Cranfield

Hi sean, welcome. :thumbs: The flockcoated decoys I have, are full bodied and shells, they are standard rubber decoys covered in "flock". "Flock", is like a very thin baize type material. The colours match the pigeons very well and they don,t shine on bright days. I bought mine from N&S Shooting Supplies, 01925 728057, if you call, please mention Pigeon Watch UK. :(

I like my decoys to be clearly above the crop, even when its 2-3ft tall. Its also recommended to try to gets some movement into some of your decoys. The wind will do this if the decoy is on a spring peg, or a springy flat wire peg. There are also "floaters" thast you can mount a dead bird or foam decoy on that move in the slightest breeze. Elma, thanks for the great suggestion on the wire cradles.

HH, have we ever met ? You seem to know a lot about me. :( :( :(

HH, don,t tell me, you and your wife have had another argument. Most blokes just go down the pub............you go to the middle of the desert. Don,t you think you are a bit too sensitive ?

I bought some hide poles about a year ago. They are height adjustable, by pulling the top section up from the bottom section. After a time, the top section gets "loose" and slides back down with the weight of the cammo netting. To tighten it up, you pull the top section out and tighten a screw in the bottom of it. This expands a nylon washer/bush thingy. Push it back into the bottom section and its tight again. OK so far ?....Good. The problem comes, when you can,t tighten the nylon washer/bush thingy anymore. This has happened to 3 of mine. They are not a year old and they are almost useless. This is clearly a design fault. Has anyone else got these type of poles ? Have you found a solution to this problem ? I strongly advise anyone buying adjustable hide poles, to buy the ones with the locking screw fixing (I bought one from N&S, I should have bought 4 more :( )

Happy Birthday Neil and many more of them. Get any good presents ?

I went today, my farmer friend said that the pigeons had been on this rape field and I was there by 7.30am. Conditions were bitterly cold (good), strong NW wind (good), dry (good), clear blue skies with bright sunshine (kiss of death to the day). I fired a "scare shot" around 8.30am to see if there was anything alive lurking about (there wasn,t). I shot an unfortunate magpie about an hour later and that was it. I think I saw two pigeons crossing a wood about a mile away, but I was so cold and fed-up by then , I could have been having hallucinations. :0 The forecast for the next few days, is for heavy rain and winds. I will have a very good look and need to see quite a bit of activity, before I spend another day like today. :( Is anyone else finding birds to shoot ? If so, what are they "on" ?

neil, when they are that big its not even "catch and release", its more a case of "keep outta the way". :( My friend who lives there and fishes that river complex 2-3 times a week, has never seen one before. He believed it was a juvenile male seeking new territory. Apparently, cubs stay with their mother for their first two years and then its off into the wide world. :(

I accidently met Dead-Eye-**** today (thats the only way to meet him, "accidently"). I was telling him about the wild black bear I saw swimming a river whilst we were fishing, in Apalachicola. Here is the picture I took, we kept about 50+ yards away from him, so as not to panic him.

Buy Benelli semi-auto 20 bore........never jam.....that why, no problemo.

hh, a very long time ago, in my mis-spent youth.

Its 15 years of age. This obviously assume the shooter has a shotgun certificate. There is no minimum age for the granting of a shotgun certificate. The youngest person I know to get one was 12, but I believe the youngest ever was 8 years old.

Like everyone else, I once tried to use spent cartridges instead of snap caps and found out that they do expand. The only difference was, I used a garden bamboo cane and a mallet, to get mine out. I use snap caps in my "best" gun (for the first time), but not in my general purpose gun. I have never had any problems with springs, in guns where I have not used snap caps. I think they are a bit like religion, you either believe or don,t. When I read the letters in Sporting Gun a few months ago, about sticky 20 bore cartridges, I spoke to two friends who have 20 bores. Neither has ever had a problem and use various makes of cartridge, depending which is on "special offer". Could it be a "gun thing" ? If I get a 20 bore, it will be a semi-auto........no problemo. 8)

He took the wheels off the truck, as the tyres were quite good (his opinion) and the truck went to the scrapyard. The wheels were piled up behind an old barn, where they lay and rusted and rotted away. I don,t know what happened to the lamp. I suspect no evidence remains.

Quite a few years ago I had a friend who left an old pick-up truck at the farm, just for shooting purposes. A right heap,no tax or insurance and falling to pieces. One night he invited me to go lamping rabbits with him. We met at the farm and he showed me his new lamp. Apparently his brother-in-law had "liberated" the hand lamp from the local HM Dockyard, where it was Royal Navy issue. He had fitted a socket on it to run from the cigarette lighter on the truck. He got the truck going and off we went across the farm to the woods. As we got near to the woods, he stopped and I climbed into the back of the truck. I was to shoot and he would drive and operate the lamp. What happened next was hilarious. I said "Right", he turned the light on, the place lit up like daylight for 3 seconds then the truck engine died, never to start again. The lamp was some phenomenal amount of candlepower and had burned out the battery. We had to walk back to the farm and get a tractor to tow the truck back. All the electrics on the truck were fried. He never did find a battery that was powerful enough to keep it alight for more than a few seconds. I think the Navy used it for spotting low flying aircraft.

If you contact the West Midlands police and ask them for a receipt (showing your certificate number), this should be all you need to buy cartridges or present to anyone, who is authorised to ask to see your certificate. I,m sure they would oblige, when they understand the circumstances.

If you think that the objective is to produce a "killing area" (as Archie Coats called it), the decoy layout can be very flexible. The "killing area" is a decoy free space, within range of your hide, that you have a clear view of. The decoy layout should channel/direct/encourage the birds to land in the "killing area. I do not place any decoys more than 35 yards from my hide. That is a quick comment, on a very involved question.

Dead-eye, I,ve told you before, I SHOOT PHEASANTS not PEASANTS. :thumbs:

There was something very similar to this at the Midland Game Fair, it mght even have been the same bit of kit. Votes against: Difficult to swing the gun round. No all-round vision. Only one window section opens at a time, or the top comes off (bit like opening a boiled egg :( ) No ground fixings. A sudden strong wind and you are upside down in the next field. £124.95. You can by a lot of cammo netting for that. Votes for; Give all your mates a laugh. Prove that "there is one born every day". :thumbs: :thumbs:

About time you surfaced, where ya bin ? Pick a suitable time and date and perhaps the four of us (plus anyone else who can get to Dartford), can meet up for a clay missing/busting session. :thumbs:

hh, you win a colonic irrigation session. :0 But, as you "entered" 5 times, you win 5 colonic irrigation sessions !!! :0 :0 :0 Just a small point, to save money, lazza does it with a fire hose.

Check out the Counter on the Homepage.

Thanks Yp, good review and an interesting website. I have bookmarked it for a closer look later.

I have been out and about looking for pigeons today. It started raining hard from about 11 am and doesn,t look like stopping anytime soon. I saw a few birds sitting in the trees, nothing much flying and none on the fields. I suspect they were deep in the woods, on acorns,berries or anything else they can find where its dry under the trees. My farmer friend tells me there have been no birds on the rape yet, but this should change as all the stubbles have now been plowed in and there is no more drillings to do. The big influence over the next few weeks will be the weather. We need windy, cloudy,but DRY weather. It will also make the river fishing improve. :( Anyone else been out ?

I have Sporting Gun delivered to my home by post. It does come in a plain brown wrapper though, Mmmmmmmm.