Lucky Decoying

[yates]

On Saturday i went shooting for the first time. Well in my own hide with my own decoys. My mate who has been showing me the ropes, dropped me off and went to set up his own hide and decoys further down the field.

He set up a pattern of 50 plus decoys, shells and wobblers and floaters. I set up a pattern of 16 shell decoys and one floater. I had pigeons pitching and landing all morning. Pigeons that were going towards his decoys altered course and came back to mine. When he came to look at my pattern he noted that i hadn't set it up properly. My decoys wern't all facing into the wind, in fact my floater was facing down wind. The only difference being that all my decoys were flock coated. All his decoys are the normal painted variety. Was this just beginners luck or do flocked patterns really make a difference. Any ideas?

[MerseaDavid]

You must have set it up properly if you had birds coming in better than he did

Pigeons dont just feed head into wind, if you look at any birds feeding they will be feeding in all directions, they will land into the wind.

 

I will quite often set a bounce up with the wind behind it because I think it helps. Some times normal plastic decoys will shine if wet of not painted properly, that is the good thing about flock coated decoys (they dont shine).

 

 

I would say that you did everything right and if the birds were coming in well then I would not bother changing the pattern.

[yates]

Just beginers luck then i suppose. We were shooting over rape and the conditions were bright. i've just got to remember how i set them up!!!!!!! Thanks for the tips.

[Cosd]

Just beginers luck then i suppose. We were shooting over rape and the conditions were bright. i've just got to remember how i set them up!!!!!!! Thanks for the tips.

 

 

Like MerseaDavid said, if they were coming in that means you did it right!!

 

Remember one thing, there is no one method that works every time, what works today may not work tomorrow. The secret is to watch the birds reactions, and if they are giving your decoys a wide berth, try to work out what they don't like. Might be nothing to do with your decoys, it could be your hide, it could be something you have left on the floor next to your hide. Don't be scared to change your decoy pattern, or moving your bouncer around.

 

It's a lot of trial and error I'm afraid. But there are hundreds of useful tips if you use the search facility on here. Get to know and understand the basics, and in time you will have your own ideas on what to do. We are dealing with wild birds, so they are unpredictable, and you will have days when absolutely nothing works.

 

Best of luck, and keep asking questions, there are a lot of good guys on this site with years of experience who are more than happy offering advice.

[Cookiemonsterandmerlin.]

Personelly some times some of the more senior shooter I think some times over think pigeons .

And when a new lad turns up and throws the deeks out without much thought its just what the birds want.

Some read too many gloosy shooting mags giving fancy advice with new whirlys which we alll charge out and buy.

Hypa hypa that I have gone back to using on most days the good old deeks with a elder branch bouncer like when I first started and having more luck with setup than all my fancy gear.

IMO the birds are wising up quickly and the good old patterns are working better.

Regards OTH

[UKPoacher]

Personelly some times some of the more senior shooter I think some times over think pigeons .

And when a new lad turns up and throws the deeks out without much thought its just what the birds want.

Some read too many gloosy shooting mags giving fancy advice with new whirlys which we alll charge out and buy.

Hypa hypa that I have gone back to using on most days the good old deeks with a elder branch bouncer like when I first started and having more luck with setup than all my fancy gear.

IMO the birds are wising up quickly and the good old patterns are working better.

Regards OTH

 

Got to agree. On Saturday I was invited to accompany a friend in a permanent hide over rapeseed. He brought the equipment consisting of half a dozen shells that were at least twenty years old and four non matching full bodied deeks of the same vintage, one of which had a hole in it after being shot down from a tree, and another was flattened. He put three up on home made lofting poles and threw the others out in a random circle. It looked shocking, but it pulled pigeons in all day.

[starlight32]

I have to admit I am another who has 'Gone back to basics' I just keep it simple, no rotary-Just bouncers and flocked deoys. Even packed up the silosocks when I felt they were'nt working

 

I truly believe the pigeons are getting wise to all this new technology... A few years ago, and this ist'nt bragging- I was one of the first have a rotary in my village and to be honest they were like mustard.....The birds certainly warmed to them.

 

Its either that or just too much rape these days..........

[yates]

Cheers lad's everything is going great but what is a silocack ?

[motty]

Well done on getting the birds to decoy, Yates. I am one that certainly doesn't agree that birds are wising up to magnets and the like. Just yesterday i shot 115 pigeons on a field of unharvested sugarbeet using 2 magnets in my pattern. I have shot around 8 100+ bags on this field and several 50+ bags in the last 3- 4 years on various crops all using magnets in the pattern. I have also had some poor days when i've only shot around 10. Yesterday, the birds decoyed superbly most of the time and homed in on the magnets. My last big bag in september( different area) of 246 was killed using 2 magnets.

I don't think it's pigeons getting used to anything, some days things work and other days nothing works. The bloke UkPoacher mentions may have shot just as many or maybe more if he'd have used a magnet or electric flapper, maybe he'd have shot none. I've had days when changing the pattern a few times, moving magnets, removing magnets and still not had birds decoying properly and still shooting decent bags. A friend of mine regularly shoots big bags with just dead birds, but that's not to say he wouldn't shoot big bags using other aids.

Saying all of this, i do believe that in places where pigeons are continuously harrassed they can be almost impossible to decoy, no matter what you try.

[yates]

Just got back home. Fantastic to be out on the rape again(i mean oilseed rape), today. We set out, saw the pigeons, 100's of them, set the hide and decoy's and waited and waited. One shot and and that was that, no pigeons to be seen again for the next 5 hours. After getting slightly fustrated(very), we moved fields, literally lobbing about 7 seven shell decoys down. No hides were set up, we just stood or sat in front of the trees, not expecting anything. Pigeons dropped in from all over the place. The sport was amazing. I'm new to this, i can't work it out, but pigeon shooting is the dogs b*****s.