Fisherman Mike

Rimfire.. If you use a 1,000,000 cp lamp at close range your likely to fry the bloody bunny before you shoot it!!!. I use the dimmest lamp I can get away with which is a filtered Logun Smart and I usually go out on my own. There are hundreds of rabbits where I shoot but they are not stupid and it pays to be stealthy and approach down wind ( as with all stalking) I also use a night vision monocular (expedition 600) to scan the area where I am lamping and have rigged a resistor switch to my lamp so that I can turn it on gradually as I found that switching it on with a quick burst of light often spooked the quarry into bolting. It some times pays to play the lamp beam just in front of the rabbit as they are often reluctant to run into the beam of light and give the opportunity for a head shot. I can normally get to within striking range of my .22 Hornet or Webley Raider with a bit of patience and stealth.... Job done. Proper hunting... I did try using my 20 g a couple of times but just too damn noisey. With the pneumatic I often get a couple of rabbits within yards of each other. Once I shot one and its mate 4 feet away carried on feeding. Would you do that with a 12 g and a 3 litre diesel grunting away in the back ground?!! I dont use any expensive scopes but a 4 x 50 Chinese cheepy wich was about 30 quid second hand. The best bag I have had in one night was 22 and it took me 2 hours to pick them up. 2 were lost probably to charlie but what the heck... All these rabbits were head shot with crossman powapell. I cannot see the point of riding around in the middle of the night shooting out the back of a truck with an elephant gun and spending hours picking shot out of dead rabbits.... still each to his own....good shooting.... FM.

I did the same a couple of years ago. At the chrono it measured 16.2 ft lbs with crossman accupell. At the sort of range you are shooting at it aint gonna make a lot of difference and the increased velocity didnt make it any more accurate. Save up 600 sovs and get the theoben eliminator in 22 cal and 28ft lb. You,ll never need another 22. Proper job!!!! FM.

Wookie Can you get hold of a pantomime Horse and shoot out of the back end?!! Or dress up like a tranditional scarecrow cus they dont bloody work... FM

Thanks Ollie, I hope to get over during Easter and spend a few days with my Brother and a few days fishing. Good Shooting Fm.

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Your quite right ollie. and the wedding was in Strabane The reception was in some place over the border BalleyBoffey or something like that. which was in a bloody fantastic hotel right next to a river. I cant remember drinking so much in the past... In fact I cant remember anything... other than a red headheaded barmaid called Sioban who was georgeous... Shame I had the wife wth me.... :*) FM

Ollie, on the 26th went to my rough shoot with the 16 g and shot 2 pigeon, 1 White crow, and a rabbit. Put the rabbit on the bough of a tree because i didnt want to lug it about for a couple of hours. Came back round and couldnt find the rabbit. It was jumping aroud about 25 m away. I thought 25g of N0. 7 would have been enough but then noticed that a BIG mink had dragged it of the bow and I think it was trying to **** it back to life. It died happy too. Which part of Ireland? My Brother lives in Omagh. married a fine Irish lass. Hes into Cricket..... what a poof!!!

Mahmood I have the Logun smart, The fields I have are Large with lots of Bunnies I dont want to see too far ahead as with regular lamping they do get a bit clever. So I creep up on them with my HW90K. Does the job well but I would probably have bought the mini tracer if the Shop had had one in. Also I blew 2 lamps within the first 6 weeks with the Logun and they cost me 8 sovs each 2 replace ( Thats 4 pints in normal speak ) Happy Hunting FM

WWN The best hide poles I have are various lengths of pollarded Hazel shanks cut at 18 to 25mm diameter. I cut about 30 at a time. The ones you are not using regularly are best left to season over winter as they dry and strengthen and become about 40% lighter, I fix rubber Y top rod rest heads to the tops ( Cheap from any tackle shop ) and they do a proper job. FM.

Hmmm... Tastes a bit like Chicken. But then again doesnt everything... except chicken... Plenty rooks crows & daws round my way but not many pigeon... Can you eat seagulls? By the way the collective noun for rooks is a Parliament. FM.

Wookie Theres and old saying from this part of the world.. If a Rooks on its own its a Crow, If there are several Crows together they are Rooks!!.... FM

Sounds great to me Will. I must book a couple of days next year!. I would be interested to know what percentage, roughly, of young birds have been shot this season. Also with so many birds around in your area do rotaries make that much difference in this situation? I know you have a vested interest in saying yes but I would value your honest opinion Regards FM

Glad to hear it Send Some my way Will! Are they the big flocks though which were once quite common ? or twos threes and fours coming regularly to the deeks. FM

Are you sure they were pigeons and not Widgeons? Wisherman Wike

Without a doubt JONO. I like to have a good look at something before I eat it!

No doubt in my mind that Pigeon numbers are well down in Glos, Wilts & Oxon area. I have seen small flocks of 100 + birds in various areas and although cummulatively they may make up a substantial number of birds I feel there is no where near as many birds about as 10 - 15 years ago and I dont think my Local Farm suppliers sell as many gas scarers as they use to. There is with out doubt a far hgher percentage of brassicas grown by farmers these days in proportion to wheat or barley and I have noticed a general trend of birds being more dispersed in smaller flocks rather than 500 - 1000 that were once common. I cannot agree with previous comments made after my previous mail on pigeon numbers about detremental shooting during the breeding cycle. Besides Shooting and Fishing my first passion was and is Ornithology so I think I know a bit about these birds. Pigeon dont normally flock up in large numbers during the breeding months as they pair off and are very attentive parents. If weather conditions dictate they will breed well into the autumn months but a single bird shot on the wing during this time is likely to be a feeding parent travelling between feeding and nest sites..... one dead hen could mean two dead squabs so just think you could be hitting three birds with one shot.! Fisherman Mike

I sometimes add one or two crow decoys and a magpie to my pigeon deeks as it appears to give the birds a little more confidence. I kept pigeons both ornamental and racing as lad and they are among the most intelligent of birds and very wary. I must admit I have never had much success with rotaries when conditions are as you describe and sometimes I even leave my 16 g at home and take the pneumatic air rifle. You hit the nail on the head when you mentioned the amount of rape grown and it pays sometimes to bear in mind that it tastes pretty disgusting even to a pigeon so if there is something else on the menu locally you can bet they will be on it (I recently observed 50 -60 birds in the hedge adjacent my shoot gorging on Ivy Berries) If the pigeons dont come in you may have the chance of the odd crow or maggie to stem the boredom. I dont move about too much because I have never found it to be any better chasing wary birds from field to field but when it has been really cold the same birds come to the deeks like little kamikaze pilots. Take a portable radio, earpiece and copy of shooting times!

Yes sometimes, No sometimes, If you asked me if they were better than a decent decoy pattern and some well placed flappers 25years pigeon shooting (7 with rotary aids) would say the jury is still out. If you are where the birds want to feed then you will shoot pigeon. I have tried in the past to draw birds from two to three fields away where the landowner would not let me shoot ( Miserable b....r!) but with not much success. Proper field craft and decent weather is the key. in my experience colder the better for rape and dry underfoot for stubble fields.

Have any members noticed a decline in pigeon populations in their area? I started Pigeon shooting in the Cotswolds ( Cirencester Area) back in the 70,s and there was then less rape and far more Birds! I have heard that 4 million plus birds are shot in the UK each year from a population of 6-7 million pairs. Can this continue without some sort of close season? I dont shoot pigeon (or any bird) during its breeding cycle as I feel I am then contributing to their recovery. Any comments.