lakeside1000

Well done John, its always an effort to get out at our age but sometimes it can be worth it, I took 10 hard earned birds on Friday evening on the rape at the back of the old skip yard, but the bulk of them were up on the main track near the concrete pad, so I am up there this evening to have another go, most of the rape is in flower with a lot of bald patches all over the fields ,sadly nothing on any of the peas yet, maybe that will change once they show green on top, we will see. Nice write up and keep at it, regards to the wife, hope she didn't have any effects from the jab, we are waiting for our second appointment , probably this week sometime,👍

I know what you mean, I retired 15 years ago from a good job with Anglian Water, well paid and very secure, I look at the work place now and cannot imagine how people get up every day and go to work, even if they are lucky enough to still have a job, the virus and lock down has destroyed communities, families and the companies that employ them all, its ripped the heart out of what used to be one of the best countries in the world to live in, and I have lived and worked in quite a few of them. Even in retirement I still get depressed listening to the news every day, so down beat all the time, I could go on for hours complaining but what good does it do, my wife and I are lucky to be in good health and used to enjoy travelling abroad, now we cannot even leave our community, yet the government turn a blind eye to thousands entering our country (both legal and illegal) with very little control over any of them. What worries me most is the future for my two sons and my wonderful grand children, even if the grandkids do complete a decent education what sort of a future is there for them, All I can say is I am still proud to be British,

I totally agree Dave, on a really good day I may get into the 70's, several times in the 50's and 60's but to average out over the year I would say at best 25 for a 5 hour session. This time of the year I get ok days on rape, but awful days on any drillings due to the depth of seed and no spill drills used now, I keep going because I like the sport and feel I am at least doing a service for the farm, but if this was fishing I think I would have sold my gear and taken up another sport. Lets hope it picks up when we get into harvest time.

I have spent the last week (3 visits) shooting over freshly drilled peas, what a waste of time, best day was 5 birds down , for 4 hours in the cold , even though there was plenty of seed cast on the surface it was bright red, presumably some kind of anti fungal coating or something, one gateway had a huge spill of seed laying on the surface but the birds were ignoring it , just a few crows getting in for a feed. I noticed on the spring barley the birds were on it right behind the tractors but only stayed for a couple of days as there was very minimal spill , anything on the surface was quickly cleaned up and the birds were gone within 2 to 3 days. My best days are still on the rape, I imagine if there is no seed for them on drillings they will return to somewhere the feeding is easier and this time of the year that means mainly rape around here. I have noticed some small numbers on grass and clover fields where the local horses graze but no chance of any shooting there. I guess its just a sign of the time, more efficient drilling will mean they go elsewhere.😏

I have to agree, I have one very small perm where there is only one location suitable, I left some pallets and an old seat as I didn't want to leave my good stuff there, but the kids got to it and set it on fire, so now I just use a couple of nets and tree branches instead of carting all the gear, I can hide them in the bushes and so far they have been untouched.

They would be good value at £30, the shells are worth a 10'er and the magnet although an older one ( I have one exactly the same ) is still worth £25 minimum if it works ok, plus the seat and what looks like a home made bouncer, If I was a bit closer I would grab them but you should have no problem selling them. good luck.👍

