Mightymariner

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.

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.