M ROBSON

That's a good afternoon!

Thanks guys I hope the good run continues. Today was the first time Gary had ever shot decoyed pigeons, and what a start he got! He ended up with 101 for 250 shots over a freshly cut winter barley field. IMG_0009 by mj robson, on Flickr Cheers, Mark.

Well done George, you'll remember that one forever.

There's no getting away from them at this time of the year, every summer shot woodie has the potential to carry fly eggs. We put them in a chiller at 2 degrees at the end of each shooting day and any egg development is stopped, they need 24 hours to turn into a maggot. Mark.

The last 3 wet days we've had here produced nearly an inch of rain each time and it's rained most of the day. On the first day we had 116 for 155 shots, on the second day 45 for 155 shots and on the third day 139 for 350 shots (2 sharing a hide). The birds few all day. Guess you can throw the rule book out of the window!

Well done George and JC!

Throughout this summer we started off with 28g 6's then moved on to 30g 6's and are now using 32g 6.5's, all at the clients requests. I have noticed that the birds have been getting much harder hit and some are often no good to send to the dealer and the average shot to kill ratio has gotten worse as we've moved onto heavier loads. The guys I get that use the 28g 6's will kill 75% of shots taken and will kill out to 45 yards. Mark.

Jason took 103 on standing wheat today for 250 shots, ran out of cartridges in the end! 103 on standing wheat. by mj robson, on Flickr

Dennis did his 4th day on the Crows this year in the pouring rain yesterday, he ended up with 95 off a freshly lifted silage field. That brings his 2011 total to 465 over 4 outings for just over 1000 shots!! 95 in the pouring rain!!! by mj robson, on Flickr Cheers, Mark.

Look good Tam, think even I would be able to keep my breakfast down on those calm waters!!

Nice kipper Tam, well done!

Thanks guys, At it again today, the rain never stopped for a minute all day. Despite the horrid weather my Swedish client ended up with 116 on a field of fodder Kale/Turnips, his second "ton up" during the 3 days shooting! 116 in the rain on Kale/Turnips. by mj robson, on Flickr Cheers, Mark.

We get 35p collected by Braehead in Kilmarnock. I was offered 40p from Peterborough Game the other week, they are sending a lorry up to Scotland once a week to collect. Mark.

Another nice bag of 123 shot over blown barley today, this time we only picked about 100 of the birds. Image0042 by mj robson, on Flickr Cheers, Mark.

The wind was perfect for this hole so the vast majority fell in the open space. I told him to leave anything that was going away or coming past the hole as often they will turn and come to the decoys. We walked round and picked up everything we could see the I spent 15 minutes with my spaniel who picked up another 20 from round the edges. In the end we only lost 8 birds, probably the best pick up I've had on a big day over standing crops. I'd normally expect to pick about 80%, but if you resist the passing shots it can be done. Cheers, Mark.

If your birds are magnet shy try using 2 flappers mounted on bouncer poles, put them up on top of the swath, like they are landing on it. This is deadly on standing barley.

Good work Dave. Get the barbie fired up!!

I wish we had swathed rape around here, very few farmers here swath it now. I don't even have a single field of peas either this year that I know of (100 farms), yet up around perth I saw plenty when the game fair was on. Cheers, Mark.

Thanks guys. Yes, I was well impressed with John, he only started shooting 8 months ago but goes to the clay shooting every week. Cheers, Mark.

Here's a nice bag of 131 from a wind blown winter barley patch today. This was only the 3rd time this guy had shot pigeons! Image0037 by mj robson, on Flickr We've been shooting 5 days now and this brings our summer total to 501 (2 guns each day). Cheers, Mark.

Here in Fife they are on a big mixture of stuff. They aren't fully switched on to cerials yet and we've been getting good bags on greens also. Chickweed, Clover, Broccoli, blown winter barley. Haven't seen any on Wheat yet, just the chickweed in flood holes. Starting to get more showing up on blown barley and I've got several farmers who are just waiting for a dry day with winter barley ready to cut now. Cheers, Mark.

The Olt-800 is very good for Greys but they don't make them any more. The guy from Olt set up DJ calls and now makes them instead, they are wooden and come in greys and pinks. Most plastic snow goose calls will work well on Pinks. I use the Haydel MSG-96, Olt L22 and Olt 800. Cheers, Mark.

We just use dead birds on cradles, they work well on cut grass or anywhere that they can stand out.

When the farmer's jumping up and down in the winter looking for you to shoot his rape It's worth slipping in a mention about getting the benefit of your hard work during the stubble time.

The crowman's 3rd visit of the year today, resulted in 121 on a milky winter barley field. Image0031 by mj robson, on Flickr Cheers, Mark.