Pigeon addict

Hi all, I know it’s a bit late in the day but I’m hoping to release some grey partridge ASAP. Haven’t had any luck thus far in finding day olds or even eggs so I’m having a last attempt on this forum. If anyone can give me a contact in the DORSET area that would be hugely appreciated. Thanks!

Damn right. I spoke to a young farmer about hundreds of pigeons on his spring drill. The funny thing was the farm yard was next to this field and he was completely nonchalant about the issue.

I agree. As I said my current permissions are through farming contacts that I have and yes I still have them. I’m after new ground to give me the chance to shoot pigeons year round. At the moment my permissions are mixed farms that grow wholecrop winter cereals and grass. You’re probably right! if your farming friends are irritated by door knocking; how do they suggest us shooting folk go about asking for permission? I only ask when I see a pigeon problem so it’s not like I ask for the sake of it.

You’re so right. It’s definitely changed the game for the worse. I think the idea of crop protection and respect for the woodie is lost through guided pigeon shooting. Dorset Good idea! I will look at getting some cards printed. Only thing is the regular always brings his mate no doubt to sit at the other end of the farm.

Hi, I’m aware this topic has been discussed many times before but I’m still struggling to secure new ground. My permissions to date have been through farming contacts; however, I’ve been after new farms in the hopes that I might have pigeon shooting accessible throughout the year on a variety of crops. ive done my recon and have no trouble finding fields with pigeons on, I then inform the farmer of a pigeon problem on his field but every answer I get is the same (“we already have someone who shoots the pigeons”). I’ve asked numerous farmers but have had no luck so far. It seems as if every square inch of arable land is fiercely guarded by the pigeon shooter. I’m not sure I’d be wrong in saying it’s “dead man’s shoes”! I just feel as if I’m running out of options in my area; we don’t have a huge amount of arable that needs protecting from pigeons. Perhaps I need to look in other counties..... If anyone can give me some advice on how they have successfully secured pigeon shooting ground, that would be hugely appreciated? Thanks in advance.

That’s a really interesting point and I have to agree with your perspective. What I can’t understand is why most roosting woods are a lot quieter. You’d think that even though birds are spread far and wide, they’d still use their usual roosting woods.

Ah ok makes sense What’s the best performing county out of curiosity on a usual year?

That’s interesting so how does it work exactly? I’m just curious....do you stay overnight at hotels or just a lot of travelling? Does anyone else here have any experience on managing pigeons on permissions in multiple different counties?

Good news! So do u have perms in different counties? I’ve always wanted to have the luxury of choice but haven’t worked out how to do it whilst still delivering for the farmer. Plus if there aren’t that many pigeons in Dorset why not go further afield!

Hi all thanks for your replies to my post. Sorry for the delay, I thought I had posted this to the “talk from the field” section of the forum and when I couldn’t find it on there I thought my post had been taken down. Anyway, good to hear people’s own theories, I think a lot of it is down to the weather as many of you have said. What I don’t understand is why pigeons have decided to go awol when they’ve been living off OSR ever since their population began to boom. Despite the reduction it’s not like rape has totally disappeared. Plus there is tons of natural food about. The fact that they aren’t feeding on rape in many areas suggests there is no shortage of food. There is no rape in my area and due to the warm sunny weather we had today I saw a very small flock of 30 birds feeding on clover. Is this unusual for this time of year? Has anyone had any good bags on clover this early? Obviously 30 is nothing to set up on but at least there are signs of woodpigeon returning albeit slowly!

So I’m sure many if not all of you will have heard of the pigeon maestro Tom Payne. I’m an avid reader of his articles in shooting times and if any of you want to learn more, I strongly suggest reading his book. Anyway back to the point, I follow his page on Instagram and today he put up a long post outlining his own theory and analysis on the current pigeon status in terms of numbers. I attach his theory below. I’m a firm believer in what he has said and I just wanted to hear all your thoughts on it. Let me know!

Thanks to both old’un and marsh man. That is great advice, let me see if I can make contact with the gamekeeper. This will be difficult as I don’t know the area at all and have no contacts there due to it being a good 35 mins from home but I’m always willing to travel for pigeon shooting. My only fear now is that pigeons in that number may have moved off the cover strip but no doubt they won’t have gone far. I’ve got nothing to lose either way as you suggested!

Nothing in my area and nothing on rape I’m just staggered, I’ve seen more birds sitting on top of my local village street lamps than my ground to be honest! Shot 3 birds last weekend - 1 had wheat and the other two had a mix of ivy berries, acorns, clover and some other weeds. However, I did find a load on my way to work which was really nice to see; apparently the video is too large to attach even at 8 seconds. Enquired for permission to shoot but was appreciative that the estate was polite enough to return my call to say that pigeon shooting is kept in house for the keeper. Must have been 4-5000 hitting a flailed maize strip. I think that’s where every pigeon in the county has gone!

True. Perhaps they’re letting numbers build then....if the pigeons even do. County is barren currently.

Came across a bunch of pigeons on a standing maize game cover. Not huge numbers but most I’ve seen since last year! I suppose there were about 40 and this was 10am so my guess is there’d be more in the afternoon. It’s not my ground; however, do you think I should ask for permission since it’s only a game cover? Or should I wait until the pigeons are actually hitting a combinable crop? Haven’t worked out who farms the ground yet but guessing there’s a syndicate.