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Today's mixed bag


Redditch
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Right, was up at 02:00, had breakfast, and made a thermos of coffee, then walked the dogs, and at 04:20 made a bee line for the field.

So, got to the field, and discovered that it HADN'T been fully combined, as the combine had broken again (a belt had broken, so they had to wait for a new one).

So, there were TWO flight lines, one at the top of the field, and one at the bottom of the field. As I was on my own, I decided to set up half way down the field between the two flight lines, my back to one block of wheat behind me, and my front about 30 metres away another block of wheat. Set crows to the left, and pigeons to the right.

On revision, I would have been better to set crows to the right and pigeons to the left, as crows will cross pigeons, but pigeons won't cross crows, and it was easier for the pigeons to see from the bottom of the field Flightline, than from the top of the field Flightline.

The morning started slow, first a magpie, then a grey crow, then a pigeon, and then mostly corvids in 10-15 minute intervals. Then at 10:00 the flights dried up, but I knew the pigeons still had to come, so stayed put.

At 11:15-11:30 the pigeons started coming, but Sod's law stated that whichever was I was looking, they came from the opposite direction LOL.

That's where two shooters (better two hides with two shooters in each) would have been far better

At 14:00 the farmer had repaired the combine and began again, so I started packing up.

Finished packing up at 15:00 and had picked 23, which meant a further 36 are still in the crop :(

I used 83 cartridges, so shot a bit **** again :(

The farmer wasn't too happy, but as I said to him, I just shoot them, where they fall is out of my control, and I WAS expecting a completely cut field

Still, he was happy enough with the results, so that's the main thing :)

(I took one of my dogs with me, but although she found most of the corvids, she seemed to have difficulty finding the pigeons in the wheat, and it was causing her to sneeze, while she has no problems in grass or water)

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Yep, we don't usually get a lot of pigeon here (and what we get is usually feral), so it's nice when we get some bunches of woodies coming onto the crops.

Had some nice doubles on them, although most were just single shots, as by the time I swung into the others they were out of range.

If this weather would just dry up (rain forecast every day the next 10 days again), then I could maybe get a couple of more shooters, get under the flight lines, and do some REAL damage on them :)

Many of the shots, and the doubles, were at 40-60 metres, so was glad I was using 36gr no4 and 34gr no5 as that punches at long range :)

Edited by Redditch
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That is some shooting when you can get 95 out of a hundred at 40 to 60 meters with some doubles thrown in .

 

If you lived closer I would invite you on my shooting land for a day , but I recon you would find my type of shooting at 30 to 40 yards a bit to easy .

 

Good luck with the weather forecast and well done on some excellent shooting .

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The art to shooting high averages, is NOT to shoot at ones you're unsure of. I pick a pied and stick on it, when I've got that, THEN I start looking for a second one, and SOMETIMES I'm lucky and get a double.

I notice when I take other shooters with me, they jump up and fire almost straight away, rarely taking the time to mount the gun correctly, and rarely taking the time to aim correctly, and if they have a semi auto, fire 2-3 shots and still miss it.

Ohhh, sometimes I end up doing that too, which is why my average suddenly drops. But then I settle down and take my time. I rarely move fast, getting up very slowly and mounting slowly, so the birds aren't startled and flare away. That way they stay coming in nicely, and I can take my time aiming.

I do it for pest control, not for sport (that's a secondary consideration), and I don't want to educate birds to avoid decoys (I have enough poachers on my permissions that do that already). I would prefer to fire one cartridge and get one bird, rather than fire 2-3 cartridges and get one bird.

If you jump up, they will flare, and yes, you will get "exciting" shooting, but your averages will drop, and your cartridge to bird ratio will suffer. And cartridges = money, and a lot of money nowadays. Most months of the harvest season I go through 500-1,500 cartridges, and that starts to get expensive. If you miss a lot, you can end up doubling the cartridge usage for the same amount of birds.

Edited by Redditch
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