Decent day out on the rape stubble today .

[Harnser]

Turned up on the rape stubble today at about 10.00am . The field I shot ,is one of my favorites because it has a pit hole right in the middle And allows me To set up in the centre of the field using the cover from the trees and bushes around the pit . I started off with 20 flocked decoys set out in two blocks of 10 . One block of ten to the left of my hide and the cther block to the right of my hide .

I set the two blocks of decoys about 40 yards apart and left the center free of decoys . This gave me a clear killing area about 40 yards wide directly in front of the hide . I have favored this set up more and more over the past 3 years and have found it very successful .

After I had set up I moved the truck out of the way and walked back to my hide .When I approached the hide 3 pigeons flew off the ground right in the middle of my killing zone .I knew that I had got it right straight away . The birds started to come in almost immediately and I killed four in about ten minutes .The first 6 birds I killed I set up in the killing zone ,but set up well apart ,after that I picked up every bird as i shot it ,not letting the killing zone get clogged up with dead birds . Every single bird that I shot decoyed into the killing zone except for half a dozen or so that were passing shots . I had 5 nice left and rights and finished off picking up 53 birds and lost proberbly another 10 or so . Not a record day but a fabulous 5 hours shooting . Nige and Ian take note .

 

Harnser .

Edited August 8, 2013 by Harnser

[JDog]

Good one Harnser.

 

I do think that it is important to keep the 'killing zone' free of dead birds and I always rush out and clear up if one falls in that zone. My decoys are slightly closer apart than your 40m but it obviously worked well today.

[motty]

Good one Harnser.

 

I do think that it is important to keep the 'killing zone' free of dead birds and I always rush out and clear up if one falls in that zone. My decoys are slightly closer apart than your 40m but it obviously worked well today.

Do you really? I've never felt any need to do that. I may leave it until i have 20 or 30 there before i think of having a tidy up. Same goes for belly up birds, i don't really think incoming birds take any notice.

 

Well done, Harnser. Nice to see you're getting a few.

Edited August 8, 2013 by motty

[Whitebridges]

Good old boy Harnser!

Ian's had a look and a few birds yestdee.

I've been out Fakenham way today and had about twenty odd but the wind died on me big time and it never going to get any better.

Nice potter about and saw a Norfolk quail which was a first in about 15 years. There's a fair old few pigeon about that way though.

Keep at 'em mate.

[morty]

Mmm , I've only been shooting for two years , and what great fun it's been . Shot my best bag two wks ago , and like u I kept the killing zone clean and every bird thet was belly up I picked up and added to the pattern . For the first two hrs I did this , by then I went passed my pb of 27 , and thought this is getting hard work in the heat , so thought sod it and left em where they fell . The next hr and a half was great fun , the birds all came to decoys very well , I packed up at 7 for 51 birds picked . As I packed up the birds were still coming to the field for the next hr . What could of been a good bag , could of been a very good bag , lessons learned

Stay in the hide

Pack up when the birds stop coming to the field

It's a great sport and everybody has there own methods that work for them .

Morty

[Whitebridges]

I'm only a boy at this game after 40 odd years shooting pigeons. Sometimes you can get away with murder literally and leave them dead all over the place. Upside down, feathers everywhere, on their heads with tails in the air it makes not a jot of difference. On other days it can make all the difference when too many lie wrong and the birds will veer away spooked.With rotaries it's the same sometimes brilliant other days pack them up. If i'm shooting a few I try and hop out of the hide and put them down so they look like feeding birds rather than corpses and take the plastic deeks in at the same time. Fresh shot birds in cradles are the ultimate decoy IMHO.

Same as everything in life do what gives you the best results.

[JDog]

I'm the same as you Whitebridges. I've been decoying for over 40 years and one of my conclusions is that upside down birds and dead ones in the killing zone should be cleared out of the way and added to the pattern where you want them.

 

Motty must have easier to deceive pigeons than I do.

[kitchrat]

Do you really? I've never felt any need to do that. I may leave it until i have 20 or 30 there before i think of having a tidy up. Same goes for belly up birds, i don't really think incoming birds take any notice.

 

Well done, Harnser. Nice to see you're getting a few.

Some times they do, sometimes they don't mind dead birds.

I'm the same as you Whitebridges. I've been decoying for over 40 years and one of my conclusions is that upside down birds and dead ones in the killing zone should be cleared out of the way and added to the pattern where you want them.

 

Motty must have easier to deceive pigeons than I do.

Agreed!

Turned up on the rape stubble today at about 10.00am . The field I shot ,is one of my favorites because it has a pit hole right in the middle And allows me To set up in the centre of the field using the cover from the trees and bushes around the pit . I started off with 20 flocked decoys set out in two blocks of 10 . One block of ten to the left of my hide and the cther block to the right of my hide .

I set the two blocks of decoys about 40 yards apart and left the center free of decoys . This gave me a clear killing area about 40 yards wide directly in front of the hide . I have favored this set up more and more over the past 3 years and have found it very successful .

After I had set up I moved the truck out of the way and walked back to my hide .When I approached the hide 3 pigeons flew off the ground right in the middle of my killing zone .I knew that I had got it right straight away . The birds started to come in almost immediately and I killed four in about ten minutes .The first 6 birds I killed I set up in the killing zone ,but set up well apart ,after that I picked up every bird as i shot it ,not letting the killing zone get clogged up with dead birds . Every single bird that I shot decoyed into the killing zone except for half a dozen or so that were passing shots . I had 5 nice left and rights and finished off picking up 53 birds and lost proberbly another 10 or so . Not a record day but a fabulous 5 hours shooting . Nige and Ian take note .

 

Harnser .

Any magnet???

[Harnser]

Some times they do, sometimes they don't mind dead birds.

Agreed!

Any magnet???

 

No ,no magnate , I very rarely use one . As white bridges says ,best decoy you will get is a shot bird pricked up in a cradle .

 

Harnser .