moulty

Im luck enough to have an uncle with his own farm (albeit relatively small). He lets me and my mate on their and we decoy for pigeon. When we were talking to my uncle yesterday he told me that he happened to be reading the local paper and had spotted that someone advertising for pigeon shooters.... BONUS, I thought ......so I took down the number and called the guy on the way home. He seemed a nice chap and said that he had several patches left to shoot on around his land..... he gave the impression that he had already given certain patches out to several others and that he only had 6 or so patches left. Then he said the cost would be £360 per year !! Is this usual to charge ? Afterall there is a benefit for him (pest control and stopping crop damage). What do you think ? If you pay then what do you pay ? I'll count myself lucky that we have some free land to shoot over for now eh if this is the norm ! Cheers

Went shooting over barley stubble yesterday (with permission on the land) - had a bit of success. The only real place to set up was near to a public footpath that goes through the middle of the farmers field (it is hardly used though). Of course we were shooting away from the path (with our backs to it). There were also some houses about 200 yards down the hedge - but again we of course were not shooting in that direction. My question is whether or not we could get into trouble shooting so close to a public footpath and 200 yards away from some houses - although I must again stress we were not shooting in the direction of either. Many thanks

My friend and I are relatively new to shooting pigeons with shotguns and have been reading up for some time (partly using this forum) on the best way to go about decoying. We have had two attempts in the past but with no joy...... I think that we have not been setting up in the right field, so we changed tac' today.... ....however today we had our first breakthrough (on a recently cut field with clover popping through) and shot about 20 in the 1 and a half hours that we were there. It may not sound many to some "seasoned pro's" but we came away pretty chuffed with ourselves. We could have bagged a few more had we hit all opportunities. Just had some sausage, bacon, black pud and Pidge' for supper.... can't wait until next time. :-> Moulty

ALEXM - thanks for the info and picture. I would say my bores look the same as yours in the picture.......... Thanks

Phew.... I use Eley first carts 7.5 Fibre wad..... are these concidered cheap ? Ill put a bit more effort in cleaning those bits. Thanks

Hi, I have a Beretta 686E sporter, I brought it off my uncle, it is just 12 months old, rarely used and cleaned / looked after. My friend and I brought a load of clays and cartridges and took our trap to practice down my other uncles farm. We both used my gun and fired about 100 rounds through it in about 45 minutes or so. The barrels, undertsandably, got really hot. Will firing this amount of carts through it in less than an hour be a problem ? I want to look after my gun and not hammer it so should I use it less or is it up to the job in that respect ?? When cleaning the gun tonight I noticed at the near end of the gun, about 1" or so into each bore that there was a dark band/mark probably about 1/2 inch long. I dont think they were there before, even after cleaning the bands/marks remained there - the rest of the bore looked as good as new. Am I worrying about nothing ? Cheers for any advice Moulty