rimfire4969 Posted January 11, 2011 Report Share Posted January 11, 2011 (edited) On our small shoot we put about 350 birds down and shoot about 9 days, this year our returns are going to be about 20 - 25%, this is down a lot from other years, the best we have had is about 40%. We are doning nothing very different, and we have gone through more corn than normal. My reasoning is the number of guns / beaters is down so we find it harder to cover the ground and the shooting line. But the birds do not seem to be there in there normal numbers. Woodcock and Duck numbers are up which does help the end bag. It might just be one of them years. Question: Do you have one thing you would say holds the birds best apart from just feeders and water? Edited January 11, 2011 by rimfire4969 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sprinter Posted January 11, 2011 Report Share Posted January 11, 2011 Habitat Grit Predator Control Decrease disturbance Failing that 28g of 6s, they don't wander far after a dose of that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gonk69 Posted January 11, 2011 Report Share Posted January 11, 2011 i do a lot of beating and often here of aniseed being used to hold birds, have you tried it?, cheers matt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magman Posted January 11, 2011 Report Share Posted January 11, 2011 Straw and split maize holds birds well But remember its been a cold winter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rimfire4969 Posted January 11, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 11, 2011 Straw and split maize holds birds well But remember its been a cold winter I was expecting the cold weather to help hold the birds close to the feeders. We have used a bit of maise this year it did get eaten quickly. I am going to try some bales of straw next season hopefully it might make a differance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattSoanes Posted January 11, 2011 Report Share Posted January 11, 2011 We had our last formal day on Saturday (will be having beaters day on the 22nd of Jan), out of the 1000 birds released we have shot 422 back. We had 5 days as follows 1. 61 7/11 2. 93 17/11 3. 86 4/12 4. 102 21/12 5. 80 8/01 That gives us a return of 42% so far which i dont think is too bad for a DIY shoot. We should get somewhere around 50-60 on the beaters day with any luck ( if they can hit em!! ) In reply to the OP question, you cannot beat hand feeding in straw, even if its 1-2 a week, its still better than using just static feeders. Also keep putting fresh straw under what feeders you have, especially if the weather is wet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ollie Posted January 11, 2011 Report Share Posted January 11, 2011 We put down 110 on our small syndicate, we have shot 55 which is bang on 50%. We have another couple of days left and hopefully we should achieve 60%. This return is pretty much on a par to most years. We are lucky with our habitat that the birds don't wonder too much and also we have managed to take almost 30 foxes off this very small shoot, this no doubt is a big factor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
proTOM1 Posted January 11, 2011 Report Share Posted January 11, 2011 Straw and split maize holds birds well The shoot a few miles from us has a hell of alot of birds to hold and he says good dogging in and the above plus a bit of the holdum powder you put in with the wheat . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy75 Posted January 12, 2011 Report Share Posted January 12, 2011 Other stuff we have tried is dried pressed apple. We get it from a Cider brewery in Somerset, and its about £2 per 25Kg....bloody cheap, as they have had their use out of it by the time it gets to us. Great to chuck under cover, on top of straw, in the rides etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
al4x Posted January 12, 2011 Report Share Posted January 12, 2011 you can feed what you like but if the woods are cold and you don't dog in you still won't get good returns. My mates farm has a syndicate on and their returns are low for the reasons above. The only way they could improve would be to shoot more early on in the season before the cover dies down too much and the birds clear off. happens every year and the "keeper" won't do it any differently and by this stage they are scratching about for 20 or so birds Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raja Clavata Posted January 12, 2011 Report Share Posted January 12, 2011 We're currently just over 60% after 8 days. This is on 870 acres with two large release pens in the woods. There are 11 or 12 drives in total but we only shoot 8 per day. I think one of the key parameters is having enough covered areas, within the boundary of your shoot, for the birds to flight to as the drives take place. Additionally there are shoots all around us so there must be some cross "pollenation" of birds. I have offered to dog in but the game keeper and shoot captain are of the opinion it's not necessary for us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markm Posted January 12, 2011 Report Share Posted January 12, 2011 (edited) My syndicate have shot 1 more pheasant so far this year with 2 more knock about days to go, we released 100 more birds this year and I don't think we will hit last years percentage. Our ducks were WILD, and about half got sick of being shot at and after the hard weather they just went to the coast, with a small pond, when its frozen solid anything with 4 legs can chase them around so they sicken quick. Our woods have been seriously