High pheasants

[swingit]

Warning - Warning - Warning

 

This post can be extremely harmful to your ego

 

 

Not quite sure what you mean,or,what to make of this bit,Hamster.Are you suggesting that from the post that I made I have some kind of ego ?.

[Hamster]

Not quite sure what you mean,or,what to make of this bit,Hamster.Are you suggesting that from the post that I made I have some kind of ego ?.

 

 

No sir, not at all. It was my silly way of saying thank you for having the balls to say it as it is, I utterly and completely agree with you. :yes: The ego refers to those who think they're being clever killing 3 x 10 mental high birds cleanly (if that) and wounding at least another 3. The better the shot you are the worse news for the hapless birds paradoxically.

 

You`re correct on all points imho! I`ve been present on more `high bird` days than I

care to remember and my assesment is that anyone who is a reasonably good shot will

be `near` most birds.This translates to a lot of `touched` birds and in my experience

about 1 in 10 being killed properley!

It`s not about `sport`,it`s about making money from overblown egos sadly.

 

 

Thank you .

 

I joined this thread as I pick up on a couple of these high bird shoots and wanted to let people know that there are a considerable number throughout the country.

However, my experience is unless the guns are of a high standard 90% plus of the birds picked are runners. I`ts all well and good presenting such birds but the average shot is not capable of hitting them.

 

Bill

 

Thank you .

[Alycidon]

Most driven pheasants are shot at 25 yards or less. My shoot is a glaciated valley, we show some good high birds. I would call a high pheasant something on a normal day in excess of 35 yards up. On a windy day though anything much above 25 yards will want a lot of stopping when going downwind or across wind.

 

I have spoken to friends who have shot drives where birds are well in excess of this. For these you need to be correctly tooled up, 36 gr 4s in a tightish choked gun will given good placement do the trick to 55 yards or so. The knack comes in 'finding' them, and once you have done that you spend the next two shoots trying to 'find' more ordinary birds. Personally I do not shoot birds at these distances, as others have said there are an awful lot of pricked birds, that is something I find distasteful, if I pull the trigger I want a dead bird in the air, my game gun is lightweight and its tightest set of barrels is 1/2 + 3/4 so not really tight enough for extreme shots.

 

A

[swingit]

Thanks for the reply and clearing that up for me,Hamster.

 

Most driven pheasants are shot at 25 yards or less. My shoot is a glaciated valley, we show some good high birds. I would call a high pheasant something on a normal day in excess of 35 yards up. On a windy day though anything much above 25 yards will want a lot of stopping when going downwind or across wind.

 

I have spoken to friends who have shot drives where birds are well in excess of this. For these you need to be correctly tooled up, 36 gr 4s in a tightish choked gun will given good placement do the trick to 55 yards or so. The knack comes in 'finding' them, and once you have done that you spend the next two shoots trying to 'find' more ordinary birds. Personally I do not shoot birds at these distances, as others have said there are an awful lot of pricked birds, that is something I find distasteful, if I pull the trigger I want a dead bird in the air, my game gun is lightweight and its tightest set of barrels is 1/2 + 3/4 so not really tight enough for extreme shots.

 

A

 

I agree.I would also class a 35 yard bird as high and I would be over the moon if they flew over my head at that height all day.Still a very testing bird in my eyes but can be killed cleanly with a well placed shot.( Saying that - I can still pr1ck them at that range )

 

The highest birds I have ever seen was on a shoot in Ludlow,they had two drives where they were a insane height :wacko: They were out of range for me by a long way and I only raised my gun once or twice over the two stands.Some of the guns in the line were dam good shots,some not so good but,to give you some idea of how high these birds are.On one particular day there were 304 shots fired for 3 birds,1 killed clean the other 2 were runners

 

Swingit

[welshwarrior]

My personnel belief is one mans high bird is another's low bird.

 

I always try to choose a high bird that test me but is not out of range for me 30 - 35 is testing.

 

I dislike this cartridge to kill count. I prefer killed to pricked last season I achieved 4 kills to 1 pricked.

 

I admire the guys who can cleanly kill these commercial high bird shots offering but the setup is not for me a 600 bird day is excessive IMHO as well.

 

I alway try to shoot well in front but a clean kill is key to me.

[Alycidon]

 

 

I dislike this cartridge to kill count. I prefer killed to pricked last season I achieved 4 kills to 1 pricked.

 

That sounds like more than the norm of pricked birds, 5 shot leaves very very few pricked, those that are can on almost all occasions be picked up dead where they come to earth. Either they are missed or dead in the air. I am not the worlds best shot, far from it but I have no more than an odd bird that goes on hit. I think last season I shot about 10 days, all driven, I lost no more than a couple of birds all season, missed a fair few mind !!.

 

A

[BIG 5]

If its a SAFE shot (((TAKE IT))). You are paying good money for the bird so don't listen to the snobs ideas of what is low.

[CharlieT]

If its a SAFE shot (((TAKE IT))). You are paying good money for the bird so don't listen to the snobs ideas of what is low.

 

I don't know what you are getting your knickers in a twist over.

 

This thread was not discussing pheasants and snobs, whatever they are but answering the OP's question on high birds.

[pontbeck]

If its a SAFE shot (((TAKE IT))). You are paying good money for the bird so don't listen to the snobs ideas of what is low.

 

 

That`s not true,all birds shot are divided amongst the guns at the end of the day, so if you take a ` low bird ` everybody pays for it.

I don`t mind anyone taking a safe shot at what I would consider low, if that`s the guns capability, but if I see someone shooting low birds when they are capable of shooting higher, I`m annoyed.

 

Bill

[Harnser]

A game bird or pigeon at 120 feet high looks like a sparrow and is a sporting bird .

Harnser .

[EdSolomons]

As said before all depends on ability. I got took on a couple of shoots this year and they were both with a mix of skills and very different kinds of birds.

The firs was up in yorks and I started with 34g 5s and decided to go upto 42g 4s later in the day. There were some middlig, and some very high birds, and I wanted to have the opportunity of shooting some of the big ones if they came over. 3/4 in both barrels and I was pleased to drop a good number of very high birds- some pricked, some not. Brilliant day.

The other day was more local to me and volume was similar but height of bird was much lower. Most of the guys were happy at blasting away at the 25-35 yard birds but I didn't really see the point. Still had a great time but I only decide to pull the trigger a dozen or so times, and although I was shooting these birds much closer, I still got a couple runners.

Pricked birds are a part of shooting- no one stones every bird. If you feel happy shooting 60odd yard birds and you can kill them, go for it. If your happy shooting the 30 yarders then do so. Horses for courses.

The guns and shells can do a lot but a pheasant is a big bird an takes a lot more stopping than a woodie. Know your limits and youl be fine.