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How long until you call it a day?


Tomo-1
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Hi, imagine this......you have done your recce and homework the day before you go out, decoys out in a classic pattern.

 

All set on what was an active flight line and where you have seen birds feeding.

 

Then you wait and wait....for say two hours. No sign of birds today anywhere!

 

How long do you give it before you call it a day and either move or go down the pub?

 

Thanks for your comments.

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I am impatient and never give it more than 30 minutes before packing up. However if the field is one which I have watched and I know that there are good numbers of pigeons feeding on it I may return later the same day.

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I am impatient and never give it more than 30 minutes before packing up. However if the field is one which I have watched and I know that there are good numbers of pigeons feeding on it I may return later the same day.

 

Is the right answer, if you haven't fired a shot within half an hour then the chances are it won't develop into much but of course there are exceptions as you could simply be there at the wrong time of the day.

 

If you have nowhere else to go and look it's always worth firing a couple of shots into the air as this often stirs things up a bit but usually you should be able to at least bank on a few shots providing you see some bird traffic before setting up.

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it's always worth firing a couple of shots into the air as this often stirs things up a bit

We saw this once on a field next to our land. We heard series of shots. we were intrigued as to what they were shooting at because we couldn't see anything in the sky at all. we found a vantage point and got the binos out. Then we could see what they were doing. the field was 36 acres and they had three gun positions around it. The bloke on the far side had the odd pigeon going along the field behind him about 70 yards out. About every 20 minutes or so a pigeon would go past and he would let fly up in the air with a double in the hope that the bird would change course over him. Needless to say that the shot made the bird veer away further. Upon his shots the other two gun positions would open up towards the empty sky over them and the field. It took us quite a while to work out what was happening and why because by the time the shot sound got to us the event was nearly over. We were so interested in this weird behavior that we must have watched them for nearly a couple of hours upon which time they had, had enough and drove round picking up the birds that they had brought with them as dead bird decoys. they only shot 3 birds when we were watching them.

Now when we had a chat with the farmer next door he said that he had blokes on the field and they had told him that they had shot over a hundred birds. He said that he could hear them shooting the birds all afternoon and he had seen the birds in the back of their truck when they left. Now we know what we saw and the two things didn't match. whilst we were watching them they must have fired off 30 >> 40 cartridges at the sky for 3 kills. If they what to be unpaid bird scarers then that is their business but it ain't my idea of pigeon shooting. It would have been more efficient to walk about out in the field with a flag. The farmer was pleased anyway it aint cost him a penny.

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I am never in a rush to set up nowadays , if I get there and a few pigeons are on the deck I will walk them off and sit in my motor and have a coffee while I wait to see what is on the move , if I convince myself it is worth carting the gear across the field I expect to get a pigeon within 15 to 30 minutes , if the half an hour pass without any action I start wondering if I have got it right then if the hour looms up and still no action I will call it a day and go and look elsewhere .

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  • 2 weeks later...

I am always torn wether to pack up and move or to stick around a bit longer .....and rarely does sticking around pay off. I once found a good flight line into a rape field at mid-day and took the next day off work to shoot it. Set up early and very little traffic for the first 3 hours but I stcuk it out as the flightline the day before has been a good one and was at mid-day. Traffic picked up around lunchtime and I had a busy couple of hours and finished with 70 odd. As opposed to this, last harvest I moved twice before I hit the action and ended with a PB of 219. This happened after my second hide was on a hilltop and I could see birds heading to a neighbouring farm .... a quick reccy followed by a quick phone call and I moved again. If I have a hide with a good view then happier to stay put longer as I can see what pigeon traffic about and watch for new flightlines, if traffic is slow I will often leave the hide in place but have a drive round to look at other options before I decide to move on.

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I have the choice of 5 fields to shoot on. As usual, I spend a little while with the binos before setting up, but if none of them has any obvious pigeon traffic, I'll set up somewhere where I know there'll be chance of the odd passing shot. I'll happily spend about 3 hours like this. There's a simple pleasure to be had by just sitting in the hide unwinding and soaking up the countryside.

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