supergame

forget that open choke malarky. Shoot straight and kill em cleanly. Open chokes wont add any more to the bag, longer birds will be pricked, it doesn't matter who you are. My prefered combination is Beretta xtrema, kicks full choke and 36 gram of 5s and 6s. Hit them with that combination and woodies dead right out to fifty plus yards. Using open chokes such as cylinder and quarter is fine to 30 yards but on your average roost shoot in a strong wind your second shot will often be a lot further and open chokes will not consistently do the job. Tighten up you wont miss many more and your dog will be far happier at the easier workload.

Managed to bag 45 sat am as they headed from roost woods to a wheat field left unharvested a mile behind me. Had the wind been stronger i dread to think how many i could of shot. The birds decoyed superbly considering they are not using the stubble i shot. Pattern consisted of Magnet, Angel, floater and 20 plastics. Wind forcasted this weekend so fingers crossed they should get a serious **** kicking in the first hour or so.

Victory whites 35 gram 5s 6s RC JK6 in 5s/6s RC 4 36 gram 5s Winchester Western 32 gram 5/6s. DONT LIKE PRICKING EM AND USE FULL CHOKE ALL THE TIME.

Through my auto I use nothing but 3/4 choke- Winchester westerns 32 gram 5/6s, Gamebore Buffalos 36 gram 6s and RC4 36 gram 5s. Top cartridges that produce very few runners right out to 60 yards. At the end of the day its up to the individual on choke and cartridge choice, and what gives you confidence. Not sure about using skeet chokes through a semi as the 2nd and 3rd barrel will produce runners no matter what your shooting ability.

Having just had a superb 2 months shooting ( 1150 pigeons shot ) from the same maize gamecrop, same hide with the same pattern containing magnet, 15 dead bird cradles, 20 plastic decoys, angel and floater. I can safely say in this instance the pigeons were anything but magnet shy. In past decoying experiences I have had birds that appear to be totally disinterested in any decoy pattern. This behaviour I put down to- 1. They have already fed. 2. Milder weather in winter months means they can be a little less keen due to possible other food alternatives. 3. They are feeding elsewhere and are only passing your chosen spot. 4. Sun reflecting off decoying equipment. 5. The field had been shot previously, possibly the day before. I have seen pigeons become totally unresponsive in february when loads of shooters are out on the edges of woods using magnets and other gadgets. During this period I believe pigeons see far to many patterns placed on fields they are not used to feeding. After they have had a shot or two in their direction they are highly unlikely to decoy unless you are positioned on a field they are using and have confidence in comming to.

No drillings in west Lancashire area as yet. Had some superb sport on chopped up maize gamecrops with over 1100 pigeon shot since late December. This week the birds are still using the maize early in the day but moving off after an hour or so to feed on pastures containing clover about a mile away.

Remington Express High Velocity 36 gram copper plated. £520 per 1000. Only the best will do. I shoot these through a Xtrema 8 shot with Kicks extra full choke. The extra few pounds makes all the difference. seeing is believing!

Tungsten matrix is best in terms of price/performance. Hevi shot is superb but expensive. Steel is a waste of time and cruel unless the ducks or geese are at very close range. Steel will kill with consistent head shots of course, if only we were good enough.Bismuth is pretty average. If you are to do plenty of duck shooting and want clean kills then you wont go far wrong with tungsten. U can use tighter chokes than steel so surely this alone is kinder on the ducks with more strikes from a tighter pattern. In have used steel on a number of occasions in different situations and the conclusion i have reached is it will not kill cleanly as often as lead. At a push I will use it for close range marsh shooting at night, but during dusk or daylight on longer birds it fails. Even with 3.5 inch drylock steel in 2s it will not do the job consistently even on wigeon.

Shot pigeons with a former FITASC and English sporting champion, without doubt he's the best pigeon shot I have seen. He rarely misses any pigeon within 65 yard and absolutely stones every bird. He is convinced that clay shooting and pigeon shooting certainly benefit each other, although in many ways they differ, I have to agree. One aspect that hasn't been mentioned is mental application when pigeon shooting, this I feel is where clay shooters do well, especially towards the end of a long hot or cold day when the wheels often come off due to lack of physical and mental stamina.

