Testing birds over some barley

[GingerCat]

Testing is the right word as well, some were a bit too testing and rather high but lets not moan. I'll set the scene....

 

Late afternnon at the bottom of a gentle valley in the wolds, tucked into a corner of a barley field with patchs of laid barley dotted about the place. Ideally we would have set up right in the middle of the biggest patch were birds had been feeding but that was the centre of the rather large field and not easy to get to, also the sun would have blinded us and made the whole thing pointless, not to mention the crows that would have seen us from miles away, peering into the hides from high above.

Crows, hundreds of them actually and a fair few pigeons also; had been ripping into the field of barley prompting the farmer to bung JDog some cartridges and dispatch him. Always up for a bit of shooting on a weekday I jumped at the chance and skived off work an hour early.

 

Duly set up and carrying as little kit as possible we trudged off down the field and got mobbed by flies all the way, fortunately the breeze kept the worst away and helped with the heat on this sunny day. We set up a rotary each some 10 yards out and the first 3 birds had committed to the decoys within 10 minutes of setting up. It was a mix of crows and pigeons and in little time we were into double figures. Then for whatever reason only known to the birds, they stopped, or rather slowed right down.

We waited a while and realised that where we were tucked into the corner of the field was generating a false impression of the wind, the next shot proved the point as the cloud of feathers drifted in completely the opposite way. We moved the rotaries our another 10 yards and the difference was immediate.

Behind was a high hedge that the birds were coming over and banking round to the left, at speed and high up. They couldn't commit to the rotaries due to the wind so the shooting was fast and high as the birds banked to check why 4 of their friends were spinning in circles. Testing indeed and my neck this morning was agony having been looking up at a silly angle all afternoon.

Nevertheless some cracking shots were pulled off and the stage fright that can be generated by being watched by JDog was dissipating, I wont mention my cartridge count but some of the crows I shot at that were probably playing chicken as they kept to the very limit of our range. Clever things.

 

Later we got fed up watching birds on the now changed flight line some 200 yards further up the hill. I persuaded JDog to move (no easy feat) and in about 10 minutes of setting up I bagged a further 6 birds before they stopped again only for the corner we had just been in to get some traffic again. By now we had been shooting just under 3 hours and unless we wanted to get shot ourselves it was best to go home while we could. The ones we picked had a mixture of rape seed and barley in their crops.

 

The bag was just shy of 40 which given the conditions and quality of birds was more than acceptable, also I found it wasn't the cartridges that I had a problem with last time, it was my OU that shall be changed at some point either to fit better or for a younger slimmer Italian model I may have got my eye on.....

[JDog]

Thanks for your report.

 

The wind changed 180 degrees from setting up to the end of the first hour. Pigeons found it too difficult to get in to the rotaries. Birds coming from behind are just not easy.

 

There is no point in me telling Gingercat that he is shooting at birds too far away because as soon as I do he shoots one even further away. I am not kidding when I say that he shot several birds at 45 to 50m.

 

The farmer has put a banger out today but the same number of pigeons wanted to get into the field.

 

 

I too am looking for a younger slimmer Italian model. A young Gina Lollobrigida would be good.

[oowee]

Good work there boys A decent bag given the conditions, the quality of the shooting that matters most and that sounds like a challenging day!!

[E.w.]

Well gents that was a very good report and was obviously a good day regardless of the conditions, thanks for sharing and very well done.

[la bala]

A very informative post, sounds like you had a great day boys.

[aga man]

Well done boys. Very hot and humid over this side at 3pm today, not the best to be out shooting.

 

Hopefully i have sold some frozen pigeons in the morning so should be out myself tomorrow afternoon.

[pigeon controller]

Sounds a great days shooting, well done.