kitchrat

Trouble is I can see no flightlines, after hours of watching. They seem to watch from a very safe distance, all over the place, then following in when a bird lands safely. This suggests a magnet might work but they seemed to shy away at extreme range when I tried on the other field. No favourite part of this field,(29 acres) they just follow where the 1st bird went in OK, except the headlands are not popular (crop is very thin). Hence the hide in the middle but it will, to my mind, stand out like a sore thumb. In order to remain hidden, with a roof, I am left with a very restricted angle of fire (also because of solar panels on the next farm) but at least there will be some wind so I may be able to control the angle of approach (hopefully) I'll start with shells and 2 floaters, if that doesn't work, in goes a magnet. There are not that many birds using the field so by the time you know it's not working, it's all over. Wish me luck, I'm going to need it but "the Farmer expects every man to do his duty!".

Do I start out with a magnet tomorrow or not?? Out in the middle maybe they can't miss seeing the decoys (the crop is very short), so perhaps I'll put a couple of birds on floaters and see what happens. If they go right by I'll go to the magnet. Will report!

Ha Ha, good one!!

I wish!! Nice and tender - I have pigeon casserole for dinner tonight!

In this video, at minutes 5.30-7.00, Geoff Garrod describes exactly what I have been finding. Fieldsports Britain – Decoying without decoys - Fieldsports Channell (right click then "open link in new tab") Interesting to see he does not use a magnet and gives up with the flapper and that he is using 3/4 choke to take not-so-close shots. Of course, he is a much better shot than I ever was but the thought's the same.

By the way, "old 'Un" could be right about July being top breeding time. My "pet" pigeons have just started to pull twigs off my birch tree... I meant Thursday!! Another mistake for my critics to pounce on!!

Thanks for the support from the last couple of posters. As to the unpleasant subject of wounding, in my opinion, steel shot is responsible for a lot of this. As MM said, a head shot at a goose 60/70 yards up is beyond most fowler's skill. Fully agree but the fact that we are supposed not to use a tighter choke than 1/2 with steel makes the pattern density at that range very much hit or miss. In Canada I have had to resort to Tungsten shot, at $5 a bang, then I can use a tighter choke and have had great success at passing geese. The extra hitting power of the denser pellet also helps. Several of the birds I ate had steel pellets just under the skin. The pro-steel lobby test steel on clay targets, where a tiny chip off a brittle target counts as a kill, NO sorry I mean a hit!! Not any comparison. Anyway, I'm going to try a hide, with a roof, in the middle of the pea field on Tuesday afternoon/evening (should be less sunny then?), I'll let you know what happens.

Very likely, it's difficult, if not impossible to measure distance in the "heat of the moment". They just seemed quite a long way away and I was pleased when they fell dead from the sky. I guess the 60 yards bit is just another example of my poor choice of words when just knocking off a quick note to Pigeon Forum , I should have said they were quite rangy, or something like that. I never knew this forum was actually an English Language exam (which I passed in (about) 1969) and that my efforts would be marked so strictly. Sorry again, I'll stop.

I forgot to add that I have a double-trigger gun, the bottom barrel of which is fitted with 3/4 choke and loaded with Pigeon Extreme, 34gms No5 shot, for just such a situation. So a 60 yard shot should be a hit or miss situation and if it's a hit, it should be fatal on contact and if it's a miss it's a miss. Hope that clears things up.

OK, point taken. However, any pigeon shooter who has ever fired at a bird and missed has risked wounding it. But I again plead guilty to poor choice of words, some of my successful shots were outside the range I would usually take, because they were pretty much the only chances I was getting and I admit to getting frustrated. Not good but human weakness. Can peace break out?

Sticks and stones........ By the way, just how perfect are you? (I'm not) Certainly agree about trying not to wound wildlife, but I'm sure we have all tried a speculative shot now and again - just to throwing out an olive branch to try to stop this silly exchange going on. NB I don't understand your other reply:"Yes - but i sent you guys the response from the parliamentary one"

I can also blame the woke clay pigeon scene, when you can't call "no bird" anymore, it's all targets! It's moaners like you who put people off posting on this forum. Get a life and accept that none of us are perfect. What's your problem with me admitting some of my faults?

But if it's been cut for the whole crop, will there be any food left to attract pigeons? (apart from the weeds) I'm hoping for thunder to knock some winter barley over but none forecast. This new-fangled short-straw stuff is too robust!

Further to the question as to how the breeding season is going, I have just de-breasted my meager harvest of 9 birds for 5 hours of crop protection on the pea field. Not one of them was in milk-producing mode. As to the shooting, there were about 60-70 on the field when I arrived (3.00pm), those that trickled back had a look at my decoy pattern from a safe distance and politely declined the invitation to join in. If anything,they only wanted the middle of the field. It had to be wind and sun on face because of nearby horse paddocks but their lack of enthusiasm was clear. I hate sun on face, not just because it blinds you but everything shows up so well. However, I am fairly sure they weren't seeing me, they just drifted on by and slid off to another field. I was lucky to get the 9, mainly frustration 60-yard shots.

