kitchrat

I got under one, once, last year. There were a huge number of birds, coming down-wind from a distant wood, going to God knows where. It was very windy, so they were lower than usual and they couldn't hear my shots. I was in shallow valley, with a couple of high hedges so approaching birds couldn't see what was going on in the valley but could see birds further in front and didn't know of the danger. They were advancing along a 100-yd wide front, so, whilst that meant that I was usually in the wrong place, most birds got by unbothered and "lured" the next batch along. They came in bunches of 1-15, for about 60 minutes, there were 1000's!! I had about 50 shots and only hit perhaps 20. They were incredibly alert, even by hiding under a hedge and trying to skeet-shoot them as they went over I was getting seen as soon as I moved the gun and evasive action in the wind was very effective! Best sport of the winter!!

I have several times described the behavoir of my few hundred local birds, how they "flock-string" up and down, to and fro from local trees, never stopping to feed long, crops never full. I say this suggests they are not what I call "HUNGRY hungry" but are just snacking when they fancy a bite to eat. One bird gets up, they ALL get up. I have shot this farm more or less once a week for 5 weeks, each time the flock string-visits my pattern a few times after re-grouping in the trees, before going off and sitting in distant trees for hours. Each time they visit I get a shot or two, after that it's just the odd Nobby-No-Mates for hours until the flock tries one more vist late afternoon then goes to roost. I have had 10-20 victims each day, but my visits seem to have made no difference to the birds behavoir when I'm not on guard. Today, I have just spent an hour watching and it's starting to change. It's still to and fro the trees to field but now mainly in pairs. They still head for feeding birds but not into the group, just near the group. Have you noticed how in summer paired couples like their own space whilst still being near the group? Each pair doesn't stop long, some landed near enough to my truck that I could watch individuals. They ate for 5-10 minutes, then back together to the trees. They flew right over me, so I could see crops were not full. Still not HUNGRY hungry. Hopefully, the flock situation is breaking up, if only they would hit the field directly without sitting in the trees and watching 1st. Any thoughts from you decades-experienced guys??

See my earlier post on this thread about flock-strings....

27 sounds good to me! Worth noting that they had been there all week, ie had been allowed to build up in numbers and confidence....

You make it sound easy!! However, down here we have no true flight lines, just "flock-strings" where a large bunch will follow each other from a wood where they have rested up to an apparently random destination. If you distrupt the flow, they go and rest up somewhere else, then head off to a different destination. When they are flock-stringing, it looks like a really strong flight-line, but in minutes all birds have made the trip and it ends stone dead. To make flags work, you need about 1 flag every 50 yards in all directions. I use hi-vis jackets on sticks, but how many do you need to cover one 80-acre field, let aone a 700-acre block of rape???

Universal problem, except in S Norfolk and near Hitchin it seems. Rather than do no shooting, I have been selective and have had "bags" of 12,11,11,8,3,24,4,18,5,8 in Feb, not much for a month's work but some of my farmers are happy......

It aint easy, especially this time of year and this year in particular. Nothing can be relied on, wind change, weather change, time of day, even the sun coming out/going in can change things it seems. A magnet and a floater usually help get their attention. My birds don't seem to like decoys much, flocked decoys are less bad, real birds much better. Good luck!! What if they DO return, but you haven't set up?? I'm finding that big numbers don't come back but you can always get Nobby-No-Mates.

My game dealer took in 80 birds last week....

Great stuff!! Agrees with my findings too....

Yes! Brilliant, well done Chaps!!

Shoot them!!

No, I don't think you are paranoid. I once shot in a group, led by a plausable chap, who, for a small fee (to cover costs of reccys etc) would put you on some good shooting. Later, we found out that some of the land, he didn't have permission on at all. A conflict can arise when a tenant farmer wants pigeons off but the landowner has sold the sporting rights to a pheasant syndicate. It can be a minefield, so you are right to be careful, armed tresspass is a serious offence.

