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Lots of Miles


pigeon controller
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Friday saw us heading out to the bean field that we shot last week , only to find it ploughed . It still had beans evident on the surface but no pigeon. We watched for twenty minutes and no birds arrived so we decided to drive to a thirty acre bean field we looked at last week . When we arrived they were working it so we carried on looking. We had one more bean field to try but we did notice a distinct lack of birds flying on our travels . When we arrived at the last bean field we drove down and a good hundred plus birds lifted so off to the farm and get permission. After a lengthy chat about everything and his dog the farmer said carry on . So we headed back to the field and set up with a nice thick bush at our back as the rain clouds were theatening. Twelve thawed birds, two on the magnet, two angelsand the rest on spikes . Ready to shoot , the first bird came straight in and landed with the decoys, spooked it and shot . The trees round the field erupted with birds and we waited for the next bird in. We then heard someone shouting and saw a guy walking down the field so left the hide took the shells out of the guns and walked across to meet him. He was the land owner and told us that he had told the farmer that he could shoot the standing crop but not the stubble as he wanted the stubble beans to attract the local pheasants on to his land so we would have to leave. So not to upset anybody we packed up. We carried on driving and found a rape stubble field with birds down on it so we drove them off and another hundred plus birds lifted . Phoned the farmer and got the go ahead and set up on the middle of the field each side of a power cable pole. The same set up as before and the birds started to return and we had a couple of doubles then the rain came . It rained for over an hour and no birds came near then the sun came out and they started to return , we had to go round all the decoys and shake the rain drops off them as they were shining in the sun. We packed up at 18.00 after covering 87 miles and picked up 42 pigeon , two crowsand one jackdaw.

 

Saturday saw us driving in a different direction just looking for birds we checked stubbles, clover , rape and muddy seed fields we started at 09.00 and did not find any birds in excess of thirty birds till 13.30 when we were looking at a farm which usually has a good head of crows on it as we were getting desperate to shoot and not loose the day. While we were watching the crows on some seed we noticed that the crows would land on the muddy surface but the pigeon would fly over them but not land and they were passing over a hedge on to a growing wheat field. We phoned the farmer to abtain permission and he said that when they subsoiled the wheat in it picked up a lot of the old barley . The only problem with shooting this field is that you can only shoot it from one edge . The wind is side on but the sun is in front of you and setting. Normal set up two on the magnet , two angels and eight on spikes . We started shooting at 14.15 and packed up at 17.30 after a further 96 miles but the bonus was that we picked up one hundred and thirtynine pigeons and two jackdaws

 

 

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nicely done. :good: 139 pigeons in just over 3 hours is superb by anybodys standards. not sure why there not on the bean stubbles, we have plenty of bean stubbles at the moment an can only manage 40 or so off them, all of which have a mixture of seed and berrys in there crops.

any way i digress. well done PC.

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nicely done. :good: 139 pigeons in just over 3 hours is superb by anybodys standards. not sure why there not on the bean stubbles, we have plenty of bean stubbles at the moment an can only manage 40 or so off them, all of which have a mixture of seed and berrys in there crops.

any way i digress. well done PC.

I checked the crop of a few birds today off the barley stubble and they had the following in them:-

Hawthorn berries

Rape seed

Elderberries

Acorns

Red wheat seed

Old barley seed

Clover

 

So much for them being on one field

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I checked the crop of a few birds today off the barley stubble and they had the following in them:-

Hawthorn berries

Rape seed

Elderberries

Acorns

Red wheat seed

Old barley seed

Clover

 

So much for them being on one field

useful info that PC. much the same up here but our birds don't seem to have any green leaf in them as yet.

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Two informative days out.

 

I liked the bit about the Landowner wanting to entice birds onto the bean stubble. Why he would want to do that I cannot even guess at. I bet that his 'keeper is not happy with that. The stubble will be ploughed in very soon in any event.

 

Good information about crop contents. I didn't get out yesterday as I was baby sitting Jasper, but today I hope to get out and I will be looking for a field which is part rape stubble, some of which has been drilled with wheat, a corner of which has been drilled with barley, next to a clover field, with the field surrounded by oak trees and elderberry bushes.

 

I know just the one!

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Two informative days out.

 

I liked the bit about the Landowner wanting to entice birds onto the bean stubble. Why he would want to do that I cannot even guess at. I bet that his 'keeper is not happy with that. The stubble will be ploughed in very soon in any event.

 

Good information about crop contents. I didn't get out yesterday as I was baby sitting Jasper, but today I hope to get out and I will be looking for a field which is part rape stubble, some of which has been drilled with wheat, a corner of which has been drilled with barley, next to a clover field, with the field surrounded by oak trees and elderberry bushes.

 

I know just the one!

 

Being a suspicious old sod, I suspect he may not have a keeper himself and is trying to draw birds onto his land from an adjacent shoot(s).

 

DaveL

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Great write up and a lot of miles covered well done ! I just wondered did you actually know the farmers ? Or just ring or pop to the farm on the off chance ? If so how did you know the farm that the fields belonged to ? Thanks

Dave

The one we knew as we phoned him. Ask at the first house next to the field to find the farmers name then where the farm is . Knock on the farmers house. Hello Mrs Windsor , my name is PC ( hand card) you have a lot of pigeons on your bean stubble at Balmoral, I shoot on Mr Churchills estate at Blenhiem and Mr Bransons estate in Oxford would it be ok to have a day on your bean stubble I'm insured to the value of one million with the BASC. I will respect all game and leave no litter . It's just one day , I will not enter your land without permission first.

 

Good Luck

Edited by pigeon controller
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good shooting again PC,your quite a smooth talker when it comes to getting shooting :good: but ye thats what you have to do these days to get it, ive not been on the pigeons now for two weeks with the game season starting,ime sort of missing it but glad to have a rest from it in a way :lol: cheers simon...

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I reckon its the tash that gets you all this shooting PC!

I will admit that in the past it has helped as" once seen never forgotten". I grew it forty one years ago to make me look older. In hindsight perhaps I should shave it of now I've reached the age of sixty five. Ben in the twenty four years I've been shooting locally its been the farmers grapevine that has helped with the permissions and the Tash has helped as instant recognition.

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I will admit that in the past it has helped as" once seen never forgotten". I grew it forty one years ago to make me look older. In hindsight perhaps I should shave it of now I've reached the age of sixty five. Ben in the twenty four years I've been shooting locally its been the farmers grapevine that has helped with the permissions and the Tash has helped as instant recognition.

 

 

I don't think that it's the tash. My theory is that it is the blindfold. The farmers feel sorry for you and give you consent out of sympathy....'poor blind old man'.

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