pigeon shooting in the late50s early 60s .

[Harnser]

I first started pigeon shooting in the late 50s ,courtesy of an uncle who was into shooting and knew lots of farmers . He was the person who introduced me to my mentor who taught me rifle shooting and deer stalking .

At the time there were no commercially available decoys around .If you wanted any decoys then you had to make your own .We used to use the old blue paper sugar bags for decoys ,painted with wing and neck bars or we painted milk bottles blue and painted on the wing and neck bars . Both of these decoys worked brilliantly on the pigeons . Another way to make coys was to gut dead birds and inject them all over with formaldehyde to cure and preserve them ,these were the real McCoy for decoying . I was given a dozen of these decoys for a birthday present and I was absolutely thrilled with them and they became my most important possession . I had really arrived in the pigeon shooting world wit my stuffed pigeon decoys .

 

In those early days of pigeon shooting the farms did not resemble any farm that you would see today . A big field was 20 acres and would be surrounded on all sides with a massive hedge-row . These hedge-rows would be twenty feet or more tall and full of every kind of berry tree and bush you would see in the English country side . The hedge -rows would have mature oaks ,ash ,beech ,sweet and horse chestnuts and many more . These hedge rows were a haven for wild life as they were a ready made wild larder for just about any bird that flew . In those days a hedge had to cut or trimmed by hand ,no bush-whackers on the side of a tractor then . The hedges were normally allowed to grow untrimmed and were a real sight to behold . We used to walk the hedge rows and shoot the pigeons as they flew out as well as the game birds and the rabbits ,this was fabulous shooting .

 

The decoying in those days was ,in my opinion better than it is today .We seemed to get bigger bags more often than you will today . Proberbly because there was more food available on the fields after harvest and during drilling than there is today . The equipment the farmers used in those can only be described as crude as to what they use today .In the old days they were still using the binder to cut the corn . It would cut the cereals and tie them up in bunches that then had to stacked in bundles to dry . They were then collected with a horse and cart (an old Massey Ferguson tractor if the farmer was rich )and taken to the mobile traction engine for threshing .You can imagine the amount of seed dropped on the fields during these operations . The seed drills of the day were crude to say the least and waisted more seed than they drilled into the ground . After a field had been drilled with one of these machines you could see grain seed all over the field just waiting for the pigeons and song birds to clear up .

 

As the farm equipment got better and better and much more efficient your local Farmer needed bigger fields to make his investment in these machines worth while . So what did he do ? you guessed it ,he grubbed up his hedge rows to make bigger fields to make himself more efficient and to make more money . I feel sorry that many of you on here have not seen the old English country side hedge rows they were truly wild and beautiful and a sight for sore eyes .

 

I think that some of the things that I have mentioned in this thread is the main reason why the pigeon shooting today cannot be compared with the decoying of yester year . I have been asked many times as to whether there were more pigeons about in the early 50s than there is today .Do you know what ? I really dont know . All I can say is that we used to shoot more and more often in those days than what we do today .

 

I think that with the modern farming methods used today and the lack of food available on the fields the Wiley old wood pigeon is finding a better living doing what he knows best and that is foraging in the woodlands and in peoples gardens . Good luck to him . Although I dont profess to have invented modern pigeon shooting I do feel as if I were there at its conception .

 

Harnser .

Edited November 30, 2011 by Harnser

[Harnser]

Incidently ,most of my pigeon shooting in those days was done with a single barrel BSA 12 bore shotgun . With only having one shot you quickly leaned how to shoot .

 

Harnser .

[Redgum]

Aaahhhhhh the good old days, someone will post up that old picture of the tractor shed in a few posts time. Not all is lost, the countryside is looking better that it did 20years ago,and I have plenty of high mixed hedges on my permissions. Change is not all bad Harnser, back in the 50's you had to go to scotland and be a prince to shoot a deer, even 15years ago you wouldnt have seen deer round my parts. Now I can shoot Munties almost out of my bedroom window and we now have the computer of course so instead of fighting with the wife on these long winter evenings I can wind you lot up.

 

One thing is for sure though, I don't think we will ever see the hedges turning into long avenues of Elm trees, you have to be a least over half century to remember that.

