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Brace yourself


Jim Neal
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First organised roost shoot on our syndicate's land tomorrow. Not sure what everyone else's forecast looks like but we're promised up to 50mph winds blowing horizontal rain in your face and down your neck. I'm not looking forward to it, the only thing keeping me interested is the 2000-odd birds I witnessed coming in to the main roosting wood the other evening.

 

Hopefully enough guns turn up to keep them moving and make it work properly!

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Mid N Norfolk. Very few pigeons about , saw no flocks and most were singles or pairs with the largest group being 4.

5 guns out in the surrounding woods and they had about 20 shots. I managed 3 for half a dozen shots. Some of the downwind birds were so fast it was impossible to lay the gun on them.

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Mercifully the Met Office once again couldn't forecast the weather in a snow globe :rolleyes: It didn't really rain that much. The wind was also a little round to the west, contrary to their due south prediction.

 

An intersting session though! As I feared, not enough guns showed up, and I was a bit annoyed because we hung on at the meeting point for half an hour waiting for a couple who said they'd come and didn't show. Could have been out spotting the flightline building up but hey ho.

 

The few others who did come went to smaller outlying woods, whilst I went up the flightline from the main roosting wood, to a wood which
they do drop in to but not in any great number. The plan was to leave the main wood empty for the late arriving guns who I would join later when the majority of birds had flown in past my spot.

 

First pull of the trigger I shot an absolute screamer coming downwind at treetop height, grinned a lot and thought "here we go", then missed the next 5 :oops: Shot another, textbook roosting shot just before its toes touched the branch, then noticed there was no banging coming from the main wood which was when I realised the others hadn't turned up.

 

No point leaving the main wood empty so I relocated back there, hundreds were already in and lifted up in clouds. With the high wind and sheer numbers of birds I suppose they were really confused and circled round for 15 minutes in small groups, dropping in here and there but I couldn't get myself in a decent spot. I ended up chasing them round, shot one that swooped too low, then they finally decided to sod off.

 

This is where reconnaissance comes in ;) I'd been watching during the week and noted a spot along the leeward edge of a very long conifer plantation where they were dropping in. So I jumped in the truck again and sped off, sure enough at least a few hundred had gone where I thought. Time was about up at this point, the light was going, but I managed to drop another two. Fetched each dog out of the car in turn to pick up, one fantastic retrieve, the other one literally walked over the bird! I think it had run on a bit before it died and got itself jugged down in a divot, I saw it by eye before the dog scented it but never mind, all good fun!

 

Ended up with 5 for 21 shots, would have been a slightly more respectable average if I hadn't got a bit too cocky with those downwind birds early on!

 

As noted above, all birds had rape in their crops, one of them almost the size of a tennis ball! Interestingly one bird had a mixture of rape and sycamore seed pods, I've never seen that before.

 

It was very quiet for us today saved by a last minute burst of action. I managed 12 and the chap at the other end of then wood had half a dozen. Be interested to know how the OP fared as he is in the same area.

 

Without being too specific we're located north of the town, which sort of way are you?

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Mercifully the Met Office once again couldn't forecast the weather in a snow globe :rolleyes: It didn't really rain that much. The wind was also a little round to the west, contrary to their due south prediction.

 

An intersting session though! As I feared, not enough guns showed up, and I was a bit annoyed because we hung on at the meeting point for half an hour waiting for a couple who said they'd come and didn't show. Could have been out spotting the flightline building up but hey ho.

 

The few others who did come went to smaller outlying woods, whilst I went up the flightline from the main roosting wood, to a wood which

they do drop in to but not in any great number. The plan was to leave the main wood empty for the late arriving guns who I would join later when the majority of birds had flown in past my spot.

 

First pull of the trigger I shot an absolute screamer coming downwind at treetop height, grinned a lot and thought "here we go", then missed the next 5 :oops: Shot another, textbook roosting shot just before its toes touched the branch, then noticed there was no banging coming from the main wood which was when I realised the others hadn't turned up.

 

No point leaving the main wood empty so I relocated back there, hundreds were already in and lifted up in clouds. With the high wind and sheer numbers of birds I suppose they were really confused and circled round for 15 minutes in small groups, dropping in here and there but I couldn't get myself in a decent spot. I ended up chasing them round, shot one that swooped too low, then they finally decided to sod off.

 

This is where reconnaissance comes in ;) I'd been watching during the week and noted a spot along the leeward edge of a very long conifer plantation where they were dropping in. So I jumped in the truck again and sped off, sure enough at least a few hundred had gone where I thought. Time was about up at this point, the light was going, but I managed to drop another two. Fetched each dog out of the car in turn to pick up, one fantastic retrieve, the other one literally walked over the bird! I think it had run on a bit before it died and got itself jugged down in a divot, I saw it by eye before the dog scented it but never mind, all good fun!

