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I am fortunate in having a south facing bedroom where the morning sun provides free light and heat. Its strange that being retired I still have the thought I should be out and about , up and away on such a bright but cold morning. By 8 am I could bear it no longer, with the thought of high pigeon dropping down to decoys eliminating any chance of a further snooze. Well no hurry could not think of anywhere to go, all the usual stuff having been cleaned up, later it became apparent that somewhere I had a mental blind spot. Fed and coffeed , the Ignis loaded with a moderate amount of gear some of the local venues were examined to no avail. Meandering ever further from home then Eureka, what about the farm where I am a syndicate member of the shoot. Only one set field and it was blue, alongside a mixed wood which had the wind at its back, but the sun in its face. I did not think the Ignis would make it up the track, so loaded with gear and guns and cartridges and food it was a half mile yomp before setting up. A modest 6 FUDS and a hide, beside a gate through the wood, made with a few branches from a fallen softwood. Slow to start, and as always when desperate to get some more dead birds for decoys, gradually the Pape proved its worth, more dead birds down equals more being drawn in. Still shooting pretty badly with half the birds shot needing to be pursued and despatched, and about half wich flew on leaving a string of feathers. There was scarcely time to consume a modest lunch, birds coming from all directions, frequently getting single birds or one from a small group but poking and wavering at the flocks. Ammunition run out at 2 :30 pm when I picked up 119 shells and after a rake through the wood counted 50 pigeons in the bag. By far the best since April 2007, I like the FUDS they seemed to work without the assistance of flappers, magnets or bouncers. But the main thing was being set up in a place where the pigeons wanted to be. Pigeon a speck in the distance set their wings and headed straight in, pure magic. Its like trout dry fly fishing with one of you home tied flies, catching is not the main thing its the deception which counts- well for me it does anyway. Blackpowder