[david hunter]

hi harnser.i started shooting in the mid 60s with my first air rifle a diana mod 16.as you said hedge rows were full of life. tree sparrows were abundant and classed as a pest but are not now.that sweet smell of parafine & petrol off the tractors.picking potatoes by hand.yes the good old days you would always see rabbits & pheasants hanging up outside the butchers.all gone we have to get on with the future my old diana is gone but now i use something a little bigger a weatherby 22/250.all the best dave.

[Ferret Master]

Very interesting read from the perspective of somebody born in the 90's.

 

FM

[Blunderbuss]

A nice read, thankyou. Sounds idyllic but I know from my own experience there is tendency for selective memory when looking to our past. Are your specs a tiny bit rose tinted? Am I right in thinking, that people had a lot less disposable income then and that cartridges were relatively more expensive compared to average income? Considering all the pigeons which were being shot, ammo costs must have been a big deal?

 

Or was this at a time when the ministry of Ag dished out free cartridges through the rabbit clearance societies etc? I'm sure I recall reading about that somewhere. Or did farmers provide carts? Was there much of a market for shot birds?

 

Away from shooting I think the 50s were pretty austere with food rationing that by all accounts was worse than it was during the war? Added to lower life expectany, illnesses like polio and TB being common and cold war paranoia about imminent nuclear armageddon surely it wasn't that much of a picnic?

 

There is lots I don't like about modern Britain and things to admire from the past, but by and large we're not too badly off IMHO

 

Did you meet Archie Coates?

[Paddy Galore!]

i remember walking the hedgerows with my nan and/or grandad in the seventies collecting sloes and blackberries, when i was a bit older and could handle it my grandad would take me out rabbiting with shotgun. thankyou harnser for that trip down memory lane

[Muddy Funker]

Nice post,

 

I'm only 35 so this time was well before mine,

 

But I think you may have answered your own question. There probably wasn't any more pigeons numbers wise, but due the inefficient farm machinary you mention grain being spilled/dropped may have attracted more pigeons to the fields.

 

Sounds like a great time, but I'm also having a great time now

[Paddy Galore!]

Also, my dad has a shed full of old tractors going back to the twenties, Harnser, i thought that back in the 50's/60's they'd be either a grey fergie or a red massey?

[Catweazle]

I enjoyed reading that, a simpler life seems attractive.

[Harnser]

A nice read, thankyou. Sounds idyllic but I know from my own experience there is tendency for selective memory when looking to our past. Are your specs a tiny bit rose tinted? Am I right in thinking, that people had a lot less disposable income then and that cartridges were relatively more expensive compared to average income? Considering all the pigeons which were being shot, ammo costs must have been a big deal?

 

Or was this at a time when the ministry of Ag dished out free cartridges through the rabbit clearance societies etc? I'm sure I recall reading about that somewhere. Or did farmers provide carts? Was there much of a market for shot birds?

 

Away from shooting I think the 50s were pretty austere with food rationing that by all accounts was worse than it was during the war? Added to lower life expectany, illnesses like polio and TB being common and cold war paranoia about imminent nuclear armageddon surely it wasn't that much of a picnic?

 

There is lots I don't like about modern Britain and things to admire from the past, but by and large we're not too badly off IMHO

 

Did you meet Archie Coates?

No I didnt meet archie coates ,but he was a hero of mine as a young man . I was given his book for an other birthday present by my old mentor . Yes we did get free cartridges from the farmer and yes you are correct shells were very expensive .I can remember that I could only offord to buy one box at a time and used to save up my shells for a good day out . The farmers used to supply us with eley impax paper cartridges and they were a very good shell . Also the game dealer would swop your birds for cartridges . Harnser .

[farmerjohn]

No I didnt meet archie coates ,but he was a hero of mine as a young man . I was given his book for an other birthday present by my old mentor . Yes we did get free cartridges from the farmer and yes you are correct shells were very expensive .I can remember that I could only offord to buy one box at a time and used to save up my shells for a good day out . The farmers used to supply us with eley impax paper cartridges and they were a very good shell . Also the game dealer would swop your birds for cartridges . Harnser .

SOME game dealers still do hanser

[deny essex]

A good read , I can remember my brother taking me pigeon shooting a few times in the very early sixties.

The first time I got knocked down a ditch by the recoil from a single barrel bolt action 12 gauge I still end down a ditch now and then

Shot my fist running rabbit with the same gun.

