Mightymariner

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.

It was great, though we didn't carry the kit back, we brought the vehicles round which I did appreciate. Yes, Clodhopper, I am sure there will be more days there, it looked very popular!

I haven't been out pigeon shooting in over a month so I was looking forward to this week as I knew I would have a free day to get out - if I could find any pigeons. The problem with not being out is that you lose touch with what has happened on the fields so I had no idea where or if I would find any pigeons. Luckily JDog came to the rescue with a nice opportunity to shoot a flightline in between woods and some old bean stubbles. He very kindly set up the day, all I had to do was show up....what joy! We walked across to a small spinney that intersected the fields, already birds on the move, it looked good. We set up 25 yards apart with a south westerly at our backs, a handful of dead birds on the field to our right and one on my flapper. Almost immediately birds were over us, heading to the fields or returning. It was sport of the highest order, fast, jinking birds over, to the left and right of us. We made a dent in them for a while, then my shooting went off the boil. Too much time to think about them, better when no warning. Johnny continued to pull them down, though. What made the day for both of us were the few times we both connected with high birds at the same time, bringing down a few doubles from time to time...fantastic. We picked, with Jasper's help, 51. You can't get better than that in late October.

"The only thing that will upset this in my eyes is another mass-tragedy. I'm gonna get flak saying this but I reckon the 'practical shotgun' crowd are the biggest risk in this respect. It can attract the sort of 'SAS wannabe' kind of person who turns up in a black boiler suit with all the military gear, boxfed mags with buckshot in... I'm by no means saying that everyone into practical shotgun is a mass shooter in training, PS looks fun, I'd like to give it a go! I've just noticed that 1 in a 1000 is of the potentially unhinged variety and the kind of guns they can by are the most dangerous in my opinion; fast firing, heavy load, magazine fed shotguns. I saw a fella wearing head to toe camo, military knee/elbow pads, tactical gloves, assault vest... everything; I was thinking... If the Daily Mail got a glimpse of this guy running around with a deadly weapon the public will be on us in no time." Agree with those comments.....plus it's the image of rich/entitled guns dressed head to toe in costume, driving Range Rovers, shooting pheasants, reared, released and driven by beaters that do the sport no favours in the eyes of the public. I know that description is a cliche but it is all too often the only view the public have of shooting sports.

Hi Marcus Welcome. That's a nice introduction. I hope you get something in your neck of the woods. I am sure something will come via your beating if you are patient.

I think that is the point, you tip what you feel is correct based on the day. A friend told me has had days where he hasn't tipped and told the keeper why he didn't. Seems like an honest approach to me. If I had paid for a day I would certainly take offence to being told what to tip. Unfortunately, the author of the email comes across as rather 'headmasterly' in his tone, which won't win him any favours with his clients.

I know this topic has cropped up before but I would be interested to get PW's take on this. A friend sent me a copy of an email sent recently by someone who sells let days on various estates. The gist of the email is that some guns have not been tipping as generously as expected and this has got back to the agent, who adds that some keepers rely on tips to bolster their income. While he says he would not presume to tell guns what the tip should be, he adds that he would expect a minimum of £40 on a 100 bird day and possibly more if the keeper and his team had really excelled. There is more to the letter but I wonder what members think? I don't do a lot of game shooting but when I have we have always tipped on the basis of how the day has gone, how hard the team have worked to get us shooting, how welcome we have been made, regardless of the numbers. So, for example, if we struggled to make the expected bag because the birds weren't there, we still tipped generously if it was obvious the keeper and his team had done everything they could to find some sport. The numbers are a factor but not always, in my opinion, the deciding factor on tips.

I have about 20 bean fields and it's very hit and miss, these fields we shot had birds hanging around for weeks while standing, but once cut and cultivated a completely new flightline opened up into them. Some of the other fields have hardly had a bird on them, while some other shooters have shot 150 odd pigeons on a few others. I've seen many birds on wheat stubbles though.