Checked chopped maize gamecrop on monday found about 100 feeding since then the temperatures dropped and today ( wednesday) over 300 feeding. Going 2moro am with plenty of Winchester Westerns to put through the Xtrema.

Remington 3.5 inch buffered copper plated 4s, 2 1/4 oz for extreme range hares. For close work 40 gram 4s or 5s will do the job sufficiently well. Theres nowt worse than a screaming hare shot with standard game loads!

Steady away in Lancashire since early November. Shot several bags of 70-90 on maize gamecrops. As deako mentions its only a matter of waiting for a weeks hard weather and they should really consentrate on rape and other available food sources. If this miserable mild weather continues we will all struggle to find any big numbers of pigeon.

Try John Forsey guns, he has a good choice of heavy shot made by Remington and Express.The 3 1/2 inch shells are £32.90 for 25. Telephone Number 020 8304 9922. Check his advert in this months sporting gun page 98.

I have some years ago seen a quail in Devon. Without wanting to put a downer on things I'm pretty sure its against the law to shoot quail in Great Britain. Its certainly illegal releasing them. The bird on the photo is most likely an escapee.

shot 22 pigeon saturday of which 18 were young birds. A friend shot a field half a mile away and he counted 18 young birds out of 27. The young birds have put in an appearence big time over the past fortnight in lancashire. 1 week ago on a different field I shot 40 of which over 50% were this years birds. Surely this looks good for the winter months.

The last two trips I've had produced a total of 165 pigeons shot over a pea stubble. I would say that the ratio of young birds to old has been 1 in 5. I have shot young birds from may 31st in most bags. The young birds we are getting at the moment i should think are the result of a second clutch. As cranfield had mentioned we are seeing plenty of displaying birds about so it looks like a third clutch could be in the making,lets hope so.

Had a superb day on saturday. Set up on a Pea/oats sileage stubble ( stacks of peas left on). Started shooting at 1pm and finished at 7.15pm with 115 pigeons and 8 jackdaws. Considering the temperature ( mid 80s) it was a truly fantastic day and I shall return to the field this saturday. Seems to be a lot of birds in my area showing interest in wheat stubbles. I should think sport will be relatively consistent for the next few weeks. All the best Stuart

Not a lot to report from my area ( Lancs ). Not bad numbers of bird. But there is just to much choice and we are just getting a few birds on each field. Managed to have a do last thursday on a barley stubble during late afternoon. Finished up with 35 very decoy shy birds. I put this down to them mainly feeding on other fields, they were just passing birds that showed a bit of interest in the magnet before continuing to there prefered field, still it provided some very testing shooting and I'm glad i took some heavy loads and 3/4 and full choke.

In my area ( West Lancs ) the winter barley is being cut and the pigeons are showing interest although we could do with a few more. A few birds have been showing on laid oats. I managed 40 a week back and last friday i managed 24 on Barley. The birds had only the tramlines to feed on as not much has gone down due to good weather. Until recently the majority of my sport has come from clover crops and Brassicas.

Shot on laid oats yesterday evening. Managed to shoot 40 from 50 shots over my magnet. Out of the 40 shot 10 were lost in the crop, but better left where they are to prevent more damge to an already badly damaged field.

Wheat, maize, beans or peas. Woodies will build up to crazy numbers.

Managed 16 on my kale gamecrop last wednesday, not bad considereing there was only about 25 using the strip. It was suprising to see how much damage so few birds had done. Went on a clover field on saturday evening and had 24 in a couple of hours. A few birds have turned to laid barley where they can find it, but there are very few laid patches in my area.

Mixed variety of crops attracting pigeons in my neck of the woods. Laid Barley in the last 7 days has attracted a few. Kale strips on my shoot, Cabbages, Broccolli , clover crops and peas. At the moment there is that much choice they are not really getting stuck into any particular crop and making a big bag has been hard. I should think they will tune into the laid barley more positively in the next week or two.

Had 43 on peas last weekend and 22 a couple of days later. Managed 15,1 jay and a collard dove on staurday over a clover crop during the late afternoon. Theres a good few arround at the moment, but they are spoiled for choice with clover, chickweed and peas. Will be out one clover or peas this saturday. The peas are getting pretty tall at the moment so a couple of floaters are a must to pull them consistently.

I new Oscar was still alive. If you see him soon tell him to get back home as I've got a load of crows to kill. :blink: