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My mate won't like me for telling all, we went lamping last week, scared loads of foxes, turned out he must of knocked his very expensive scope on his very nice 223 and missed all but 2. This was very unusual as over the past few years I have rarely seen him miss. Means theres a load of charlies out there won't be so willing to get lit up next time!! would have been better if we had left the lamp behind!

CAN being the operative word, there is stubble everywhere which all CAN hold birds but we all know it all don't. Thats where the recon pays dividends and local knowledge!

Well it gives you nice blisters when you strim it on a hot day and the sap mixes with sweat and sunshine, stay covered up and use chemical control and machinery where ever possible. Mind you you gotta watch you don't set up on a wasp nest this time of year, a couple of stamps on the foot peg of the hide pole and out they come, worth keeping an eye out for bees too although a nuisance Id prefer them to a wasp nest!!!

Alrighty I'll keep a beady eye on em then, cheers

Do you have much success once the peas have been harvested? I had a look today and there were a handful drifting about. Last year I shot a pea field a few times but once they were off so were the pigeons!

Ive just had a couple of weeks away from work, spending a bit of time with the family blah blah blah. However on Wednesday last week I managed to score an afternoon shooting wile the missus took the kids out with one of her mates. I wasn't sure what had been cut and what hadn't so a quick call to the farm manager pretty much decided it, the peas were about to be cut and the pigeons were on em the evening before. I drove very carefully the 20 minutes to work picked up my gear and drove down the track to look at the many scores of pigeons lifting of as I drove round, yeah right, a handful of birds, a few flitting about, no where else to go, an afternoon chance and sod all to shoot. Oh well maybe they'll come in if I just set up halfway down this hedge line, I knew from a previous blank that they if they do fly thats where they head. Any way I duly set up in amongst a load of nettles against some nice tall hog weed in front of me, the net strewn across the poles it looked like a pile of cuss. I used the whirly with hyper flaps on, not sure they work too well, but left the dead bird spikes behind, then 11 shells on wobbly sticks and wait.... not for long it happened they came I shot, some really bad shots, a couple of crackers a load more misses and a nice run of singles dropping them sweetly. My lab is now 3 and needed some work and she did really well, although she did like to return to one spot where she thought she may have missed one, but on the whole she picked up really nicely and worked well to the whistle. I dropped a few behind me which we were unable to pick up which was a bit of a shame and the dog wouldn't push through the mangle of bramble and nettle to get to them, nor would I!! I ended up picking up 51 which is a PB for me and the dog on our own, it was also a few more than I thought I'd shot considering my lousy spells where I got really good at missing! Turns out the next day the peas were harvested, I got lucky and had a cracking afternoon out, one of those days which in my opinion in pigeon shooting doesn't happen all that often.!

This is an interesting project and one I have been thinking about for a while, we have a small wood on the farm but mature oak, hornbeam and ash which are reaching for the sky. I have often watched the birds curling around before diving into the trees and thought it would be great to be at height and shooting. There is a you tube of guys shooting out of a really high tower in a wood and it looks great and something a little different. I have studied the trees in our wood and even the highest ones are pretty thin up top, I can still just about climb with my saw so pruning out isn't a problem but: the height you would need to be at is a bit short of where you can get in the tree safely if you were to build a hide, this means that a telegraph pole high tower would be required, consider the height of the trees and the then the height of poles needed and you would still be a bit short of tree top. Its a great idea and if you have a lower canopy wood on new forestry or woodland planting then it could work, if you are successful please share your results I am sure it would be great fun, I quite like the idea of prussiking up 30m into a hide to shoot and then abseiling out after with your kit on your back, make for some interesting evenings rather than sat under a tree craning your neck!!

Thanks all, I admit I would rather have picked up 101 but sometimes you can't pick em all. Another added bonus is that I was using my relatively new A400 extreme, maybe a bit overkill but it worked well all day with 30g 6's not one glitch, it was its first real outing as I have been using my old o/u on clays and sort of fell back in with it. So I was over the moon to be using the new gun to good effect, got the long barrels on it so it takes a bit more poking over the net but it did the job at the end of the day. Got another day out on Saturday weather permitting and they are drilling peas up at work, had ten acres put in yesterday but they haven't found them yet, probably only another eight acres to drill. Its a first in the eight years Ive been there to have peas so Im getting itchy to see the birds coming on em. Last year wasn't too good on the pigeons and drew quite a few blanks waiting for nothing to happen so its great to be on em this year, long may it last!

Is there and easy way to put pics from the iPhone on here, I tried and the files are always too large, gotta be an easy way?!

I had the best session of my short pigeon shooting career so far yesterday, shooting over freshly drilled peas, we ended up picking up 94 with a few more, the dog much to her annoyance, was unable to retrieve. A mixed day with sunshine and a few showers but lovely in the sun when it shone. We decided we should call it our first 100 bird day, not sure if that works as we picked up 94. The birds were a bit off and on but the bag grew nicely through the day, had some larger flocks come in which confused the shooting but also had some cracking shots, long ones, short ones quick ones and a handful of left and rights, which are always nice. Ny dog, now three and my first, worked brilliantly all day, a little hesitant to the back command on clipped birds that dropped 200yards out, thats my own lack of commitment to training to be honest, other than that she worked bloody well. taking direction from the hide as she got confused with a lot of birds out as deeks but she listened and worked intelligently. I believe shooting a few Sunday mornings at the local clay ground has helped with the shooting although we both had some sketchy moments that left us wondering what we were shooting at before we would settle down and then get back in the zone and drop them really well. Heres to the peas I'm sure there will be a few more days as the fields green up with those lovely legumes.

I understand not everyone would or ever will fully endorse what I have done, however I have never put any feeders anywhere near our boundaries, only way inland on the estate. We have always had a few pheasants and the year was fairly good for natural breeding, I am not in a position yet to be putting any down, financially or in terms of labour. I was happy to put some feeders smack in the middle of the estate, fortunately thats where a 10acre wood is, so its a great site. I did read through the old ABC of shooting and whilst maybe not the bible, it states that a few feeders away from neighbours boundaries is fair game. I must admit I do not want to annoy anyone and I was very surprised at the amount of sport we had, I might just cut one or two feeders out although that will likely squeeze the birds that come in, in to tighter areas and reduce the amount of walk up to be had! I hope that clarifies what I have done, rightly or wrongly!!

Well past the end of the season now and back out on the pigeons, but what a cracking first year of feeding up a rough farm shoot. We have a small wood in the middle of the farm and a set of old settling ponds which I have ben slowly attending to. Last year I tried feeding up the wood using some plastic tubs with spring feeders, unfortunately it was only a very short time until the squirrels had demolished these leaving me furious. So before the season I rang our local scrap dealer who was only too pleased to get rid of some old gas canisters, 13 -15 kg size. Take the top off fill with water, cut the bottom off crimp the edges and weld three legs on and weld the bottom back on with a hinge and bullet proof pheasant feeder, just add a spring to a hole cut in what was the top! Having a friendly farm manager who provided me with a good quality and quantity of barley and wheat a feeding I did go. So over the estate I put out 5 feeders, all well within the boundary as I would never want to incur any ill feeling towards our good neighbours. Before the start of the season it looked promising and there were quite a few birds hanging round. The ponds, I kept feeding the margins and the few shallow spots, a couple of evenings spent watching proved without a doubt that a few duck were going in. As you can imagine come the start of the season I was eager to get out and see what the ongoing labours would amount to. The first couple of outings saw us coming back in with 11 and ten birds and around 6 or 7 duck, these numbers not huge but were 95% bigger than the previous year. By the end of the season I reckon (I should have kept a proper tally, note to self) we put 70 -80 pheasant in the freezer and about half that in duck. Thats half a days shoot to some folk and I would not knock them for it, it just aint my thing. I take my hat off to all of you that run big shoots and look after a lot of stock and manage big flight ponds its hard work. I enjoy what I have and share it with a few friends, I never want to blast the beejeezus out of the land but just enjoy a good walk with the dog and a mate, and enjoy eating the product of the labour. I have a lot to learn, one thing I am learning is how to shoot squirrels, its patience, like many other aspects of shooting. One of my biggest pleasures is seeing how my young black lab is coming on, I have not had a dog since I was a kid, then not a gun dog and I am still only on my first term of holding SGC and FAC, so Im a 45 year old green horn!! She will get away a bit at times but has learnt some crafty moves for getting pheasant to fly for me. On the ducks she is fantastic, I have learnt that she knows exactly what is going on and she needs very little direction now. I can honestly say that she has never left one out on the pond this season, every duck has been picked up which makes me happy! A cracking season and looking forward to many more!!!

My rotary uses a motor from an old Discovery, its worked really well back on the peas last year, I just think the smaller 12V don't last especially when the cold hits em and they have had a bit of use, (they were only a tenner each!) I am sure the rotary will cope with extra length arms, its more a question of whether it actually draws the birds better by the pair on the rotary being further away from each other, I am struggling to see that it would as they only need to be seeing that movement?

exactly Jdog and thats another good reason, In my opinion to use these lightweight thingies

Ive been out the past couple of weekends over rape, my buddy bought a couple of silo sock hyper flap pigeon decoys to go on my rotary,he said "give these a go and see what you reckon" I was impressed the first outing we shot 26 before the cold got to the battery and the second outing we shot 21. I am shooting like a complete "curse" at the moment so the bags should have been bigger but once the fog lifted last week they were committing from a long way out, in my my limited humble opinion they definitely do the trick and I now own a pair of these strange looking deeks. I think I need a bigger battery!! Does any one consider using longer bars on the rotary worth the hassle, and what would be the optimum length?