motty

Yes, plenty of farms drilling at the same time. Part of the challenge is picking the right spot. And yes, 50 good birds beats 100 real easy ones, though I like a mixture sometimes.... Thank you. I felt it was about time I wrote a little report, J. Absolutely!

I covered a fair few miles on Friday afternoon scouting for birds. I found good numbers of pigeons on a few drilled fields. However, on checking again, they were absent, with nothing flighting to them. A couple of other farmers were drilling other likely fields, but alas too late for a Saturday shoot. I phoned another farmer to ask if he had been drilling, as time was getting on. He told me that he had drilled some barley, and that a "gang" of pigeons were on there. This became my focus for the reconnaissance on Saturday morning. I arrived around 9am to watch. Jules was checking the fields I had looked at yesterday, just in case. He found little. I watched a couple of weak lines heading across my field, following some power lines and then into the distance. A decent number started to drop in where I was, and by the time Jules arrived, a couple of hundred were down and things looked half promising. It wasn't until we had set up that I began to feel like we would struggle, especially as the line following the power lines had got stronger and mostly completely ignored our set up. We persevered, though, and decided to stick it out. We had to put up with strong winds yet again, made worse by unforecasted showers that made shooting tricky. I was shooting like a one armed Stevie Wonder to start with, which frustrated me, considering I have been shooting pretty well lately. Jules was shooting just fine. I turned it around, though. We knew a big bag wasn't on the cards, but we were enjoying a mixture of decoying birds and some nice flighted ones. No easy shots. A couple of times during the afternoon we spied a cloud of perhaps 2000 pigeons that erupted from the fields in the distance. I had a slight sinking feeling, as I thought I knew where it was - a farm I have shot in the past. I should have checked those fields earlier...... I won't know for sure if we might have had a real day to remember had we shot there instead, but I felt like maybe we missed out. Never mind. I consoled myself with the fact that I still had a good day out with my mate and we had a good craic and shot some good birds. The final pickup was 51 pigeons and 1 jack.

Nice bag. I also wouldn't have sent my dog for them all, either. I pick most birds myself, leaving the dog to get a runner or outlier. Far too much time for the dog outside the hide, spooking incomers.

I had passed that field several times over the past few months, and there was always plenty of pigeons on there. I didn't think we would shoot too many until we sat watching the lines coming in. I am lucky at the moment, as I am back in an old job which means I am round and about a lot of the farms I shoot.

A good write up, Jules. I really enjoyed some of those birds zipping past from behind. It was great snap shooting. We all shot some good ones, and you still surprise me with how competent you are now as a lefty. I didn't think we had shot as many as that. Hopefully we will have some more drilling to go at during the week.

Form is temporary. Class is permanent.

A nice bag, sir. It is refreshing to take little kit. It was certainly a bind to carry all of our gear and 20+ pigeons each, back 400 yards into a strong head wind yesterday.

A lot of our land is still very wet. Some farmers have finished drilling here, while some have not even started. It will be am interesting few weeks ahead. I anticipate some decent bags for us in certain areas, if the amount if pigeons we are seeing is anything to go by. There were clouds of pigeons around yesterday. I think Jules' language was worse than mine. The man can be grumpy! 😃

I totally agree that there is shooting to be had if you ask the farmers in the right way and perhaps know a little bit about what you're doing. I was lucky today, in that I phoned up a farmer friend that knew the "new" farmer's name and number. I was only granted permission for the day, but this would likely be given again if I asked.

The wind was ridiculous. A calmer day and we would surely have doubled the bag. A 30 yard bird quickly became a 50 yard twisting, turning nightmare target. Tricky shooting, indeed. Still a decent 3 hours or so.

Almost......

Some great sport you've had. I have found the pigeons on/off the clover and rape at the moment - very inconsistent.

I thought I had posted on here on Saturday. Obviously I wasn't signed in..... It was a great day out which I thoroughly enjoyed. We both took some lovely shots. Hopefully most of these will have been caught on camera. I will make a video at some point soon. A bonus was that I was able to take the pigeons to the game dealer! Hopefully there will be some more to shoot somewhere this weekend.

A 24gm steel 6 sounds perfect to me.

I enjoyed that read. Thanks for posting.

I disagree completely. The limitation is not that of the man holding the gun, but generally a failure at range of shotgun pellet pattern. 100 yard kills are the result of lucky pellet strikes (even though the bird could be in the centre of the pattern), more often resulting in wounding than clean kills. I see a lot of good shooting on the high bird videos (mainly no higher than 60 yard birds), but I wince/cringe when I witness the wounded birds.

Velocities of 1600fps are really not necessary. All you are really gaining is increased recoil. 1400fps is more than enough for steel loads.

😅 It appears I have misunderstood. For some reason I read 4 cartridges per kill. I take it all back. 4 kills to one miss is extremely good!!

Are you shooting decoying pigeons? If the answer is yes, I would suggest you need more practice at the clay ground. A ratio like that isn't great, and I would certainly not blame the cartridges. Personally, it has never really mattered to me what cartridges I was using. I never really felt that any particular brand wasn't up to the job. Quite! 160fps is very little in real terms. And yes, those are just manufacturers quoted speeds (very often not ACTUAL speeds).

11 Remington buffered 63gm 4s - £22 18 Gamebore Mammoth 63gm 1s - £24 10 Gamebore Mammoth 63gm BB - £14 32 Gamebore Mammoth 50gm 3s - £24 29 Remington 50gm 4s - £36 4 RC50 50gm 2s - £4 8 Express max game 50gm BB - £8 8 Gamebore Buffalo 42gm 3s - £4 10 Rottweil 12 piece sgs - £15 25 Eley bismuth 32gm 5s - £25 25 Kent tungsten matrix 28gm 6s - £30 Will upload other pictures when I can. Too large at present...... Collection from Terrington St Clement

Hi all. I have had some good runs of form whilst on the pigeons. I remember on an April day about 10 - 12 years ago, I was decoying on some patchy rape. I ended on over 100, shooting from 2-6pm. I remember at one point being on 50 pigeons for my first 54 shots. They decoyed nicely, and I was on form for once....

I have a few lead 10 bore cartridges that I now wish to sell on. They have remained in my collection for a while. I have a full box of Winchester xx magnum 2 1/4oz BBs - £55 There are 18 Express 2 1/4oz 4s - £35 19 Winchester Supreme Turkey loads, 2 1/4oz 4s - £40. 15 Eley paper cased loads 4s and 5s £25. 10 Gamebore Rhino 2 1/4oz 1s - £17 I am open to sensible offers.

After much I thought I have decided to sell this gun. It is in very good condition apart from a bit of wear to the butt pad. It is 3 1/2" chambered, has a 28" barrel and is steel proofed. It comes with 3 spare chokes, shims, stock extension, choke key, hard case, sling swivels etc. It has the kick-off recoil reducer in the stock. Overall it is a very good gun. I am looking for £800 for it. Location is Terrington, Norfolk.

I have made the point many times over the years that a gun doesn't necessarily need a fleur de lis in order to be fine with "HP" steel.