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ajsnelling
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Hi all

I've read a lot of great tips and since I'm very new to pigeon shooting it's been helping a lot.

At the moment I am shooting on a large field of oil seed rape, this has a great island of trees about 1/3 of the way into it, perfect for setting a hide, I can then see about 2/3 of the whole field.

Pigeons tend to come from behind me over the top and from miles away in front and land right in the far corner of this field, I'd say up to 300 can land if I don't fire a shot off. Here are a couple of things I'd like advice on please:

I only have 12 half shell flocked decoys that I put out 25 yards from me and the trees, the pigeons always fly over these as if they aren't there, do I need more decoys or different ones etc?

The only time I get a shot off if when they all get up and fly back at me, the reason I can't face behind me is that there is a road.

Thanks

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Pigeons tend to avoid feeding so near to Trees because of the potential nasty's that can hide within (such as you!) so for a flock to see birds doing so probably sets alarm bells ringing-best you can hope is that the decoys at least attract them your way and you can shoot as they fly close by. If the wind is in your favour (coming from behind you) then you could put the decoys another 25 or so yards out so that they feel more confident and any birds that do come to the pattern then take off should come your way-again you need a good breeze though. You could also try putting sticks with plastic bags tied to them in the area's the birds prefer and lofting a few decoys above your hide so that birds are more likely to come your way when they look for an alternative to their usual spot. Most likely outcome ,however, will be that you spend half your life chasing thousands of birds around thousands of acres of OSR only to come home with a dead semi tame feral pigeon :innocent: .

Edited by bruno22rf
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Pigeons tend to avoid feeding so near to Trees because of the potential nasty's that can hide within (such as you!) so for a flock to see birds doing so probably sets alarm bells ringing-best you can hope is that the decoys at least attract them your way and you can shoot as they fly close by. If the wind is in your favour (coming from behind you) then you could put the decoys another 25 or so yards out so that they feel more confident and any birds that do come to the pattern then take off should come your way-again you need a good breeze though. You could also try putting sticks with plastic bags tied to them in the area's the birds prefer and lofting a few decoys above your hide so that birds are more likely to come your way when they look for an alternative to their usual spot. Most likely outcome ,however, will be that you spend half your life chasing thousands of birds around thousands of acres of OSR only to come home with a dead semi tame feral pigeon :innocent: .

Pigeons tend to avoid feeding near trees? Not heard that one before.

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Pigeons tend to avoid feeding so near to Trees because of the potential nasty's that can hide within (such as you!) so for a flock to see birds doing so probably sets alarm bells ringing-best you can hope is that the decoys at least attract them your way and you can shoot as they fly close by. If the wind is in your favour (coming from behind you) then you could put the decoys another 25 or so yards out so that they feel more confident and any birds that do come to the pattern then take off should come your way-again you need a good breeze though. You could also try putting sticks with plastic bags tied to them in the area's the birds prefer and lofting a few decoys above your hide so that birds are more likely to come your way when they look for an alternative to their usual spot. Most likely outcome ,however, will be that you spend half your life chasing thousands of birds around thousands of acres of OSR only to come home with a dead semi tame feral pigeon :innocent: .

only today I was watching birds drop down out the trees and feeding right under them

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All I can give you is my experience after shooting over Rape in Buckinghamshire for many years. I have only ever seen pigeons close to trees in numbers when its been Foggy. Might be different in other parts-I cannot say-but birds around here are very wary and are far more comfortable feeding as far from any cover as possible-on many occasions the only way to shoot any is to put Decoys out at 70 or 80 yards and use a subsonic .22lr on them. The guy that invented the Manet is less than 5 miles away and an awful lot of shooting takes place in my neck of the woods which may explain the situation-I shot pigeons in Cambs a few years back and it was almost as the birds were a different species.

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I had the same problem last year on pea fields, the woods down one side always had odd birds popping in and out but no great numbers, but out near the centre of a large field was areas along the tram lines where they had been feeding and seemed to congregate in larger numbers, When I first set up I logically got in under the trees but this resulted in very few birds,so I moved out into the field, setting up about 40 yards from the feeding area and putting loads of decoys along the tram lines, they completely ignored the hide and came in with some confidence making much easier targets, My conclusion was that it was not so much the trees , as we know they like to perch in them and survey the feed areas, but the dense and quite dark areas under the trees created by the thick woodland that made them uneasy , I have shot many times under trees in field hedgerows with great results so perhaps this is the problem you have, don't be frightened of getting out in the field, build a good hide with all round cover, try to match the net colour to the crop or cut a few tree branches and build a 'bush' , the birds will not be put off, especially if it is the chosen feeding area.I will be doing exactly that tomorrow on some huge rape fields where large areas in the centre of the field have been decimated by the little angels.provided it doesn't rain or blow a hooly. in which case I will be in the shed mending and cleaning my gear. :yahoo::yahoo:

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More decoys may help as the birds may not be seeing them , but the biggest aid to shooting on winter rape is movement in the pattern , so I would suggest money on a magnet and flappers would be well spent.

movement and more movement, on rape I use 4 flappers 3 peckers and a magnet on the outside of my pattern and only 6-8 fuds, three problems for you ajsnelling first deep pockets the peckers/flappers/magnet/batterys will set you back, second freezer for dead birds, third strong back needed to hump it all.

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