have left the hide to go and get a clipped one down the hedge only to turn round and see birds dropping in to the decoys , but to me getting the one I went after was the one that mattered the most . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kennett Posted June 28, 2015 Report Share Posted June 28, 2015 I seem to remember having the same arguement this time last year! When I am game shooting, or wildfowling I will try my absolute best to pick everything and anything that is wounded, and have 2 dogs for this reason. Pigeon shooting over drilling or stubble I will do the same, and quite often come back later on with a fresh dog and walk hedges and belts in the surrounding area for any that wobble off hit. However when large amounts of pigeon are landing in a laid crop, or laying it themselves by dropping on it, I have no qualms about leaving them in the fields,this is pest control pure and simple. And after watching kites and buzzards sweeping the area before we have left I'm sure that very few carcasses would survive to.make it through the combine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wilts#Dave Posted June 28, 2015 Report Share Posted June 28, 2015 I seem to remember having the same arguement this time last year! When I am game shooting, or wildfowling I will try my absolute best to pick everything and anything that is wounded, and have 2 dogs for this reason. Pigeon shooting over drilling or stubble I will do the same, and quite often come back later on with a fresh dog and walk hedges and belts in the surrounding area for any that wobble off hit. However when large amounts of pigeon are landing in a laid crop, or laying it themselves by dropping on it, I have no qualms about leaving them in the fields,this is pest control pure and simple. And after watching kites and buzzards sweeping the area before we have left I'm sure that very few carcasses would survive to.make it through the combine. What's wrong with adjusting your shooting technique on laid corn to getting the birds to commit to the decoys and taking them closer so there's at least a chance of finding them without too much trouble? Letting go at long crossers constatntly etc that are never going to be picked is just irresponsible in my opinion, but that's only my take on it morally. I'm well aware of the crop protection aspect but being there all day and shooting maybe 20 or 30 less isn't going to make a huge difference. It's not my favourite shooting by any means but that's just how we deal with it, take the 20/.410 which makes it as much fun as blasting the long birds with the 12! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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