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Who invented the pigeon magnet?


malkiserow
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The first one that I saw had cams on the arms attached to cords that made the dead birds wings flap up and down . I saw a video of one and it seemed to work well . It had four dead birds on arms and looked a bit like a fair ground ride with the birds wizzing around .

 

Harnser

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First one I saw was at a suffolk country show around 19 years ago, cant remember the company that had the stand but they had one with 2 arms working with crows on it and a tv playing a video.

Must admit I had a laugh at it but reading later in a sporting magazine of a pigeon shooters report on the effect in had on pigeon attraction I made my own, much to the laughter of my club members.

Shooting over hemp one day with another bemused club member my home made magnet proved its worth as it pulled birds in from a distance straight to it.

Other club members that had drawn a blank stood at a distance and watch us have shot after shot , my magnet never got any more laughs from then on just orders from club members for me to make them magnets.

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Cranfield, I was not referring to 'Texas rags' but the rotaries used by them for snow goose decoying. Did we get the idea from them, did they get the idea from us, or were they both independent inventions coming up with the same idea, i.e. convergent evolution?

 

I think it was a case of , "based on an idea", but Phil Beasley is credited with producing the first Magnet.

Sillosocks are based on the "rags" used by US wildfowlers.

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Cranfield, I was not referring to 'Texas rags' but the rotaries used by them for snow goose decoying. Did we get the idea from them, did they get the idea from us, or were they both independent inventions coming up with the same idea, i.e. convergent evolution?

 

I knew what you meant, I was just putting sillosocks into the equation.

The early rotaries I saw in Louisiana US were not motor powered, they relied on the wind.

I think the rotary developed as "convergent evolution" - or should that be "revolution" :) , but the air-pro decoys definitely came from US duck/dove decoys , flocking decoys seems to be definitely a UK thing.

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:lol: convergent revolution!

 

The yanks have been into flocking wildfowl decoys for some time, particularly Canada deek's necks and tails.

 

I knew what you meant, I was just putting sillosocks into the equation.

The early rotaries I saw in Louisiana US were not motor powered, they relied on the wind.

I think the rotary developed as "convergent evolution" - or should that be "revolution" :) , but the air-pro decoys definitely came from US duck/dove decoys , flocking decoys seems to be definitely a UK thing.

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Phil Beasley of UKSW

Back in the very early days of PW this subject was discussed.

I found a clockwork pigeon rotary for sale on Ebygumbay which had been made well before Phil was born.

That said The Beasleys have done well out of marketing a good idea.

 

webber

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We had one based on a bicycle freewheeling hub ,it had a cam so the birds would lift a drop and I was energised by a cord back to the hide. We would use it for laid crops so that the bird would lift and drop in the the laid area.It had a lawn mower engine pull start if I remember properly.

Edited by pigeon controller
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well i dunno about the mechanical magnet but all that go shooting with my mate ron have nick named him the pigeon magnet because it does not matter where he goes in a field pigeon come at him, even with no hide decoys etc.

the other week he was out picking up pigeon he had shot( bye the way he is one hell of a good shot) pigeon were coming in to him

so i think save carrying all my gear in future i think i will take him along and stand near him lol

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The Magnet as we know it was first made in Shropshire by a chap from The Clee Hill from an idea he got from Malta . John Ransford had one , Tony Orchard (Apple Sporting Products) I used to make them for Tony and John.

Tony always reckoned that flappers worked best, in moderation.

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  • 4 weeks later...

That distinction goes to a chap call Arthur Burge who was groundsman at our cricket club 1946 to 1987...

 

He used use a rotary water driven sprinkler to water the square and hide behind the side screen with his shotgun to shoot crows and rooks which used to burry into the wicket.

 

One day in 1973 or 4 when I first started playing I saw him with two rooks tied to the 16ft diameter arms by their necks.

 

The birds were streaming into this rotary and he was picking them off.

 

I remember him saying at the time works well for Pigeons too..

 

He had been doing this since the 1950,s

 

The first Magnet I saw advertised was by Pinewood from Northleach

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 9 years later...

Withrange Ltd in the mid/late 1990’s. I can’t remember the exact date! We (I was the company secretary) were Alan Mitchell & Phil Beasley, both professional pigeon shooters in Oxfordshire. We took a VERY basis design & developed it to incorporate sprung steel arms & a motor than spun 2 or 4 dead birds. My son is in the ORIGINAL video which I still have a copy of. We sold the company to someone who didn’t really know how to make the best of our success. I remain proud of the product & its achievements.

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On 12/08/2014 at 09:31, deny essex said:

First one I saw was at a suffolk country show around 19 years ago, cant remember the company that had the stand but they had one with 2 arms working with crows on it and a tv playing a video.

Must admit I had a laugh at it but reading later in a sporting magazine of a pigeon shooters report on the effect in had on pigeon attraction I made my own, much to the laughter of my club members.

Shooting over hemp one day with another bemused club member my home made magnet proved its worth as it pulled birds in from a distance straight to it.

Other club members that had drawn a blank stood at a distance and watch us have shot after shot , my magnet never got any more laughs from then on just orders from club members for me to make them magnets.

😊

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