kitchrat

OK, for the last 15+ years I have lived mainly in Canada, only coming back to the UK over the winter, both for the game season and rape protection duties (to keep in with the farmers) and to avoid the vicious winters in Canada now that I have got too old to ski/snowmobile the way I would like to. On my winter visits, (maybe 4 or 5 months) I would probably average between 200 and 300 pigeons shot over rape. This year, I have quit Canada and had my 1st season for ages on the stubbles and drillings. It has been like a dream and I have shot, maybe 800 since June. Had to make several trips (35 miles each way) to the game dealer and got a speeding ticket on the way back once! (£92 for the Speed Awareness Course!

That's what I've been finding and what has confused me!

Historically, most of my pigeon shooting has been in the winter, earning my permissions by protecting OSR. Now I am back from Canada full time, I enjoyed the "easy" stubble shooting and was pleased to get some good bags. Back to the OSR soon, I suppose.... Nice comment! Cheered me up a bit! Cheers!

Yes I beat for 4 shoots, that's how I managed to get the permissions I have. Never get any insults, just light-hearted Pee taking!!

OK, I'm sorry if my frustration got the better of me but I did not like being called a whinger when I was laying out my problems and confusion. That is not constructive criticism. I don't mind a bit of humour, insults are another thing... At least we have had some more constructive replies since my little paddy! By the way, there were next to no pigeons to be seen in the area I was watching today. Must have been a transient flock. Some on a drilling right near my house, which is unshootable - roads, houses and paddocks all round. However, some drilling has been going on nearby, on a favourite field, so I'll be watching..

As an addendum to my farewell post above, I have this to add: I do not have access to a huge amount of land, the area is not pigeon rich and I rarely even see the number of pigeons some of you chaps can shoot in an afternoon. Here in semi-rural Essex there are lanes, footpaths, horse paddocks and "Antis" all over the place. I have to compete with Greek cafe-owners from London who offer £100 for a days shooting. So, it is difficult. If this is whingeing, I'm sorry, but it's the facts of life. So, I have to try and think my way to some success. If it doesn't work and I got it wrong, I have asked you chaps for more "data", ie what you are finding and what you suggest. I am sorry for having been a whinger but I thought Pigeonwatch was about sharing information and advice. Clearly I was wrong and have wasted my time, and yours. So sorry, I won't do it again!

Thank you all for your support. (heavy sarcasm!) I am a struggling pigeon shooter, finding it more and more difficult to get a few birds in the freezer. Clearly, Pigeon Forum members are more interested in slagging me off than coming up with any useful advice. I have found this over the years but have continued to post, hoping some of my posts would be of interest to others. I now, finally, see that I was p*****g into the wind! Goodbye and good luck.

Yes and I keep doing it but cannot come up with a predictable or repeatable set of conditions. Nothing seems to add up. That's why I'm asking what others have found....

What's shower gel?

Went on patrol yesterday, about 1.00pm. Saw a good-sized flock get up in the distance and found a drilled field (one of several) with loads still on it. Nosed my truck into the gateway in the hedge and they all got up in a huge flock and left. Continued on my rounds and came back 45 minutes later, not a pigeon to be seen. So today, I arrived about 9.30, loads of birds on the assorted fields, especially the favourite from yesterday. Again, they all jumped off in a huge flock. I watched for 45 minutes, a few smaller flocks came back but just landed in the trees and never hit the field. As I went to check the other fields, a huge flock took off from a nearby wood (nothing to do with me scaring them!) and departed. There were a few small groups around on the other fields but they too left. The tree-dwellers were still in the trees at 11.45 so I went home. Are they feeding from 1st light and are full of grain before I got there? Are they just plain not that hungry? Are they flocked up already? How can I get to grips with them? Ideas? Cheers, JK

Not only do pigeons fail to appear (on a pre-determined flightpath) when you call "pull"they also have a tricky habit of swerving and kinking and ducking and diving if they see you raise the gun. That's why we love it!

Yes, that's what I thought but they still seem to be after it. Almost all empty, after a morning of rain. Some had a few grains of wheat/beans from the fields across the road. None had rape, or buckwheat that I could find. The rape itself seems "unpecked". What buckwheat there was seems the have gone, eaten?

They lied about the wind direction! Do you know if it was companion sown with buckwheat? There would have been a few little plants sticking up above the rape with white flowers, looked like weeds really. Supposed to help protect against flea beetles.

Wow, that's early then,usually don't start on rape until about Xmas. However, some are on the berries already, as found in crops of the fallen.

The Mett office! No, the frustrating bit is getting set up, getting a pigeon to decoy just where/how you want it, then not being able to see it or even shoot at it. On the whole it was a good outing. Were they actually eating the rape? I'm certain mine were not.

