Beans and Barley

[la bala]

Had an invite Sunday evening for a day on the pigeons on Monday. The farmer had drilled Barley and Beans on the friday and saturday. When i arrived my host had the hide up, decoys out and had started the days bag. The hide we were sharing was set up with a good size Elder bush behind us, which was helpful really as the stiff breeze coming from behind was a bit nippy. We did know from the start, at some time during the day we would have to move, the farmer was rolling the barley and would move onto our bean field next. We had about 20 dead birds in the pattern, along with 2 flappers on timers, although we had 2 magnets we opted not use them for the time being.There were lots of beans on the field and we certainly wasnt short on customers. The morning gave some good shooting, from ones and twos, and small parties up to maybe twenty, i personally dont like big flocks. My host was on the ball as usual with his flurry of one twos, and some high going away shots, he even got two with one shot, I know this isnt uncommon i have done it myself a couple of times, but it was a first for him which gave him a buzz. I myself as usual was missing more than i was hitting, after rifle shooting for the last ten years my shotgun shooting has gone to pot. About 11 oclock things went pretty quiet so after a cup of tea out came one magnet, it wasnt out more than twenty minutes it was totally a wrong move, any remaining birds flighting about were completely put off. We did have a bit of a laugh during the morning, as Meg is getting on and her hips are not what they were, after the first couple of hours she was put on a rope, the thing is while we were shooting she was busy biting through the rope, she finishedup on about a foot of rope. Well come 12-30 we had to break down and up sticks, after a word with the farmer we decided to set up on the barley so he could roll the beans. We moved to the barley field, the farmer had only just rolled it but we walked off a couple of hundred birds. This field we had to set the hide up in the field, a question which is often asked on here. Our hide was camo scrim with ghost netting on the outside, it worked fine. Like has been said on here many times you can put your hide in the middle of a field as long as you are not bobbing about inside it, movement is the key factor. Although we had birds coming in it was nothing like the morning, maybe about twenty birds shot over the barley. It wasnt long before we saw the problem, we could see maybe 400-500 birds being put off the bean field and then dropping back down when the tractor and roll had passed. Well we finished the day with 110 birds, the 10 missing from pic was given to one of the farm hands. My host was back on the bean field today and shot another 50 pigeons, 6 rooks and a crow. My first job in the morning is to take 150 pigeons to the game dealer.

[fenboy]

Well done a nice result for the pair of you.

[ditchman]

wow you are the man.............very well done ...pea green with envy

[sitsinhedges]

Good write up and great days shooting

[aga man]

Great write up and a superb bag! I think it's fair to say a lot us are struggling with our fresh drillings at the minute, you did well.

[Cosd]

Great write up and picture!

Nice shooting.

[motty]

Cracking result.

[oowee]

Cracking day well done both of you. I am shooting beans and barley here in North Somerset and its almost all blacks rather than greys.

[JDog]

Very good.

[matty*]

Good bag fellas