motty Posted August 21, 2017 Report Share Posted August 21, 2017 (edited) Last week I pretty much drew a blank for pigeons. I hoped that I could find something for this week. I phoned round a few farmers to find out their plans for combining and came up with a possible plan for next week. But what about this weekend (just gone)? I checked out a recently cut wheat field that I had seen some pigeons on. There was a lot of activity at 7.30am... I decided to ask my mate Dave if I could shoot (his field), and asked if he fancied shooting, too. He said he would shoot, but had to leave at 2pm. I invited Jules' brother Gerard to come and shoot, as Jules was at a 'special' wedding weekend. So yesterday I met Dave at 8am to make a start. We had a chat for a while, watched the activity and made a plan of attack. We made separate hides on the large field. Gerard turned up by 10.30 am. I had only 3 pigeons down at this point. Funnily enough, they were all juveniles. It was clear after an hour or so that I had sited the hide in the wrong place. We quickly moved the decoys and hide another 80 yards to the right, to take advantage of the ever strengthening flight line from behind us. I felt I was the correct side of the field, despite the wind being in our faces. A few birds decoyed throughout the day, but I reckon 80% of our sport was from flighting birds. And what sport it was! With the 'new' hide sited so that I could see behind us, I could watch all of the birds making their way on similar paths. Many of these journeys ended very close to the oak tree twenty odd yards to our right, the pigeons providing fantastic driven/crossing shots at varying heights and speeds. Dave wasn't getting on quite so well at his position. He was getting the shots, but he wasn't taking the chances. I think he had around 75 shots for just under 20 pigeons before he left. Dave departed and we carried on. We were both knocking down some high/long birds. These are the kind of days I like best, with every shot in the book taken. Gerard even killed a 60 yarder with my 10 bore o/u (I wanted to test some recently loaded 46gram steel 2s). The flight was almost ruined when the contractors turned up to bale the straw. To their credit, they kept out of our way as best they could. The return flight was worth waiting for also. Gerard was licking his lips at the height some of the birds were coming over at. He moved another 50 yards to my right and hid behind a freshly made round bale. We could then cover anything that flighted between us. He did poach a few of my birds, but that is Gerard... He loves the challenge of high birds, and shot some real skyscrapers with the rubbish black Clear Pigeon and 32gm steel 4s - I really don't know how he managed it! The reason for the title was down to the recent posts on the forum, commenting on the lack of young birds seen/shot. Today I saw plenty. I had a final count and found a quarter of the bag to be juveniles. I picked out at random some shot birds. I found some full of barley, some full of beans. It really was the best of sport. We picked 156 pigeons, I crow and 1 jackdaw. https://ibb.co/mbk3XQ The heap of birds on the right is the youngsters. Edited August 21, 2017 by motty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDog Posted August 21, 2017 Report Share Posted August 21, 2017 A great day. Gérard owes you one. We had lots of young birds in the bag yesterday. We thought that some might have been on their maiden voyage. Some of those are now in my freezer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aga man Posted August 21, 2017 Report Share Posted August 21, 2017 Sounds fantastic sport. I used a few 32gm no4 steel yesterday made by Cheddite. Being new to shooting pigeons with steel I was really impressed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fuddster Posted August 21, 2017 Report Share Posted August 21, 2017 well shot Motty-good report. Aga-have you turned to steel following our chat regarding soanes? I use the gamebore wetland in 32g 4's---very happy with them through half choke. atb f. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aga man Posted August 21, 2017 Report Share Posted August 21, 2017 well shot Motty-good report. Aga-have you turned to steel following our chat regarding soanes? I use the gamebore wetland in 32g 4's---very happy with them through half choke. atb f. Sent you PM bud. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ditchman Posted August 21, 2017 Report Share Posted August 21, 2017 good write up...good day...something different.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
motty Posted August 21, 2017 Author Report Share Posted August 21, 2017 A video will be published at some point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marsh man Posted August 21, 2017 Report Share Posted August 21, 2017 Good report and a nice lot of shooting for the three of you . Its been many years since I last went pigeon shooting at that time in the morning as I found it a total waste of time and it made a to longer day if you were staying all day , which at this time of the year can be 10 hours or even longer time you leave home and get back again , good luck to those who can do it , I know I cant. As for young ones , me and Lakeside1000 went on a wheat stubble field this afternoon , when I left him there at just gone 5pm we had shot around 80 ,yes we did get a few young ones but nothing out of the ordinary , I have in the past seen more at this time of the year and I have seen less but like most things connected with pigeons , no two years are the same Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hawkfanz Posted August 21, 2017 Report Share Posted August 21, 2017 can u send some of your birds to merseyside please. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dead eye alan Posted August 22, 2017 Report Share Posted August 22, 2017 can u send some of your birds to merseyside please. Dead or Alive? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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