Harnser Posted March 27, 2014 Report Share Posted March 27, 2014 This has got to be the worst year I have ever had shooting on rape . After several outings since the rape was drilled my total birds shot is less than 100. I shot my largest bag this winter by putting my decoys on top of a massive pile of harvested suger beet . A very disappointing year . Roll on the stubbles . Harnser Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDog Posted March 27, 2014 Report Share Posted March 27, 2014 Some people have had very little luck on rape this winter sadly, but look out for other food sources before the stubbles. You may be pleasantly surprized. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harnser Posted March 27, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 27, 2014 I shall of course be looking for any laid cereals a bit later on ,or indeed any other source of feed that the pigeons want to have ago at . Harnser. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
motty Posted March 27, 2014 Report Share Posted March 27, 2014 I have had a very poor time on the rape, too. It is far more advanced than this time last year. Normally I would still expect a reasonable bag on a few rape fields right through April. With most fields now in flower, this looks (bar a few exceptions) like this will not be possible. Hopefully i'll get to shoot on some spring rape again, this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cosd Posted March 27, 2014 Report Share Posted March 27, 2014 It's been the same for us, compared to last year this year has been very hit and miss. Bag sizes have been down simply because we haven't seen as many birds. The winter rape is almost at the stage where we won't shoot it any more so now relying on same poor patches here and there and the fresh drillings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
filzee Posted March 27, 2014 Report Share Posted March 27, 2014 I had an ok day on sunday shooting freshly drilled barley. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skye Posted March 27, 2014 Report Share Posted March 27, 2014 Similar here one day I can get double figures the next nothing, always good to get out though. Skye Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cranfield Posted March 27, 2014 Report Share Posted March 27, 2014 This has definitely been the worst Winter for pigeon numbers shot that I have ever had. Big acorn harvest, or the bad weather, whatever the reason, there were hardly any birds on the fields. At least there were corvids to be controlled, so it wasn't all bad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alastair0903 Posted March 27, 2014 Report Share Posted March 27, 2014 So all in all the crop your are protecting has made the winter with little damage Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yickdaz Posted March 27, 2014 Report Share Posted March 27, 2014 our total on the rape is 101 all winter and up to start of this month the spring drillings are not changing things I had 18 and 2 crows last sun on drilled barley, nothing the week before Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kitchrat Posted March 28, 2014 Report Share Posted March 28, 2014 I have had a very poor time on the rape, too. It is far more advanced than this time last year. Normally I would still expect a reasonable bag on a few rape fields right through April. With most fields now in flower, this looks (bar a few exceptions) like this will not be possible. Hopefully i'll get to shoot on some spring rape again, this year. What went wrong then?? You had loads of starving hungry birds, don't need much cover, just chuck out a few deeks and away we go. Or am I getting too cynical?? I struggled too, big time, but I have loads of excuses!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
delburt0 Posted March 28, 2014 Report Share Posted March 28, 2014 (edited) This has got to be the worst year I have ever had shooting on rape . After several outings since the rape was drilled my total birds shot is less than 100. I shot my largest bag this winter by putting my decoys on top of a massive pile of harvested suger beet . A very disappointing year . Roll on the stubbles . Harnser +1 although I am not going to say I've done brilliant I have had only 2 disappointing days will less than 10 the other days have been ok, In the last week the rape I was shooting has grown very rapid so I might get a day next Monday just out of curiosity if not my kits in the garage till mid July and work the rifle. I have one farmer who I think might have drillings I am going upto the farm on Sunday when I finish work as he has lots of smaller fields spread over a 20 mile radius. Edited March 28, 2014 by delburt0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pstenson123 Posted March 28, 2014 Report Share Posted March 28, 2014 BIG numbers later on , on stubble me thinks!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mossy835 Posted March 28, 2014 Report Share Posted March 28, 2014 birds shot over rape for me,this year is 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firdom Posted March 28, 2014 Report Share Posted March 28, 2014 interesting compare 2013 pigeons shot to 26 march 2319, 2014 pigeons shot to 26 march 2474, 2012 2786, thats if i'm reading it correctly if not i stand corrected Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marsh man Posted March 28, 2014 Report Share Posted March 28, 2014 Most of the reasons for poor shooting on the rape this winter have already been posted, what we have got to consider is the vast amount grown , you haven't got to go far from one field to the next one and then 2 or 3 fields down the lane another one and so on, every year for the last 10 years or more there has been an increase in the amount grown, according to our paper E D P the other week we have now reached the stage where they have used all available land to grow the stuff. ..........lets hope they are right .....If they grew the same amount of Peas or Beans we might still be saying there isn't much on the Peas this year.........simple answer.....we haven't got enough pigeons at the moment to go on that amount of fields in any numbers. we would still take small bags off odd fields but not like we have known it in the past. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDog Posted March 28, 2014 Report Share Posted March 28, 2014 My winter rape shooting has been pretty good this time with averages over thirty and a best quite recently of over 150. What is unusual this year, apart from certain areas being devoid of birds on rape, is just how quickly the rape has grown this month. One field outside the village is almost in full flower. Last year the easterly winds restricted the rape plants to just a few leaves until the end of April. Suffice to say that my rape shooting is finished until harvest unless some unlucky farmer is forced into growing the spring variety in which case there may be some bumper bags. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
motty Posted March 28, 2014 Report Share Posted March 28, 2014 What went wrong then?? You had loads of starving hungry birds, don't need much cover, just chuck out a few deeks and away we go. Or am I getting too cynical?? I struggled too, big time, but I have loads of excuses!!!! I never said that all the birds were on my farms. I said that Norfolk and Cambridgeshire were full of birds on the rape. This is about the time when I would expect a big bag or two from rape, but as I've already stated, the chances look less likely due to the advanced growth. And I still maintain, you don't need cover to site a hide. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aga man Posted March 28, 2014 Report Share Posted March 28, 2014 (edited) We can't really grumble in our part of east yorks, like JDog we have consistantly had bags of twenty and thirty and sometimes a few more, no 150 bags mind and to be fair we have never shot big bags on winter rape here,so don't expect to really. The main problem we have had is as marsh man says is a large amount of rape grown presumably just because that's the way the farmers crop rotation has fallen, even with gas guns and extra shooters the birds have had too much choice. The rape is growing fast here now and still the pigeons are feeding on it,even prefering it to fresh drillings in some spots. If we didn't have so much rape around it would have been pretty good shooting i suspect. Edited March 28, 2014 by aga man Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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