Cranfield

Craigie, thanks for that, I will keep it in mind. I,ve recently bought a new transformer for my laptop, that cost me £100 and took a week or so to locate.

William was on holiday, but I thought he would have been back by now. Meandassey, dead-eye can,t find pigeons, what chance does he have with penguins ?

I hope you get it sorted out cheaply. Unfortunately "cheaply" and "computers" doesn,t go together. Who,s taking your dog for a walk while you,re gone ?

Sounds reasonable Malc, not crazy at all. One bit I didn,t quite understand. Do we shoot the kids before, or after they find the Easter eggs ? Ere, leave my tiger alone. :0

Yes, I,ve got the bird this end, it wasn,t a very good shot and I had to apply the Vulcan death grip. That is something I have to work on. I was once the CEO of a Company that was part of a Group. Lord Stafford was a Director of the Group. He is known to be one of the three best game shots in England. Old Staffordshire family, darn nice bloke. I am not that confident of the stopping power of the .410. There have been times when I have suprised myself with occasional long shots, but they have been the exception. Normally a few feathers is all I get for my more optimistic efforts. You didn,t mention the shot weights you are using, that does make a difference. The tight choking on the .410 doesn,t leave a lot of margin for error, but it can mean a few spectacular long shots. I am interested in the shot sizes you chose, with my .410s I used larger shot than normal (due to the choking), nothing smaller than a 6, more often 5 or 4. I found this produced more stone dead quarry and less chasing around. I would need some serious persuasion to use a .410 consistently for my general shooting. I am even having a long debate with myself about whether or not, to buy a 20 bore O/U or Auto. I don,t really need another gun, but it would be nice to use an ultra light weapon for a change. The 20 is a possibility the .410, no chance. If its not work, enjoy your few days off. If it is work........tough luck.

HH, I think your Louisiana buddy might have been having alcoholic dreams. Due to bad weather, there have been poor breeding seasons for the duck population of the US for a few years. The Mississipi delta area is probably the biggest destination for ducks moving south in the Winter, this could be the area he is referring to. The latest steel shot cartridges are supposed to be as good as lead, my friends say they don,t have problems with them. I get my information from my US friends and from this website. http://www.duckcentral.com/sdhforum/ They have a very active anti lobby in the US, thats where PETA originated from. Their hunting/shooting/fishing associations are far bigger and better organised than ours are. Of course, they also have many more members.

kevin, I think there are so many reasons , that to find the accurate combination, would be a bit like discovering the meaning of life. Alternative food sources, how much choice is there in the area ? Distance from roost, I don,t think pigeons travel any further than is necessary. Weather, rough,wet weather keeps them near shelter. Dry, calm days they could be/go anywhere. Shooting pressure, you can,t have a good shoot on a field and expect the birds to come back immediately. I think out of all the factors, probably weather is number one, but its a difficult choice.

I have shot them, but I am always a bit cautious in case they are someones racing or pet pigeons. The problem is that they fly in exactly the same wheeling, tight formations as tame birds and its almost impossible to tell them apart. If I know that someone in the vicinity of a field I am shooting keeps pigeons, I don,t shoot anything that isn,t a woody. Elsewhere, especially in remote field areas, if they are on the crops, they are fair game. Fortunately, I have never shot a pigeon with a ring on its leg yet.

I,ve been shooting a very long time. I had a second hand, single barreled 12 bore given to me as my first gun when I was 10. I then had an air rifle, Diana Original Mk 111, I think, someone also gave me a .410 with slightly bent barrels, all before I was 11. My first double barreled 12 bore came when I was 13. I bought my first brand new gun when I was 29. My gun licences came from the Post Office for a long time. The Grocer at the nearest village (2 miles away) sold cartridges, singly if required. In those days farmers gave you cartridges to shoot their pigeons. Those were the days. Being born in the middle of nowhere, fishing and shooting was about all there was to do.

Anyone get amongst them this weekend ? If so, what crop/etc where they on ? I was preoccupied with some domestic trivia, but I do intend to visit some newly sprouting free sown rape, next week. A few pigeons have started using it and by Tuesday (if it doesn,t rain too much), I expect to be there to greet them.