I have quite a lot of beans to go at this year and we have been watching the fields for a while. One set of six fields has been popular with pigeons and JDog and I nearly shot it last week when it was still standing. We decided against and a couple of days later it was harvested, then cultivated the following day. With the winds good most of the week, we decided to have a go at the earliest opportunity. I sent JDog ahead to recce as and he reported good things when I got there. A great line of pigeons heading to the fields. We then argued about where to go. I thought we should split up to maximise opportunities, JDog thought we'd be better off on one field together. In the end he went to one field and me another, about 300 metres apart - with the idea he would join me if he didn't get any sport. Once set up, I was into the pigeons immediately, shooting six straight. It continued like that for an hour or so. Because of the wind direction, I couldn't hear any shots from JDOg. I called, and called, no answer. Eventually he called me back to say he was getting shooting but they weren't decoying. He was quite happy, he said. We carried on. I had birds from the right and behind me, swirling and dropping in the gales. It was really exciting stuff and each shot I took seemed to put more birds on the wing. We concluded later there were a lot of birds using these fields. My shooting was pretty good for once and I had a lot of birds down. Plenty of young ones but a good proportion of mature ones. A couple of showers dampened things down but they soon passed in the winds. Eventually JDog joined me and immediately shot some nice birds with my encouragement. By 5.30pm it had tailed off and we packed up, very wet. Jasper picked five birds under a tree where I thought I had one. We had 91 but I knew there was one more in a hedge. Jasper knew too, he circled the spot and sat, looking upward at where he knew it was. Sadly we weren't as good as him and we just couldn't spot it. Sorry Jasper.

It's his philosophy, not to get rid of pests. The therapy centre apparently attracts people from all over the world, it has made them a lot money. They sell the products too. They don't care how many pigeons or rabbits eat the crops, they just don't want anyone killing them.

The last few weeks have been fairly lean for pigeon shooting, with birds spread all over and all too easy for them to move to quieter fields. There's plenty of stubble still but it's been hard to find concentrations of birds. Yesterday I went out not hopeful I would find anything worth setting up for. I avoided fields close to home as I know they are over run with shooters at this time of year and went further afield to a lovely village right in the Wolds. I know this hasn't been shot in ages so it was a safe bet if I could find any birds. I found a few on an old rape stubble and a few more on a disced rape stubble but not enough to make me want to get the gear out. Last call was an old wheat stubble which JDog and I shot a few weeks ago. Here there were about 60 birds spread about, with most feeding on the southern edge. However, there were more birds heading to a roughly cultivated field which is owned by a company which grows flowers and herbs etc for 'alternative therapies'. The company has a retreat in the village and people come from all over the world for healing and therapy. I have asked to shoot these fields before but the owner is against shooting, telling my friend that 'shooting would disturb the fairies in the area'. They also don't like herbicides so their fields are often covered in pigeons. I had no choice but to set up on the wheat stubble. I put a rope banger as close to the fairy field as I could to try and keep them off it. Actually it wasn't bad, I had birds coming from behind and straight on, some decoying, some coming for a look. I had the wind in my face slightly but I could cope and it meant stuff coming from behind was nice and low. I shot 16 which included one at 50 yards out and one which decoyed from 250 yards away, curling in, left to right and dropping dead. That's the most I have shot in about three weeks.

It's not about the size of the bag, just being out there. Nice report. I'm experiencing similar problems with birds spread all over and proving difficult to shoot as they can simply move on to the next field if shot at. I've got lots of bean fields to be harvested so maybe that will bring some sport.

Hopefully this image shows up well. I took it yesterday whilst shooting a rape stubble. The views behind my hide are amazing, across the Wolds towards the village, and beyond to the coast. There is another spot, a little further along where you can see the east coast on a clear day. I love this area, the land is undulating and there are pigeons. I didn't shoot many yesterday, we had 20 but my son (who isn't really interested in shooting but likes to come along sometimes) shot two corkers after I handed him my gun. This gun is fairly new and he has never shot with it before and has probably shot less than 50 cartridges in his life, but the grin on his face when these two birds dropped, stone dead, was priceless.