reconnaissance as important as shooting

[stuy]

A few people have asked me lately about my reconnaissance methods etc..

so I thought I'd put a few lines together on the way I look for woodpigeon.

Firstly the land must have pigeons on it , it seems like a silly statement but ive loads of land that looks perfect for woodpigeon but it just never seems to produce, dont know why, but its just one of those things.

you must first get to know the farming cycle of cropping , which crops are going where and when,

doing this give you a head start at any given time of year , march , april for instance look for spring drillings etc.. ( spring rape)

Having this knowledge gives you an area of particular interest to pigeon, again one of the most important areas of reconnaissance is the time you do it!!! A field at 9 am in june could not have a single pigeon on it but at say 6 pm could have 300+ on it ,

so timing is very important I may visit a particular field 5 x to keep checking , when tne birds arrive if at all!

Another little tip is to know your where your birds roost, and watch the bids leave and arrive, from which direction? If I'm struggling to find shooting I'll wait and follow birds from the roosting wood until I lose sight of it , and then wait a short while and another will come along and repeat the process until I have the fields the birds are using.

always look for fighting birds , it sounds silly but some people see 30 birds on a field and are a in a rush to set up those birds could be resting! Flight lines of woodpigeon are very rare in changing, ounce you know these lines, they'll be used by birds for generations , I shoot on flight lines ive known for over 30 yrs,

and lastly get a good relationship with the farmers as these folk are on the land alot more than we are and can give you a head start, and of course when out doing reconnaissance you see how beautiful our land and nature is. Good luck

Edited September 3, 2016 by stuy

[JDog]

Very helpful information for novices and experienced decoyers alike. Thank you for taking the time (presumably on a wet Saturday afternoon) to post.

Edited September 3, 2016 by JDog

[JDog]

So why so little response? Do people consider that they know it all? What about the thanks from novice decoyers? Is this post of so little interest?

 

Stuy is one of the very few real experts on pigeons on this forum and his observations are well worth taking note of. I have been out with him and I know he knows what he is talking about.

[Paul taylor]

Surprised myself that no feedback has been given on this JDog. It's a very good and informative post which I must admit I have been guilty of reading and not thanking Stuy.

Unfortunately I'm one of the many shooters that are lucky if they even get time for a few hours out with the gun and have so little land to shoot it's a case of turning up and spending half hour watching which field the handful of pigeon landing are going to or asking Mr farmer where he's seeing them. Many have very little time for a reccy which is a shame as being where the pigeons want to be is obviously the best way of getting a decent bag.

Thanks for taking time for the post Stuy 👍

[Terry2016]

Agreed.

 

Firstly thanks to Stuy for sharing this i honestly think it will be useful for novices and experienced guns alike, we can all get to stuck in our own ways at times...

 

And well done JDog for giving it a push.. this forum needs more of this.

 

Thanks gents

 

Terry

Edited September 5, 2016 by Terry2016

[motty]

All good advice. It could also be expanded upon.

[ditchman]

what i will say is reference to old established flightlines

 

 

The shooting around here was good 5 or so years ago and i used to go sometimes 2 and 3 times a week not big bags usually 10-25 everytime i went..............then they dissapeared...not all of them...and i was going once a mth.......now they are returning and they are adopting the old flightpaths of 5 years ago.....which bears STUY comments out............

 

 

are these paths nature ? Nuture ? magnetic ?...........who's to say...

[JDog]

All good advice. It could also be expanded upon.

 

There's your chance then Motty.

[pigeon controller]

All good advice as stated, we also have summer and winter farms the flightlines do not appear at different seasons.

[Wilksy II]

Mr Taylor summed up my situation perfectly, but your right JDog that's no reason to not thank stuy for posting a well written informative post. Head hung in shame!

Thankyou Stuy!

[stuy]

Thanks for the reply s yes motty it can well be expanded upon, but I'll leave that to someone else,

but I really enjoy reconnaissance as much as shooting, the woodpigeon is such a challenging bird to shoot , and find in numbers at time, thats the attraction to me.

[pigeon controller]

Just rereading the post it brought to mind old flightlines etc. A good number of our flightlines are on the line of old tree lines on the edge of old fields which have now been ripped out to make the fields more manageable. People have theories that they follow the Ley lines etc I think they have a natural instinct to fly to feed from roost. In places such as the Somerset levels and the Fens during extended fishing trips I've noted birds using the drains to flight along and turn at sluice gates etc so they use objects as location points. All these can be influenced by weather conditions. These are just my observations.

[oowee]

I see much of the birds on the levels using the reins. More difficult is to see where they roost. On farms off the levels it's often easier to see where they are roosting and build up a flight line picture. On the levels eventually you may see the flight lines but trying to understand more than the flight line into the field is very difficult. More time in recce would no doubt be the answer.

[marsh man]

Thanks Stuy ,very good advice and without following it you will shoot very few pigeons , I can fully understand people with limited time and places to go is getting to where they intend to shoot pigeons , see some feeding and set up to the nearest bit of cover only to find after a couple of hours they are in the completely wrong place and have to move across the field to get under there flight line , whereas if they had walked off the birds first and sat there to see what direction they are coming from and then look for the best advantage point to intercept them , it might mean a longer walk , or even a shorter one but it will be worth it in the end .

[Daveyp]

Some good reading there Stuy

 

I've only been shooting myself for just over a year and often come on here for little bits of info or tips, keep up the good work is what I would say to the more experienced shooters as all the new guys can take this info forward and improve their field craft and also pass it on to other shooters.

 

Daveyp

[Beagle boy]

I'm a newbie to decoying myself only been doing it a couple of years.

I've only recently started to get some decent bags and I have found watching the birds and not diving into the first feild with birds in it.

Any advice I see from the older guys on here I try take it all on board and apply it to my decoying or atleast variations of it.

As a newbie I think this is a great post

[kippylawkid]

Great advice to experienced and novice decoyers stuy. Get to know your land and crop rotations. This will save you time on recce as you get to know what crops will usually attract pigeons at any particular time and can focus on those areas.

[Big Benelli Boy]

Many thanks for this I have been pigeon shooting for many years.Iv only ever had access to small permissions I now know why my bags where small.You never too old to learn or pick up tips.Tony