lofters

[kody]

Anyone use lofting poles with sucsess

[ShropshireSam]

Yep. Not used them a lot and seem most useful in winter when birds hard to decoy. Can often pull birds towards a sitty tree rather than get them to commit to the decoy pattern. I only have a single set of poles so reach is only about 8 m so limited to small trees but much easier to handle. If you go longer you need to use the tree branches as supports as you add each extension to the pole and push the lofter up through the tree.

 

You can tape a flapper on end of lofting poles and this works well on ivy covered trees...but again with added weight need to support on tree as you add each extension.

 

If you tape a funnel on the end of the top pole it makes retrieving the decoys easier ..... and don't try in high winds as can be very hard to retrieve decoys.

[Jim Neal]

I had a go with lofters this year, roost shooting after the game season.

 

My biggest problem was that the pigeons don't seem to have come in to our woods in any great numbers at all this winter, so it was almost impossible finding a decent spot to roost shoot full stop. I can't really say I've got any definite conclusions but will keep trying whenever I get the chance.

 

However I had one little interesting session on the afternoon of that big storm. Most sensible people were tucked up indoors but this idiot set off out, dragged a few fallen trees off the track to get through and took a stomp into the woods loaded down with gear.

 

Long story short, managed to down 2 of the 3 birds I shot at, which sounds like a poor session but the ones I shot were crackers: fast, high, wide snap shots down with 1 barrel. One landed 100 yards upwind of me, the other about 70 yards going across the wind. They definitely homed in on my lofted decoys. I set up in the centre of a block of Scots Pine, at a T-junction where one break between the trees meets another.

 

I have tried with lofters on several further occasions in the near vicinity, also having built a decent hide out of the natural materials around, but still couldn't manage to magic up many pigeons - they just weren't about to decoy so it's resulted in a bit of an inconclusive outcome really

 

I bought some cheap plastic decoys to go on my hooks. Maybe these aren't the best "likeness" but I didn't fancy the prospect of losing expensive flocked decoys up a tree if things went wrong.

 

I used to fish years ago and still have a carbon fibre pole plus some other random sections, so gave it a go using those as lofting poles. I think it gives me a reach of about 14m including my height and arm reach

 

I think it's a hell of a lot of faffing round putting the decoys up, but once you get practised at it you get a lot more efficient and the time taken reduces. Lugging the gear is a pain. Especially roost shooting, it's good to be mobile, so when you've invested the time and energy putting lofters up you're pretty much committed to staying in the same spot - there simply isn't time to take them all down and relocate unless you just go and stand somewhere different without them - but then you've got to come back and get them out of the trees before it's too dark!

 

The higher you put them the more difficult it is both to place them well and to get them down (depends on species of tree, scots pine is a *******!)

 

I found the spikes on the hooks I bought were not long enough to go through the bodies of the decoys (or the decoys too big, depending on your point of view). I drilled an extra hole lower down the backs of the decoys so it left a bit more spike sticking out, even though the angle of the bird was inclined down a little but not really noticeable. First time out I found you could de-mount the decoy from the hook quite easily, wrestling it up into the tree. Two problems with that, firstly you have to mess about again getting it remounted and back up there which takes time; secondly, after your decoy comes crashing down you can unintentionally mount a decoy-less hook way up in a tree top which in an evergreen is almost impossible to spot and retrieve. I only let it happen to me once. I got round the issue by raiding my home-brew kit! I cut up some 1" lengths of syphon tube, which push down over the spikes after the decoy is mounted and lock them on really tight. Solved the problem perfectly, and is a system well tested as I have had a few wrestling matches with them in the tree-tops since and they've held fast.

 

On my first trip I forgot my funnel! Improvising, I taped a plastic choke container to my pole into which the weight on the bottom of the lofting hook fits very tightly. Great for getting it up but lousy for retrieval. Unbelievably, at full pole length when I lost that hook up the tree I managed to retrieve it by perfectly locating the choke holder onto the weight. In a howling gale. I'd like to know the odds on that! Counted my blessings and afterwards sorted out a funnel made from a 1 gallon round container with the bottom cut off it, which holds the assembled hook & decoy better than the other funnel I've got; however I think one of those funnels with the wide opening at the bottom which the weight could pass through would be ideal.

 

All in all, I'll definitely try again whenever I get the chance, which realistically won't be until next year now. I don't get the opportunity to decoy fields in the daytime much now, so I look forward to the chance whenever it comes.

 

Apologies for the essay!

[ditchman]

lofting definatly does work.......got to be on a sitty tree...will attract passing trade......................

 

 

 

BUT.............they are the biggest pain in the rear ever....so i left mine out by the sitty tree rather than faff about cating them around....and that worked fine until they got nicked...

[Jim Neal]

I thought about leaving them tucked away in the wood for next time. However because we have so much of a problem with Joe Public wandering round where they shouldn't the gear would be almost certain to suffer the same fate of getting pinched.

 

I did once leave my lofters up in the trees for another session a few days later - at least they wouldn't get nicked up there! I was wondering though, would the constant sight of them in the trees, never moving, strike as odd to the local pigeon poulation and put them off? As I said in my previous post, not enough pigeons around to be sure but when I came back for that follow-up session I barely even saw a pigeon and virtually nothing came to the decoys. I brought a mate to share the hide on that occasion; one came in and landed by a decoy, on his side to shoot at, and he bloody missed it sitting! I could have had it flying away but would have blown his head off so had to resist!

[fortune]

I've got a set of poles that I made a single decoy head and a 3 decoy head for. I also made a load of Rocker hooks for so that I could set singles up on different branches. I found that the whole thing was really difficult to us. The idea is OK but setting it up was a complete pain. The poles are good quality and pretty solidly strong but it is not easy to navigate a way up through the branches and they need to be supported in the crook of a bow or two so that they don't get out of control. I wouldn't even bother when it was windy. I used them a couple of times and they have been stacked in the garage for many years. Perhaps when I have more time I will drag them back out and perceiver with them.