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Red letter day


widgeon man
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I rarely post my exploits apart from the odd fowling one with other members etc.... however Motty urged me to share so here it is!....

I have been fortunate to share some great shooting with Motty, muncher and farma geddon but this day was to be by myself on laid barley on my own perm where sadly I cannot take guests. I had been to view a field I knew was holding birds, but only to monitor( sun) and was shocked by the numbers hitting the field. Trouble was lots of it 'laid' over enough for pigeon but not flat enough for picking up etc....what to do!?... the farmer was concerned with the number attacking the field so I took the day off and promised to make some in roads...

The following day saw me set up early and bagging off the unsuitable areas of laid near footpaths and concentrating on an area with some short maize behind. I hoped to be able to drop/draw some pigeon over this for easy retrieval, setting a single ff5 flapper and bird in the nearby tramline of barley. I had been shooting my o/u perazzi well previously however trying to shoot from a low hide sitting down was proving tricky! Several pigeon escaped and a switch to the lighter auto with quicker handling suited this situation better which started to improve the poor cart to kill ratio at the start.The day had started very quietly and I began to think I had got it wrong.... the wind was perfect and not too hot in my exposed hide and they had been here yesterday??... then they came.... first 3's and 4's then 10's and then massive bunches from 3 different directions sometimes appearing high before dropping with confidence. I managed to place a magnet one side of me 25yds and the flapper the same the other, with birds angling between the two, I used no other decoys. 2's and occasionally the odd 'mctriple' fell into the barley which steadily upped the bag. 150 carts down by 1.45pm and I had not started until 11.45..... grabbed the 250 slab .... they were expired before 3pm which saw me asking people to deliver some more ammo! No good!and no gunshop open in easy distance. The emergency bag of 50 carts was grabbed from the truck and I shot very conservatively with my remaining. I had to be away the following day, so decided it had to be called a day with pigeon still very busy at 4pm. The pick up took some time and I had to be very careful with his crop. unfortunately I could not retrieve all from the standing but did my best however to shoot over the lay or behind resulting in 226 picked and a happier farmer! What an exceptional day! A rookie mistake but it was enough sport for me and a job done for the farmer.

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A nice read, Brad. I was beginning to think you weren't going to bother! Would have been better with a couple of accompanying photos, but never mind.

I will keep you in mind for a shoot up this way in the coming months.

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