Magnet or not

[fenboy]

After last night my shoulder feels like I was using a grenade launcher ! Any damage to the gun will be billed !

 

You obviousley did not read the small print , I will make some girly cartridges for you.

[Lucky Shot 1958]

Thought that I had joined a site with adult members not a kindergarten.

Edited September 20, 2015 by Lucky Shot 1958

[fenboy]

Ok so lets be all serious then , do you really believe that an in coming pigeon can see its dead mate has its eyes closed before it gets in shotgun range ?.

Its something Archie Coates came up with I believe and it was as unnecesarry then as it is now .

 

Lets face it millions are shot each year over the magnets you have seemingly disgaurded , and if a pigeon cannot tell there is something up with its mates going around in a 8ft circle with a massive lunp of ironwork up its jacksy then it sure as hell is not going to know if its got its eyes closed or not !!!!!!!

Edited September 20, 2015 by fenboy

[kenholland]

are them grenades 6 shot ?

[mossy835]

i have a magnet, not used it this year,does seem to help me at all.

[Redditch]

99% of magnets problems scaring birds is the arms reflecting light.

YOU might not see it from your position, but guaranteed the birds do. This happens in rainy weather with Matt paint, or any time with gloss paint.

The cure is, get some cloth type camo tape, and completely wrap the arms of the magnet in that. That will stop all flashing, and should bring the birds back in

[Cosd]

Too much thought going into trying to find a perfect decoying method.

 

I can't boast 150 years experience in decoying, nor can I say i am the best, but what I have worked out is that there is no "one method" that fits all scenarios.

What works one day may not work the next, that's the simple truth. This eye lid removal business really is laughable, and if decoying was that hard I doubt we'd be shooting any birds.

Me and my buddy had over 100 birds just yesterday, we hardly got out of the hide, it looked like carnage out there; Birds on their backs, on their sides, on top of each other, but birds still came in; The next outing may be very different.

 

My simple method is, if it isn't working, change it; Sometimes you just can't get it to work, so you try another day.

[Redditch]

True, Cosd, but I rarely have a problem with my magnets scaring birds.

In fact the ONLY times, which let me stumped till I discovered why, was with sunshine, or after rain. Then one day as I collected a shot bird I saw the reflections as it spun (but only visible from the direction the birds were coming.

Since then I covered all the magnet arms with cloth tape camo and never had a problem since

Not saying it won't in some circumstances not work, but generally I always have a magnet out.

[motty]

99% of magnets problems scaring birds is the arms reflecting light.

YOU might not see it from your position, but guaranteed the birds do. This happens in rainy weather with Matt paint, or any time with gloss paint.

The cure is, get some cloth type camo tape, and completely wrap the arms of the magnet in that. That will stop all flashing, and should bring the birds back in

I disagree.

[yidoharry]

Ok so lets be all serious then , do you really believe that an in coming pigeon can see its dead mate has its eyes closed before it gets in shotgun range ?.

Its something Archie Coates came up with I believe and it was as unnecesarry then as it is now .

 

Lets face it millions are shot each year over the magnets you have seemingly disgaurded , and if a pigeon cannot tell there is something up with its mates going around in a 8ft circle with a massive lunp of ironwork up its jacksy then it sure as hell is not going to know if its got its eyes closed or not !!!!!!!

+1

99% of magnets problems scaring birds is the arms reflecting light.

YOU might not see it from your position, but guaranteed the birds do. This happens in rainy weather with Matt paint, or any time with gloss paint.

The cure is, get some cloth type camo tape, and completely wrap the arms of the magnet in that. That will stop all flashing, and should bring the birds back in

now that sounds like a cracking idea!

[marsh man]

Too much thought going into trying to find a perfect decoying method.

 

I can't boast 150 years experience in decoying, nor can I say i am the best, but what I have worked out is that there is no "one method" that fits all scenarios.

What works one day may not work the next, that's the simple truth. This eye lid removal business really is laughable, and if decoying was that hard I doubt we'd be shooting any birds.

Me and my buddy had over 100 birds just yesterday, we hardly got out of the hide, it looked like carnage out there; Birds on their backs, on their sides, on top of each other, but birds still came in; The next outing may be very different.

 

My simple method is, if it isn't working, change it; Sometimes you just can't get it to work, so you try another day.

I go along with Cosd on this , at the end of the day all we really want the pigeons to do is to come in range , weather they decoy in text book fashion I am not that bothered as long as they present a shot , then its up to me to do the rest .

 

I am not to convinced the shine on the magnet , arms , battery make a lot of difference, and last year we even got members saying about covering the wire up that run to the magnets motor, if you want to cover everything up then go ahead , I not saying your wrong and you might well be right but I will carry on as I am .

 

You will get days where they more or less commit suicide , and then other days where nothing work , but that is half the fun about pigeon shooting and like cosd said if they were that intelligent most of us would find it to difficult ( I know I would ) , and at the other end of the scale , if they were to easy most of us would pack it in after a while ,

[Scully]

Too much thought going into trying to find a perfect decoying method.

