Cranfield

Hi rabbitstopper, the choke equivalents are as follows; Improved Modified = three quarters. Modified = one half. Improved Cylinder/Skeet 2 = one quarter. True Cylinder/ Skeet 1 = True Cylinder. Full choke = Full choke. I hope that answers your question.

Anyone shooting this weekend ? Or, do you have something else planned ?

FOUL !! FOUL !! Thats not fair........ I wasn,t really trying........the sun was in my eyes...........I was using dodgy cartridges............my gun wasn,t working properly...........I think one of my legs is longer than the other.............I had a terrible headache......... ACTUALLY....I was not motivated to kill the clays. They weren,t causing any damage to a poor farmers crops.

Dead-eye, have you thought of the risk of falling over out in the fields and nobody ever being able to see or find you. :0 The only pigeons that see MY gun........are DEAD ones.

I have made similar comments about our area. 2-3 weeks time they will start to cut the rape. Decoying over rape stubble can be some of our best shooting. Next comes wheat stubble and then its sowing rape again. :( I tend to write-off the period of May-June-part July.

Thanks Martin and Craigie, I didn,t realise that the "E" symbol was "Explorer". How thick can you get I resized etc, as Martin said and all is now OK again. Much appreciated.

Martin, I don,t have an Internet Explorer sign in the top left hand corner of my screen. This is driving me nuts. It can,t be difficult, I wish I knew what I had done to cause it.

I have Windows ME. This problem has just started and so I must have pressed a wrong button somewhere. When I come to the home page for this site, no problem, a full page display. When I click on to the "forums.pigeonwatch.co.uk" ,these forums come up as half a page. I then have to "maximise" them to get a full page dispaly. This is an example, as the problem exists on every site I visit. Any serious solutions would be appreciated.

Do you get any "problems" on your shoot with ramblers or dog walkers ?

BigDave, beagles are friendly little chaps, but apparently are only effective hunters in packs. No good with a gun and need plenty of exercise. Although they are used to hunt hares, they are not fast dogs. As hares tend to run in large circles, the beagles (being endurance hunters ) just keep plodding after them until they wear the hare down, or it gets away (which usually happens). A dog is a big resposibility. Its worth taking your time and getting the choice right.

I do not currently use a gundog. We actually have an English Setter, but she is not from working stock. She is also THICK, one more brain cell and she would be a daisy. I have had the pleasure of owning one of the best Springer Spaniel bitches in the South East. She was a Field Trial Champion, trained by Jack Frost at Buckenham, near Norwich. I used her for rough/walked up shooting, wildfowling and pigeon shooting. I also use to take her ferreting and she would just sit and watch. An exceptional dog. When she retired, I carried on ferreting and pigeon shooting and I joined a driven game syndicate (none of these activities needed a dog), but I stopped wildfowling and roughshooting (both need a dog). Its unusual for a Springer to be happy sitting in a hide, as they prefer to be working and looking for game. Labradors and Retriever breeds are more suited to hides. Apart from finding birds you can,t and having someone to talk to, I don,t think its necessary to have a dog for successful pigeon shooting. If you can,t walk into the field and pick up pigeons for fear of damaging the crop, then your dog is likely to cause as much damage as you (or more). If you mark birds carefully and pick them up promptly, you don,t lose many, or any. They are great company in the shooting field though.

Don,t give them a discount Deako, you will just encourage them.

Its OK Malc, you,re among friends. The rest of them are just like you.

How long have you been having these dreams, Malc ? (I,ll keep him talking, someone ring the Doctor :0 )

Crumbs, are they at it again ? Just give me 5 minutes to finish me dinner and then we,ll invade ,em. Should be back in time for Coronation Street.

Crumbs, so the Glider is just a common old Floater, with a new name. Strangley enough, I feel disappointed that it isn,t something much more exotic. Are you sure it doesn,t whistle, light up at night or play Christmas carols ?

