pigeon controller Posted January 9, 2016 Report Share Posted January 9, 2016 Following my Initiation to Game Shooting by the JDog Crew on Wednesday , which was a fantastic event with a great bunch of guys and gals. Back to reality driving the lanes of Warwickshire and Worcestershire looking for pigeon, the roads were pretty icy which made it interesting to say the least, after seventy plus miles nothing worth setting up for. When we are stopped in a lane by a farmer who had been game shooting on Thursday and seen a large number of corvids on his game cover and requested us to go and shoot them. Now if a farm has been shot the day before we would not want to go near it for at least a week. When the owner of a good pigeon farm requests you to shoot you have to go. So we said yes of course we will shoot. Now we had twelve pigeons as decoys but no crows so the first job was to walk the hedges to try and shoot a crow for a decoy which took us a good half hour as the previous days shooting had dissipated the crows away from the cover crops. We now set up the hide on the edge of the cover crop with our backs to a large wood. We had the crow to the left of us and the pigeons to the right.It was now 13.00 and the first shot brought us a number of birds to the decoys , mainly pigeon. As the afternoon went on the crows started to make an appearance. We shot till 15.30 and finished the day with thirtynine pigeons and nineteen corvids. DB had promised his curry house thirty birds so we just made it . Saturday morning saw us travelling in a different direction in our quest, we found two lots of birds sitting in trees and enquiries informed us they were shooting game today so no pigeon shooting. We must have completed another sixty miles when we returned to a flock we have hit a number of times. Now this farmer has two rape fields approx a mile apart. Between them is a game shooting wood belonging to another farm, which they are shooting today , so the idea was to set up on the one favoured by the birds and let the game shooters keep them on the move all day as they progress round the farm. So we found the field they favoured and called the farmer who informed us that it had a shooter set up on the field, so I agreed to go to the other field and keep them on the move. In the mean time DB had walked across the field and spoke to the shooter who informed him that he had shot the other field yesterday . So we drove back to the other field and drove round the rape to the highest point at the top of the bank to watch the field. As we drove in we lifted approx fifty birds, we watched it for fortyfifve minutes and nothing returned and as it had been shot the day before we decided to retrace our steps and look at fields we had been to in the morning. We had seen birds in the trees on a number of fields but not feeding so we were pleased to find a number down feeding on another rape field. So phone call and set up with the previous days decoys and a magnet. From the set up we had a steady flow of birds to the pattern and we waited till we had ten down to go out and set them up as decoys. We had a game shoot in the distance and when they had a good volley of shots this would send us a number to the pattern. At approx 14.00 it started to rain and it went quiet for thirty minutes or so then it stopped and the birds went mad coming from all directions. We stopped shooting at 15.30 when the rain started again and took the photograph. We had picked up one hundred and one pigeons and managed to keep thirty dry for decoys in the future. The midweek game shooting was excellent with it all laid on just walk to your peg and shoot, Pigeon Shooting is hard graft at times but it is enjoyable in it own rite Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDog Posted January 9, 2016 Report Share Posted January 9, 2016 Good man. Today's bag was an excellent result. In three weeks time the game shooting season will finish and you will have a free run of your farms. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SNS Posted January 9, 2016 Report Share Posted January 9, 2016 Sheer dedication once again PC. I wish we had taken a picture like that of you and the bag on Wednesday! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aga man Posted January 9, 2016 Report Share Posted January 9, 2016 A great result to shoot the ton at this time of year, well shot. I hope your last sentence is not suggesting your starting to prefer shooting driven chickens to pigeons [heaven forbid!] Good man. Today's bag was an excellent result.In three weeks time the game shooting season will finish and you will have a free run of your farms. Same for a lot of us, roll on three weeks time! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pigeon controller Posted January 10, 2016 Author Report Share Posted January 10, 2016 A great result to shoot the ton at this time of year, well shot.I hope your last sentence is not suggesting your starting to prefer shooting driven chickens to pigeons [heaven forbid!] If you decoy well you are presented with very similar shots and the occasional high crosser . Perhaps I've been spoilt in that the birds presented last week were all good high birds due to the placing of the pegs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cranfield Posted January 10, 2016 Report Share Posted January 10, 2016 Another excellent result on a day when many would have just gone home. The regional difference in pigeon behaviour is again highlighted in your report. There are still no birds on the rape in my area, they are on stubbles, ground cover and ivy berries. Largish groups that don't want to decoy, I think we need some frosts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr D Posted January 10, 2016 Report Share Posted January 10, 2016 (edited) I headed out yesterday to try the technique of pushing them off. It was wet here all day, very heavy in the morning, then drizzle. First field had about 200 down on cabbages. I walked the field and pushed them off, they lifted on mass. I sat 45 mins and nothing returned. Second field was osr. Same number birds, may be slightly more. Two power lines run over the top. The birds were coming in high onto the lines then dropping down. I pushed them off. Sat in car and glassed the field. Nothing came back Third field. 100 or so. Same thing. Came home and worked on getting brownie points with a bit of DIY. Well done PC. And sounds like everyone had a great day at the pheasants. Edited January 10, 2016 by Dr D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Underdog Posted January 10, 2016 Report Share Posted January 10, 2016 Well done fellers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fortune Posted January 10, 2016 Report Share Posted January 10, 2016 You are a pigeon magnet. I've looked all over around here and the only few that I have seen are over the road on this woman's hedge which is mainly ivy. There can be up to a dozen on it. The hedge is next to a main road and the cars pass by six feet away from the birds but they take no notice of the cars at all. When I've been out looking there are just none about. Usually there is some roost shooting up in the wood on the farm but nothing is coming in at all. I think that they have all gone south on holiday. I go on a Spanish pigeon shooting site similar to this and every year they get tens of thousands of pigeon migrate down from northern countries. They use tethered live decoys and live birds up in trees that are on pirches. These birds are hoisted up and then let fall so that they flap. Totally different to how we do it here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yickdaz Posted January 10, 2016 Report Share Posted January 10, 2016 you keep doing it pc and back to what you do best I,m going to say what most are saying the birds are just not on the rape in any number around here in fact theres hardly any birds full stop , if I think a shoot is on I will set up but I haven,t had that gut feeling yet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
motty Posted January 10, 2016 Report Share Posted January 10, 2016 Well done, ST. I am still to get a ton bag in January. It probably won't happen this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pigeon controller Posted January 11, 2016 Author Report Share Posted January 11, 2016 Well done, ST. I am still to get a ton bag in January. It probably won't happen this year. Hi Motty, I think you may get a ton if the weather goes colder as they predict. The birds are moving off the berries and onto the rape in the Midlands so this may start the migratory flocks down the east coast with the colder weather. Good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WelshMike Posted January 11, 2016 Report Share Posted January 11, 2016 Well done as usual PC, a fine report. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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