 

I can't boast 150 years experience in decoying, nor can I say i am the best, but what I have worked out is that there is no "one method" that fits all scenarios.

What works one day may not work the next, that's the simple truth. This eye lid removal business really is laughable, and if decoying was that hard I doubt we'd be shooting any birds.

Me and my buddy had over 100 birds just yesterday, we hardly got out of the hide, it looked like carnage out there; Birds on their backs, on their sides, on top of each other, but birds still came in; The next outing may be very different.

 

My simple method is, if it isn't working, change it; Sometimes you just can't get it to work, so you try another day.

This. We just use a couple of flappers on the flank ends; the magnet hasn't been out of the shed in years.

We have had birds flair away from a neat uncluttered pattern and birds dropping into a pattern scattered with dead pigeons and crows strewn where they fell all over the place and in any position.

We just set up and get on with it, and if changing the pattern doesn't work we just change it every now and then to see if things improve. If they don't then we don't put it down to some technical flaw; it is what it is.

We have set up identical patterns in identical conditions on identical crops/stubbles but on different fields only days apart and have seldom received identical results.

Fieldcraft isn't an exact science and the good days make up for the poor ones which fade in the memory.

[adi786]

its bit strange, i started using flapper and it does work but didn't work as expected. Beleive rotaries are more effective than flapper. Now i have got magnet back again, so tomorrow going to try putting down flapper and magnet both in pattern and see how it works...

[anser2]

There may be something in pigeons picking up the flash from the magnet arms. I found moving the magnet into the shade of a tree in the hedge bountary cures this. I have also found magnets more successful over rape or drilling than stubbles though they will at times work well over stubble. I suspect this is because the arms are dark green and show up strongly against the pale background of a stubble while they blend in with rape or drilling. It might also have something to do with light strength being a lot stronger in summer than winter so the birds see more clearly. And of course shooting pressure and how many times the pigeons see a magnet also bave an impact. Something I have found is that early in the day if he pigeons are comming into a strong feed then pile into the magnet while in the late afternoon they are a lot more wary. I suspect the birds have already decoyed once or even twice during the day and become a lot more wary having been shot at over a magnet early on.

 

As for cutting the eye lids off , does anyone realy think that at 30-50 yards any pigeon has good enough eye sight to notice. Before any pgeon would notice ( if any do ) it should be well close enough to shoot.

[JDog]

There may be something in pigeons picking up the flash from the magnet arms. I found moving the magnet into the shade of a tree in the hedge bountary cures this. I have also found magnets more successful over rape or drilling than stubbles though they will at times work well over stubble. I suspect this is because the arms are dark green and show up strongly against the pale background of a stubble while they blend in with rape or drilling. It might also have something to do with light strength being a lot stronger in summer than winter so the birds see more clearly. And of course shooting pressure and how many times the pigeons see a magnet also bave an impact. Something I have found is that early in the day if he pigeons are comming into a strong feed then pile into the magnet while in the late afternoon they are a lot more wary. I suspect the birds have already decoyed once or even twice during the day and become a lot more wary having been shot at over a magnet early on.

 

As for cutting the eye lids off , does anyone realy think that at 30-50 yards any pigeon has good enough eye sight to notice. Before any pgeon would notice ( if any do ) it should be well close enough to shoot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last Saturday on what was quite a successful outing pigeons decoyed fairly well for two hours then not at all for the last hour. I put this down to the fact that the later pigeons had probably been on that flight line earlier and they, or at least their companions, had already been shot at.

 

Edited September 25, 2015 by JDog

[adi786]

For sure magnet does improve the way pigeons been pulled in more rather than flapper own its own as i tried this last saturday, i used FF5 flapper + pigeon magnet, and pigeons were locking in from quite long distance even few pigeons were passing by quite high and was like wont come, straight dive into pattern. Though had to move flapper around, before flapper and rotary were at starting ends of C shape pattern, few birds came in, then move flapper few yards behind rotary worked quite well..

Edited September 28, 2015 by adi786

[dad]

i am convinced the birds i shoot on one of my farms come from the same sit up area every time because they allways come from the same direction if they are feeding here so i must have shot at the at least 15 times since the rape was cut when they decoyed easily compared to now when only the young one come in.

[wymberley]

I made a magnet many years ago when they first appeared, couldn't get on with it and it remained in the garage. Damned silly really as it had two speeds and I wrongly figured the fast was too much but it was about the same as the one I've just bought which is working a treat having followed Fenboy's advice on where to put it. The first 2 times I used it the weather was dull so left the plastic birds (which I'd repainted to improve the matt finish) on and all was well. However, on Saturday it was glorious sunshine and when walking back from recovering one that had dropped way over the other side of the field, I noticed that they and the rotary arms were glaring badly. Fortunately, it was a quiet spell and the birds were quickly changed over. The arms are telescopic so cannot do much about the extending portions but the outers are now covered in the same green fabric tape as the bouncer poles. When the main feeding time kicked off they were coming in nicely.

