ditchman Posted November 6, 2014 Report Share Posted November 6, 2014 Well i couldnt get rid of the "muppet" syndrome on flightlining today....there is something unatural about watching the birds head straight for you from distance....i have tried everything that was suggested and the results have been diabolical........... anyway that was this morning.........so at 2.00 clock i wipped over to the otherside of the field and threw a few deeks out....(they wernt going to decoy) but i think i could pull them "off line" a bit , enough for me to get at them...............just put a simple blind up, like a few days ago...and raised the net to head height and sat in the chair to wait..........sure enough a few started to come thro' then changed flight to skirt the deeks....i had very little time to ...stand....watch..raise gun and pull thro............RESULT...........birds well hit and puffs of powder and feathers........ why is it that i can hit and drop birds at distance decoying...yet at the same distance "up in the blue" i just cant connect.........the silly thing is flightlining is and can be just like the finest driven game,,,,and yet in alll the years in shooting game like that ...no problem soooooo for the next few days it is going to be a watch and see jobby...and when the birds start decoying properly then i will start setting up regular'...... Hats off to you wildfowlers and flightliners...im giving it a miss ...i have wasted sooo many cartridges...so im sticking to decoying should do a poll.......see what peoples preference is ..perhaps someone will do it for me..... Flightlining Decoying Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fenboy Posted November 6, 2014 Report Share Posted November 6, 2014 My preference is decoying , simply because that is the way I am likely to get the biggest bag , however flighting and roost shooting is far more sporting . You do not need to give up , you need to do it more often , practice makes perfect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDog Posted November 6, 2014 Report Share Posted November 6, 2014 Ditchman you are on a hot streak recently. Never mind the misses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aga man Posted November 6, 2014 Report Share Posted November 6, 2014 My preference would be flighting the pigeons. for sure the cartridge count can be shameful at times but folding a high fast moving pigeon, makes up for the misses. Some of the best shooting i have ever had has come from shooting woodies on a return line. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yickdaz Posted November 6, 2014 Report Share Posted November 6, 2014 flighting for me also, rather shoot 20 birds flighting than 40 over the decoys any day Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest stevo Posted November 6, 2014 Report Share Posted November 6, 2014 flighting here too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kitchrat Posted November 6, 2014 Report Share Posted November 6, 2014 I wish I could find a flightline to shoot under - it's happened once in the last 10 years!! (yes the hit ratio was low, but the fun level was high) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cocknee Posted November 6, 2014 Report Share Posted November 6, 2014 flighting for me also, rather shoot 20 birds flighting than 40 over the decoys any day Totally agree. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDog Posted November 6, 2014 Report Share Posted November 6, 2014 I would change the ratio to 10 birds flighting to 50 birds decoying. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kitchrat Posted November 6, 2014 Report Share Posted November 6, 2014 Well i couldnt get rid of the "muppet" syndrome on flightlining today....there is something unatural about watching the birds head straight for you from distance....i have tried everything that was suggested and the results have been diabolical........... anyway that was this morning.........so at 2.00 clock i wipped over to the otherside of the field and threw a few deeks out....(they wernt going to decoy) but i think i could pull them "off line" a bit , enough for me to get at them...............just put a simple blind up, like a few days ago...and raised the net to head height and sat in the chair to wait..........sure enough a few started to come thro' then changed flight to skirt the deeks....i had very little time to ...stand....watch..raise gun and pull thro............RESULT...........birds well hit and puffs of powder and feathers........ why is it that i can hit and drop birds at distance decoying...yet at the same distance "up in the blue" i just cant connect.........the silly thing is flightlining is and can be just like the finest driven game,,,,and yet in alll the years in shooting game like that ...no problem soooooo for the next few days it is going to be a watch and see jobby...and when the birds start decoying properly then i will start setting up regular'...... Hats off to you wildfowlers and flightliners...im giving it a miss ...i have wasted sooo many cartridges...so im sticking to decoying should do a poll.......see what peoples preference is ..perhaps someone will do it for me..... Flightlining Decoying Very difficult to gauge height above you, get them too high and the pellet count gets too low to make consistant clean kills. I just missed a goose I thought was kill-able, when I paced out the distance and added the height (pythagorus) it was 60+ yards in total. We tend to think "High bird, use larger pellet" but that just reduces the pellet count further. The best shot on the farm shoots I beat for in Essex, uses No 7 shot all the time, he knocks down really high birds, no trouble. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ditchman Posted November 6, 2014 Author Report Share Posted November 6, 2014 im the other way round............sure i pulled out some good high "angels" and it was sort of pleasurable !........the reason "sort" of was it was mixed with the intense loathing of the rest of my shooting !!! in a decoy situation i put myself in......i position myself in an area that gives me very little time to think...i can see birds a long way off but then i lose them... but i know they are coming but im not sure 100% where they will present themselves.............thats when the heart starts pumping......... so it is decoying for me............ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kitchrat Posted November 7, 2014 Report Share Posted November 7, 2014 im the other way round............sure i pulled out some good high "angels" and it was sort of pleasurable !........the reason "sort" of was it was mixed with the intense loathing of the rest of my shooting !!! in a decoy situation i put myself in......i position myself in an area that gives me very little time to think...i can see birds a long way off but then i lose them... but i know they are coming but im not sure 100% where they will present themselves.............thats when the heart starts pumping......... so it is decoying for me............ I agree, decoying is the buzz. This wildfowling in Canada was a good example, from the time you 1st see a flock, "are they coming, aren't they coming, Yes they are!, circling, lower? higher? round the back, round the front, will they commit or not" to getting a shot or not can be several minutes, which seems like hours. My point is that really high or distant birds can be a bit hit and miss (joke) because of low pattern density, you can be right on them and only get 1 or 2 pellets to hit, in non-immediately-lethal spots, OR, get one lucky head shot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fortune Posted November 7, 2014 Report Share Posted November 7, 2014 I used to shoot with a bloke, now deceased who was a bit of a high altitude specialist. He used to take pigeons and duck that were so high that you had time to roll a fag before they came down. Well it seemed like it took that long. He exclusively used to use Eley Grand Prix 1-1/8 of 5 shot >>Rat to an Elephant out of an old BSA boxlock 30 inch probably ½ > 3/4. I asked him how much lead he was giving them and he said about a five bar gate in front. It did work well but one day he hit a pigeon that was way up there and down it came to about six feet of the ground and suddenly it took to flight again. We all thought that it would land in a tree and we would be able to pick it when it fell out but the bird flew away so far across the open fields until it was so small a dot that we lost sight of it. The only thing that we thought about was that a pellet must have knocked it out and suddenly it recovered. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
numpty Posted November 7, 2014 Report Share Posted November 7, 2014 Flight line shooting every time, I have lost count of the times I can get under a flightline during my travels for an hours excellent sport. We all know that the killing zone in the decoy pattern is deadly and effective but it's the unpredictability of the flightline bird that makes it so interesting, particularly if you move sideways a few yards to make those crossing birds a true 45 yard distance. I used to have a regular flightline over some beech trees, high up at the end of a valley and about a quarter of a mile before the roosting wood, that with the right wind a friend and I would walk away with 80+ birds in just over an hour, and a huge smile on our faces! This flight was so reliable that I planted permanent hides that lasted for many years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pigeon controller Posted November 7, 2014 Report Share Posted November 7, 2014 I have the ability to hit high flighting birds by just pulling up through them shooting , this I call instinctive shooting. Wide crossers I have to give lead and a bit more to hit them which is not instinctive . Decoy shots can mesmerise you as you see them coming from when they set out of the sky and the long glide into the pattern then you think in your mind " I'm going to turn this one inside out " and you subconsciously miss. It may be blasé but in these situations I try to aim for the wing as to not destroy the bird. My advise to Ditchman is to continue and develop a method in your mind that then becomes instinctive . Get under the flight and pull up through the bird and try speed up or slow up and make it become automatic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ditchman Posted November 7, 2014 Author Report Share Posted November 7, 2014 I have the ability to hit high flighting birds by just pulling up through them shooting , this I call instinctive shooting. Wide crossers I have to give lead and a bit more to hit them which is not instinctive . Decoy shots can mesmerise you as you see them coming from when they set out of the sky and the long glide into the pattern then you think in your mind " I'm going to turn this one inside out " and you subconsciously miss. It may be blasé but in these situations I try to aim for the wing as to not destroy the bird. My advise to Ditchman is to continue and develop a method in your mind that then becomes instinctive . Get under the flight and pull up through the bird and try speed up or slow up and make it become automatic. 98% of the flighting...the birds came straight at you overhead......i even gave up making a hide, i just backed the landrover up the managment strip, open the back door...the dog just sat there and i stood..........the birds came regardless.............i would have perserved but its all down to economics...............cant afford vast quantities of ammunition.......the flapper market has been slow recently and what with vet bills and blown up hoover...dead washing machine...i have to ease up on the catridges ............i know what PC is saying......its just the more time i seem to have on incoming birds the worse i am.................i did change to the beretta A303 and stuffed an Extra Full choke in it......didnt make any difference...............i will sort it eventually, but for now i have to ease off ............... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ollie Posted November 7, 2014 Report Share Posted November 7, 2014 I would take flighting birds any day of the week. IMO it is some of the best sporting shooting you can get and it is so memorable when you pull off a few decent shots. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maddaftspaniel Posted November 7, 2014 Report Share Posted November 7, 2014 The problem with seeing birds coming from a long way out is the tendency to shoulder the gun too early...............resist the temptation,,,,wait until the bird is almost overhead....................lift the gun and swing through............and hey presto! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pigeonslayer15 Posted November 7, 2014 Report Share Posted November 7, 2014 Sometimes im the complete opposite to that, I shoot some good distance passing birds but I can have them flapping above the magnet and miss with both barrels Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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