Whitetail

I've been using pigeon magnets since they first came out, I don't see them as any less effective now than then. I think some people are looking through rose tinted glasses about the good old days. Both Peter theobald and Jim alboune were sceptical of the magnets when they first became popular , they soon changed their minds on the effectivence . I've had better luck using two magnets rather than one.A friend and I shot 113 pigeons Saturday afternoon with 410s on laid barley only using two magnets , birds decoyed superbly . If you think about it there will be several million young pigeons flying about in the coming months who will never have seen a magnet

Had decoys hit/ taken by buzzards, sparrow hawks , male hen harrier , peregrines and goshawks twice. Had a cockatiel fly over the decoys some years back . Shooting on some rape a few years back , I could hear a engine revving away and some young gypsies in a battered Peugeot 205 wheel spun by the hide,how they managed to not to get set I don't know, they came over to have a look at the pigeon magnet . Luckily I was shooting with a friend , I don't know how it would have went if I had been on my own.

There's been the odd young bird been shot over the last few months.I was doing a hedging job just after Christmas and there was a pair of squabs on a nest then. I think with the mild winters we're having pigeons are breeding for longer.

The pigeons yesterday were on a new permission , believe it or not the farmer had been trying to find someone for weeks to shoot them and because it was rape couldn't get anyone to go . There were two gas guns on the field which the pigeons were taking no notice of, I would think there was maybe two acres of badly eaten off rape. Shot from two until just after five when the birds stopped coming in and started flighting to another rape field in the distance. Today's birds I've been chasing about on a massive block of rape ,Im guessing maybe a thousand plus acres for the last couple of months with varying success . Now the rapes growing it's making the birds concentrate on the poorer areas. It's near home so I check most afternoons to see what's happening . I think I've shot 400 plus off this block of rape in that time.

On the areas I shoot around Cambridgeshire I would say the numbers are up on the last few years , good numbers on the patchy rape now and before that very good numbers on spring drilling. Shot 145 yesterday after work and 82 this afternoon . From what I've seen they are not feeding in any numbers on peas yet.

The shooting you have sounds very similar to some of mine , copses and belts of trees in fenland. They can be a real magnet at times because there's very little choice if the birds want to roost locally. I use a fac air rifle most of the time because you will find that if you use a shotgun with any regularity you will have very few pigeons using them. I've found that if you don't shoot too late into the evening and let some birds come into roost you will keep birds using the copses for another evening . Good luck

You could shoot blue rocks( stock doves) up until the early 1980s . I used to sell to the game dealer for about 5p back then wood pigeons fetched around 20-30p , not a lot has changed there! The numbers around here are pretty stable ,it very much depends on the crop your shooting over on how many you see. They feed more on grain/ seeds than wood pigeons

For me on drilling I've found dead birds and maybe a bouncer works best but there have been times when a magnet has helped, every day is different . On a crop I tend to start with a magnet or even two if I haven't got to walk far. Watch what the birds are doing coming to the decoys you will see if you've got it wrong. As for hides blending in , I shoot in the fens and often times your hides going to stick out like a sore thumb regardless , doesn't mean that the birds won't decoy , I would rather have a poor hide in the right spot than a palace of a hide the wrong end of the field. As a side note I use a desert camo net I've found it works well all year round

jdog nailed it, the more you go and hopefully shoot a decent bag or two the harder it will be to sit there when the birds aren't moving or likely too. I can't sit there knowing I'm wasting my time when I could be at work doing chores or doing some scouting about looking for another days shooting. Two builders I know have just started pigeon shooting and they were telling me how they went dawn to late afternoon for seven pigeons and had a brilliant day , joking I said I would have thrown myself on the hide poles rather than sit there for that , but years back I've been out that long for less

I've found in the winter on rape you pretty much need a decent wind to get any shooting , the birds flight on to the fields in smaller flocks and tend to stick to a flight line, whereas on a still day I've found the birds tend to get in large flocks and either move two or three fields over or be quite content to sit in the trees . I've had much better luck setting up later in the day than being on the field for first light like I used on rape. At other times of the year like spring drilling or on stubble you can have good luck on stiller days but I always try to choose a day with some wind, I think it helps with muffling the gun shot

No I don't, I haven't shot your area in the last few years so I'm a bit out of touch. Try the fishing lakes that Will runs there should be contact details there.

Nick unless I'm mistaken your not that far from Will Garfit , he used to have a game dealer collect his pigeons . It might pay to find out who he is using, if you factor in time and fuel costs it might be the way forward to try them rather than run to ely or stonea

If they can handle the weight a weihrauch hw30s is a excellent rifle

I think we're talking about they same game dealer unless there are two in the stonea/manea area , Steve and bob

There's fur and feather in ely and theres a guy down the sixteen foot drain at stonea who buys game . Pm me if you want his number

Daystate produced one a few years back called the sportsman,I owned one for a year or so. Two pumps on a side lever for 12ftb it was accurate as my huntsman I owned at the time , I traded it for a rapid 7 and for me a good move as I still have that rifle. They never caught on ,but for someone who doesn't fire a lot of shots and lives in the boonies with no dive shops they would be a good choice.

I think your trying to run before you can walk, as other posts have said get proficient at clays or decoyed birds , your not being fair on the birds or yourself at the moment. A good shot on flighting pigeons taking birds that are in range would do well to kill half they shoot at. Half choke with clear pigeon cartridges are a lethal combination, that's not the problem

I've been using precharged air rifles since the early eighties( daystates) and theobens the last 15-20 years, also center fires the last ten years or so and they all shot/shoot to a different point of aim when moderated or not. That this at odds with evos experience is neither here or there ,we're using different rifles ,we're probably both right . It's to late now but you would have been better off buying a second hand air arms 300/400 series or a weihrauch hw100 than a new hatsan and had a proven accurate rifle .

It's not unusual for a rifle to shoot to a different point of aim without a moderator fitted, you have removed several ounces from the end of your barrel .

I can see both sides of the argument , I've been asked to shoot pigeons and leave them and it's something as I get older sits less well with me. How do you recover or dispatch wounded birds ? If the farmer is worried that much about the damage being done why put a gas gun and a scarecrow out

I use plastic cloths pegs

I agree with fenboy, a pigeon hit squarely in the head with 10 ftb is a dead pigeon, your not hitting them where you think you are . Eley used to publish a list with how many ftb it took to kill various game, and I think from memory a pigeon is 2 ftb . I used to hunt very successfully with my theoben fenman .177 with premiers , a friend chronographed it one day and it was shooting at under 8ftb and I lost all confidence in it over night . A accurate rifle shooting 10 ftb will be just fine for hunting

I often use leylandi branches or this time of year elderberry branches if making a hide in the middle of the field ,it works well enough ,it's a pain at times carrying them out there

Back in the 80s ,original brought out the 45 to compete with the hw80,fwb sport and the webley Vulcan . It was a powerful ( often over 12 ftb) v accurate rifle let down by a plain stock , plus it was somewhat unwieldy. I think it would be well worth 150 plus. At one time I had a .20 original 45 barrel on my rapid I think it was the most consistently accurate barrel I've used ,wish I could get anther one

Pigeons tend to feed on linseed up until it's maybe 2-3 inch high and if your lucky enough if the farmer is late harvesting it then , when it was farmed around here it was block farmed and that's hard work . I've a fondness for linseed because it was the first crop I shot a hundred pigeons on with my air rifle . On the whole bags tend to be steady compared to peas or spring rape, I haven't seen it grown in the last five years or so , maybe with the black grass problem we're having and farmers having to grow three different crops it might be grown again