Yes, I have a pair who come home to roost (literally) in the birch tree outside my bedroom. Again, why are they not home looking after the kids?

Yes, I'm sorry about the targets, I'm still jetlagged after 15 hours of travelling - poor choice of words.

Sorry!

My 1st summer in the UK for ages so I'm learning again. Just spent a few hours watching a couple of peas fields to see what is going on and it surprised me. Each field had a few dozen birds on it. When scared either by me or the gas gun they would all jump up into the trees and watch for maybe 15 minutes, then one bird would glide down and the rest would follow. After maybe 10 minutes, most of them would hop back into the trees, then just the odd one or two would go down to feed. Clearly not hungry. But there was no to-and-fro traffic, their entire day seems to be sit in the trees, have a snack, back to the trees, rest and repeat. Should they not be busy rearing a whole bunch of new targets for us? Feeding up like mad then going home to feed the milk to the little ones? I remember lots of traffic in the summer. I read that some of you have shot young birds but are there going to be enough? Any thoughts? Cheers!

It's a game of swings and roundabouts! Funnily enough, it finally fell into place for me and a buddy yesterday, peas were sprouting and the pigeons had found them. Difficult place to shoot, deep water/slime filled ditches but got set up under an oak tree. The cover hid us but also hid the incomers from behind, which was where the wind brought them. Not many from the bigger bunches made the effort to swing back and decoy but some did and the singles/pairs did. It wasn't mad, no hot barrels but we picked up about 60 with quite a few lost in the deep wheat field behind. It's been a long wait....

I know I'm always moaning about how hard it's getting round here, when chaps like Peter Theobald are shooting hundreds or thousands only a few miles away. Even the peas don't work like they used to. I have a farm up the road with drilled peas, very few on the surface but maybe a 100 pigeons showed up. I walked them off and took cover. Same old story, only the odd few came back and did the sit in trees tactic. Nothing on the crop for an hour so I went home. No doubt they eventually built up enough and did drop onto the field, which would look bad but they are virtually unshootable in any meaningful number. Now the peas are sprouting and there are 100+ stock doves hitting it, which again looks bad but no woodies. I'm checking daily. It's been the same all winter, my reputation is in tatters!! I have half the "normal" number for the winter, in spite of trying harder.

Most envious of this post! I too had a farm with spring barley drilled recently. However, there was very little on the surface. A couple of hundred pigeons did get stuck in but as soon as I set up they left of course and only a few dozen showed up in little groups over the next few hours. They were very cautious and did the long-range fly pasts and the sitting in the trees tactics. Some did give it a 2nd look and gave me a chance and I had 20 in about 4+ hours. All bird shot were fat and healthy, with empty crops. Just not hungry enough to take a chance and dive straight in. Just a few short of 151!

Just jump up and go down on the other end of the field. Or up into the trees and start the safety 1st cycle again. But fire a gun..... GONE!

Yes I sometimes wonder about leaving a big group but when I tried it, they swooped in, didn't like it and left me fuming for having wasted a chance which I had waited 45 minutes for. There was lots of rape around here this winter, so they just go to another field/farm.

Agree 100% but the problems go deeper. As we concrete over, more rainfall gets drained straight into the N Sea. We have had a record wet winter but already they are taking about hose bans. No thought of building new reservoirs, nimby won't like that. Round here they are infilling as fast as they can but the infrastructure is not upgraded. Essex lanes are full of commuters rushing to the station. You can hardly find a parking space, let alone a checkout at Tesco. GP practises are full. Dentists are full. Hospitals are full. Schools are full. Queues at petrol stations. All because generous benefits mean lazy Brits don't need to work, so we must import cheap labour. (who get all the NHS etc without having paid in). I need a new hip but the waiting list is miles long. Of course, importing all these people boosts GDP, and makes HM Gov look better - or is that less bad? Happy days!!

Funny how things can be different,only a few miles apart. Several of my permissions were plagued with pigeons on the rape, big flocks, in the 100's (not 1000's) but they were almost unshootable as they just p*****d off to somewhere else. They might come back, en masse, once or twice but you can't do much useful damage like that, just move them on. (which pleases Farmer A but upsets Farmer B) Yesterday afternoon I was on drilled barley, loads on it. Set up, a lone bird dives in and gets shot. Several 100 get up and for a moment the sky is full, I shoot 2 more. 3 in 90 seconds! For the next hour or so, just the odd 1 or 2 have a look, then, all of a sudden the "gang" are back and the sky is full again. I shoot 6 in just a few minutes. Then back to the occasional dribble until close of play. I got 20, which isn't bad, but for the number that were on that field is disappointing.