distance

[pigeonslayer15]

Sorry didnt mean thats my preffered way of shooting, I get the birds decoying 25-30 yards all day long, all I was just saying im quite confident taking birds out to a distance

[fenboy]

[tigger got stichs]

haha nice one fenboy

[pigeonslayer15]

Sorry did sound a bit like that, as you can tell im not that great with wording things right, didn't mean to sound so cocky

[petera]

25 - 40 metres maximum. I want as far as possible to have a clean kill each time and would be out of my comfort zone at ranges greater than 40.

[birdsallpl]

Without teaching anyone to suck eggs, one of the critical attributes needed to kill quarry cleanly with a shotgun is the ability to judge distance accurately. Not the main one but very important, I hope you will all agree. I have been out with people in the field and have often asked how far away is that? 50 metres to one person is 100 to another. I always tell people they must learn distances and to do so you usually need some kind of comparison. Once you have it in your head you usually get it about right. My advise to everyone is find the app 'measure your land' once you have this you can find that favourite field you like shooting in or a tree or whatever. Somewhere where you have built a hide. Then measure out 40 metres and look at the possible killing zone. This takes out all the guess work and subjective argument. Do this as many times as you can at various places, then when you are actually in that field visualise what you saw on your computer.

I hope this helps

[tigger got stichs]

if you can hit them out at 50/60yards then by all means do so I personally don't think I have the capability to do so, I stick with what I'm comfortable with the closer the better and an absolute max of 40 yards any further out and I shuffle the pattern about tills thay come closer

[ditchman]

I dont know why people get hung up about how taking long shots means your a better pigeon shot .... imho if your always taking your birds at 45-60 yards . Then personally you need to take a serious look at you decoying practices . Because your doing something wrong . A good decoyer can get his bird into a good sensible range 25 -35 yards consistently . ..

 

That is where the true skill lies

 

 

+1

[wymberley]

I'm new to shooting, if I dropped a bird at 40 yards, it's been an unlucky bird not a good shot haha, at the moment I'm missing many more birds than I'm hitting, I'm reducing my range to30 and below for a shot now until I get a better hit ratio,

Old head, new shoulders. Best post so far. probably going to make a half decent pigeon shooter.

[motty]

Believe what you like, its your view but this is why I dont post on here that much

Trouble is, people tend to disbelieve stuff like that. If you had posted on some of your big bags, it then becomes believable. It is wholly possible to shoot nearly 4000 in a few months, but not many folk achieve it. Some kind of proof is required.

If you can shoot pigeons at sixty yards consistently, then make a video. I'd like to see it.

[birdsallpl]

I'm new to shooting, if I dropped a bird at 40 yards, it's been an unlucky bird not a good shot haha, at the moment I'm missing many more birds than I'm hitting, I'm reducing my range to30 and below for a shot now until I get a better hit ratio,

It's also a good idea to understand the optimum range for your choke and the cartridge being used. Sometimes closer than 30 metres can reduce your potential for a kill and the closer the harder it gets. (Tighter pattern) I'm no expert in ballistics but there are a few on here that are and could probably explain the technicalities of it far better than I

[ditchman]

on the "distance" thing,..................cut yourself 3 or 4 sticks and put them in the ground within your shooting zone ...and pace them out at 20-30-40-and 60 paces.......i rekon you will find most of your birds shot are at 20 to 40 paces....(shot ! not where they fall)

 

i used to do quite a bit of fly fishing years ago on reservoirs and streams.........and much of the talk in the clubhouse was about flylines and the distance you needed to "thrash them out to.....everybody rekoned the further you could cast the more fish you could get !!!!

 

 

the fact still remains that most fish are caught within 10 yds of the boat

[marsh man]

Spot on, I was

I may have gone to school in the era of imperial measurement, but I'm not a complete dinosaur LOL

Sorry if I misunderstood your post " birdsallpl " I told you I wernt very bright , but what I do know shooting at and killing pigeons at 60yds consistently is only for the gifted few , but then again if the chap shot nearly 4000 during harvest he must know what hes doing and he might well be able to kill pigeons at that sort of range but like Motty said it would be nice if we could see this marksmanship for ourselves.

[fenboy]

on the "distance" thing,..................cut yourself 3 or 4 sticks and put them in the ground within your shooting zone ...and pace them out at 20-30-40-and 60 paces.......i rekon you will find most of your birds shot are at 20 to 40 paces....(shot ! not where they fall)

 

i used to do quite a bit of fly fishing years ago on reservoirs and streams.........and much of the talk in the clubhouse was about flylines and the distance you needed to "thrash them out to.....everybody rekoned the further you could cast the more fish you could get !!!!

 

 

the fact still remains that most fish are caught within 10 yds of the boat

Yes but the fish can follow a fly a good distance before taking it and that further you cast the more water you cover bringing the fly to the boat.

[birdsallpl]

on the "distance" thing,..................cut yourself 3 or 4 sticks and put them in the ground within your shooting zone ...and pace them out at 20-30-40-and 60 paces.......i rekon you will find most of your birds shot are at 20 to 40 paces....(shot ! not where they fall)

 

i used to do quite a bit of fly fishing years ago on reservoirs and streams.........and much of the talk in the clubhouse was about flylines and the distance you needed to "thrash them out to.....everybody rekoned the further you could cast the more fish you could get !!!!