The farm manager has me on standby to get on the newly drilled peas as soon as they are in, so as expected yesterday morning I get the call to have a look at 200 acres just drilled. I loaded the car, filled the flask and set off, arriving at the drillings it was very quiet, the farm hands were on site setting up some irrigation, so birds were keeping well clear. After a short time I realised it was a non starter, so change of plan I headed down to another perm of several hundred acres of rape, I had not been on this area for a couple of weeks since it was top dressed , but It looks like the extreme cold weather has stopped its growth, so still very sparse and huge brown areas. I set up near the fence line where I had put up around 50 to 60 birds, they moved off into some nearby trees and settled there. I laid out 15 dead birds on cradles and spikes, added 2 flappers and got into the hide, Within seconds they started coming back, heading straight into the pattern without any hesitation, my first attempts failed miserably , 3 shots at the first only to watch it fly away, similar results for the next 3 birds, all this within 2 or 3 minutes, I sat back, poured a coffee and gave myself a telling off, I have a real problem with a lazy gun mount, dropping the stock onto my shoulder way too low, resulting in shooting high , over the bird , I know I'm doing it but seem to have a mental block once the bird is in front of me, The next bird was a very high passer from in front over my left shoulder, I pillow cased it with a perfect hit , at last I'm on the score board, from then on I settled in to some reasonable shooting, still plenty of missed birds but dropping slightly more than I missed, several doubles and even a two bird kill with one shot. Shooting from around 1.30 they were coming in thick and fast for a couple of hours and the pile was mounting, another double on a rook and jackdaw added some variety, it went quiet around 4.00 so time for a sandwich and another coffee. by 4.30 it was so quiet and I had almost decided to pack up when another small group dive bombed into the pattern and a textbook double dropped, if they were still coming I would stick it out a bit longer. Over the next 2 hours I was kept busy with singles and doubles coming in with an almost suicidal intent to get in on the feed, I had 2 birds way out towards the other side of the field so decided at 6.30 to pack up and do some long distance collecting, fortunately the field is surrounded by a green lane so I was able to drive around, I had made sure I spotted the drop point on both and found them with ease, returning to the hide I was loading the gear into the car but had left the decoys until last, over my shoulder I spotted another bird circling over the decoys, grabbing the gun I took the shot and **** law it refused to drop , using the wind to get 150 yards before falling dead right in the middle of the field, so a long walk needed to pick it up, I don't normally bother with photos but its been so long since I had a decent day I had to get a few on the phone to remind myself I can still do it. Final score was 52 picked 3 lost in the brambles and reed beds, plus the rook picked and the jackdaw again lost .By no means my best ever but in the last 6 months my best day has been just 17, so definitely an improvement there.

Sorry didn't mean to offend , I was at fault for not making it clear, and I do appreciate your advice, we cannot be too careful

Absolutely yes, check for thinned out patches where you could get some decoys in, also along the field margins and down the tram lines, look for flight lines entering the area and birds dropping into the thin patches, I made up a jacket from a yellow vest from the car sprayed with patches of green, then I could stand ( or sit ) in the tram lines to wait for a shot. try to drop birds accurately into places you can find them unless you have a good dog. When its at full height look for any sitting trees or power lines over the crop, I use my air rifle for these sitting out in the crop and popping them if they come in range, best of luck 👍

Just to clarify the last paragraph, the date was January 1970, the place was Auckland New Zealand , at that time and in that country there were no regulations about how you treated trapped rats, shooting of any kind was out of the question as it was a place open to the public but infested by rats. the control of these was not down to me as I just worked there.

Looks like persistence is paying off for you, very well done and some nice photos.👍 Two waisted days last week on drillings with just a half dozen down, we have had howling winds for the last few days and this morning , Tuesday the 6th April we woke to 2 inches of snow in the garden and a wind that would give you frostbite if you went out, So I'm staying in and going back over all the YouTube pigeon shooting videos to see if I missed any, the wife is not happy so she has emigrated to the kitchen to bake some bread, yeahhhhh result.

For me its got to be doorstep bread with strong cheddar cheese and a thick smear of strawberry jam, followed by a slice of Melton Mowbray pork pie and a flask of hot sweet coffee, keeps me going all day.😁

We had a raised wooden deck behind the house which the rats loved as it was dark , they moved in shortly after we built it and I soon found the tracks and droppings around the base of the bird table, I had a couple of days great sport lying in wait for them with the Air Arms PCP, non left now and the deck has been removed and concreted over. Now there is nowhere for them to hide we never see them, I worked in a garage with a huge rat problem, we used a cage trap with peanut butter and chocolate spread mixed and left in the trap in a bowl, we would catch 2 or 3 every night and just drop the cage in a water bath for testing tyre puncture repairs, they definitely cannot live under water for long. ( Sadly no shooting allowed around the garage premises )

