Masher

I'm in the area and your best bet is to look at any rape you have permission on, the yearly migration that comes through every year hasn't on this occasion (1st time in the last 10yrs) so there isn't the numbers around like there usually is, you have just got to put the miles in and find them like I have.

On the south coast

The forecast was for 15-18 mph s/w winds which ended up being westerly and more like 10mph, like I said they did decoy very nicely for me on the day so hence that's got to have helped my kill ratio, when I picked up at the end of my session I would say in my "kill zone" hole that almost 50% of what I shot were dropped in this area. It was just one of those great days where everything just went perfect.

Went out this Sunday on one of my local farms down here in Devon on some rape that the pigeons have been building up in numbers steadily for the last couple of weeks, I was all set up and sat comfortable in my hide with a whirly,flapper and 15 dead bird statics set out by 8am, the birds started to come straight away and decoyed like there life depended on it in good numbers of threes fours and fives mostly. By 8.55 the clicker showed 50, 10am I was up to 85 then thing slowed up some what but still gave me Lots of cracking shooting up to 1pm when I called it a day, I finished up with 140 pigeons and 2 rooks for 189 shots so all in all a very very satisfying day out.

Lots of pigeons pushing through in the last four days, I would estimate seeing 50 thousand last Thursday morning down here in Devon heading s/w. Reports of numbers building in North Devon on the acorns as well, this mild weather has made the yearly migration/movement or what ever you want to call it later this year by two weeks than when I would normally see this happening. Question : Where do they all come from and where do they all go to ?? Every year for the past 10 years I've taken an interest in this yearly movement of pigeons coming down the South Devon coast from the east heading west/South west, they never stay in the area for more than a week or two depending on the acorn/beach mast crop.

Yep total **** bit of kit so don't waste your time there's nothing that can beat a nice clean dead bird.

In my experience it's never a good idea to have your decoy patern in the shadow of a tree line or tree, I've found the birds are far more reluctant to commit to your patern if this is the case....others may say different but I'm a very strong believer on this.

Podimore has a 100 reg sporting on this Sunday. It's only about 35-40 mins from honiton. It's a lot quicker than trying to fight your way past all the grock boxs up to North Devon!

I like to have between 15-20mph ideally. If you gave me an option on no wind or strong winds I would take a strong wind every time because 1: pigeons DO decoy better. 2: shots are muffled there for not putting birds off there flight lines. 3: pigeons will alway flight/move about more. I've shot good bags on windless days but I'm always a lot more confident going out with a good wind. Yes kill rates will be lower but the challenge is surly what we all love...isn't it

Do I get the impression a certain pigeon guide in the wilts area has ruffled some feathers so to speak ? I wish when I bought a days pigeon shooting it cost only £1.20 a bird !! Bargain. Nothing like finding your own for free though.

Would agree with this method in my experience, I have bought some days in Wiltshire around this time of year and the guide always insisted on getting at least two magnets out and two flappers with as many dead birds in the pattern as you could muster and 9 times out of 10 this would do the business.

Good man, well done mark really pleased for you. Just hope you can give the the rest of us a chance out on the circuit this year!! Ha ha

Yes

Is this true that a new ground is being opened up near southern counties on the 8th March?? Anyone got info on this

"Passionforangling" personally I would focus my energys for recognisance on different crops such as rape,ivy and clover as everything that I'm shooting at the moment has these in there crops (Mainly ivy berry's and clover)the only reason I've kept an eye on said wheat stubble field is because the farmer had a very weedy crop and didn't cut one part of the field at harvest time and left the field to rest through the winter so normaly there wouldn't be a pigeon on it,I also shot over 150 rooks and 49 pigeons on this field just before Christmas so it's given me two good sessions. Hope that helps as I wouldn't want you to waste your time looking at the wrong areas.

I've been very lucky in my 25 years of chasing the pigeons and in my time shot some very big bags but as I'm sure lots of you will agree that the number on your clicker at the end of your day isn't the most important thing, well this Saturday I went out on some wheat stubble that I have been seeing bird numbers steadily building for two weeks so gave it a go, the wind was a strong 25mph and gusting even stronger. The birds came for 3+half hours but the way these birds decoyed was just fantastic to watch as they battled the wind and gave me some exciting and challenging shots, the day ended with 65 pigeons in the bag so all in all like I said not the biggest bag shot but one of those ones that just make you really appreciate how lucky We are to be able to get out and enjoy this fantastic past time.

2014 total for me = 697 New total 15,891

Agreed the weather has always played a big part with this ground but as a facility it has always been very good, its needed a graham brown or haggis Hartman back there to pull it around and set some quality targets and get the punters back through the doors and a ground manager that actually takes on board shooters feed back and not tell them "if your not happy go else where" which I my self have witnessed!! Let's just hope that this trend of grounds closing down can turn a corner.

It's all down to the owners as far as I can tell. This ground has been on the downward slide for a number of years in my opinion there just didn't seem to be any interest in getting the entries through the doors (especially for reg sporting events)I've been shooting this ground for over 20years so I'm gutted!! I really hope some one with an interest towards are great sport and has the money can take this ground off the current owners hands..I live in hope!!!

I'm in the east Devon area, I look after about 10 farms which gives me a good amount to look over "but" this time of year I'm probably doing as much recy work as I am shooting to be honest but that's half the fun for me.

Whoops ment beach mast!!!

Hi all, new to all this but looking forward to sharing my experiences and getting involved with the forums. I'm based in Devon so very different (numbers wise) to most of you guys but had two good days out decoying in the last two weekends. I had 86 pigeons and two rooks last weekend on rape and 155 blacks and 49 pigeons on some uncut wheat (was very weedy so farmer didn't bother cutting it) birds are still hard to find but are looking to get on the rape more and more as the beach cast seems to be finally drying up!