 

 

the fact still remains that most fish are caught within 10 yds of the boat

You've opened another complete bag of worms on that one about casting a fly ditchman. I might start a topic on the subject. We could really have some debate going. LOL

Yes but the fish can follow a fly a good distance before taking it and that further you cast the more water you cover bringing the fly to the boat.

Exactly

[ditchman]

Yes but the fish can follow a fly a good distance before taking it and that further you cast the more water you cover bringing the fly to the boat.

 

 

you are right of coarse...and you need a long length out if you are going deep.............i gave up thrashing lines out to distance.....it was such hard work and felt you had done a days work when you returned to the clubhouse !...and changed to stalking the fish on the margines with much lighter tackle...and being a little more clever........................i can draw a parallel with decoying as i really use much more that 28gm 6's or 7's and a little 26" boxlock.....you just need to be i bit more clever.......

[birdsallpl]

Sorry if I misunderstood your post " birdsallpl " I told you I wernt very bright , but what I do know shooting at and killing pigeons at 60yds consistently is only for the gifted few , but then again if the chap shot nearly 4000 during harvest he must know what hes doing and he might well be able to kill pigeons at that sort of range but like Motty said it would be nice if we could see this marksmanship for ourselves.

 

Completly agree, I have no problems in believing 4000 birds, an excellent achievement. But like many on here I would question the 60 yrd thing. As I said earlier judging distance isn't always obvious. To some 50 metres they would think only 40. I suspect he maybe actually shooting at 50 but perceives it as 60. But in fairness non of us are there. He is.

[fenboy]

 

 

you are right of coarse...and you need a long length out if you are going deep.............i gave up thrashing lines out to distance.....it was such hard work and felt you had done a days work when you returned to the clubhouse !...and changed to stalking the fish on the margines with much lighter tackle...and being a little more clever........................i can draw a parallel with decoying as i really use much more that 28gm 6's or 7's and a little 26" boxlock.....you just need to be i bit more clever.......

 

Its no different to any sort of fishing , fish where the fish are, and you a quite right they can often be under your feet.

But that has nothing to do with shooting pigeons at 60 yards so I had better stop going off on a tangent

[Harnser]

My average shot is about 25 yards and I mean 25 yards and not 25 pacers . I am comfortable to shoot all game out to 40 yards but prefer to shoot at 25 yards . How much lead would you need to shoot a fast crosser at 60 yards ? Proberbly half a field . Incidently , 60 yards is about 75 paces .

 

Harnser

Edited November 9, 2014 by Harnser

[kenholland]

picked up a field tape this year from a d-I-y just to see how far some of my long shots were what I thought was not what came out on the tape, just goes to show what you think it is until you measure it accurately. ....kenbo

[stuy]

+2

+1

[muncher]

on the "distance" thing,..................cut yourself 3 or 4 sticks and put them in the ground within your shooting zone ...and pace them out at 20-30-40-and 60 paces.......i rekon you will find most of your birds shot are at 20 to 40 paces....(shot ! not where they fall)

 

i used to do quite a bit of fly fishing years ago on reservoirs and streams.........and much of the talk in the clubhouse was about flylines and the distance you needed to "thrash them out to.....everybody rekoned the further you could cast the more fish you could get !!!!

 

 

the fact still remains that most fish are caught within 10 yds of the boat

My brother and I used to do this when decoying pigeons and geese we would measure out 40, 50 yards and put little white canes in and set the pattern up to shoot crossers mainly to test new homeloads to check there performance etc .Two things come up pigeons look small at 50 and geese still look bloody close .

[kitchrat]

Ever the sceptic I was fairly disinterested in your posts after reading that you had shot nearly 4000 pigeons in the last three months I now read that you can consistently kill sixty yard birds. As victor meldrew would say 'i don't believe it'.

+1

[kitchrat]

My average shot is about 25 yards and I mean 25 yards and not 25 pacers . I am comfortable to shoot all game out to 40 yards but prefer to shoot at 25 yards . How much lead would you need to shoot a fast crosser at 60 yards ? Proberbly half a field . Incidently , 60 yards is about 75 paces .

 

Harnser

+1, but the way, forget how much lead (feet), what about how much lead (Pb) would you need to get a decent, killing pattern? About 2 ounces I guess!!

[Bobba]

My average shot is about 25 yards and I mean 25 yards and not 25 pacers . I am comfortable to shoot all game out to 40 yards but prefer to shoot at 25 yards . How much lead would you need to shoot a fast crosser at 60 yards ? Proberbly half a field . Incidently , 60 yards is about 75 paces .

Harnser

The theory, according to the Eley Shooters Diary, with a standard velocity cartridge, the forward allowance for a crossing bird at 40 mph @ 40 yds = 8' 0" lead; @ 45 yds = 9' 6"; and, @ 50 yds = 11' 1". About 1' 6" every 5 yds so, theoretically, add 3' 0" to the 50 yds then @ 60 yds = 14' 7". So says the theory!!

 

Myself, in practice, I'm with the stick in the ground marker brigade. I set my pattern and pace out 30 yds and mark it with a stick. That's my comfort zone. Anything outside this distance I leave.