I had a new excuse last week offered by some old geezer, he was wandering around the back of some secure compounds where local businesses store equipment, he didn't see me in the hide and was only 20 ft away when I stood up and challenged him, I just said in a loud voice "oy what are you up to" , he turned a bit pale then claimed he was a civil engineer checking out the surface water drains in the area, the way he was dressed I would say he was more likely homeless or on the nick, I informed him he was trespassing and told him to clear off, he went quietly looking back over his shoulder rather nervously, but left the land at the nearest gateway, I phoned the land owner and let him know , he was going to let the local plod know but by then it was too late anyway as he was long gone. NOT !!!!!!!!BOOGER OFF

I had a few pigeons from close to some horse turnout areas, horses had been moved to a new location, the birds crops were full of rotting straw, horse muck and some rotting wheat, the smell was gut wrenching and I almost threw up just trying to clean them out, worst I have ever seen or smelled. That's a weird one, could not decide on the past tense for smell so I googled it,Smelled is the past tense of smell in both North American and British English. Smelt is also used as the past tense of smell in British English. Brits use smelled and smelt interchangeably, but speakers in North America rarely use smelt.

How many of us get to a perm, select (carefully ) a spot for the hide, get settled in only to see all the birds going up the other end of the field, then sit there for several hours only to finish with a handful of birds and that terrible feeling that we could have done a lot better if only !!!!! Its the story of my life

Permission comes when you least expect it, I had a .410 with nowhere to shoot, did all the door knocking and even stopped tractor drivers in fields asking if there was any chance, but they all said no, then one day I was at work when the old boy who did the cleaning stopped to chat, the subject came up and I explained the problems, he just said, I own 12 acres, if you like you can have a shoot on there anytime you like, some big trees , pigeons and crows plus a few rabbits, I was over the moon but then came the catch, the land was rented to a local farm for grazing some cattle, he gave me the farmers name and address and suggested I check with him before going on the land, so that evening I drove down to the farm, explained the situation and asked if it was ok for me to be on there, he looked me up and down , asked a few questions about my gun, experience etc, then said "if you like you can shoot my whole farm for vermin as long as you don't scare the foxes" ( he rode with the local hunt and had several fox earths on the farm ), there were around 400 acres of cereals and a small wood, I couldn't believe my luck, after that I got into breeding and training springer spaniels, was asked to pick up on several local shoots, even ran a local walk up shoot for a few years, got in with local game keepers and now have thousands of acres to shoot over, Thing is pigeon and crow shooting is not always busy and successful, a lot of driving, walking, hours in a hide , cold winds and very few birds but you are still expected to put in an appearance, spend hours just waiting around for little return just so that the farmers know you are reliable, but the good days always make up for the bad.

Fingers and toes crossed they will show up eventually, till then I will still be out and about trying to find a few.

The car was packed and ready for another day on the rape, but 10 minutes before I was going to leave the house the phone rang, the farm manager was asking me to go out to a huge field drilled with barley two days ago, I got the directions and headed out, on arrival I drove around the area but there were no birds on the field or nearby drillings. Still I'm there now so set up in a corner on the top of a rise, good vision all round, put out 25 dead birds and another 15 crow decoys ( the manager wanted some dead crows to hang out ) , it was slow at first with a couple of pigeons and one rook, after 4 hours it was even slower, only 5 pigeons and the one rook so I called it a day. I think I missed them by one day, lots of tractors working, several drilling new areas and the few birds that were about had already found the newly drilled fields and had moved on from my field, ah well, better luck next time.

I had a large cock pheasant crash land into my van cab through an open window, it was escaping from a driven shoot at the road side, I was doing about 40 mph at the time and nearly went off the road with fright, although the van and I both survived intact, the pheasant sadly didn't and was later eaten by my works forman who was very glad of a free meal. I was left to clean the blood and feathers out of the cab. I also had a pheasant hit my car headlight at full pelt while I was driving up the A1 near Grantham, smashed the glass and remained embedded in the reflector housing, that one cost me a complete new headlight and the insurance refused to pay up, to rub salt in the wound the bird was smashed to a pulp and no chance of a cook up.