I believe that everyone has something to say, even if it is only to agree/disagree, with what has been said. If you don,t want to start a topic, at least pile in on one that someone else starts. It can be a bit disheartening if nobody joins in on something you post. Thats why I try to comment on, or answer, just about every topic or question posted. AND MALC.........Mind my pigeon !!!!!!! :grumpy: :grumpy:

There are 108 registered Members of this Forum. Where are they ? There are about 10/12 of us who regularly post, we could do with some more input. New posters don,t get picked on (unlike other Forums) and are made welcome. So come on any "Lurkers", please post any comments, questions, stories or (almost) anything you want to, we would like to hear from you.

Well I got rid of the white box and red cross and finally found an image that would work. Quite nice, but it may change.

Whats happening crop-wise in your part of the country ? In Kent, the rape seems to be all in as is the oats and barley. Plenty of stubbles, with a bit of rape sprouting from spilt seed. The main wheat harvest has started ,but stopped again due to the wet weather. My Farmer friend reckons he needs 5/6 days of sun for his wheat to dry sufficiently to harvest. As they want it in by the end of August, its a worrying time for them. No planting at the moment.

I know there is a section on the Home page for DIY things, but have you made or utilised something, not requiring engineering skills ? My utilisation offering; You will have seen the cheap camping/fishing/garden seats that fold up and come in a waterproof bag with a drawstring and carrying strap, usually cost between £6.99 and £9.99. When the chair breaks (and it will) keep the bag for carrying you floaters, hide poles etc. It works very well.

Those of you with your "own" Avatars. Did you Copy and Paste the URL from an Image site on to the Avatar line in your "Control Panel" ? Did you upload it to your Website and then put the URL in from there ? I have tried both and end up with a white box and red cross. What did you do ?

I don,t have any buddies who are good enough shots to compete, at any level of competition. Are these Championships televised ? There have been attempts to show clay pigeon shooting competitions on TV here, mostly satellite channels, but it hasn,t really caught on. I think its one of those sports that , if you take part you will watch it, if you don,t ,you won,t. Some people say that there is a world of difference between clay shooting and live quarry shooting. I think this is right in some respects, but every good clay shooter I have known has also been a good live quarry shooter. Many years ago, I attended a Corporate game shooting day at Lord Stafford,s estate in Stafford. One of the guns was a member of the England Olympic Clay Team, I can,t remember his name ,but I think it began with a "B" and I also think he won a gold medal. On a few of the drives he was at the next stand to me and his shooting was awesome. I spent more time watching him that shooting. At lunch and between drives we chatted and he was a very nice bloke.

Well , that Avatar is not working. How do I get rid of the white box and red cross ?

Look what I found. This is how to shoot pigeons sitting in trees. Notice how he aims for their feet.

Malc, seriously kewwwwl, You are missing quite a few though. Thanks for the info BigDave, I almost understand what you mean, I suppose there is a first time for everything. I am off hunting a true likeness. 8)

BigDave, yours is OK, its those obscene "smilie" creations that I am referring to. How did you put your picture on your signature ?

OK PC, thats 10 minutes accounted for, but it still leaves the rest of the wekend.

I have been keeping my eyes open all this week, but the birds don,t seem to be concentrating anywhere special. The are just flitting about all over the place. Still very spoilt for choice. At the moment it seems that being mobile is the best option. Be prepared to move a few times in a day. The weather is going to be a bit unsettled from now until the middle of next week. That usually means stronger winds, which might at least keep the birds on the sheltered fields, thereby giving me a bit of a chance.

Apart from lazzas Avatar (which I understand is a true likeness of him ), I think the others are ghastly. Especially dead-eye-*****, which is far too aggressive looking for such a nice bloke. On other sites I have seen "normal" pictures used as signatures, how can we do that ? What do you think ?

Your experience with the "Mojo" sounds like some of our shooters experience with the rotary device. Occassions like that, do not condemn a method or item of equipment in my eyes, but just reinforces variety of approach. Different things work on different days. Recently, I have not been putting out my rotary device as part of my initial set-up. If birds passed wide of my decoys without any interest, I have put it out. Sometimes it pulls the birds in, other times it doesn,t sem to make much difference. I will also increase or decrease the numbers of decoys in the pattern if birds pass by. Sometimes this works. All I am doing is preventing myself from becoming reliant on any single plan/method. I shot loads of pigeons before the "rotary" and still retain confidence in a good decoy pattern without it. Your comment on wood pigeons coming in straight to a decoy pattern is correct when its a reasonably still day, but get any suggestion of a wind and it can be quite different. We certainly do have a wide range of decoying aids to choose from, some of course, are designed to attract the shooter more than the pigeon.