kitchrat

If you can shoot pigeons you get to see a far greater variety of shots than clays can offer. Although I run the sporting clays here I cannot replicate what I see in my hide. A clay just follows it's course, doesn't duck and dive when you raise the gun or flare away on the wind in a 10th of a second. However, I can work on snap shooting by giving narrow sight windows and true pairs in opposite directions. i think (hope) that longer range crossing clays will help me on the pheaseants and partridge though.

What do you do with them after you've shot all that many? I believe you can't sell wildfowl to the game dealers, so if you can't eat them or freeze them for later, don't shoot them. I'm also saddened by the increasing number of "game" shoots that rear tame ducks on their ponds, then shoot them time and again as they repeatedly circle the pond trying to get home, just as a way of boosting the bag. (and are they using steel shot????) It seems an 80-bird day between 9 guns isn't enough. Then the Guns drive off in their 4x4 BMW's back to their city haunts and don't even bother to take a brace with them - they have the pictures of the enlarged bag to put on Facebook, and that's all that matters. The "sporting" side of our sport seems to be getting replaced by boasting about the bag size.

Soon be time for my trip to the prairies after Snows, Ross's, Big Honkers (Greater Canadas), ordinary (Lesser) Canadas, Speckle-bellies (White Fronts) and all sorts of duck, mainly mallard. You can shoot sandhill cranes in Saskatchewan, but I don't think I'll bother, although they are said to eat well. I'll be there early October, and will report. Then back to duty, protecting winter rape fields.

Take a look at this Guys!! With two dozen pigeon "silly socks" this could be the new Magnet? http://www.pacific-wings.net/flyrightdecoy.html I hope the picture works, it's only the 9-bird version but you can go to 24!! Don't laugh, it's real.

It always is difficult.......

It's been like that here for several years. All the PW members thought I was just being a miserable old moaning *** but now more and more of you are suffering too. Add to that the overshooting near London and it's no wonder we struggle - the birds soon become decoy aware etc.

Welcome to reality, it's usually like that on my patch!! Not many birds, overshot, magnet aware, decoy aware, hide aware, rarely a flightline to be found. Stubbles ploughed in the next day, then "No shooting, the pheasants are in the wood a mile away"!!

Fake number!! How pathetic......

Loads of similar peasants round my way. No wonder the birds soon get magnet and decoy shy, as Yickdaz found after only one shooter-day. They also drag the gun out as soon as they see either a combine or a drill in the fields, so birds never get a chance to build up and flight lines seldom develop. I wish I lived in quiet 'Ol Norfolk where there doesn't seem to be the same shooter-pressure.

Now we know why you have trouble getting someone in the hide with you.........

Can't go wrong then!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?????? OR can it? The unpredictable nature of pigeon shooting makes it such a challenge.

Of course practise is good but it's not the "Motherlode" to results shooting real pigeons. The unpredictability of birds is the beauty of our sport. When I'm here in Canada for the summer I shoot 100 very sporting clays each Saturday but when I get back to the real stuff I always struggle for the 1st few outings. Clays follow a predictable path (on demand!) and slow down during their flight . The real bird MIGHT be slowing down as it comes in to land, OR it might be accelerating when it's seen you raise the gun, throwing in a few kinks as well.

What choke/s are you using, sounds a bit tight to me...

Same here, the noise was bad AND they didn't seem to pull any birds!!

I always knew Motty lived in some sort of Paradise, judging by his reports. You must have made your move to East Anglia to the wrong location!

You can walk, with care, through standing wheat and hardly even see a track left, let alone do any damage. As I said in another post, when I worked on a farm as a kid, we would walk through the crop to pull up wild oats plants and never leave a track.

I think you can shoot standing wheat or barley, with care you can retrieve nearly all victims from the wheel marks and can then walk through the crop at the end of shooting to get the vast majority of the rest without doing damage, as long as you are careful. When I worked on a farm, at this time of year we would walk through the crop pulling out the wild oats, with no damage done. The ears don't drop their seed readily, like dry swarthed rape does. So, one careful clear-up at the end, as opposed to trampling in and out does work. However, it's getting them to come to you that's difficult, they seem to use the wires as a meeting point, no birds on wires means they go elsewhere.

No doubt in my mind that they can tell the difference. A gas gun is (often) just a lift up and drop back down event, a shot in the air, even 400 yds away is a "*****-off to places far away" event. The gas guns with 2 or 3 shots are little better but a quick bang-bang left and right really spooks them. I will sometimes pass up a second shot for that reason.

Thanks for that info, I only know of 1 field near me, saw birds on it and wondered why. Thought it was weeds. Now all I have to do is get permission, but there's a game shoot on that farm.....

Agreed JD. Leaving dead birds in the field just gives ammo to the antis. I have heard of 50+ birds left after being shot on a fresh drilling. No difficulty in collecting them just too lazy and "what do you do with them?" If you don't eat them and the game dealer is 20+ miles away and only giving you 10p, it's a good question. However, it's our duty to put them in the food chain.

What do you think they were feeding on, weeds in between the plants or the beet itself???

Different area again, almost no grass, just cereals or rape around here. The only grass is horse paddocks so no chance of shooting there. Plus they seem to prefer to feed in the middle of fields so I have to use power poles isolated trees etc as cover and there is little choice considering the birds can choose where they come from.

Maybe I'm too worried then?

Agreed 100%, they usually complain next time they see you "There were 100's here, where were you?"

Does that mean the farmer will find nearly 50 "very high" dead birds in his combine?? They have to cut the crop right at ground level and bodies will be entwined with the vines.....