Ever heard of "tounge in cheek"??? - and I don't mean French kissing, before Motty extrapolates!!!!! (Or did I mean Catamong?, I forget now)

Even peas don't work like they used to over here. Maybe they are just over-shot in Essex? In the US there is a serious debate about whether hunters are selectively breeding a race of super-smart coyotes, by only being able to shoot the "dumb" ones. Now there's food for thought...........

What are they on then?? Old game cover?? Acorns?? or what??

Well, I'm nearly 61 and have been shooting pigeons since I was a teenager, but with a few years gap running a business, so maybe you have me on the experience front!! Of course where there is a choice of food, pigeons can and will decide on what to do. In another month or so, they will move onto tree buds, the ash and beech trees will be busy and the rape fields quiet. However, up here their main food source does seem to be rape in the winter, nearly all the birds I shoot have only rape in their crops. This year we are also short of numbers of birds, so what acorns, berries etc are availible will go further, should pigeons so choose. My entire point, which you seems to want to blur under extrapolations like " Kitch says pigeons will only feed in sub-zero temperatures" is that colder weather will force pigeons to eat more and therefore spend less time "safe" sitting in the trees and more time eating. It's when they are feeding that they are vulnerable, be it decoying them under oak trees (I HAVE done that, in a heavy acorn year) or rape fields or old game covers. It's never easy in winter but at least when they are very hungry we have a chance to outwit some of them......... As it is I have several perms with lots of rape and two of them have several hundred pigeons feeding on them on a regular basis. However, because they are not HUNGRY hungry, after a few shots they just go and sit in the trees and wait for another day. WHEN THEY ARE NOT HUNGRY HUNGRY THEY ALSO HAVE THE OPTION OF NOT COMING OUT TO PLAY!!! Like today, it's foggy, it's a "sit in the trees" morning......but if we'd just had 2 or 3 weeks of snow and frost, that luxury might not be availible to them, feeding would be a much higher priority, eating becomes imperative (be it acorns, rape or whatever)

This sounds a bit too good to be true. One guy gets 50 for 300 shots, in about 4 hours, that's 1 shot every 50 seconds, The other guy kills 150, assume he missed some too, say 200 shots, that's another shot every 72 seconds or, overall, 1 shot every 30 seconds for 4 hours?? Are you sure this was near Hitchin, 15 miles from where I am, not in Argentina dove shooting? I agree that birds are arriving in better numbers now, but decoying over rape is always a bit difficult.. If you need any more help, I have 1000 rounds in the safe, so should be able to assist for a whole day...........

I'm getting a bit fed up with your extrapolations of my belief that colder weather makes pigeons need to feed more!!! Most other posters agree with me........

From what Motty says, you should move to Norfolk - plenty of hungry birds there..........

Like trying to pick up mercury with chopsticks!! No pattern to where they will feed, no commitment to getting shot.....

I still say they are not feeding HARD. Shot some last night up to about 4.30pm, with empty crops but some (4) on Saturday evening some WERE full of rape. Round here they ARE feeding, on and off, but in a very half-hearted way. Lots of sitting about in trees, they then all "follow the leader" onto the rape for a few minutes, then something scares one bird and they are all back into the trees for half an hour, then it all repeats... If you shoot one, they all disperse for a while, then build up in the trees as above. Thius can happen 3 or 4 times before they go forth and multipy and you just get the odd "Nobby-No-Mates" coming in. I did get 18 yesterday afternoon, so the crop test is not just a random single bird...

PLEASE don't bring him into it!!!! There's enough confusion going on already.......

HOPEFULLY, we''ll all be too busy shooting pigeons to snipe at each other!!!

This makes me feel a bit better, at least some folks have it worse than I do111 (sorry!)

Great stuff Motty (except getting stuck!!) We might be turning the corner down here too, I got some positive decoy responses on my way to a 2014 high-bag of 24 over rape on Friday and the 4 I roost-shot last night (VERY quiet) had crops full of rape...... PLEASE let things be changing at last!!