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Found Them, then Frustration


pigeon controller
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Following last weeks 125 mile search for pigeon and not shooting I was determined to find some this week, Bunny Blaster found them but was not able to shoot this is on a shared permission and I would respect his hard work and leave them to him if they are still feeding on the fields. I drove past them but did not see many. After checking five farms DB phoned me and said he would have to work so I was a free agent. On the sixth farm on which they had sown the rape stubble with mustard this had been knocked down and on inspection it had been seeded . I viewed it and could see crows on a part of the field which is very hard clay and surmised that the seed was on the top. As I viewed it I could see birds behind a row of trees setting to go in. It was a good distance away so I had to walk over to the trees to get a better look, when I arrived about fifty doves lifted of the field with about twenty wood pigeon. As I walked back to the disco the farmer pulled up and opened the gate are you going to shoot the crows? I wanted to say no but he is a good farmer to us so agreed to shoot. Can I drive the field ? you better not as you will compact it !!!!!

 

It was now 12.00 and I drove to the edge of the field with a three hundred metre walk to the trees, I set up with ten pigeons ( BB had cadged two decoys last week ) two on the magnet the rest on spikes. I built the hide so I could have the pigeon in front and any crows if I shoot any at the back of me. It was a strange wind from the east which was blowing from the hide so all the birds would have to come straight at me.

 

The first bird in was a crow who came over the top of the trees and paid the price, the next was a flock of spooked doves with pigeon in them which I dropped two. The crow went behind on the heavy clay soil which was covered in seed. I had a few doubles on pigeon but as the afternoon went on the sun was in my face which made for difficult shooting with the doves. It was strange that all the crows and jackdaws I shot came to the pigeon pattern first, spooked on the magnet and just flaired infront of me and presented easy shots. It all finished at 16.00 and I packed up as I had to make three trips back to the disco. I picked up fortysix corvids and ninetyone pigeons so I was glad that the farmer had persuaded me to shoot.

 

Saturday morning I was at the stables and DB phoned me I can be ready for 10.30 so the day was set. We drove around and could find no birds flying at all we went to some fields of oats which last week DB had seen birds around in the trees. This now had been cut and as we drove the stubble it lifted approx thirty birds which then dropped in the tree DB had seen them in the week before. We do not shoot oats very often if in fact ever but it had birds about. We left the farm to look at anther farm who was the plant beans when we arrived nothing had been done, so we drove back to the oats, nothing on the field at all so we left for anther farm but he had seeded and it was all greened up. It was now 12.30 so we decided the set up on the oat stubble as this farm has a good afternoon flight out of the city and return to a good roost. We phoned the farmer to let him know we would be shooting to be told that another farmer had took it on and he gave us the name of the farmer and the farm. So we set off to find the farmer which was approx ten miles away, when we arrived at the farm we spoke to his mother who remembered DBs late Brother who use to shoot and ferret her fathers farm when she was a girl, so we had permission.

 

When we returned to the oat stubble we were viewing it, nothing on the groud at all but we had a train sound its horn and approx two hundred birds went over our heads in one flock and landed in the trees we had seen them before. So it was now 13.45 and we set up with ten on spikes and two on the magnet. The first bird in was at 14.05 and the first shot lifted birds from all the oaks and other trees around. The shooting was manic with us not able to reload before the next pair was in . DB was in his element with the high crossing birds and I managed a few. We started at approx 14.00 and shot till 17.00 with rain forcast and picked up two hundred and twelve birds with the decoys. So we had shot two hundred birds in three hours, as I was laying the birds out it started to rain and a local dog walker came past and she could not believe that we could attract so many birds.

So with the frustration of not seeing birds down and the change in Farmer we ended up with a magic end to the weekend and nearly three hundred birds in the freezer

 

 

 

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After last weekends report of doom and gloom , the master is back to his normal self , 200 odd in three hours is something we can only dream about and never likely to achieve even if we had the same amount of pigeons .

 

Well done to you and your companion , and thanks for the great write up.

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That was certainly some hectic sport yesterday afternoon - hot barrels!

Yes it was unbelievable at times with birds returning that you have just shot at as another wave of birds decoyed. It started with the first shot and was continuous until 17.00 by which time they were travelling high over our heads to roost on two lines.

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Well done again......rarely does a weekend go by without PC reporting a great day on pigeons. I look forward to the reports each week.

Interesting one of your farmers wouldn't let you drive because of fears of compaction.

I have one place I go where they won't let us drive on stubbles for the same reason. I do find it a bit of a joke, given the amount of heavy machinery they use - I hardly think two journeys across a field in a truck would make any difference. Mind you this estate is pretty unhelpful at the best of times, no driving on stubbles, no keys to gates, no shooting on tenant land even though no game shooting on the whole 7000 acres.....compares to other places where nothing is too much trouble, even to the extent that one of my pal's delayed cultivating a field for a week so I could shoot it.

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Well done again......rarely does a weekend go by without PC reporting a great day on pigeons. I look forward to the reports each week.

Interesting one of your farmers wouldn't let you drive because of fears of compaction.

I have one place I go where they won't let us drive on stubbles for the same reason. I do find it a bit of a joke, given the amount of heavy machinery they use - I hardly think two journeys across a field in a truck would make any difference. Mind you this estate is pretty unhelpful at the best of times, no driving on stubbles, no keys to gates, no shooting on tenant land even though no game shooting on the whole 7000 acres.....compares to other places where nothing is too much trouble, even to the extent that one of my pal's delayed cultivating a field for a week so I could shoot it.

The irony is that in the tram tracks of the combine the direct drilling had not penetrated and the seed was on the surface.

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