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Lofting dilemma


Squirrel73
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Hi all! I've been considering trying out some lofting and wondered what the opinion is from anyone who has experience in it. As always there's no magic solution other than being in the right place when the birds are keen on that field.

Is it worth trying,to give me an edge over these winter pigeons on the osr? Any comments or advise is appreciated.

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I don't have a lot of woodland with high trees where I regularly shoot , but I will place pigeons in hedges, on fence posts and on large bales (hardly lofting) as I believe anything that looks natural and can be seen from a distance might work.

 

When I put decoys into lower trees (up to 25ft), I tie enough fishing line through the ring on the back of the decoy to get to the branch and back.

A 4-6oz fishing lead on the other end and throw that over the branch, pull the pigeon up so it is just below the branch and tie the line off.

I also have some thick hawthorn and bramble bushes (some about 10ft) around some fields and I tie line to the decoy and throw them onto the bush, a bit of tugging about usually makes the decoy sit right.

 

This approach is a lot easier than carrying lofting poles any distance and works for me.

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Lots of good advice there for me to go on,thank you all for that. I think I'm going to give it a try,there are lots of mature hardwood trees on my perms and I have the very thing to get those lofters up high. My job involves cutting trees near high voltage lines and we use insulated fibreglass rods. They are 1.2mts long and I have 9 of them. Good job I can drive to within 100yds of most of my hides.

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Word of caution if you use interlocking poles. Make sure they are solidly locked together!!

Last year my pal was retrieving decoys and one stuck in the branches so he jogged the poles in an up and down movement to knock the decoy out of the tree. Five poles high. The top pole was not properly locked into the second pole. It released and came down vertically from some 20 ft hitting my mate in the top lip. The wound required micro stitching at the local hospital. Very lucky it wasn't his eye.

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Word of caution if you use interlocking poles. Make sure they are solidly locked together!!

Last year my pal was retrieving decoys and one stuck in the branches so he jogged the poles in an up and down movement to knock the decoy out of the tree. Five poles high. The top pole was not properly locked into the second pole. It released and came down vertically from some 20 ft hitting my mate in the top lip. The wound required micro stitching at the local hospital. Very lucky it wasn't his eye.

A good tip. :good:

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I have 3 full bodied flock coated decoys on hooked hangers, I use an old 8 metre carp pole with a small funnel in the end to get them up into the branches, works well, if I am air rifle shooting the trees it certainly makes a difference and gives incoming birds confidence to land, If ive got the shotgun then I just use one to imitate a lookout so incoming birds will go straight into the pattern, nothing is 100% sure but I like to try all options that increase my chances of a bigger bag, good luck, :good::good:

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