 

Ended up with 5 for 21 shots, would have been a slightly more respectable average if I hadn't got a bit too cocky with those downwind birds early on!

 

As noted above, all birds had rape in their crops, one of them almost the size of a tennis ball! Interestingly one bird had a mixture of rape and sycamore seed pods, I've never seen that before.

 

 

Without being too specific we're located north of the town, which sort of way are you?

 

Not at Newton are you? I was shooting Glendon Wood.

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On our beaters day we saw 100s of Pigeons then yesterday as if by magic we didn't see nowhere near what we did last week when we were out .

 

Yesterday it was blowing a gale and very dark throughout the afternoon , I started off by putting a magnet out on the lee side of the wood and for every one that looked interested the next half a dozen never looked at the magnet , there was shooting going on during the afternoon but not as much as you would normally expect on the first day.

 

I ended up picking up 11 and was more than happy having a few shots and killing some real testing birds , just nice to be out in the woods during the February roost shoots , something that is traditional and long may it continue.

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Not at Newton are you? I was shooting Glendon Wood.

Your guess is about right, we're on that patch of the estate this side. We may have a couple of mutual friends if you're on that patch, Jeff and Mike who are both guns on our bit come and beat for the shoot over your way!

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Not stuck but a few weeks ago we had to reverse it half the way back down a track because the meadow was too boggy to turn around at the end. Well, I say "we" but the rest of us stood and took the **** for half an hour whilst the shoot captain had about a hundred attempts at reversing in a straight line!

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Oh yes I'd forgotten, think it was on beaters day, we did get one of the trailers stuck over on the Grange! Ended up with another guy in his landy towing them out after they'd ploughed half of the meadow between them :whistling:

 

All the ground over our bit has been quarried so it's all upside down with the stodgy clay on top, you get boggy areas which are on the top of a hill, and it just sits there like a swamp for weeks after rain.

 

Best incident of getting stuck was my fault :unhappy: Got bogged down, dug myself in, called one guy who came out and got himself stuck immediately, called yet another guy out who got himself stuck immediately! We managed to push him out and he went and fetched his tractor! I've fitted full-on mud pluggers on my Vitara since then, better traction but don't half tear it up when the ground is soft, have to be careful or we'll get our wrists slapped by the estate

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Couldn't resist another little solo mission this afternoon, with the wind being very strong and blustery. Tried a flightline but no good so went into the big wood to see if I could work out which tree was favourite. Apparently the favourite tree was always the one 100 yards away no matter where I stood :/

 

Managed 6 woodies and a jackdaw though. Despite all the pep-talks in my head I still can't stop myself pulling on no-hopers, so maintained my 4:1 average once again. Must try harder :no: I even swung my barrels into a tree trunk I was concentrating that hard on following the bird! Even so, I can't think of anything else you can do that's more fun for the cost of around £6.

 

Comedy moment was when my youngest springer tore off across the wood after I sent his older sister out on a retrieve. He just HAS to be in the action all the time. Problem was his lead was tethered around a half-dead shrub which he managed to uproot and drag behind him! Bless him, he recalled perfectly towing it behind him, raking up the leaves as he went :lol:

 

Got two for the price of one as well: a small group didn't notice me and dropped in to a tall tree about 40 yards away, with a pair sitting about a foot apart. Snicked it over to the half choke barrel, aimed at the feet and BANG! Down the pair dropped. I always have a few pangs of guilt shooting sitters but then when you see how much of a farmer's money they've been eating I suppose it reminds you of part of the reason we shoot them.

 

3 birds contained 100% rape. One had been on a bird table somewhere, another had mostly berries with a little bit of bird table stuff, and yet another one which was absolutely jam packed with sycamore pods.

 

The jackdaw had been to KFC.

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Fantastic shooting the roost. It drives me nuts because you stand there waiting, and the birds that were coming into this bit of wood suddenly start coming in 50 yards away so you carefully move slowly towards them hoping for a going away shot or more coming in to join them and suddenly a load come in to where you were and they are all over the place and it is very difficult to pick a bird. a shot and they are all up. Some of them come back round and zoom over. more shots and then you stand for a while scanning the sky through the tree branches. Last year one of the son in laws came with me and I put him in a good spot where a tree has come down and made a hole in the canopy right on one of the main lines into the wood. I went up the other end moving around to keep them on the move taking shots as I could on the birds coming over. We got a few and the spaniel was worn out with the excitement of the shoot. We must consider ourselves luck to be able to enjoy being out with the gun and dog in clean air and not stuck in some god forsaken refugee camp somewhere struggling to survive.

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