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Glad to hear you've a possible solution. Pls let us know if the Gunsmith fixes the issue 100% as i need to get my Beretta 682 Gold E sorted and I'd be very interested to know what the cure is (can you ask him what he adjusted/replaced to cure the problem, when you pick the gun up from him?). Thanks,

Ah ha, the Beretta inertia block change over problem... I've Beretta 682 Gold E which does exactly the same thing, about every 30th shell it won't flick over from barrel 1 to barrel 2. It will however go from Barrel 2 to barrel 1 reliably. This is irrespective of load / cartridge type used or temperature. At the moment, I always leave the trigger selector to barrel 2 (top) for this reason. I took the gun into my local gunsmith and he could find no problem, he cleaned and re-lubed the mech - problem is still there. I've unfortunately met a few people who own Berettas and have experienced this exact problem. I phoned up GMK (the UK Beretta distributors) and asked them for their view on the problem....they would not comment - I plan to send it to GMK at some point to get it sorted, but that'll mean I don't have a gun for a few weeks. If you put snap caps in my gun, it takes a hell of a slap on the butt to get the trigger to switch over from 1 to 2. I hope you get yours sorted, let us know how you get on.

The land I'm currently shooting on has a fair number of crows/rooks as well as Wood Pigeons. At the moment I'm just using pigeon decoys, although I've shot a few of the crows, by standing under their flightline and taking some high passing-over shots with a 12b. Question is - Can I also put out a few full shell crow decoys with my Pigeon decoys (15 full shells and a rotor) in order to try and attract both crows and Pigeons, or will this scare the pigeons? would it work? If I look on the surrounding oilseed rape fields there are usually crows/rooks on the field, if there are already pigeons feeding, but I don't know if the pigeons generally try to avoid the crows? Although my main interest is in the Woodies. It would be great to be able to get a decent mixed bag of pigeons and crows (saying that, at the moment, it would be good to get a decent bag of just pigeons :laugh: ) Thanks,

I was thinking of WC76H from Maplin, as it handles more current and has spade connectors already fitted to the inputs. In saying that, if the Pinewood rotor rotates at 40rpm and people are using it successfully, then I guess this means mine at 30 - 35 rpm is OK in terms of speed. Ref buying direct from N&S and saving 40% damn, damn and damn !! For future reference what are N&S contact details, do they have a website? Cheers.

After todays (dire) performance, I'm going to the local shooting ground tomorrow, to break a few clays. At least they arrive when i shout PULL and I stand a fair chance of hitting some of them... Even the missus took the p&ss tonight - 'what you spent all day in the cold, sitting under a piece of netting and spending all that money on that silly wirly decoy thing and you didn't even shoot one bird' (aghhh!!!!) Next weekend will be better planned!

Roll on the season then!

Thanks for the prompt replies guys. So at 30 -35rpm, my setup isn't too different then, to other systems people are using at 40rpm. So it looks as though my worry about the rotor being too fast, is not the case. I think you are right about wasting my time on the winter weat when I should have been on the oilseed rape. I thought I could save a bit of a walk with all the gear... I presumed that the woodys would come down to have a look, having seen a group of decoys, even if it wasn't a 'food crop' they were on... i guess I was very wrong.... lesson learnt! Ref the battery life, I've read that other people using Vale (??) rotors have got only 4 - 5 hours of battery life so i wasn't suprised when I only got 4 or so. I'll see if i get any improvement when the battery has been cycled a few times. 21 hours on a single charge for the Pinewood rotor is VERY impressive. That means it's only drawing approx 0.3 amp, which is leass than 4 watts of power, when it is running... that is very good. Thanks.

I'm just starting out in this pigeon decoying game and still have an awfull lot to learn. I know there will be various factors (weather for one) which affects the results obtained on a typical days shooting, but I wanted to canvas everyone's experience on which time of year is easiest (bigest bags) for decoying and shooting Woodys. Don't say January !! or I'll be very disheartened! I haven't even got out of single figures in a day yet... Cheers!

Wonder if some of you with experience with Pigeon Magnets / Rotary decoys can help me? I've just bought a Rotary decoy (from Target Sports) and used it for the first time today. I'm using a 12V 7AH battery, connected directly to the motor. The arms on the rotor are approx 4 - 5 ft. The rotary decoy opperated well, apart from I felt the speed of rotation was possibly too high (?) For the first few hours of battery life it was approx 30 - 35 rpm. Is this Ok or far too fast?? As the battery started to fade (it only lasted about 4 hours) the speed obviously reduced and seemed to be 'right' at about 20rpm. I was using the magnet approx 3 yds in front of a horsehoe pattern of 15 full-shell decoys, facing into wind, spread in a wide arc approx 25 yds out from the hide. Because I hadn't any 'real' pigeons to use on the rotor, I started off using a pair of 'winged' flapping pigeon decoys (foam) that Target sports sell for use with the rotor. I was planning to swap them for real ones after I'd had a few kills (some luck!). The pattern was under a flight line in a winter wheat field next to a large wood. In hindsight I should have set up another field along, which was oilseed rape. I had no way of adjusting the speed when out today and several times, flocks of pigeons flew past the decoys without coming in for a look. A few times some otehr birds did drop down or alter course a bit towards the pattern and then carried on their way, but they were still miles away, too far for a shot. Only one bird, all day, glided into the pattern ... and I *****y missed!!! I can't help feeling that the birds were put off by the speed of rotation, but with no prior experience in this I don't know. Maplin electronics sell a 3 Amp, adjustable voltage regulator which would allow me to alter the voltage to the motor and hence rotorspeed if people feel the 30 - 35 rpm speed is too high. This would also have the added benefit of extending the battery life. Any feedback on the above welcome, Thanks guys.