john

I totaly agree with JONO, if you are sat behind a good camo net that blends in with the hedge etc and you have a solid background so as not to show your silhouette then the only thing thats vital is to use a face veil. I never shoot without mine, worth every penny, the same goes for my deer stalking, i never go without one.

Ive found that a dead pigeon is a good food for my magpies and also for the crows, you could even use one that has been de-breasted and keep the best meat for your self.

Thanks for your replies. Being a yorkshireman (deep pockets and short arms) i went to my local fishing tackle shop and paid £16. for a 6 metre fishing pole, fastend some wire to the top section in a hook a duck style and made some S shaped wires for the pigeon deeks. Tried it last weekend, when i got to the farm there was two pigeons sitting in the willows and about 20 feeding on the short OSR. I had to put the birds off to get to trees where i wanted to be, set up my hide, put two deeks easily up in the tree, turned to pick up the third only to find two pigeons landing close to the deeks that i had just put up, needless to say it worked a treat, managed 7 for 9 shots before things dried up.

You have a PM.

This morning i spent 30 mins watching about 80 pigeons just sitting about in sitty trees with no intention of feeding on the OSR they usually feed on. when a low flying aircraft disturbed the birds and they all took flight, eventually they came drifting back but i noticed that the birds would fly past each tree and only land in the trees that allready had birds in. Has any one had sucsess using lofting poles ?

Been out this morning with not much sucsess,set out my deeks, { on OSR } positiond the flapper 20 yards away as though it was coming to land into the deeks. If i saw any pigeons in the general directiin i switched it on, i only had about 20% sucsess, most just flew straight past without a second look. Had more sucsess when i packed in, and stood under a favourite sitty tree. It seems to be a problem on days when there is no wind the birds seem content to sit about and do nothing. Thinking back i might have had more sucsess going back to the farm for about 4pm hoping the birds would be more intorested in feeding at that time.

I tried my flapper for the first time about three weeks ago so this was an experement for me, ive fitted a simple on/off switch which i opperate from the hide. All that i did was possition the flapper about 20 yards down wind of my decoy pattern, when i saw pigeons crossing wide of my pattren i simply swiched it on and left it flapping, nearly every pigeon that saw it turned and came straight in past the flapper (that was still running) and tried to land in with my deeks giving me the easiest shooting that ive had in a long while.

hi mike, i have had the same problem with the pigeons just sitting in the trees at the other side of the fields, Until i bought a flapper i tried it for the first time on sunday morning i found that it was pulling pigeons from 300 yard on a consistant basis, i also had 12 full bodied deeks on spring sticks the were rocrkin with the wind. I found that the birds pulled onto the flapper and then cruised on to try and land in with the deeks, for the first outing i was pleased. work is the curse of the shooting man.

Thanks for ur advice lads,tried out the flaper this mornin.The wind was blowing right to left so i put 12 deeks slightly up wind of my hide in a horse shoe shape on the right n the flaper about 20 yards down wind on my left. The result was great, the birds pulled in to the flaper came straight past it to land into the deeks giving me an easy crossing shot about 25 yards out.

I am wanting some info on flock coated shells, i want to cut down on the amount of kit that i usuall take so i am wanting some shells instead of full bodied deeks. There seems to be quite a few companies that sell them with a variety of prices, any advice, good or bad will help.

I bought a call off eddie and used it last season,it sounds good,but i found if u blow to hard and try to put in a bit more effort it sticks or jams up,ive gone back to the good old realiable OLT 800. ps, i shoot with Morecambe bay, furness wildfowlres & wigtown bay. (work is the curse of the shooting man)

Cheers for the help lads, hopefully i will get chance to try out your sugestions this weekend. (work is the curse of the shooting man).

can any readers give me any advice on my new flaper ive just bought, like the best place to put it in my decoy patern, its fitted with a intermittant controller with three settings so it flaps every 5 seconds or on the third setting it flaps at about every 20 seconds, they are expensive but the more people that i talk to all say that pigeons are getting shy of magnets or rotarys so i thought i shellout. Also i cant wait till September to try it out with a wigeon on it down on the marsh.