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300 on laid barley.


JDog
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During a break in my honest toil today I sat up watching a good line into a barley field in the distance.

 

Jasper and I went to investigate and at the bottom of the field well out of sight from the road was an enormous patch of laid barley. The barley was very tall and had gone down in all directions probably as a result of a wind vortex.

 

On approaching the spot a cloud of 300 pigeons if not more erupted from the ground. This was the first laid barley I have seen this year. My work and of course my ethics prevented me from seeking permission and having a go at them.

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During a break in my honest toil today I sat up watching a good line into a barley field in the distance.

 

Jasper and I went to investigate and at the bottom of the field well out of sight from the road was an enormous patch of laid barley. The barley was very tall and had gone down in all directions probably as a result of a wind vortex.

 

On approaching the spot a cloud of 300 pigeons if not more erupted from the ground. This was the first laid barley I have seen this year. My work and of course my ethics prevented me from seeking permission and having a go at them.

I have also seen pigeons piling in on some barley not far from me. I will not shoot it until harvest. Yesterday I saw several hundred pigeons dropping into some standing wheat on a farm next to one I shoot. I may seek permission if the field 'goes flat' or the pigeons are still there at harvest.

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I have also seen pigeons piling in on some barley not far from me. I will not shoot it until harvest. Yesterday I saw several hundred pigeons dropping into some standing wheat on a farm next to one I shoot. I may seek permission if the field 'goes flat' or the pigeons are still there at harvest.

 

I saw a lot dropping in standing wheat at T st J when I went to pick the pup up.

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During a break in my honest toil today I sat up watching a good line into a barley field in the distance.

 

Jasper and I went to investigate and at the bottom of the field well out of sight from the road was an enormous patch of laid barley. The barley was very tall and had gone down in all directions probably as a result of a wind vortex.

 

On approaching the spot a cloud of 300 pigeons if not more erupted from the ground. This was the first laid barley I have seen this year. My work and of course my ethics prevented me from seeking permission and having a go at them.

Your detective work and homing skills would have passed the reconnaissance test with flying colours , and I am sure our friend in Greece would have been impressed . :good: Would you had seeked the go ahead if it had been peas and not barley ?

 

I have got one field of barley that have gone down in large areas with a few pigeons going on but at the moment peas are been vined so the barley might have to wait for a few days as I promised one of the members a days shooting and I know the barley will be left alone till I give it a look .

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I am sure JDogs ethics are very similar to mine when it comes to leaving birds in crops .

For me if they are going into standing crops on a farm I shoot they would be left until either they had laid enough for the birds to be picked or the field was cut , perhaps I am lucky that my farmers put ethics before money too .

 

If the birds were on a field that was not mine or in a different area my ethics would not allow me to give that information to someone who would be happy to leave the birds to rot.

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None of the farms I have ever shot for would be happy if I (and the other guns with permission) left birds feeding on standing, or laid cereals.

In fact we get frantic telephone calls.

We make every attempt to pick birds , where there is no ,or little crop damage, but inevitably some birds are left.

Sometimes we are almost acting as bird scarers (a bit like big fields/winter rape)

Also, a lot of what we shoot and pick doesn't enter any food chain, as we have yet to find anyone who wants corvids.

There is also the "waste" of at least a dozen pigeons used as decoys which are flyblown within hours.

 

As I have said before, everyone is entitled to their own choices and if you have farmers that agree with them, you are lucky.

Shooters that think differently are just as entitled to their choice and neither is wrong.

Our farmers will give anyone a blunt message if they turn up wanting to shoot stubbles, if they haven't previously been out protecting the crop.

The practice of "logging in" by text, or call, is increasing in our area, so farmers can check who is putting the time in.

 

Perhaps another example of practices being different in other areas of the country.

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I have no problem with the shooting of corvids as I do not consider them a food source or come to that a financial one .

 

Dead pigeon can be breasted before using as decoys and still work just fine , the only birds I waste are two that go on the magnet , and I only discard them when they can walk out of the freezer on their own !

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Good numbers of pigeons here starting on the barley too, all of the crop is stood though and the pigeons are having difficulty landing in it.

There's storms forcecast for tonight which hopefully from a shooting point of view will lay some of the crop.If not then i will wait till harvest for the same reasons given above.

 

Still a seat here with your name on JDog once things start to happen. Will be in touch.

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I dont like not picking pigeons in standing crop but i must admit if there was a nice laid area and pigeons were going there in numbers i would have no problem shooting them. Jdog, was the laid area to small to shoot over or would you not shoot them for other reasons?

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you will never pick them all in some cases fact. farmer phoned me today field of wheat getting hammerd crows and pigeons so i thought id mention about pigeons going in the food chain, replie was my fields go into the food chain wont repeat the half he said the job is crop protection not harvest protection the harvest is the best shooting but the crop is already off.

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I am sure JDogs ethics are very similar to mine when it comes to leaving birds in crops .

For me if they are going into standing crops on a farm I shoot they would be left until either they had laid enough for the birds to be picked or the field was cut , perhaps I am lucky that my farmers put ethics before money too .

 

If the birds were on a field that was not mine or in a different area my ethics would not allow me to give that information to someone who would be happy to leave the birds to rot.

I think you can shoot standing wheat or barley, with care you can retrieve nearly all victims from the wheel marks and can then walk through the crop at the end of shooting to get the vast majority of the rest without doing damage, as long as you are careful. When I worked on a farm, at this time of year we would walk through the crop pulling out the wild oats, with no damage done. The ears don't drop their seed readily, like dry swarthed rape does. So, one careful clear-up at the end, as opposed to trampling in and out does work. However, it's getting them to come to you that's difficult, they seem to use the wires as a meeting point, no birds on wires means they go elsewhere.

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I once years ago shot over standing corn and think my dog retrieving did more dammage to the crop than the pigeons did. Always made it a rule to never shoot over a standing crop of corn or rape since. Indeed its only when exceptional dammage is being done to crops at this time of year that I shoot pigeons. They are getting so scarce in my area that they need a bit of a lay off to breed. I do not know about ethics , but if I tipped off anyone else about the pigeon shooting my farms I would lose the shooting double quick. I know of several shooters who have been turned away including one guide who offered a lot of money for the pigeon shooting. As the estate manager has said to me any small amount of dammage the pigeons do is minor comparied to the risk posed by letting strangers onto the land when the barns contain hundreds of thousands of pounds of equipment. I had to wait 10 years to get the pigeon shooting on my estate and only got on to the farms when the gamekeeper moved on , and thats despite working on but not for the estate. At the moment I am the only gun allowed ( apart from the estate manager ) to shoot the pigeons so there is no way I would tip off anyone else. I am at the beck and call of the estate and expected to turn out if there is a problem , but on the other hand they supply my cartridges , buy the pigeons off me for the farm shop and I get invited to several of the estates driven game days each season so its well worth it.

Edited by anser2
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  • 2 weeks later...

Not shooting over standing crops ? never read so much rubbish in all my life...you pussies need to get yourselves some decent dogs. :lol::lol:

 

If any of my previous landlords had 300 pigeons hitting a laid patch he would be beating a path to my door.

 

I had a good springer once that recovered almost 100% over laid barley and usually foxes working the rows will find the rest.

Edited by jackmichaels
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