Jump to content

Frustrating Afternoon on Barley Drilling


kippylawkid
 Share

Recommended Posts

Had watched a barley drilling build up nicely over 3 days on a field and hide where I have shot many times in the past. Plenty spill left on top and I decided to shoot.

Wind was perfect, 15mph directly behind me and I started with 8 dead birds and was quietly confident.

However,I have read other PW members have difficulty decoying birds this year on drillings and I had one of those days.

Would they hell decoy - I tried every trick in the book with no success and had to resort to shooting the flight line. Cracking sport but a 100+ opportunity missed.

I ended up with 45 picked.

At least the dog was happy!

post-305-0-15146500-1398460380_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well done on your bag, but it sounds to me like a ton was never up for grabs.

How would you possibly know without watching the field yourself and knowing the ground? Glass half empty response I'm afraid.

 

To the o.p. Still a good days decoying, keep watching the field and hope they continue to build, we shot 118 on barley today even though it's well green and we got the position wrong twice, still a very enjoyable day

Link to comment
Share on other sites

How would you possibly know without watching the field yourself and knowing the ground? Glass half empty response I'm afraid.

 

To the o.p. Still a good days decoying, keep watching the field and hope they continue to build, we shot 118 on barley today even though it's well green and we got the position wrong twice, still a very enjoyable day

The op said it was a 100+ opportunity missed. If the birds weren't decoying it sounds like they didn't really want to be there, so I would say that 100 would not have been on the cards. Had the op said he had 200 shots and killed 45, that WOULD have been an opportunity for 100 missed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Easy boys!

I reckon that around 500 ish birds came to the field, mostly in small groups which is about what I'd seen building up and feeding. There is no other feed draw nearby so they can only be heading to the field. Obviously if they had decoyed into the pattern I would like to think I would have shot 100+.

As Motty says, they may not have been properly wired onto the field but I had watched them feeding for 3 days and thought it was time to go before someone else nabbed them!

As it was, I only shot about 10 that decoyed "properly" late in the day. The rest were just skirting the pattern at 50+ yards. So after a lot of moving of patterns and flappers and cursing, I moved to where the bulk of the birds were coming into the field and shot them flighting.Great sport but i can't help think what might have been!

As I said, I have successfully shot that field many times (100+ days) from the same hide as it commands the whole field.

A pal of mine shot 75 on a pea drilling at the weekend and he too could not get them to fully commit to the pattern.

It does back up many PW members experiences this year.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I had the same problem, last week had a cracking days shooting on the drilled barley, a bit of rain and sun and the barley is 2 inches high and spent a few hours on it and NOTHING,

 

birds skirted the field but would not decoy at all and did not even use there normal flight line, back out after them 2moro so hopefully the wind will be a bit stronger and the birds might decide to decoy

 

atb Evo

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...