Constantinos Posted August 19, 2013 Report Share Posted August 19, 2013 (edited) After last weekend's little triumph on the stubbles - a decision was made to go back yesterday with a few other guns. Nice and early 8am meet avoiding the festival traffic in the Midlands, and we were off following the flight lines and figuring out where they were feeding. Ended up on the same field as last weekend - but by now the farmer had ploughed the stubbles in already - but some big flocks got up from various parts of the field. Decision made it would seem. The gate was locked annoyingly, so lugged my gear just shy of 400m to an oak dead centre of the field. Set up in the tree's shadow again, wind left to right and a pretty big pattern (for me) of about 20 shells/full body/etc, motion rotary and a bouncer with a foam pigeon on plus a dozen pigeon cradles for new birds. Mulled throwing some crow half shells out too - but decided it was too much hassle! By 9am I was settled into the hide, the wind had picked up, but birds were committing to the pattern a long way out even so. By midday I had shot 30 or so - not spectacular granted but there were some good shots in there. Including the pair of crows I goosed early on. My shooting partner was where I had set up last weekend, about 200m behind me, had shot 12 for 14 shots, but things had quietened done for him, so he decided to move across the road to a wheat stubble field that had potential and he could drive round funnily enough... Suffice to say the birds starting aiming for oak tree he had just left. Post-12, the wind was gusting through, my hide was by now staked to the ground with some tent lines/pegs so we didn't take off, and the birds were getting faster and faster (i.e. shot averages went out the window). I had a moment were a pair of pigeons came in, probably a yard apart crossing at 30+ yards..went for the first bird, with a fair bit of lead, and the second came down....... slight adjustment to my calculations ensued! I eventually broke through the hundred by 5pm-ish... a couple of doubles, some high birds, a couple of speculative ones, and starting to talk to myself more and more There was a few hairy moments - nearly going after a racing pigeon (last minute recognition there saved me), and spotted a group of 4 pigeons coming over my shoulder, raised the gun at one that was over 40 yards away in a split second with the wind behind them, it seemed slightly red/browny as the sun hit it's back - thankfully didn't shoot at the bird of prey playing pigeon in the group... (p.s. my bird recognition is pretty good but the angles were against me in this case it would seem!) My shooting partner came and shared my hide/gun for the last 2 hours as things had quietened down on him the other side of the road at about 50ish birds. Usual banter started, but probably more entertaining than talking to yourself! In the end I made it to 124 - 119 pigeons and 5 crows, with Tim getting to 60ish, shooting 1 in 3 (not great, not bad given the wind). Both of us were cream-crackered - not helped by the two trips to get the birds back to the cars - but definitely happy. Two Sundays, two hundreds for me, and out Thursday and the weekend for more potentially. Life could be worse! C. Edited August 19, 2013 by Constantinos Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDog Posted August 19, 2013 Report Share Posted August 19, 2013 A very nice report and an excellent day out. Only two journeys back to the car with over 100 pigeons? You must be superman. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fenboy Posted August 19, 2013 Report Share Posted August 19, 2013 Well done , that was a decent read. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Constantinos Posted August 19, 2013 Author Report Share Posted August 19, 2013 A very nice report and an excellent day out. Only two journeys back to the car with over 100 pigeons? You must be superman. I can safely say those 2 trips were the longest of my life... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete1dart Posted August 19, 2013 Report Share Posted August 19, 2013 You did better than what I have just come back from. Pushed 200ish of one rape field. 1 came in when I was still putting up the hide. Thought this will be good. Nope! They all went to the other stubble of rape. Had 3! Had my 3 year old nipper with me asking questions and banging sticks together which didn't help but he's getting there! He better sit still when I take him out down the river on the geese next month! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kitchrat Posted August 20, 2013 Report Share Posted August 20, 2013 You did better than what I have just come back from. Pushed 200ish of one rape field. 1 came in when I was still putting up the hide. Thought this will be good. Nope! They all went to the other stubble of rape. Had 3! Had my 3 year old nipper with me asking questions and banging sticks together which didn't help but he's getting there! He better sit still when I take him out down the river on the geese next month! Same here! I then put flags on the other nearby fields and they just did the off's to God knows where... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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