Mightymariner

Lincoln City? Hmmmm.. Words fail me.

Fantastic....and what a great story, partridges in the hills of Pakistan to woodpigeons in the English shires.....if I was an editor or journalist from a shooting magazine I would be lining you up for an interview.

I haven't been out decoying in a long, long time, so today I met with JDog, who had kindly found somewhere for us to go high on the Wolds. Work has been **** lately so, to be honest, I was just glad to be out. The sun was shining, it was warm. So whether we shot any pigeons was neither here not there to me. Of course, Johnny was worried in case we didn't shoot any. I didn't care. We drove to a recently drilled barley field with a small copse at one end which pigeons had been using before dropping in on the field, which, incidentally, had no spilt seed on it. We were there for 11am and walked a short distance to the copse, both setting up in the shadows on the edge of the copse, with the sun on our left. We put a few dead birds out and my flapper. Johnny had kindly placed me downwind, believing any pigeons would come to me first. We didn't have to wait long before the odd bird drifted across, very high and heading for two ash trees behind us. We shot four in 20 minutes. They were all coming from some height, cupping wings and plunging down to the trees. After a while numbers really started to move, coming across the large drilled field towards us, or from the right, beating up a hedge in the light wind towards the copse. Often birds would appear from nowhere, dropping into the trees or passing over. After an hour we had a fairly decent pattern, and then the birds really hit the line. We had groups of 20, 30, 50 and twos and threes coming across the field. It was a great sight, we could see them from a distance. They spotted the pattern and the flapper and would often come across, some dropping like stones from unbelievable height to curl over us. It was some of the best pigeon shooting ever. We had shots left, right, over and behind. At times we had 5-6 birds down but couldn't pick them because so many more were moving. We tried to let them in over me before we shot, so we could both shoot at the bigger groups but that didn't really work as I couldn't tell when they were far enough in. So we shot alternatively, which worked well. By about 2pm we had about 50 birds down in the pattern and we were pulling in a lot of pigeons. Some of our shots were very memorable. I think we shot pretty well, probably 2:1. Eventually, by 3pm, it tailed off and birds started to drop in on the far side of the field. We still pulled in the odd bird but most entering the field headed for the birds on the far end. We packed up and picked up as many birds as we could find, before returning with Jasper to pick another three birds down the bottom corner of the field. We ended with 75 pigeons. I would say it goes down as one of my best-ever days decoying. Pure enjoyment that doesn't happen that often.

Nice report. Well done.

"After two hours I ran out of cartridges." Hmmm. And I wasn't around to sell you some more. Shame. I had a little roost shooting yesterday, after an invitation from a friend who had a new permission. Well, he's struck it lucky, real pigeon country. Woods, arable, cover crops, the lot. I shot four very good pigeons in the wind (hard to believe I know, JDog) and a crow. Well satisfied.

Regardless of the law, it doesn't matter what my definition is - but leaving them in an open ditch where they can be easily spotted by dog walkers is wrong by my standards (and can only harm game shooting's reputation). Of course it is a story, your definition of what is a story is purely subjective. The newspaper that printed this, did so because they know it will interest their audience and generate website traffic.

Whatever the circumstances, whether they were breasted out or too badly damaged to go in the food chain, they should have been disposed of properly. https://www.grimsbytelegraph.co.uk/news/pheasants-ditch-dumped-dead-shoot-2486099

If people are willing to pay then that's their choice. I would imagine other pigeon guides will benefit from this exercise, as people will shop around and find other guided days for £125/£150.....if I was being cynical then I would wonder if there were a group of guides who may benefit overall from this and if the whole advert is part of a bigger marketing campaign.

Nice to see you are taking plenty of cartridges these days.

Seems all wrong, are you sure your eyes weren't deceiving you!! 😉

My work commitments are about to pick up again so I have made the most of the last week. Firstly, I enjoyed a lovely, friendly game shoot with Clodhopper and JDog. I shot three pheasants and one tall partridge, which was plenty for me. The terrain was undulating, company very good and friendly, informal and fun. Then, on Sunday in very strong winds my son and I had a very impromptu hour or so on pigeons in some trees alongside some rape. I shot 12 pigeons, and I have to say they were amazing, tall, twisting and acrobatic in the gales. They weren't decoying, just flighting and having a look at my rotary. Max sat with me for a while before getting bored, so I sent him off in the Land Rover to push any pigeons off another field. He is sixteen but responsible and negotiated a very boggy track in the Defender. Then he sat in it and watched me, sending me the occasional text - praising or otherwise when I hit or missed. It was a great couple of hours. Wednesday morning, again with no planning, I got up and out the house on a whim to shoot a rape field at first light. Not sure why I did, perhaps I was inspired by JDog's session (as reported). Anyway, with minimum kit I was set up on the field by 7.45am. I had no idea if pigeons would come but I had seen them on the field around lunchtime. Anyway, wind in my face didn't matter, as a few birds swooped over my shoulder and into the rotary. There weren't many about but I managed to shoot four in the hour I was there, plus the farmer was happy I had been. Friday saw JDog and myself heading into the Wolds to some beet fields where the farmer had told me he had seen a "massive black cloud of pigeons". There were probably 300 on and around the field when we pulled into the opening, they lifted off - some heading to a wood in the distance and others to trees not far off. We watched. Nothing moved. We went back to some rape on the same farm and found a couple of hundred. We decided to give the beet a go for an hour or so. We set up at opposite ends of the field. Nothing really moved. It was cold. JDog shot three which passed by, myself nothing. We moved back to the rape, I set up at the farm yard, with my back to some cattle pens. JDog walked to some trees on the far side. One pigeon came, decoyed and was shot. JDog shot one in the trees. Again nothing moved, and despite the numbers we had seen, they just didn't come back. The lack of wind didn't help. Before he departed, JDog drove back to the beet field and put up approx 500 pigeons! I am not sure we would have shot more than half a dozen if we had stayed there as they seemed to move en masse. We concluded they might have fed at first light and were just topping up later in the day. With some wind and milder conditions it could have been different. Today, I have to go to work. I shall think of these outings.

Hope you get a few....I have seen hundreds about, some on rape. But I suspect I know what would happen if my truck appeared in the field!

Good report. Always best policy to remain calm and ask the other person not to shout or swear, although this often makes them angrier. I had this earlier in the year when an older man reversed into my Defender. Instead of apologizing to me, he started to rant at me, claiming he had done no damage. I asked him not to swear and for his details, which merely lit the blue touch paper and off he went, shouting and ranting.. If he had said sorry in the first place I would have said no more, but because of his attitude I asked for details and then took pictures, just to make him squirm.. even though I had no intention of pursuing any claim.

Well done chaps, I knew you would get something. Can't believe mentioning my name didn't help get you on there!

Some nice bags...even better if you gave a few details with each one.