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It has been ages since I last did a half decent write up – work, education etc. is all to blame I am afraid! So I’m a week late writing this up… Anyway, after a couple of what can only be described as disastrous attempts at the art of pigeon decoying this summer I decided to pull my finger out and do it properly. I first reccyed this field of rape stubble on the Friday afternoon, the day after it was cut and there were about 100 woodies and a similar number of black stuff feeding quite heavily. (It took 2 .17hmr rounds fired into the feeding areas to get them moving!) However, I was unable to shoot it until the following Monday due to work commitments and plans which had already been made to shoot the freshly combined rape on my girlfriend’s farm in Oxford on Sunday. Shooting at hers proved to be frustrating and unsuccessful with only a handful of birds for my efforts due to them combining 300 acres of OSR in 36 hours. The result of this was the birds having too much choice! It was fortunate there was enough of a break in the weather for the humidity to drop sufficiently and to get the crop cut though! Work, shooting elsewhere and general day to day life aside, Monday was going to be THE day I would finally shoot this stubble before it ended up getting cultivated… That is until the weather forecast issued a very firm NO in the form of heavy rain. Sulking by this point I visited the field again on Monday evening as saw the same amount of birds feeding. A quick chat with the farmer informed me that 60 odd birds had been shot on the clover the previous week but amazingly the rape hadn’t been shot! Loaded the car and got set ready for the off in the morning. I find setting up too early in the day on stubble at this time of year to be a waste of time but was nonetheless nervous that I would discover another gun on the field by the time I had arrived. Turned up at 9am and promptly got my car stuck in the gateway as I had to pull out the way of a lorry to dump some road scrapings in the name of footpath improvement. Fantastic start. Anyway after some slight manoeuvring :yp: all was well and I parked the car alongside the hedge and unloaded all my gear. After lumbering all this onto my back I trundled off towards the middle of the field where I was planning to construct a bale hide near to where the birds had been primarily feeding. Wherever possible I try to set up with the wind on my back so the birds decoy facing me and are easier to kill than shooting a bird going away up its backside. I pushed 3 rape bales together to form a hide which despite nearly finishing me off and making me sweat like a rapist, looked rather effective once the stealth net was up at the front and other netting was tucked into the bale wrap behind me. This also forms a partial roof behind me and helps break up my outline from above and the side. On the advice of a friend I set the decoys in a line around 35m long and 10m deep approx. 20-25m from the hide with the shells randomly scattered in this group but primarily facing the wind. This is designed to mimic the more sporadic manner in which birds settle and feed on stubble. I also experimented with placing the rotary at the head of the pattern to my right rather than at the back and middle of the pattern in an attempt to provide a more attractive area for any birds which may be more rotary-wary to decoy and consider landing. At this point I realised the dead birds for the rotary were still sat in the fridge. Anyway, now that everything that could have possibly gone wrong had indeed gone wrong, I settled down into the hide and… wait for it… missed the first bird. FANTASTIC. After giving myself a good rollocking, I killed the next 6 birds that came into the pattern and set up the rotary in all its rotating and glinting in the sun glory. The birds decoyed steadily although there were quiet spells combined with busier periods where the barrels were really quite warm. I went back to the car at just gone 11:30am to stock up on cartridges and much needed yet life shortening supplies of Brunch bars, energy drinks and Lucozade sport. Before I had even managed to successfully open an item of food the birds began to confidently decoy for about 2 minutes in which I killed 8 birds. My shooting throughout the day was somewhat sporadic - killing several left and rights where I allowed the first bird to land before killing the second bird as it decoyed, then shooting the first as it took off again. This suggested the placement of the rotary was effective as in a tighter pattern with a more central rotary I tend to find the birds more flighty when it comes to decoying. As a general rule once I started to feel smug about this working, I would require all 3 shots to kill a bird. The bird’s confidence evaporated the moment something wasn’t perfect with the pattern though. They would veer off long before decoying if a dead bird had as much as its wing out, let alone one on its back or side! I have honestly never done so much running in and out of the hide tidying up the pattern as I did on this day! Some prefer to leave a pattern to its own devices but I have always been a strong fan of dealing with wounded birds instantly and keeping the pattern looking A1. It is my opinion that for every bird you spook in the moments you are out the hide tidying, this is magnified by the amount that are put off coming close enough to shoot by irregularities in the pattern. Some of these birds you may not even see. The result of this is an incomplete picture of how many birds took a disliking to the pattern that could have otherwise decoyed and been shot! Some people may just choose to sit back and shoot those that still do decoy and complain that “The birds were just wary today!” but if something is putting the birds off I prefer to find out what it is by making changes and watching the birds behaviour! Things remained steady until the rotary battery died and passing birds showed much less inclination to decoy. I tried to mix things around by putting a bouncer out and removing the magnet but struggled to pick up more than the occasional bird. With the day cracking on I went for a walk to pick up some birds which had dropped under trees away from the pattern and nailed a very high crossing bird who thought it was out of range. Rapidly concluding I need a gundog but sadly time constraints don’t permit it at the moment. That and a new bigger rotary battery! Finished the day on 80 birds picked for 152 cartridges. Not the best shot to kill ratio but acceptable considering I shot like an absolute wally at times! Hope the photos of the hide give you an idea that this kind of set up can be very successful providing you stay still until the last moment; silhouetting yourself against the sky in the middle of a field is an instant bird-scarer! They are also somewhat indicative as to why a 4x4 would be a sensible investment were I not a student paying for fuel! What I haven't yet mentioned is the heat of the day! It was very very hot and muggy. It was an absolute breeze to drive my car across ground which was too wet earlier in the day. Cheers, FM