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Myth busted? Possibly not for me.


JDog
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Aga man is a great observer of the countryside in connection with pigeon shooting. I wish I had half his knowledge.

 

This week he shot a decent bag on an oilseed rape variety called 'Compass' which he had previously thought was unpleasant to a pigeon's palate.

 

I have long considered that there is a variety that is not attractive to pigeons. I knew it wasn't Compass but I had to do some investigation to find out what it was. There is a field near my village close to 'pigeon city' that has never had a single pigeon on it this winter. All other neighbouring fields have been grazed by pigeons in some numbers. Today I watched birds fly over this field heading to another rape field some distance away.

 

I walked the whole field and as far as I could see not one single leaf had been eaten. The variety is SY Harnas and until I learn otherwise I will remain convinced that the leaves on this variety are not attractive as a food source for pigeons.

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JDog

 

You may well be correct in the theory that pigeons prefer one type of OSR to another.

I have noticed a similar thing on farms that I have shot pigeons on for many years, however I know which fields will produce good sport by location rather than crop.

On one particular farm ,I know the OSR will remain untouched when planted in one field, but a field almost next to it will get hammered.

 

Hitman

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That's an interesting observation regarding the variety of rape. On the three farms that I have access to the pigeon shooting has been absolutely dire the last two months. Two of the farms regularly have bangers on them which would explain not seeing any pigeons there but the third farm is banger less, nobody but me shoots it to the best of my knowledge, and despite visiting it to observe regularly the past few weeks at different times of the day I've not seen anything worth setting up for.

 

All very frustrating but things can only get better ( hopefully!)

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I have two farms that last year had lots of birds , this year zero. I checked them today and they had twenty birds which have been on them since November but it has never built up flock wise. Other farms we have for clover shooting grow rape and never have a problem worth setting up for it would appear that they select some farms for rape and ignore others totally.

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I have two farms that last year had lots of birds , this year zero. I checked them today and they had twenty birds which have been on them since November but it has never built up flock wise. Other farms we have for clover shooting grow rape and never have a problem worth setting up for it would appear that they select some farms for rape and ignore others totally.

 

You are spot on. After 25 years this has become very apparent. Certain fields/ farms never have a pigeon on them and I dont believe it has anything to do with the variety of rape that has been planted. They always stick to the same fields whenever they are planted rape.

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Was shooting pigeon on a permission about 5 years back they were pouring in,farmer put some pallets out for me..Had a few pigeon the next day,,on the evening he sprayed it.?

Thenext day not one pigeon came in,watched for a week,they never came in again..

His parting words to me after he sprayed it was..

"They won't like that now it will taste bitter"..

Well it certainly did the job..

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Must admit I have always thought it might be something to-do with the variety of rape that kept birds from hitting a field, on one of the farms I shoot (about 1500 acres) they put in 7 fields of rape this winter ranging from 50 acres down to 15 acres, 3 of the fields have been sown with rape in the past and shown good numbers of pigeons but this year the same fields have not been touched, talking to the farmer about two weeks ago I asked if they were a different variety, he told me he had sown the same variety in all 7 fields. :hmm:

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  • 2 weeks later...

Most pigeon shooters I speak to from my way oxford say they barely bother anytime of the year anymore coz they just ain't seeing numbers like they used to, we all seem to be spending all the time watching and waiting for flightlines etc, I shot my pb of 138 on standing barley in June 2012 in 30 degree heat, that same field same crop not even seen 138 on it in 4-5 years, to me it just seems they don't need it as much as they used to,not round here anyway Essex the place to be looking at garrods latest vid

Edited by Shotguneddy
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Most pigeon shooters I speak to from my way oxford say they barely bother anytime of the year anymore coz they just ain't seeing numbers like they used to, we all seem to be spending all the time watching and waiting for flightlines etc, I shot my pb of 138 on standing barley in June 2012 in 30 degree heat, that same field same crop not even seen 138 on it in 4-5 years, to me jjsg seems they don't need it as much as they used to,

Over on the pigeon shooting page on Facebook I'd say the two guys that shoot more than anyone else are from Oxfordshire....One of them documented his outings from last year which totalled nearly 9000.

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Over on the pigeon shooting page on Facebook I'd say the two guys that shoot more than anyone else are from Oxfordshire....One of them documented his outings from last year which totalled nearly 9000.

That's a lot!

 

Average 750 a month!

Edited by kyska
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He went out 83 times apparently, so over 100 per trip.

He posted only yesterday with a bag of over 200 shot over game covers. Oxfordshire must hold huge numbers of birds in places with certainly no shortage!

 

Is that just HIM shooting or is that a team / guide score. Seems a huge average for 1 gun ????

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Is that just HIM shooting or is that a team / guide score. Seems a huge average for 1 gun ????

It is a lot for one gun. It's possible, but not achievable for most. My total bag for last year didn't quite make 4000, and i had some cracking days. Edited by motty
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  • 1 month later...

Around my neck of the woods in Essex, there seems to be hundreds.........all in the towns! In peoples gardens, alotments, wooded parks, even green areas on the verges. Obviously they are finding various foods and are getting as tame or more tame, than ferals. May be this is affecting numbers out in the fields

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Around my neck of the woods in Essex, there seems to be hundreds.........all in the towns! In peoples gardens, alotments, wooded parks, even green areas on the verges. Obviously they are finding various foods and are getting as tame or more tame, than ferals. May be this is affecting numbers out in the fields

+1

Wickford was a total blank on Sunday, even usual high birds and busy flight lines were empty 🤔 maybe they went away for Easter 😂

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Around my neck of the woods in Essex, there seems to be hundreds.........all in the towns! In peoples gardens, alotments, wooded parks, even green areas on the verges. Obviously they are finding various foods and are getting as tame or more tame, than ferals. May be this is affecting numbers out in the fields

If you get out early in the mornings you can watch for flight lines coming out of the towns. Invariably they will be feeding in the countryside - unless they are on clover in parks and on pitches.

 

The best lines I have ever seen have been long ones stretching for up to five miles coming out of towns and cities.

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