 

Since abandoning the original magnet, I've settled for two flappers. The trick with these I've found is not so much the time between the flapping periods but the flapping time itself. Keep it short with about no more than four flaps.

 

Unfortunately, all did not end well on Saturday. I'd packed up with just the decoys and birds to pick up. Crawled through the hedge to get to the next field where I knew 4 had fallen dead to shot expecting to see one in the ditch. Yep, there it was. Trying my best to keep out of the mud/water in the bottom, I picked it up, tossed it out and clambered out to get the others. I then tossed all 4 over the hedge and decided to jump over said ditch. This turned out not to be the brightest move of the afternoon for this septuagenarian as I landed badly and now have a broken finger next but one to my trigger finger. OK, this puts a belated start for the pheasant but now the farmer has started ploughing, there's a rather tasty looking stubble turnip field that's going to start producing sooner rather than later. ******!

[chrispti]

Only ever use a magnet, 2 dead birds on, no flappers or bouncers, 15-20 decoys in a pattern.

 

Use the magnet right and provided your in the right place, it's all you'll need...

 

Not been out much this year, but the worst day Iv had, shot 99, the best 269.

[Milo]

Here's a strange one.

 

Couple of months ago had a rape stubble the birds weren't interested in very much but decided to set up as there is always a strong flight line along the edge of a big wood about 250 yards away.

 

Had forgotten to take any dead birds so set out some flocked shells and a whirly with a couple of sillosocks on it. The whirly has extension bars which increase the diameter radically and improve the "action". The rotary was drawing birds off the flight-line straight away and they were committing a long way out. "Hello, we're on for a big day here", I thought. Dropped half a dozen and nipped out to set them up and change the Sillosocks for dead birds. Oops. Birds completely stopped drawing. Checked the hide and pattern - all OK. As a daft idea I put the sillosocks back on the whirly and was immediately in business again.

 

Had to stop early and picked 76 assuming that most would turn out to be, as Archie used to say , "young and stupid birds". On examination, not a bit of it. Very few young birds.

[Michael170874]

Just spent 4 days on the pigeons over wheat stubble ,first day 10 shells and the magnet 4 hours shooting 8 birds, second day 10 shells no magnet 23 birds 4 hours shooting ,third day 10 shells and magnet 9 birds and today 10 shells no magnet 23 birds for four hours.

Maybe the magnet was scaring the birds or maybe just coincidence,but the magnet is now in the shed I will not be in a hurry to use it again,anyone else had similar experiences.

ATB

Lucky Shot

yes bud i got rid of my magnet yrs ago when they first came out they worked fine but all they do now is spook the birds .They are the best bird scarers out there. Try the turbo flapper used mine all last winter on rape they came in everytime

[chrispti]

yes bud i got rid of my magnet yrs ago when they first came out they worked fine but all they do now is spook the birds .They are the best bird scarers out there. Try the turbo flapper used mine all last winter on rape they came in everytime

I'd say you were probably using it in the wrong place, wrong decoys on it ? Too shiny??

 

They certainly work for me...

[mikee]

I was out with a guide near Boston on Thursday, he set me up with a magnet with 2 dead birds and a couple of deads on the ground, there was a strong flightline crossing the far end of the field but there was no cover so I set up on the back of a small wood opposite, the magnet definitely pulled birds of the flightline but only the young birds would come right in, the mature birds seemed to slide about 80yds to my right after an hour or so I pulled the magnet in which killed it stone dead, I put the magnet back out about 60 yds to my left and the dead birds in front which seemed to draw them closer, when the guide came back late morning he put a second magnet out 80 yards to my left, the young birds still came to the deads better than the magnets but the more mature birds started coming straight at me so at least they were in range, mostly high driven and some rangey crossers, eneded up with 88 in the bag, so a good day in the end, the magnets certainly made a big difference but moving them around until the birds came into range was the key to it

 

Mikee

[pigeon controller]

In my opinion all the magnet will do is put movement into a static display , if we use a magnet and not always we will put it in the shade of a tree or near the hedge we are shooting from so it does not hamper the birds joining the pattern. We want the birds to land in the pattern as that can prove that they are confident with your set up . If you have birds comming in pairs but fifty yards apart you let the first one land shoot the second one then the first as it leaves the pattern.

The birds are magnet shy if you have ten birds in shoot two you have spooked eight. Magnets have a place in pigeon decoying but each day is different and each set up is different so you have to be flexible in your set up . Using a magnet can pull birds off various flightlines to the flightline you have set up under.

[Guest stevo]

 

I think we could be missing a trick here motty , just think how many more we might shoot if we start performing surgery on the dead ones

I have started giving mine a full Brazilian wax , works a treat . its a bit tricky at first but after a while you soon get the hang of it