You are very welcome on the PW, we all love to share our knowledge and experiences, hope you do the same

Thanks everyone, much appreciated 👍

Its been a while since I put up a report so here goes, Friday I checked the weather , sunny with blustery winds from the north west, so I packed the car around 11 am and set off to my local perm, 300 acres of rape which was top dressed with nitrogen last week. Arriving on site , I drove along the river bank to a spot I like where there was some shelter offered by old ruined buildings, unfortunately the wind had veered into the west and had picked up to 20 with 25 mph gusts, with the sun on me it was ok but still very cold, six layers of clothing was going to make it difficult to move freely but keeping warm was higher on the list of priorities. I set out 20 dead birds along the edge of some well eaten rape, not much in the air but I am always optimistic they will come in later 😁, I dragged a large sheet of plywood from the ruins and propped it against the fence to create an effective wind break, built the hide in behind it with a desert camo net and some local tree branches, and settled into the hide at around 12 midday. I didn't bother with any flappers or magnets, and even left the floaters in the car as the wind would have thrown them around too much, I realised the gun was still in the slip , so quickly picked it up , pulled out the Beretta to load it and within seconds around 20 birds dropped in over my head, 4 or 5 coming to land while the rest circled overhead, I rammed the cartridges into the gun and got up to take a shot, but they had already spooked and were on the wind moving away at a rapid rate of knots, no chance of a shot , kicking myself for not loading first ( something I almost always do ) I settled down to wait , but not for long, two birds returning into the pattern from the main bunch, I took the closest one and missed, cursed and swung again onto the bird now accelerating away down wind, out around 35 yards I took the shot and a puff of feathers appeared, but the bird flew on, normally if I had missed on the second shot I would not take another as the range was increasing by the second, but concerned I had clipped it I again swung out giving him a farm gate lead and fired, to my amazement he did a backward summersault and fell dead, I paced the range where he had hit the ground at 92 yards, the shot had hit at around 80 yards, I think my longest kill shot yet . I picked him up and returned to the hide only to be greeted again by two birds out on the edge of the pattern, 1st shot took out some feathers but he rose on the wind , the 2nd brought him back to earth but he was up and running for cover, once again I took off after him, ( no dog and tired 73 year old legs ) I got there as fast as I could and found him down in a water filled dyke, one look at me and he took off again managing to get air born off the high bank , I brought the gun up and took the shot at around 25 yards resulting in a huge cloud of feathers and an almighty splash as he went down, the retrieve was down a steep muddy bank into very cold water but I managed it without falling in. So back to the hide , just two birds for six shots , not my best performance ,but a well earned coffee was very welcome, from then on the birds came in very small numbers, long waits between shots with the wind making life very difficult, it got colder as the sun went behind large heavy rain clouds but thankfully the rain held off, by 3.30 I was frozen solid, with only six birds picked and two lost in the river it was time to call it a day, seven or eight birds seems to be my average bag at the moment with poor weather and so few birds around, I probably only saw around 50 birds in total , had 16 shots in very difficult conditions so 8 birds was probably a reasonable score on the day, then all I needed to do was drive home and clean off all the mud from boots decoys etc., but nothing puts me off and I am already checking the weather for the next chance to get out. 👍 To any on here with Irish heritage , happy St Patricks day tomorrow, both my wife and I have some Irish blood and its my 73 rd birthday as well , thanks for reading.

Nice to see you passing on the knowledge, I doubt there will be much shooting for anyone in the next 30 or 40 years, most likely the kill joys will take over and ban most of the sport we enjoy today.👍

Hi, Welcome to PW, look forward to some accounts of your adventures, love the Lincolnshire countryside, not all flat like some believe, I was based in Boston and did a lot of fishing all over Lincs.