damaged by the weather so this affects holding conditions, also I think a small amount of snow bring birds to the feeders, a lot does no good as birds don't want to leave the woods. And being surrounded by a main road, a village, 2 golf courses, 1 hotel and 1 shoot who do not put any birds down we don't gain much. HUFF! Edited January 12, 2011 by markm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scolopax Posted January 12, 2011 Report Share Posted January 12, 2011 Always a very big help to good returns if you have other shoots releasing birds adjacent to you, two way traffic and all that. We have the opposite, a coupleof neighbours who do not release but feed and shoot. We get around 30% Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raja Clavata Posted January 13, 2011 Report Share Posted January 13, 2011 Always a very big help to good returns if you have other shoots releasing birds adjacent to you, two way traffic and all that. We have the opposite, a coupleof neighbours who do not release but feed and shoot. We get around 30% Ouch (re: the neighbours) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elby Posted January 20, 2011 Report Share Posted January 20, 2011 I put down 1800 this year and so far we have shot 614. Still have beaters day to go so if they get a few we should be looking at around 36%. Nothing I can add to any of the above posts re holding them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tiny tim Posted January 21, 2011 Report Share Posted January 21, 2011 just done our figures 31% with beaters day still to goso hopefully get up to about 34 which i,m quite pleased with ...we had really bad weather and all the ponds froze so we normally would have shot more duck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pheasant Feeder Posted January 23, 2011 Report Share Posted January 23, 2011 Ours is a little pocket shoot and only got 26% this year. One neighbour feeds but doesn't shoot just likes to keeper as a hobby, but he's been doing this for years long before we started so no hard feelings besides they seem to drift in both directions. Released a few call ducks but never flew on shoot days then when pond froze over disappeared, suspect they've gone to other larger ponds/lakes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattSoanes Posted January 23, 2011 Report Share Posted January 23, 2011 We had our beaters day yesterday and ended up with 78 in the bag, that took our total for the year to exactly 500, 50% of what we released Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Winnyman Posted January 23, 2011 Report Share Posted January 23, 2011 (edited) I mainly have Duck on my shoot but we put out 200 Pheasants as well, Pheasant count at the moment is 263. I put out 450 Ducks, current count 237. Figures after 7 shoots and 3 Duck flighting sessions. I am flanked by 2 shoots so it is not too difficult the draw them in. Edited January 24, 2011 by Winnyman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cam-S94 Posted January 23, 2011 Report Share Posted January 23, 2011 Well last season we had 106% returns on our syndicate, however we do have 2 neighbouring shoots, one puts a lot down and the other outs none down. This year we are only at about 70% but we are still very pleased with this. we have got 2 more shoots to go so could get to around 75% I suppose. All the birds we out down are pheasant, sorry but I can't add about how to hold them. We just make sure the feeders always have food in and we do do a fai bit of blanking in for each driv through young woodland. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
inthedark Posted January 24, 2011 Report Share Posted January 24, 2011 Always a very big help to good returns if you have other shoots releasing birds adjacent to you, two way traffic and all that. We have the opposite, a coupleof neighbours who do not release but feed and shoot. We get around 30% That's harsh. Its a wonder their feeders are still working. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Three Blades Posted January 25, 2011 Report Share Posted January 25, 2011 We have a 250 bird, non-keepered shoot. Last year we returned about 30% but this year is certainly down as the snow has ruined the cover that we had so pushing the birds off our land in search of warmer homes. I will be adding some straw under the feeders next season to see if that helps. The general word around us is that pheasant numbers are down on last year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul223 Posted January 25, 2011 Report Share Posted January 25, 2011 I was expecting the cold weather to help hold the birds close to the feeders. they stuff themselves with food then wander off to somewhere warm, on the real cold frosty but sunny mornings get to the shoot early and see where you can position some bale feeders to keep em busy but local enough but also where there in the warming sun shine, i proved this very point to one of the lads i shoot with just before xmas, the difference in temp between shade and sunny was very noticeable We have used a bit of maize this year it did get eaten quickly. I am going to try some bales of straw next season hopefully it might make a difference. put a couple of bales out in a line, cut the string but don't shake it out, pour split maize, tic bean and aniseed wheat/barley over the top and work in deep, keeps the birds occupied all day with a lot of scratching for a little reward, done in the sun on south facing slopes this works a treat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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