pigeon controller

Great shooting and great pictures.

Friday saw us starting out at 11.00 due to 06.00 delivery to the game dealer but we started at the farm we shot last week expecting plenty of birds as I'd been out in the week crow bashing and seen approx 700 on the rape stubble. We drove onto the field " nothing" not a bird down, we waited to see if any were flighting, after twenty minutes we had seen ten birds pass over the field , we then decided to give it a go and went to see the farmer and he told us it had been shot in the week and they had forty birds. We went back to the field and found their hide position plus all the cartridges ( Scruffy B--------) All you should leave is footprints. We set up on the flightline and the birds were crossing the field in a flightline that was two hundred yards wide so it was frustrating shooting but exciting. Towards the middle of the session the wind dropped and the birds started to decoy well and we ended the day with one hundred and sixteen . Sturday saw us setting off a 09.00 in a totally different direction trying to pick up on flightlines. We managed to find five and after seventy miles cross country we found five farms with pigeon feeding we also found three shooters and two expected to come out to shoot. We get comments that you must have a lack of shooters in your area due to the pigeon numbers we shoot, I can assure you that we have lots of shooters around at times. As we made our way back past known fields we bumped into one of our farmers, we had a chat and he said that he had been bale collecting this morning and the pigeon were flying all around him. so we went to have a look at the field in general. As we drove on about ten lifted off the field so we decided to have a go. We set up at 17.00 and shot till 18.30 and picked up fifty four pigeon and two crows. Which was a good end to a long day.

Well done nice to see you on form, it is difficult to get use to a new gun you just have to keep trying

Well done for putting theory into practice, result.

Well done with a strange gun.

Well done,this should keep you busy for a days , result.

If we know that we are going to shoot the same field in a week we pack up early the first day and let them feed. When we come back we shoot a bit later in the day so letting them feed earlier. We also change the pattern on both days.

Hope you feel better soon Olly, keep your eye on the posts so you can join In with us on the forum.

Well done and a good result with all the disturbance . My crows yesterday decoyed into a group block.

Hi Yickdaz I took two hundred shells with me today for 158 crows and six pigeon. I would hope to shoot 75 with a 100 shells with decoyed birds. Cheers PC

I use Fiocchi Pigeon 32 gram 6, between 20 and 35 yards

When we were out on Saturday the farmer asked if I could pop over in the week to sort out the crows. I went out this morning with my normal three thawed crows and drove down to the field of combined oats. The crows and jackdaws were all over the field but were also in a sitty tree on the windward edge of the field, so i decided to set up in range of the sitty tree with my back to the wind and in the shade of the tall hedge. Just to the left of the sitty tree there was a gap in the hedge about five yards wide so I put the decoys on the field so you could see them from the back. Most of the birds came from the back and circled above me towards the decoys which I put on spikes until I had fifty out in front. I also had six pigeons that flew high over in front using the tree as a passing point. It all finished about 16.00 and I picked up One Hundred and fifty eight crows and jackdaws and the six pigeon.

Well done for going out and doing the business . You got the reward at the end of the day, good job and nice set up.

I used to static marshall in a previous life when Mike Hailwood was riding and I thought that was fast but this film is the nuts!!!!

I can honsestly say that I've never shot pigeons over oats I've shot loads of crows. So well done but as White hunter says thats not standing oats or is it the next field?

I'm not sure what you mean by Professional. I'ts just a passion I love shooting pigeons also ferreting, longnetting. Fishing for barbel and Pike and Zander. I don't make any money at it just love doing it. I've been married for forty years and my wife jokes that with fishing and shooting we have only been together for ten years!!! When I was working in Bannf, Aboulour and Fife I saw loads of birds.

Thanks JDog, When I found this forum I thought it was great to see and Etalk to like minded shooters who have a passion for the pursuit of Wood pigeons. DB has been shooting pigeons for well over thirty years and when he started it was the cabbage fields of Avon or Severn valleys that attracted vast flocks during the winter. With OSR this has inproved the stocks and also spread the birds around the country. When I had to work for a living I used to travel all over the country and in conversation people would say what is your hobby and I would say I shoot pigeons and they would say are there many about and I would always see birds about from Scotland, the Fens,Wales, Kent etc. My shooting goes back approx 23 years and in that time I've learnt my fieldcraft . When I post the pictures of our efforts its not to gloat and brag or make people jealous but to show that being tenacious and to quote Topgunners " never give up" you will get the results you want. Yes we shoot in the ancient Forest of Arden and the clue is in the the name WOOD pigeon and we shoot about 45 weeks of the year and over the years know when to look at various areas to find the birds, when we are looking we see lots of other shooters out and about with all the gizmos and not a bird in sight. First find the birds or the flightline. I thank you for your comments and I hope that my little snippets each week make you and others improve your sport and achieve the results you want.

Will it be any good for cleaning the pigeon blood from out of my nails?

Good day and good result.

Well done for sticking at it, the thing is to remember what works . Look for sitty trees and also gaps in tree lines which the pigeons use as escape routes. Once again well done result.

Thanks for all your nice comments.

We were called out on Friday to try and reduce the number of crows on the wheat stubble and following the discussions on this forum that the birds would not decoy we went back to basics. We started by watching the field for fifteen minutes checking the flightine for the crows and also the pigeon. They were going between two oak trees in the middle of the field so we set up on the edge of the one tree, we had three defrosted crows and twelve pigeon and put them out on spikes I had a reed crow call and that was that. We started to pull the crows and jackdaws in straight away and could get them the land in the pattern also the pigeon started to decoy straight into the decoys on the stubble. We had the crows to the left of the hide and the pigeon to the right. We kept putting out decoys till we had used fifty spikes and after that brought the shot birds in the hide.By making the pattern look as natural as we could they kept on decoying. We finished at 17.00 as the rain was coming in and picked one hundred and thirty six pigeon and eightysix crows. Saturday saw us on the same farm on the barley stubble we set up with ten crows from the day before and twelve pigeon we put the magnet out with two crows on it, to the left of the hide and the pigeon to the right with two flyers in the pattern at 10.00. I called the crows but they would not come near and the pigeon would fly over us high not attempting to decoy. I took the magnet down and called three crows into range and shot them. We noticed then that the flightline for the pigeon was going to the right of us to another farm, so we packed up at 11.45 and moved the the other farm only to find another shooter on the rape stubble. We had a chat to the farmer and decided the go on another rape stubble field at the other end of the farm as the farmer said that he had worked it the other day and it had loads of birds on it.So we set up with the magnet and normal set up. We could hear the other shooter in the distance matching us shot for shot at first but then we had the first of two thunder storms pass us. The question was should we be out here under a metal brolly with two lumps of iron in our hands in a thunder storm??? The birds would not decoy and we had to move things around alot the get them to play ball but we ended the day with two hundred and fourteen pick up which was great . We started the day saying that we could only take two hundred at the max due to freezer room todays shooting made the total 1610 in the freezers at home. We caught up with the other shooter back at the farm and he had picked up one hundred and thirty five.

Well done , it's very frustrating when take a good high shot knowing that it will drop in a standing crop. Good result.

We have rape stubble that has now grown to about an inch high , no pigeons on it. They will be on the rape when the autumn harvest has been eaten. Would you like to live on cabbage??? Rather than berries acorns and seed.

Well done, good result.