NickB65 Posted June 28, 2015 Report Share Posted June 28, 2015 Well the wife was out horse riding all day so it seemed right that Blue and I went shooting for the day - well it was that or DIY..... no contest. Behind the farm house we have a series of large fields which this year are sugar beet. Along one boundary we have a hedge which end in a small tree and the field bends round for another 50 yards before the next farmers field starts and he has wheat in this. This little dog leg has a boundary hedge running opposite it which is one of the access paths to the fields and is about 100 yards away from the tree. I could see from the barns that the pigeons were hitting all the beet field in little groups but no real patterns or numbers. I had not shot the dog leg before so why not. I set-up in the tree so the tree was my back ground and I managed to literally put the hide in the tree with branches to my sides and over head. My view was the expanse of the field to the left and the the dog leg in front and going to my right for about another 50 yards. Opposite running left to right was the boundary hedge about 100 yards away. I placed the main decoys to my right about 10 yards right on the hide facing the wind which was also from my right. I curved the decoys in a slight arc so the furthest on was almost opposite me about 65 yards away while the closest was 20 yards in front. I then placed a flapper in front to my left about 30 yards away so it was visible to the whole field and I set this on an intermittent timer. I used three nets with high poles so I could stand and have the nets draping onto the ground. Some branches which were in the way were placed in front to add detail. We sat there for about ten minutes and a buzzard flew past less than ten feet away and eight feet off the ground. I could see every detail of him, the light brown belly feathers and the dark glistening eye..... so the hide was good. After about 30 minutes I was starting to wonder if this was such a good placement when the first bird came in. From the large field to my left it flew to the flapper around in an arc to join the rest of the decoys and it dropped with one shot. And that was how it remained all morning from 10am through to about 1pm. They cam in there ones and two's mainly from the left and came to the flapper, arced around to join the rest. some arced harder around to almost fly into the tree while other flew around the flapper and flew up as if to move off not keen to join the others on the ground..... they did though thanks to a load of number 6. Some came from behind and to the right and landed out of sight and if it was not for blue I would not have realised and two came from the right and flew close around the tree. The first of these two spotted me and changed in a swift wing movement to fly away and right so I swung onto him and he dropped to my first shot while the second was slightly behind the first and carried on around the tree and I quickly swung onto him as he disappeared behind the tree and I shot more out of reaction. The first was shot slight behind but dead while the second was so close I had shot his head clean off.... literally no more than 10 yards. Blue picked up well but the ground was full of pigeon sent and towards the end it must have been blur of scent as he struggled plus it was very hot. I admit I had my fare share of misses and some I just wonder how they managed to fly off. A lone pigeon came across the field in front of high up and came straight into the pattern swooping up and down as they do. The first shot was at about 30 yards, the second at about 25 and the third at 10 yards as it flew straight over me. The first was slightly left and he dodged right, I then shot low and he arced upwards and then I was way in front..... Another landed on the ground and as it took off the earth erupted around him as the number 6 shot crashed around him but he just rose and flew off...... how he was not mortally wounded I do not know...... One Pigeon decided to go in style. He flew in from the left and then turned away from me as I shot and he then proceeded to spiral upwards. Up and up he went in a perfect spiral and I thought he was never going to stop he just kept going up and up. He spiralled up and up and he just stopped beating his wings and dropped to the earth like a stone. He landed in front of me about 30 yards out and the sound of him hitting the ground was a hollow thud. I walked Blue over as I wanted to see the bird before Blue picked him and it turned out it was a lung shot as the body was covered in blood. Seen a similar occurrence with a cock Pheasant but never with a woody. At around 1am they stopped and from then till about 3 there was nothing. The sky was devoid of life...... at 3:30 I saw a huge flock go over and head to the other beet field belonging to the neighbouring farmer and land on their beet field. As they landed another flock already on the field took flight and landed again..... there must have been several hundred on the field. After that the flight pattern changed and no matter what I did they were no longer interested. They came to us attracted by the flapper but never more than 50 yards and then veered off. Moved the decoys around, added another flapper, took away both flappers but no joy. Packed up at 5pm with a total bag of 43 woodies and three feral for 78 shots. Not a huge bag but a slow steady day. Best moments of the day was a woody that wanted to die as it came in and it took four shots to take him down... yes I shot all three shots of the semi and then loaded another in to kill him... more luck and instinct than skill. Another was a left and right which made even the dog pleased but still no triple :-( and the last was a perfect single high bird coming in from the right, nice and high not interested in landing just flying over to see what was what and dropped to less than a foot from the hide. The next outing I hope to video as I plan to buy myself a Go Pro. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pigeon controller Posted June 28, 2015 Report Share Posted June 28, 2015 Interesting day, well done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kitchrat Posted June 28, 2015 Report Share Posted June 28, 2015 What do you think they were feeding on, weeds in between the plants or the beet itself??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickB65 Posted July 1, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 1, 2015 Kitchrat - they were feeding on Beets leaves although most of our plants are quite mature now so they tend to go for more immature plants. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kitchrat Posted July 1, 2015 Report Share Posted July 1, 2015 Kitchrat - they were feeding on Beets leaves although most of our plants are quite mature now so they tend to go for more immature plants. Thanks for that info, I only know of 1 field near me, saw birds on it and wondered why. Thought it was weeds. Now all I have to do is get permission, but there's a game shoot on that farm..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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