kitchrat

Yes I do have the same problem, on a bigger scale, ie more land but same difficulties. Occasionally you get a lucky break - chopped maize cover with good food supply, 1st drilling or harvest in the area. Generally, think that any shooting is better than No shooting!! The more help you can get from the farmer and the less competition from other shooters the better. I'm not lucky on either score....

I usually seem to have to carry my stuff for "miles" (well 100's of yards), it's bad enough taking the fallen home without 70 passengers -perhaps that's why I don't seem to get these big bags??

plus ten million percent - death is preferable to soaps.

Have to agree with you AGAIN, Motty!!! Shot some the other week on a new drilling that was so sticky a wounded bird could outrun me! Their feet were like huge balls of mud.

My problem with the high overhead roosting birds is that I like to see what happens. I KNOW that if you can see it, you've missed it, but still make the same mistake sometimes. NB I use a SxS so it's a wide gun.

I have recently shot at some sitting birds at about 45 yards, facing towards me. Some just fall stone dead, but some just fly off. OK, I could have completely missed them, twigs may have stopped some shot etc but some, I'm sure were almost knocked off the branch then pulled themselves together before they hit the deck and flew off. No explanation.

Well, a pal of mine recently brought a day in Wiltshire, on cut maize, and was set up with 1 magnet and 6 dead birds in cradles. 4 other guns in the area. He shot 165 from 260 shots, total bag 830ish. OK, the number of decoys will soon have swelled, but he started with 6 and they "poured in" , Carefully managed pigeons..... I presume you used shells? or Fuds or "Siily Socks", otherwise setting up would be a huge operation??

Crossed the border back in Herts this week, after finally finding some smashed maize with grain left for the birds to eat. Having not been shot on this estate all winter but gas-gunned off the rape, the pigeons were wary but not magnet-shy like my Essex friends. In spite of difficult wind conditions, field layout etc not being ideal I managed a 60 and a 50 in the last few days. So I CAN still do it!!

This is something we can agree on, 100%!!

And they don't seem to touch charlock which is almost the same as rape (to us). There's only charlock left in some fields round here.

More words of wisdom! However, it is hard to find the right farmer, so much is owned by huge companies with no local farmhouse to target - that's been sold to a "Townie" who has paddock for the kid's horse and is anti field sports, especially anything noisy!! In Canada, on the praries, you can buy a map with tells you the name and address of the landowner of each field. So you drive round. ask if you can shoot and they say "Yes, enjoy yourself but no digging ditches" (fair enough!!)

A fellow beater of mine recently shot over 100 in an afternoon, on rape, just outside Harlow. He was as surprised as anyone and admitted that they were "town birds" that had been tempted out by easy pickings and had no idea what a magnet was, or what shooting was. Birds on the way in would continue in as birds ahead of them died! As to passing on knowledge, I've seen adult birds push decoying birds (their young??) away from my pattern. Motty will disagree, because he hasn't seen it happen, but I have.

With the warmer winters we've had lately, I agree. They don't need the warmth of woods. Birds have been roosting in trees near their feeding fields, me arriving at dawn then puts them off that field before they have started to feed and they go elsewhere.

Good point but lofted decoys are a real pain to take down - literally! A shooter friend was trying to get his lofters down when the metal weight fell off and caught him in the face!! Several stiches required!! Also, very hard to get them high enough to look good.

I've tried the megas and honestly can't see any difference in attractive powers but there again have had so few birds coming back to my fields that it isn't really a fair test. A lot of the rape on my Essex farms has been badly attacked by Flea Beetle, together with pigeon attack these fields look almost bare but still seem to attract pigeons. Some, "un-beetled" fields are almost untouched. There are far more birds on my patch than in the last two years but it's not helping my bags much. I can't flag off 100's of fields and 1000's of acres within an easy 5-minute flight.

That's OK then, I thought you were getting less "dis-agreeable" and would loose your place on the famous Monty Python sketch!! Of course, you could have been agreeing in your spare time!! Agreed!!

I wish it was that simple!! All the above conditions help of course but no certainty....

WHAT MOTTY, agreeing with a point I have wasted hours on this forun trying to make? I'll wake up in a minute!!! Seroiusly, one of my equally frustated Essex pigeon shooters brought a day in Wiltshire the other week - different world. A magnet and a few dead birds on an estate where the pigoens are not shot often and the crops are managed to suit - 5 of them shoot over 800!!! He'd have me knocking on his door asking for guidance!!

Mick, I've had 6 of these this winter and used them about a dozen times, mixed with 12 normal flocked shells and a magnet with real birds, plus real birds when I get some. I've not really had enough birds coming in to test whether they are better or worse but can say that the birds I HAVE seen, have, in general, decoyed quite well, but not fully committed. I get them coming, then they decide "Thanks but No Thanks" when 50-70 yards out. No real panic,(except when they see me pointing a gun at them) just "No Thanks" It could be my pattern, the mixture of decoys or the magnum shells themselves. I suspect they are actually magnet aware but I need the magnet to get their attention in the 1st place. That I have tested. As ever, REAL birds work best Not much help really but my guess is that they are no better and no worse than normal flocked shells, just take more room when carrying them!

I try to explain to farmers that birds feeding on any food supply, eg stubble or cut maize on their farm gets them used to feeding there and when there are drillings or OSR will flock back to favourite feeding areas - Just like P-ing into the wind!!!

Pretty well no grains left in the covers round here either - the crows have been on them all season . This is normal and we rarely see many birds on the chopped stuff. Also, they get ploughed in a day or two.

So that's where I'm going wrong???!!! Then I could be a Bird Magnet too??

I'm jealeous!! of all those numerous, easy-to-decoy birds you have out your way!!!! That's why JDog is moving over, I'm sure.

Again, as one of Motty's target, I don't think jealousy has anything to do with it. On the clay loads (I think I missed that debate), I've shot pigeons with No 9 shot when I had nothing else. I would say, though, that something heavier would often be more appropriate, unless Motty can get them to decoy that well. If so, shoot them down. I'm struggling to get them inside 50 yards and prefer No 5 shot. Cheers

I'll try to be sensible!! I guess I'm a "glass-half-empty" man! For example, we are all hoping to get some good bags over smashed-up game covers. I've checked all mine and there are no maize cobs left, the crows have cleaned them all. So I don't expect much and the last few years have been the same -no interest from pigeons once the feeders in the cover crops are not refilled. However, I'm sure some farms have had better crops of maize that have not been destroyed yet (as per the Shootingshow videos), good luck to the lucky ones who can shoot over them - fill your boots and shoot a few for me. I also should explain that I only get to shoot over winter rape as I am out of the country for the rest of the year - maybe that explains why I struggle??