So I got a text from a farmer to say they are back on his OSR. I don't think they are eating the crop but the companion-sown buckwheat, but if there are pigeons to be shot.... The rain finally stopped about midday and, sure enough, there were pigeons on the fields. It's a big block, about 150 acres and not very good access. I managed to get set up near the middle/the end the birds liked best, with a reasonably stiff wind R to L. Magnet, floater and decoys set about 20 yards to my R, so the birds will come in upwind, right in front of me. Good plan, which worked well for a while, although it was a bit slow I had shot 11 for 11 in the 1st hour and all was well. Then the wind went round to about 45 degrees right of centre in front and stiffened. This allowed a good proportion of incoming birds to come from behind, over the hedge, swoop into the decoys and swirl away on the wind when they didn't like it. This would a) catch me by surprise, b) make me panic and c) ruin my kill ratio! Then the sun came out, full in front, just where the cooperative-decoying birds would come in. On with the sun glasses. The sun also makes me and the hide more visible but it was a bit more busy and I plugged on. Then it got worse! Clouds started to bubble up, big white fluffy ones. The worst scenario was when the field and the trees behind were not in the sun but the white clouds behind were in full sun and ultra bright and dazzling. The field was so dark the glasses had to come off but if you saw a bird approaching in the sky it was like looking into the headlights, when the bird dived in to get shot my eyes could not adjust quickly enough and it was pitch black. A bird would fly 15 yards away, 5 yards up and I could not see it to shoot at it!! Most frustrating. However, it wasn't always that bad and I managed to get through 2 and a half boxes of Clear Pigeon (boxes, not slabs!) and picked up 35 birds with some more lost in the crop. Farmer happy, job done! Cheers, JK

No Bob, they were cooked in the Micro-Slave and I just put a few nicks in the surface to stop them exploding!

OK, this is one of my pigeon casseroles! NB, managed to "scrape together" another 22 this afternoon, so casseroles and breakfasts can remain on the menu! Cheers, JK

Just had a super breakfast, flash-fried young-pigeon breasts and fried eggs on toast. Breasts still pink in the middle and super tender! It's given me the energy and inspiration to go out and try to get a few more! (I should have taken a picture but didn't think of posting until I found how nice it was.) Cheers, JK

I'm good at Sudoku! My thumbs are not good after too many dirt-bike crashes and an attack of Dupuytren's contracture. Luckily it's my left that's bad so no problem shooting! Cheers, JK

As you say MM, no heart attack! I was just near the house of a nice chap who accepts a few, he came over and took 10, so now I have enough for 2 good casseroles. Several young birds, could be nice and tender? Actually, I shot well and can remember the misses (only 6 and I got 1 of them with the 2nd barrel!). So, I was happy enough with the bag, the farmer would have liked double or treble or more but 26 still keeps me in his good books. Win- Win day! Cheers, JK

Very true!!

After the luxury of stubble shooting, driving to the hide position, comparatively good supply of birds etc it was back to reality today! Wheat that was drilled 4 days ago, decent number there (50-100) yesterday so in I go today. About 50 feeding and more arriving when I got there. I drag the stuff a few hundred yards across sticky Essex Clay to the best and safest place to shoot and set up. As soon as that's done, the 1st mini-flock return and decoy OK, I get two! Three minutes, same again, 4 in the bag and I'm thinking "Only got a single slab of ammo". Bonk, reality strikes and from then on it was the odd mini-flock at 10-15-20 minute intervals and very wary, using all the old tricks of a) circling at a height as if it were a duck pond at dusk, b) zooming downwind on the stiff breeze from behind and curling away, c) going to sit in the tree to think about it d) ignoring the decoys or e) just not coming anywhere near! My hide was as unobtrusive as I could make it, with a good backdrop and I was down and hiding but most still turned away. Two real birds on the magnet, about dozen flocked shells in the pattern, which were replaced with dead birds but it made little difference, most birds turned away or gave me the cold shoulder. However, some did decoy well, a few were young and I managed to "scrape together" 26 before the trickle stopped about 3.00pm. A good afternoon for me! Cheers< JK

WOW!! How many birds are there in Warwickshire? I've found a newly drilled field with, maybe 50-100 going there and will be pleased to get into double figures today!! Same problem of course, plenty of other fields for them to go to once I start shooting, then I'll be lucky to get a shot every 20 minutes. Warwickshire, Wiltshire, perhaps I can rename East Anglia as Wessex and it will help?? Cheers and Well done!!

Simple? OK, I've not got the knack. I have to resort to shooting them stone dead with tungsten! I'm happy to accept that we shouldn't use lead shot over water or wetlands inshore (but you can if it's not at wildfowl!!??) but in woodland for example? For once, the Scots seems to be way smarter....