What a Day - Decoying 03/03/2013

[M.I.A]

Haven't really posted in a while as I've hardly been out shooting since the twins arrived. But I managed to get out for the day this Sunday just gone. Met up with my usual shooting partner @ 0930 and we set off to a new permission to meet up with the farmer. We arrived around 1000 and the farmer quickly informed us of the damage the pigeons have caused on a particular 70 acre rape field. We sat up and observed the area for a good 45 mins, after walking off around 20 pigeons nothing returned and no visible flight line any where to be seen, safe to say that the field was baron anyway, hardly any rape left standing. we thought it rude to turn up to a new permission and not even shoot but as I haven't had the chance to get out in a long time I didn't fancy sitting around doing nothing. So we set back off to the farm house and basically said there is not a lot about but if he see's any in numbers returning or has a problem to give us a call, it was at this point that the farmer said there all probably on his neighbours farm as he has just drilled some corn only a few days ago. Now we had a look around the fields adjacent to the problem field and saw nothing, he then informed us that these fields were over the motorway he had 3 smallish fields next to the neighbours freshly drilled plot. he gave us directions and we set off. we arrived at a set of gates and set off down the edges of the field. The headland looked very boggy so out of respect we ditched the 4x4 and set off on foot up toward the neighbouring field, whilst on our way up we noticed a good, steady flight line from a hedge row at the bottom of our field across to a tree at the top of our field and into the freshly drilled plot. We arrived at the hedge and managed to find a parting in the field and peered through to see nothing but pigeons, and I mean pigeons hundreds upon hundreds! We disturbed them and they all lifted up, sounding very ,much like an audience clapping, the sky now black with pigeons we watched them all fly off to the bottom corner of our field and drop down to feed on the fledgling rape. We got back to the truck and watched for a while longer and it wasn't long before we picked up on the so called flight line. We decided to set up under the tree at the top of the field where they all seemed to pass, a quick drive up the tractor tracks on the field and we arrived at the tree, eager, we rushed out all the kit and I returned the car to the end of the field. we set out a traditional horseshoe pattern with 36 shell decoys on wobbler sticks and added a rotary to the far right corner. At this point we had spooked the pigeons off our field and they were all totally out of sight within minuets. We had set up and settled down into our seats by 12ish. with our backs to the freshly drilled field. We waited a what felt like a age before the first few pigeons turned up, they glided into our pattern perfectly, 2 of them one went off to the left and one to my right. We let rip with both barrels but failed to connect with them. we passed them off as warm up shots and it wasn't long before I bagged the first bird of the day. They kept on coming in 1's and 2's up until around 1pm at which point we had roughly 10 birds in the bag. There was a short gap in the shooting and we hardly saw a thing for a good 15 minuets. that was short lived, very short lived. To our front, over the motor way sat a large woods. We noticed what seemed like a very very large flock lift up and they all seemed to be heading our way. They came straight at us, a good 200-300 birds. Buzzing with anticipation we decided to let the first half of the flock pass us by, then we decided to get up and fire away. First few shots bought us nothing as focusing on 1 bird in the mass above us seemed impossible but after a few shots they all broke up but strangely they kept coming into the pattern, wings folded back and tucking in, this carried on for what seemed like an age but was only 4-5 minuets, we hardly had time to reload between shots. I had used 2 boxes of carts within this time (see pic, these were just from the few minuets of madness, the ones used earlier on in the day had been cleaned up) and our barrels were well and truly warm, some amazing shots were pulled off in this time as well as some bad but we wont go there lol. I had only bought 75 carts with me and these were all used up after this flurry. It went quiet for a few minuets after so I decided to go back to the truck to fetch a slab as I thought I would need it. Half way back to the car I hear shot after shot coming from the hide and the sky was once again covered with pigeons. I ran to the truck and back to the hide only to sit down exhausted and nothing returned for a good 30 mins. Then slowly they started to return in 1's and 2's and this continued up until around 4pm. After a long quiet spell (30 mins or so) we decided enough was enough and called it a day, a very good day at that though! we rounded up the downed birds of which the most stayed out and added to our pattern and after a quick tally up we counted 68 picked (67 in pic one left by the decoys) and around 10-15 un-pickable. This is my 2nd best bag ever (most being 98 in a few hours by myself) and my shooting partners biggest bag. We now appreciate how good it is to put in some recon before you decide to set up, we also now know what the term suicidal pigeons means. All in all we had an amazing day, with great weather and some amazing shots pulled off from both of us.

Edited March 5, 2013 by M.I.A

[halight]

Cracking mate,

Edited March 5, 2013 by halight

[aga man]

good write up and a cracking bag of birds. well done

[cocker3]

Cracking read buddy and a great bag to nothing worse than running out of shells when birds are pouring in if i can drive to a spot to set up i always leave a slab in the hide if i have to walk it can sit in the car to heavy and am to old lol

[yickdaz]

nice bag and a good write up

[pigeon controller]

Brilliant result, and good write up.

[here iam]

top shooting mate you sussed them out too

[matty*]

very good rite up fella enjoyed reading that and well done on finding the birds

[The Ghost]

Good outcome, putting the recon time in makes it all the better....well done