The fields were smaller and hedgerows bigger and the word anti hadnt been inroduced.

[Vince Green]

Cartridges were very dear. In the 60s my uncle used to decoy pigeons with a .22 waiting till they landed to shoot them. All because of cost. A mere pigeon was "not worth a cartridge"

Do you remember when grey plastic drainpipe first came out and people used to cut out decoys with a coping saw? Then dip the head end in boiling water and make a head by bending the plastic with long nosed pliers? Rough them up with sand paper to take off the shine or spray them with grey car primer. Then two flashes of white paint and spots for the eyes? Drill a hole in the back for a tent peg (skewer type) with a cork on it to stop them sliding down so they would bob?

 

They were very light. On a windy day you were up and down like a bride's nightie resetting them. Or the dog would go bounding out to retrieve a pigeon all excited after sitting quiet for an hour and scatter all the decoys.

Edited November 30, 2011 by Vince Green

[Miserableolgit]

Nice post Harnser

 

I think there is a tendency to often look back at the past with affection. There were far more people involved on the land back then digging and clearing ditches, draining fields, trimming hedges, repairing roads and the 1001 other tasks were carried out by teams of men often old before their time due to hard manual labour and the ravages of the weather. We forget that a horseman would have to walk approx 11 miles behind his horses just to plough an acre of land or that you'd often see men wrapped in potato sacks in order to keep warm and dry while sat on open cab tractors.

 

People were encouraged to remove hedges and increase efficiency during WW2 and after, now they are encouraged to replant some and leave some areas for conservation etc.

 

I'm waffling.

 

PS: I met Maj. Archie Coates at one or two of the Game Fairs

Edited November 30, 2011 by Miserableolgit

[Vince Green]

I remember farm workers wearing sacks on their backs. And yes the old men were not that old at all. most were actually much younger than they appeared to us youngsters.

[david hunter]

Very interesting read from the perspective of somebody born in the 90's.

 

FM

who was born in the 90s.

[cocker3]

a great read i enjoyed that being 20years before my time its nice to hear how it used to be . just the other week my father in law and i were in his rather big garden shed looking for sumthing and i came across 3 very old wooden decoys . i asked him where they had come from and he told me he use to have 30 of them he had maid when he was young (he was a joiner )and he thought they had to be 50 years old .

 

they still had some very dirty and faded white neck rings now the must be about 1lb each so carry in 30 onto a field must have taken sum doing .

 

atb andy

[Redgum]

Of course reloading for 12 gauge was worthwhile back then, I remember loading hundreds of cartridges when I was knee high to a grasshopper, the olde chaps redding press I still have and use. Is it my imagination or were there more folks out with shotguns in the 70's, I remember pigeon shooting on the weekends with my father and shotguns echoing all over the place keeping the birds on the move, these days the pigeons just drift off to a more peaceful place. No mobile phones and not an x box in sight, long summer evenings spent building rafts out of old doors and oil drums to sink in the brook.

[MK38]

Well you certainly brought back some memories, i grew up in the 50's in a small village in Kent.

My Dad had a poultry farm and my best friend had a 'Proper' farm with Pigs and Cattle... they grew only wheat and Mangels.... he must have been posh or rich as he had a Combine and a tractor!

The fields were small and all bounded by mature hedges .... the stubble was left a long time before ploughing in those days.... we never had huge flocks of birds but allways plenty to keep us happy.

 

I had my first air rifle at 7 , 9mm by 10..410 by 11 and my first 12 (a BSA Snipe) at 13.... different world then though, i could walk through the Village with a gun without causing concern and the Village Bobby would tell us where he'd seen Rabbits or Pigeon as he cycled past..... women would offer Vegtables in exchange for fresh Rabbit or Pigeon... no doors were locked and every other house had a shotgun by the back door.... so different now.

Cartridges were very dear and no shots were to be wasted.... i used to buy mine at the local garage, allways Eley Grand prix though sometimes he had Impax..... all size 6.

Didn't start decoying untill i got the 410 (up to then we only stalked the woods and hedges)and the first decoys i bought were made of Rubber... how modern was that!... and my first hide net was a hessian garden net with ladies stockings and strips of hessian as scrim.

There were lots of Partridges in the fields, few Pheasants.... not many foxes , though they were allways shot if seen.

