Nothing on drill

[Cosd]

Went out with Denny Essex in search for our first shoot over spring drill since a few permisions had been sewn with various spring crops. Recced a number of farms for a couple of hours at least but there was hardly any birds on the ground and nor in the air. Coming to terms with it not going to be a great day and deciding which of a bad lot we might set up on, we came accross a field of rape where there were a fair number of birds feeding and some in the air. Having been in the car for almost three hours we chose our spot and got to setting up a two man hide.

 

We put out a pattern of a dozen flocked shells in a random pattern since there was no wind, a real bird flapper and a magnet with a couple of dead birds on there. Pretty much as we were about to settle in the hide a couple of birds came straight in where the first was dropped with a single shot. For the next couple of hours the birds came in various size groups where both Denny and I downed some lovely shots and on the same token missed some sitters so to speak. Denny hit an excellent left an right and I sort of got a left and right having shot the first bird with a single shot, missed the second bird with my second but hit him with the third!

 

We added a couple of Denny's pecking decoys to our pattern which really did look good, in fact every time one caught the side of my eye I had to double look; Lucky my twitchy trigger finger didn't shoot them after all the hard work he put into making them. But the added movement from the peckers especially on a still day was excellent.

 

I have to mention the Turbo Flapper I recently purchased was absolutely excellent! Used in conjunction with a remote giving us full control, this decoy worked a treat. Whether birds were in groups or by themselves they couldn't resist a few flaps of the wings from this device. At one point the magnet ran out of batteries and we didn't bother replacing them as the flapper still pulled the birds in from any distance. Even Denny was really impressed, and he's been around for a long time

 

The day had the usual lunchtime lull, and didn't really pick up in the afternoon. We were going to pack up around 4:00pm but a little more sport kept us there another hour. The day ended with 25 birds down with 3 lost, should have been more had we shot better on the day, but thoroughly enjoyable, good banter and great company. Not a massive bag I know, but compared to the last few outings where we had days a shot was hardly taken, this was a good day.

 

Thanks to Denny for taking me out and being a good friend too........

[proTOM1]

Nice 1 sounds like a good day was had well done

[deny essex]

Was good day despite the low number shot and quality of our shooting

I must remember to shoot the birds closer to stop Cos from moaning about having to walk so far to pick up the long range birds ( its why i take him anyways , that and carrying my kit)

But must admit as Cos said the flapper worked well and from a good distance ,and with Cos's skillful remote control finger pushing turned birds in from over 300 yards away that were not commited to comming to the pattern, we experimented and split the pattern in two 20 yards apart, 2 mixed patterns of real and shells one with the magnet and one with the flapper, If it were a competition the flapper pattern won the gold medal hands down, I was well impressed with it considering the birds were not in an over playful mood and could see the possibility that even with a few shells and a flapper it could be a winning combination.

[Cranfield]

It can definitely be worth staying on after 4pm, the birds are feeding later in the day in my area, due to the lighter evenings.

The lunchtime lull also seems to start soon after 11am and lasts to around 3pm as the summer approaches.

[caeser]

I've got to say ,that I much prefer the electronic flapper to the magnet. It always seems to work for me, and I wouldn't be without it now.

The last time I was out, it was all very quiet until about 3.00pm then I managed to pop a few off. It all happened in the last couple of hours. Didn't quite make 20 but still made it a great day.