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Showing results for tags 'my plan worked'.
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I was disappointed to miss out on the action with Jules on Thursday, but pleased the brothers got a good bag. I just had to find a good looking spot for yesterday. I had earmarked a farm where the pigeons were getting stuck into some barley, but the field itself looked difficult to shoot, with regards to picking shot birds. I hatched a plan to have one set-up on the beans next door, and one set-up on the sugar beet across the road. Well, that was the plan until I spied a LOT of pigeons on another farm 20 miles away. These birds were also enjoying the barley. The problem was still the one of picking shot birds. There was also the fact that there was more than one field they were targeting. I devised another plan. It was pretty simple, if the farmer gave the ok. I phoned and asked if I could position Jules and Gerard elsewhere on the farm, if need be. He agreed to this, trusting me to sort it out. I arrived at the farm yesterday at 8:15am, to see a few birds flitting about. I had a walk about and spotted a pair of grey partridge with some young, hiding in the canary grass. The adults did their best to draw my attention away from their tiny offspring. Not something I see very often. Jules arrived, and I showed him where I intended to place him. As he followed, a load of pheasant chicks crossed the road. Also nice to see. Jules was to shoot next to barley field 1, just under half a mile from barley field 2 (my position). He had the option of trying to drop his birds on the canary grass (1ft tall and a bit patchy) or an eaten off corner of rape. My field adjoined a potato field. I intended to drop my birds on that. Gerard would be deployed when he had arrived after work. My pair of magnets, side by side on the edge of the barley, were drawing pigeons across. They often had to fly across the whole of the barley field to reach my trap, slow down to land in the potatoes, and get shot. It was working, but it was slow going at the start (10am). Jules was heard popping away in the distance, having a better start than me. It was decided that Gerard would join his brother when he arrived. I was on form for a change. I was killing some cracking crossers. It would have been nice to have had someone with me to witness and congratulate me on some of my better efforts. Again I was using my Bettinsoli o/u. The gun is definitely growing on me. It was clear that we were all going to get plenty of shooting. By 1pm both hides had over 50 down, though Gerard and Jules were still popping away more than me. This continued until later, when the roles were reversed. My magnets were so effective. I dropped several birds in exactly the same spot as they slowed and hovered above them - easy shooting! The action couldn't last forever. It slowed up a bit by 3.30pm. We had all had enough. Field 1 yielded 115 pigeons and 2 jackdaws. Field 2 yielded 132 pigeons and a crow. The pigeons were quite heavily flyblown and were taken straight to the dealer. The farmer was happy with the result.