Aaaaah so, The mystery Glider is in fact a Floater/Swooper. Now, I may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but I am still struggling here. Is this the pigeon that slides down a cord ? If not, how does it work ? HELP !!!

Crumbs, you Americans are like our London buses. We wait ages for one........ and then two turn up. There has been an increase in handgun related crime since the ban, but this is more to do with the influx of foreign criminals Russians, Jamaicans and Eastern Europeans etc, who come from places where guns are used more in crime. It has nothing to do with gun control. The good thing is, that the gun crimes seem to be mainly the bad guys shooting the bad guys. If they promised to keep doing that , I would even contribute towards the cost of the ammunition. The "top of the range" flock covered decoys lazza mentioned are around $7 each. I do know of one chap in Georgia who has feral pigeon problems in his garden (probably about 5 acres of garden). He gets a couple of bags of cheap corn and feeds an area ,away from his house , on a regular basis. He then shoots the pigeons that come to feed with an air rifle. He doesn,t use decoys, he says that the smaller birds feeding attract the ferals to come and take a look. Bry, many, many years ago here, it was common to use painted glass milk bottles as pigeon decoys, that was just after they invented the wheel ,I think. Read some of the pigeon shooting reports on this site, they will give you a good idea of the ups and downs of the pigeon shooter.

arpad, If you own an air rifle,a firearm and a shotgun, you are going to have fun here. Each weapon has its supporters and enthusiasts on this forum. My friends live in Georgia, Alabama, East Tennessee, North Florida and the Panhandle. Most of their shooting is on hunting leases or commercial "plantations". I have heard that the commercial dove shoots in Mexico are a bit "wild". Fields with 50 guns in them, it seems a few people get wounded every season. Most shooters from the US have the wrong idea about our gun laws. A basic explanation is; We are not able to own handguns (very few people ever did when we could), but we can apply for a licence to own a rifle (firearm), which has quite strict requirements regarding, character, usage, security etc . There are similar licencing restrictions on shotgun ownership, but the "requirements" are not as strict. Very powerful airguns come under the same heading as firearms. Ordinary airguns do not require a licence. As a "starving" student, you may be interested to know that pigeon taste really nice, even the feral ones.

Don,t worry dead-eye-****, it takes a few days, after a holiday, for your brain to get back into gear. Blame it on the Sangria or the San Miguel beer. You didn,t pick up an nasty rashes out there, did you ?

Arpad, whereabouts in the US do you live ? I have friends in the southern States who dove shoot and crow shoot. This seems more like our wood pigeon shooting, with decoys,hides etc. They even use "calls" for the crows. Let us know what you are up to.

Welcome Arpad, The pigeons you refer to are called "feral pigeons" over here. I have never seen any decoys that closely resemble them. They will come to normal wood pigeon decoys set out in a field, as they are use to seeing them there. You don,t have the European wood pigeon in America and so I don,t have a clue whether a wood pigeon decoy would work there or not. If you decide to go ahead, I would recommend that you consider shell decoys. They are easier to pack for shipping and as effective as full-bodied. I don,t like the inflatable decoys, but others here may have a different opinion. Here are a few websites; www.simpsonsofnewmarket.co.uk. www.tmbdesigns.clara.net/indexpigeon.html www.pigeonmagnet.co.uk www.avalon-guns.com A lot of suppliers don,t have websites, but would probably ship goods to the US. I hope this helps , please keep in touch and let us know how you get on. Anything else you need , just ask.

Check the bigger gunshop ads in Sporting Gun. It might be worth giving a couple of the shops a call. They must be out there somewhere.

Mine came on Friday. I agree, it always has some good articles on pigeon shooting. This is issue is a bit of "all our yesterdays" though. Lots of "25 years ago" trivia. Interesting to someone,I expect. Well, one month every 25 years ain,t so bad, I suppose. The gun competition looks good.

Perhaps Big Dave decided that he didn,t like them after all.