The woods and fields provided their own bounty with nuts and Mushrooms , money was tight and we new how to forage and grow alot of our own fruit and veg .

They were hard times, but everyone just got on with it and did what they could to get by.

 

I won't say they were better times, but they were far more relaxed and civilised, and in the main people respected each other and the countryside more than they do now.... there were certaintly fewer do gooders interfering in things they don't understand.

 

Dave

[Harnser]

Nice post Harnser

 

I think there is a tendency to often look back at the past with affection. There were far more people involved on the land back then digging and clearing ditches, draining fields, trimming hedges, repairing roads and the 1001 other tasks were carried out by teams of men often old before their time due to hard manual labour and the ravages of the weather. We forget that a horseman would have to walk approx 11 miles behind his horses just to plough an acre of land or that you'd often see men wrapped in potato sacks in order to keep warm and dry while sat on open cab tractors.

 

People were encouraged to remove hedges and increase efficiency during WW2 and after, now they are encouraged to replant some and leave some areas for conservation etc.

 

I'm waffling.

 

PS: I met Maj. Archie Coates at one or two of the Game Fairs

Yes you are correct about farms being labour intensive . On one 500 acre farm the farmer used to hire as many as 100 men throught the year to keep his farm going . My farmer friend farms 3000 acres and manages with him self and two tractor drivers and the occasinal hand at harvest . But you should see the gear he has .

 

Harnser .

[scolopax]

Modern farming practices have turned the average arable farm into a completely sterile environment. There are farms locally with a succession of 100 acre fields, no hedgerows just ditches separating them, and then the bit of grass on the ditch sides is mown flat after harvest because the farmer "does'nt want any weeds spreading", as I already said, completely sterile. Not all farms are like that, none have to be, but many are.

 

I was born in 1970 and when I started beating and ferreting in the early 1980's they were still cutting down the big oaks from the middle of the fields (gets in the way of my new combine, too much hassle to go around it etc etc) and ripping out hedgerows, it was endemic on arable land.

 

The big wildlife changes I have seen on farmland locally are that now there are far far fewer grey partridges (there really was a covey in every field), many more pheasansts, more deer, more hares (they had crashed in the 70's and 80's but recovered when setaside started), and less lapwings. Woodpigeons, hard to say to be honest so a good guess would be about the same, although then they were unknown in the towns, now they are very common.

Edited December 1, 2011 by scolopax

[Miserableolgit]

Yes you are correct about farms being labour intensive . On one 500 acre farm the farmer used to hire as many as 100 men throught the year to keep his farm going . My farmer friend farms 3000 acres and manages with him self and two tractor drivers and the occasinal hand at harvest . But you should see the gear he has .

 

Harnser .

 

 

Small farm here employed 11 men on the land full time, now the farm is taken care of on an as and when basis by a farming neighbour.

[Cranfield]

I think there are a few of us on here that grew up in that same period.

My first gun was a bent barreled .410 at the age of 9 and then upgraded to an old hammer sbs 12 bore at the age of 11.

Rather strangely I didn't get an airgun (Diana Original .177) until I was 14.

 

The general shop in the next village sold cartridges (and cigarettes) singly, but I was given mine by the farmers.

I was also given cartridges by the farmworkers, when I took their place for weekend bird scaring duties.

 

In our village we had the Rat and Sparrow Club, vermin were allocated points , 1 for a sparrow up to 10 for a fox.

Evidence in the form of heads or tails were booked in at the local pub on a Friday evening (the same night the Barber came monthly to cut hair).

At the end of the year a bounty was paid per 100 points to each member and cups given out to individual winners.

All the money was donated by farmers and local businesses and there was an annual dinner at the Village Hall where the presentations were made.

 

Pigeon shooting was more accessible in those days, but only for the "locals", I don't recall any "townies" being allowed on the farms.

As Harnser said, the agricultural practices provided lots of food for the birds, but it also increased their choices, apart from Winter time, when in my area only kale was available.

The birds are in better condition in the winter nowadays, back then they were too thin even to eat and it was not unusual to walk through the woods after a really cold night and find 20-50 birds dead on the ground.

 

Life seemed free and easy being a kid in those times, but I am not sure they were better than they are today.

 

Reminiscing is great fun sometimes.

[wymberley]

Remember licking the paint brush to a point while you were using paint which contained lead to paint your lead soldiers?

Elf and what!?