Doc Holliday Posted August 16, 2011 Report Share Posted August 16, 2011 Went out yesterday with a client from a department store ( maintenace guy so it was as a sweetener). Went to a farm near Chiddingstone. After alighting me of £40 (£20 each for the days shooting) the farmer said "Go in the field behind the grain store." He told us where in the filed to go as he knew where the flight lines were. So we did. We set up the camo netting at a good spot just under some trees with no light behind us. I set up the decoys ()7 half shells on a sprung spike for movement, 2 floaters/bouncers and a couple of crows, all of which had a flocked finished) as per NickBeardo's suggested layouts with the wind direction taken in to account and we retired behind the netting. And we waited. And we waited. The wind changed direction so I went out and set the decoys up to face in to the wind again. A couple of birds went down the tree line over to our left and there was a fair bit of activity in the fields over yonder. We waited again. The wind changed direction again so I went out and re-aligned the decoys again. We gave it until 1100 and then phoned the farmer to ask if the birds were showing up elsewhere. There was another field which had been bailed (the one we were in had been harvested and was waiting to be bailed) so he suggested we checked it out. As we went up there were approx 35 - 40 woodies which took off as we showed up. This looked more promising. So we set up in that field at a suitable spot as before. Nothing. I gave it about 90 minutes before going for another drive round to find the birds. Back in the field we came from there were a good 2 dozen birds which took off and flew to the fields over yonder, where we had seen them prior. I drove around a few more fields but nothing much there. On going back to the second field I found the 35 - 40 birds had set up at the top. Slowly I tried to corral them down to the gun. This had some effect but by the time I managed to push them down the number had decreased to about 10 or 12, which my mate only managed to let off one round. We gave it another hour before calling it a day at that spot, as we felt sure the birds would return, having seen out deeks. Maybe there were just crappy deeks or more probably there was something in the way I had set them up that put them off. We even drove around again but to no avail. Apart fro mthe odd one or two flying about there was certainly nothing over double figures, and that was easily halved for the 2 main areas we saw them in. Any ideas as to why the birds wouldn't be gleening the harvested fields? Or maybe there is something else I should/shouldn't be doing? We had hats on with camo scrim to cover faces and rarely poked heads over the top of the net for a peek. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
proTOM1 Posted August 16, 2011 Report Share Posted August 16, 2011 If the birds are not there you cant decoy them simple ,maybe there on something else nearby . Thats pigeon shooting for you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
motty Posted August 16, 2011 Report Share Posted August 16, 2011 If the birds are not there you cant decoy them simple ,maybe there on something else nearby . Thats pigeon shooting for you Agreed! I could drive around a big area i have to shoot and only find birds in any decent number on a handful of fields. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yickdaz Posted August 16, 2011 Report Share Posted August 16, 2011 dosn,t sound like there was a lot of birds in the area so your up against it from the off and with no flightline to speak of its sounds like a non starter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jez28 Posted August 17, 2011 Report Share Posted August 17, 2011 Either too much choice for the birds to feed on in nearby fields or there just arent that many around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Holliday Posted August 17, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 17, 2011 Well, I think the thing was that there was probably something they weren't happy with. Shame as it would have been a good day if we had bagged a few. I was also looking forward to adding to the PW count list for 2011. There will be other days. Farmer said he was going to be sowing rape seed by the end of the month so there should be some good shooting then and also when that starts to come through. Will have to see what happens. In the meantime I'll just have to swat up a tad more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Towngun Posted August 17, 2011 Report Share Posted August 17, 2011 Had very similar experince on OSR stubble recently. On paper it was an ideal but on the day the birds were not interested. Perhaps they had better crops in mind? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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