Great day on Millett stubble

[Beardo]

Had the most fantastic day yesterday with Stealth Stalker....

It all started on Monday - we met up for a Muntjac stalk early in the morning on one of my permissions, didn't bag anything, but lovely morning none the less.

As we left that farm, i suggested we go check the farm next door that i also have permission on, as i'd not been up there for while (it's just changed hands, but i'm in with the new tenants which is great).

Good to see there's a fair bit of rape there, as i don't have any on all the other farms i shoot.

As we were coming down one lane, SS spotted what he thought was a magnet set up in the field (now this field is not on my permission), we stopped and had a look.

Well blow me, if there weren't 3000 pigeons on this field, which all lifted with a mighty roar as we stood on the fence and clapped.

This field was Millet stubble, and i knew just further down the lane, there was one small field of it on my permission.

We went to have a look, and sure enough, this field was also covered. This was late morning.

Plans were made.

First we made some calls to see if we could shoot the big field, but no joy, so we had to shoot the little one.

SS made up some flags Monday night.

 

Tuesday morning we got there about 8.30 - there are houses the other side of a small strip of wood and stream at the bottom of the field, so a) we didn't want to shoot too early and we couldn't shoot that direction.

First SS flagged out the big field, whilst i lugged gear to the small field.

There was a triangle of set aside/thistles etc. at the bottom, so we decided to setup the hide on the edge of it in the middle, no hedges, but tall green weeds.

We had both our sets of gear, so a decent size hide was built with thick back and a half roof.

We had about 300 yards in front to shoot, and a 100 or so to the side, unfortunately some power lines ran in front, but there was nothing we could do about it, whilst keeping a safe backdrop.

We decided on our fields of fire, setup two magnets 30 yards apart, with a cluster of decoys round each, then a tail running diagonally away and out from each.

The sky was overcast, slight drizzle when we arrived, very light breeze (from behind us).

It was quiet when we arrived - a few birds on the field, but not much - they'd probably had their first feed.

Not a lot happened in the first hour, a couple of birds. I was worried it wouldn't be a good day.

But, by about 11am, things had really picked up. drizzle ended and the birds where coming in at a nice constant rate.

We shot some amazing bids - SS had some lovely doubles and high birds. I shot my first treble (with the Teknys), this put a huge smile on my face.

As the afternoon progressed, the clouds cleared to sunshine.

This didn't seem to change things much, and every now and then we cleaned up the pattern.

The power lines seem to spook some of the birds, but on the whole they just came in above or below them.

 

Had a small run in with the old boy who shoots the farm (he's a real pain - he's got a standing shooting right, but all the farmers hate him, he leaves empty wine bottles and piles of cartridges everywhere).

He came along and had a moan that it was his farm to shoot, we politely told him to stick it, as we have

permission. As he left his dog collected a half dozen pigeons which he ran off with, we were bloody furious!

 

In the end we called it a day at 3.15, as it had quietened up and we had a lot of picking to do, plus we had to get the birds over to the game dealer.

We ended up 130 birds down, 110 picked up - we'd lost a fair amount to the old boy and to the thistles and hedges.

So all in all, an amazing day. If i've forgotten anything i'm sure SS will add it.

Here's a pic of me with the hide and most of the birds - still had some to find on the way back to the motor.

Got some vids which i will upload tonight, as i'm currently onsite at a clients.

 

Edited June 16, 2011 by nickbeardo

[rogh shooter]

love reading stuff like tthat wish i could do it

great write up fella

[George1990]

Good stuff Nick

 

I'l be out this weekend - dunno whether there'll be any birds as can't do any recon. I've yet to get over 30 :lol:

[here iam]

nice write up mate i am just waiting for my nppc ticket then i can get cracking notice you have got your hide in the middle and not up against a hedge,also have you got a roof on it

[Catamong]

Well done boys, a great bag, good to see you brought enough ammo this time..!!

 

How do you reckon you'd have got on without the magnets?

 

Cat.

[Zapp]

Good do chaps

[Beardo]

hide was in the middle - hence a roof was important, we had to shoot from there to allow us the greatest safe shooting area as the field was pretty small.

we did try without the magnets early on and it's didn't seem to make a huge difference, but they did channel perfectly with them.

Plus the fact that we needed to be visible as they would have rather been on the bigger field.

[Dunkield]

Great write up, well done both

[Cosd]

Wow, sounds like an excellent day was had.

 

Good shooting mate, and an excellent write up....!!

[Stealth Stalker]

It was a major stroke of luck finding that field, but to be honest we'd have had to have been blind to have missed that amount of birds.

 

If we'd have been able to shoot the field they wanted to be on I reckon we'd be talking about 300 plus.

 

That old codger also held us up when the birds were still pouring in to the deeks, while we were stood around arguing with him And for him to blatently nick our birds, I had half a mind to send 32gram of no6 his way

 

Cat

We turned the whirlies off at one point early on to see if it made a difference, & it was definately a rotary day as we were shielded by tall hedges & trees on all 4 sides so any movement in our feild was vital. We could also see the birds hovering over the flags I put out in the field opposite & they were making a beeline for the rotaries in our field

 

Some of the shooting by the both of us was awesome yesterday as well as being dire at times

well done to Nick on his first trio, but after the barney with the old *** there was a dip in form

 

Cheers for a great day out mate, hope the Mrs didn't give you to much grief.

 

SS

[bigstevouk]

Nice one guys......

[proTOM1]

Nice shooting lads

[chrispti]

[smig4373]

Great write up nick...Cracking bag too....Well done chaps..

[A bolt 22.250]

Great days sport boys well done

[Robalex]

Great write up and a cracking bag. Well done lads Rob

[Beardo]

forgot to mention SS's rather fine two birds for one shot.

here's a not very good quality video (taken on my stills camera) of some of the worst shooting of the day (mostly on my part),

along with a couple of decent shots.

[Stealth Stalker]

Some good vid there mate I thought the first vid of me missing a sitter with 2 shots was gonna be binned

 

Still fair play, you did include you missing with 3 shots, the easiest bird of the day for the ton

[shot shot]

Looks like a great day out there guys

 

great video as well, one cool shot where you see the cartridge fly past the camera

 

 

[Cosd]

Guys, the video was excellent, more of these in the future please!

[Topgunners]

Top shooting boys. Excellent bag there too.

 

And the video says it all. Good shooting, bit of banter and the proverbial hits and misses.

 

 

 

 

Dave K

[Beardo]

i prefer the warts and all approach - and yeah i included the 3 miss howler of mine for bird 100 (that's pressure for you).

will take my proper video camera next time, as that was shot on my stills camera

[MerseaDavid]

great shooting guys and great write up

[turk101]

Quality stuff there Nick, well done to both of you!!

 

I have'nt had a day like that since the summer months. Finding it real difficult a the moment.

 

Excellent vid too, brings back the memories..

 

regards

 

turk101

[dazza]

well done