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First ton this harvest and best one ever


ShropshireSam
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Not had much luck this harvest with no decent bags on the stubbles since I shot over some wholecrop rye stubble in July .... very frustrating. I found a decent flightline onto some barley stubble on Monday. It was on a permission I need to check before I can go on. Phoned and sent a text and never got a reply. Phoned Tuesday and got the all clear. Returned and field was very quiet with the flightline now continuing onto another permission. Followed the birds and found them on a very large wheat stubble with another good flightline in and birds all over the field. Too late to set up so checked forecast and went yesterday as the wind was up. Checked again on Wed and still plenty of traffic so invited a mate. Arrived at 12:30, flightlines were still there but didn't seem busy and about 100 birds in one corner. Set-up under an oak in a line of oaks on an old hedge line in the middle of the field. Had a 20 mph wind to my back on a slight angle (facing North and wind from South West), a line of decoys to my left, a small cluster to my right and a magnet about 15 yards out centre-left. Main flightlines were from my back and from the right, along the line of oaks. Moved birds off and in place by 1 pm. Had a hectic start with birds swirling round the trees and missed with the first 8 shots in about 2 mins. Then managed to drop a few and had 14 by the time my mate turned up at 1:20. We had a busy 2 hours shooting with many birds decoying within seconds of others been shot. Most birds were pulled towards the pattern but then swirled around the trees. The birds were buffeted by the wind as they flew in and out of the shelter of the trees, and made for some great sport. Not many doubles as the birds were soon out of range after the first shot. Had a double followed by another double within about 15 seconds ..... if we had shot like that all afternoon we would have cleared 200. Traffic slowed by about 3:30 and birds were not pulling as well so put some dead birds out and this helped. Very little traffic by 5 PM and packed up with 120 picked for about 300 shots .... a better ratio than I expected as it felt like we were missing a lot!

 

This is not my highest bag or the best sport I have had but it was certainly the best combination of quality and quantity of shooting I have had. Makes up for the days of reccying with no joy and setting up only for the 200+ birds not to return.

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Yep...I was out yesterday on some beans, perfect day for pigeons, when you get days like that they are the one you remember, shot a lot of pigeons your way many years ago, High Onn, Church Eaton, Eccleshall, Woodseaves areas, used to be a guy who I have shot with a few times called Dave Harris (coalman) big pigeon shooter, not seen him for years, he may have passed away because he was not in the best of health.

I would think the stubble shooting is coming to an end now but keep looking you might get another day like that before the fields are ploughed.

Good luck ShropshireSam.

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