Changes You Have Seen In Pigeon Shooting ?

[dad]

hi redditch. is that 8000 for real never heard of it befor. i am in west cambridgeshire and we get plenty medium bags 25/60 birds most flight lines dry up after acouple of hours i cant imagine a 651 bag on a 5 hour sesion 1 gun thats 1 every 27 seconds

[Redditch]

Five hour session ? When I shoot, I often start to set up well before first light so I'm am ready by first light, and shoot all day until about 18-19:00 in the evening.

In the old days, YES, we would get 5,000 birds on a day, but as stated, between 8-10 guns, spread over 4-5 fields.

Nowadays I don't think those numbers would be achievable, unless there was a very very good summer.

As for Corvids, the farther north and west you go, the corvids seem to have taken over from the pigeons for 95%, I expect due to the bad weather, as wet cold weather doesn't agree with pigeon breeding, but corvids seem to thrive on it.

Hence here, where there use to be skies and fields blue with pigeon, it's now mostly black with corvids.

The corvids was 800+ in a day, not 8,000M and again, not one gun but two of us, from early morning till 16:00 when we packed up due to cartridges having run out (had been back to the house three times already)

Edited July 21, 2015 by Redditch

[Dr D]

I have posted about this before. Pigeons behaviour in this part of the country has change a lot in my lifetime. In the winter we used to see an influx of birds across the Irish sea. Tens of thousands. It doesn't happen anymore. If we get cold weather some birds arrive. But nothing like they used to. Years ago they would start leaving the roost woods and the noise of their wings beats was incredible. Not anymore.

[jackmichaels]

Mobility has to be a big difference.

 

In the 60's those who went pigeon shooting either walked or rode their bicycles to their chosen field with minimal kit. Does anyone know of anyone nowadays who does not use a motor vehicle? I doubt it.

 

Well I bloody didn't.. used to chuck 25 or 30 wooden decoys in the back of the landrover. Back in the 60's there weren't that many pigeon shooters around and those that did were very local to or worked on the farms they shot over.

 

The biggest change I have noticed is pigeon numbers have burgeoned and they are now widespread, the second is that although the population may have increased a 100 fold they do not flock up in the huge numbers they used to even when the winters are very cold.

 

More pigeons were shot in the winter back then than are now I would wager..When I was a teen it wasn't uncommon to see flocks of pigeons 5 - 15 thousand bird strong around the Oxfordshire fields where I lived, the farmers used to employ lads to keep them off the drillings and pea crops with rattles and flags ( I was one of them)

 

I saw a whole pea field mown to ground by such a flock in 62, so much so that it had to be re seeded ... I bet no-ones seen that in modern times.

 

I don't shoot many pigeons these days and there is so much food about for them many farmers don't see them as a real pest anymore so don't really concentrate efforts to scare them off.

[motty]

 

Well I bloody didn't.. used to chuck 25 or 30 wooden decoys in the back of the landrover. Back in the 60's there weren't that many pigeon shooters around and those that did were very local to or worked on the farms they shot over.

 

The biggest change I have noticed is pigeon numbers have burgeoned and they are now widespread, the second is that although the population may have increased a 100 fold they do not flock up in the huge numbers they used to even when the winters are very cold.

 

More pigeons were shot in the winter back then than are now I would wager..When I was a teen it wasn't uncommon to see flocks of pigeons 5 - 15 thousand bird strong around the Oxfordshire fields where I lived, the farmers used to employ lads to keep them off the drillings and pea crops with rattles and flags ( I was one of them)

 

I saw a whole pea field mown to ground by such a flock in 62, so much so that it had to be re seeded ... I bet no-ones seen that in modern times.

 

I don't shoot many pigeons these days and there is so much food about for them many farmers don't see them as a real pest anymore so don't really concentrate efforts to scare them off.

I have heard of something very similar very recently. A year or two ago, there was a flock of over 20000 (estimated, obviously) that were decimating the rape around the Sandringham estate. Some of the local wildfowlers were asked to help protect the crops.

[jackmichaels]

I have heard of something very similar very recently. A year or two ago, there was a flock of over 20000 (estimated, obviously) that were decimating the rape around the Sandringham estate. Some of the local wildfowlers were asked to help protect the crops.

I can believe that...we used to have a family holiday home at Burnham Market and there were always thousands of pigeons working the fields up the north Norfolk coast.

[fenboy]

 

Well I bloody didn't.. used to chuck 25 or 30 wooden decoys in the back of the landrover. Back in the 60's there weren't that many pigeon shooters around and those that did were very local to or worked on the farms they shot over.

 

The biggest change I have noticed is pigeon numbers have burgeoned and they are now widespread, the second is that although the population may have increased a 100 fold they do not flock up in the huge numbers they used to even when the winters are very cold.

 

More pigeons were shot in the winter back then than are now I would wager..When I was a teen it wasn't uncommon to see flocks of pigeons 5 - 15 thousand bird strong around the Oxfordshire fields where I lived, the farmers used to employ lads to keep them off the drillings and pea crops with rattles and flags ( I was one of them)

 

I saw a whole pea field mown to ground by such a flock in 62, so much so that it had to be re seeded ... I bet no-ones seen that in modern times.

 

I don't shoot many pigeons these days and there is so much food about for them many farmers don't see them as a real pest anymore so don't really concentrate efforts to scare them off.

My findings are different that around here the pigeons still flock up in big numbers over the winter , what I am finding though is they are staying that way for much longer .

[matty*]

I have heard of something very similar very recently. A year or two ago, there was a flock of over 20000 (estimated, obviously) that were decimating the rape around the Sandringham estate. Some of the local wildfowlers were asked to help protect the crops.

I also heard of this but they were apparantly on peas. A mate of my from heacham wildfowlers was called.

[dad]

my ole dad born 1916 dead now. lived on the edge of the fens said as ole boys they used to knock them off brussels with sticks. in the late 60s he lived 15 miles away from fens and said they used to fly out first light in their 1000s from the big roost woods always in direction of the fens and at night having to rest on the way back. we only had clover then no match for fen food

[dad]

Depends on WHAT you term as a large flock. I don't see any reports anymore of flocks of tens of thousands hitting fields anymore.

Seems a "big flock" nowadays might be 500, maybe even 2,000, but certainly not in the quantities they used to arrive in.

There are probably now many more flocks, of smaller size, due to the abundance of different crops they can get on (remember, mono culture is no longer allowed, minimum 3 crops and grass, and grass has to be the majority :(

All designed to force us to buy grains and straw from the continent.

It's really hitting my farmers badly, in the last years they have had their barley planting allowance reduced from 240 acres, to 174 acres, to 138 acres, and this year down to 86 acres :(

The EU is meddling way too much, and soon they will have forced through the law where everyone who wishes to shoot (be it pest/vermin, game or wildfowl) will have to take a 2 year course and a 3 day exam (Holland cost me €8,000.00 and Germany cost me €6,000.00 as they don't recognise each other's identical courses, and is basically a money making scam)

Also expect seasons on all vermin and pests too.

Coarse fishing also gets a 1 year course and a 2 day exam, but is less expensive, costing between €800-€1,200.00

sorry i meant 8000 euros for shooting licence