colin.y

I think the best piece of decoying equipment you can buy is a second hand working freezer. Fill it with the best decoys you can get(dead birds)

Starting to look at the rape here too. About 100 on a field this morning but soon departed, will keep watching

funny enough had this conversation with a fellow shooter today. both of us have been shooting pigeons for 20+ year and he was saying when he was a nipper they had endless days of pigeon shooting on grass seeds. I cant think i have ever had a day decoying over grass seeds. nothing worth remembering any way. very dependent on variety of grass i guess. also what else is around to feed on.

Lupins drilled 2 days ago here. had some left so put a few on top as free offerings! was hoping for a day at them this weekend BUT! seen about 15 pigeons over 2 fields. very little feeding activity out of them either. will keep watching them closely.

dedication is what you need!! well deserved, i didnt bother even looking this weekend, been around rape fields all week with little activity . hoping for some activity in the next week or so with the last of the drilling going in.

come on Jdog a gun of your caliber should be shootng form the hip and not just in the bedroom!

In the last few years GPS systems have become common and these are controlling the drills switching on and off. Now a older type drill always used to switch off and on as it was put in or out of the ground so there was always an element of seed dropped on top. Now with GPS the drill switch`s off at a set point and then lifted from ground so 0 on top. Unless you loose signal or forget to put drill in ground!! lol ( or you have some spare seed and just happen to spread it about on the top near a decent hide area) must have an effect on pigeon food.

defo on clover, finding they feed early and late on clover and a bit of rape inbetween. nothing on buds as i have seen yet.

just to save the argument carrying on, find some good sprockers!! cheaper and best of both worlds!! Only joking , both breeds have equal merits and draw backs each to their own i guess. Bit like the old Browning or Beretta comparison. good price these pups, anything with that quality breeding down here would be £800 +

All is not lost! i have 2 young lads up and coming in the shooting world, both now regular beaters on a couple of local shoots, both starting to learn how to handle and dispatch of shot game. Next will be some clays to get them used to shooting then hopefully next year onto live game. Another factor why less lads are coming through is alot of shoots will not allow them to attend shoots for health and safety reasons let alone the hassle of paying them!!! these 2 lads get paid the same as all other beaters but are expected to do the same amount as the others which they do. The keepers are shocked after the first day on their attitude to the job and their social skills with fellow beaters. Lets hope they stay into it and not find fanny , beer or worse!!

so many times i have heard of a fellow farmer letting a partial stranger go pigeon shooting for the day or even give them permission to shoot that year and they take the micky , end up driving all over the crops, leaving empty cartridges where they shoot, dead birds left scattered, crops trod down more than 50 cows running through it. Is it a surprise they are cautious. Chicken and egg situation , as other have said word of mouth or reccomendation is the best. I would say the most common access is through local shoots, beating and the like, gives people chance to see you use a gun and get to know if you are a muppet or not! good luck formal letters/ forms can often frighten farmers, more casual approach to start with might be better, also be careful not to be caught lurking around farm yards!!

Ive only kept records for the last ninteen years and not recorded the first eight but up to now DB and I have had circa 77,000 wood pigeons imagine the size of the pcture for that lot!! imagine them sat on one field !!

was always told that pigeons only go for growing linseed until it produce hairs on its leaves then they struggle to eat it. cant remember having any decent days on linseed .

top work as usual, mustered a measly 40 today on our rape. should have been more if the shooting was upto standard!! well done on your 2 days work.

Looks to me that its not just pigeons who have been feeding on this field, slugs have been busy to, as you can see they have cleared all of last years straw rows. It will look a picture when out in flower! but i doubt it will all flower at once. top work again PC. I still cannot believe how consistant you are , when reading your post i first though ohh here goes a 50 something, LOL as if.. well done again..