SO frustrating

[WoodyPopper]

I've had my permission a couple of months. There's no rape on it, but lots of it on the surrounding farms. I guess that's why there just haven't been many pigeons around. The most pigeons I've shot in one session is 3. The most shots I've fired is 7. On a couple of occasions, I've spent 4+ hours out there and fired only one shot. I've been first thing in the morning, last thing in the evening and various times in between.

I've guessed where a few flight lines should be (based on what John Batley says in his book), but there have never been enough pigeons around to confirm them.

So, imagine my excitement when I went out at 14:30 yesterday and saw loads of pigeons. Sure enough, they were on what I had previously guess should be a flight line. I stood under a sitty tree, 20 yards or so from another. Every few minutes, a group of pigeons would come across.

Now, I'm not a great shot, but not the worst either. At sporting clays, I expect to hit 28-32 out of 50. But yesterday, I could not hit a thing. I ended up with 5 pigeons when I should have had 15 or 20.

I'm just hoping that there will be other days like that - but with me shooting better. I can't wait to get out there again on Weds evening.

But I've no idea why there were suddenly plenty of pigeons around. I don't know what they were feeding on - their crops were empty.

This is a frustrating business.