GingerCat Posted December 1, 2017 Report Share Posted December 1, 2017 It was cold today, really cold. My car had half an inch of frozen snow on the windscreen, my chickens looked at me sullenly when I gave them some corn and my cat didn't go outside for more than 30 seconds before running back in and hiding under the bed. I don't blame him. In fact I'd do the same thing if I hadn't agreed to meet Jdog and Clodhopper at 9am. We met at a crossroad that I happened to see a pigeon shooter decoying on yesterday, this may have explained why we draw a blank on the hand selected stubble fields we set up on. No matter. JDog had a spot on a near by farm that may hold some birds he said. Clodhopper and I packed up and made our way to a position overlooking said field. We were in the heart of the Wolds overlooking rolling hills covered in snow glinting in the morning sunlight, what a sight to see let alone when there are somewhere in the region of 800 to 1000 birds on the field in front with birds flighting in and some flighting out as well. It really was something to see. A brief moment later and we were set up along a thick hawthorn hedge, rotary's behind us on the bean stubble, the birds should mostly come from the other side of the hedge and over our heads before landing on the bean stubble. In they come indeed, before we had finished setting up in fact, some birds were landing in a sitty tree that earlier looked as if it would fall over with the weight of birds in it. A lot were over 70 yards high, the majority around 50 and the odd few somewhere reasonably like 35. I think about 3 decoyed out of thousands of birds that we saw, the rest came to see what was going on or just flew over to another part of the field This presented some fantastic sport and I don't think it unfair to say that I probably wont see flightlineing like that for some considerable time. The elements were of course against us with snow, sleet, rain and everything in between at some point battering us but sadly the one thing that would have been quite useful; Wind' wasn't joining us. Some remarkable shots were made and in the end we picked 44 for about 3 and a bit hours. I'm sure there were more that we didn't find on the snow covered ploughed field but the dogs did a great job in getting what they did. That really was some exceptional sport. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clodhopper Posted December 1, 2017 Report Share Posted December 1, 2017 Agreed, the sport was first rate as was the company and banter. Great witness some remarkable shots. Dog and I are now nestled in front of the Log burner defrosting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b325 Posted December 1, 2017 Report Share Posted December 1, 2017 Great write up GingerCat. Seems like a perfect days pigeon shooting to me. Over forty pigeons shot on a flightine , fantastic stuff . I bet there wasn't many dollys. You guys need to get a headcam so I can watch .Please pretty Please. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDog Posted December 1, 2017 Report Share Posted December 1, 2017 (edited) My mistake first thing this morning was to even consider that the many pigeons I have seen on barley stubble would return to feed with a covering of snow on the ground. The pigeons were there but they were not interested in feeding there. Why would they be when they couldn't see the grain? My second mistake was to take my companions to another vantage point and show them another lot of pigeons on a bean stubble. I was cold and miserable but I allowed myself to be bullied into taking the two tyros to flight line the field. I wanted to go home to bed. This was sport of the very highest calibre. We all learnt so some degree what the limitations are to cartridges and various chokes in our guns. Seventy metre high pigeons are just out of range for most combinations. I may also have passed on to Clodhopper my own method for shooting high birds which is never going to be in any coaching manual. Had I been on my own I would have enjoyed the outing. The fact that I could share the shooting made it more pleasurable. Clodhopper's old Lab Mac enjoyed being out with us too. Edited December 1, 2017 by JDog Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clodhopper Posted December 1, 2017 Report Share Posted December 1, 2017 9 minutes ago, JDog said: My mistake first thing this morning was to even consider that the many pigeons I have seen on barley stubble would return to feed with a covering of snow on the ground. The pigeons were there but they were not interested in feeding there. Why would they be when they couldn't see the grain? My second mistake was to take my companions to another vantage point and show them another lot of pigeons on a bean stubble. I was cold and miserable but I allowed myself to be bullied into taking the two tyros to flight line the field. I wanted to go home to bed. This was sport of the very highest calibre. We all learnt so some degree what the limitations are to cartridges and various chokes in our guns. Seventy metre high pigeons are just out of range for most combinations. I may also have passed on to Clodhopper my own method for shooting high birds which is never going to be in any coaching manual. Had I been on my own I would have enjoyed the outing. The fact that I could share the shooting made it more pleasurable. Clodhopper's old Lab Mac enjoyed being out with us too. Not in a coaching manual but the pigeons did not seem to know that as they folded up from a good height. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marsh man Posted December 1, 2017 Report Share Posted December 1, 2017 Enjoyable read Ginger Cat , if we cant be there in person at least we can read about it , what little snow we had yesterday is all long gone now and is a coat warmer today , hope you have all thawed out and looking forward to reading about your next encounter with the elusive pigeons , well they are for us boys further south . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yickdaz Posted December 2, 2017 Report Share Posted December 2, 2017 5 hours ago, GingerCat said: It was cold today, really cold. My car had half an inch of frozen snow on the windscreen, my chickens looked at me sullenly when I gave them some corn and my cat didn't go outside for more than 30 seconds before running back in and hiding under the bed. I don't blame him. In fact I'd do the same thing if I hadn't agreed to meet Jdog and Clodhopper at 9am. We met at a crossroad that I happened to see a pigeon shooter decoying on yesterday, this may have explained why we draw a blank on the hand selected stubble fields we set up on. No matter. JDog had a spot on a near by farm that may hold some birds he said. Clodhopper and I packed up and made our way to a position overlooking said field. We were in the heart of the Wolds overlooking rolling hills covered in snow glinting in the morning sunlight, what a sight to see let alone when there are somewhere in the region of 800 to 1000 birds on the field in front with birds flighting in and some flighting out as well. It really was something to see. A brief moment later and we were set up along a thick hawthorn hedge, rotary's behind us on the bean stubble, the birds should mostly come from the other side of the hedge and over our heads before landing on the bean stubble. In they come indeed, before we had finished setting up in fact, some birds were landing in a sitty tree that earlier looked as if it would fall over with the weight of birds in it. A lot were over 70 yards high, the majority around 50 and the odd few somewhere reasonably like 35. I think about 3 decoyed out of thousands of birds that we saw, the rest came to see what was going on or just flew over to another part of the field This presented some fantastic sport and I don't think it unfair to say that I probably wont see flightlineing like that for some considerable time. The elements were of course against us with snow, sleet, rain and everything in between at some point battering us but sadly the one thing that would have been quite useful; Wind' wasn't joining us. Some remarkable shots were made and in the end we picked 44 for about 3 and a bit hours. I'm sure there were more that we didn't find on the snow covered ploughed field but the dogs did a great job in getting what they did. That really was some exceptional sport. I thought I was reading an article in the shooting times or sporting gun for a moment, you defo have a knack for write ups and depicting a great day out Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GingerCat Posted December 2, 2017 Author Report Share Posted December 2, 2017 Thank you yickdaz. My gcse english has served me well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cranfield Posted December 2, 2017 Report Share Posted December 2, 2017 That sounds like some exciting shooting, with flightline shooting I think you get more variations of target than you do with decoying. The numbers you are seeing (and I believe you) are amazing, I have a lot of rape to cover this year and on an all day recce yesterday I saw a total of about 25 pigeons, the biggest group being 8 sat on telephone wires over a rape field and every now and then they would drop down, to eat ivy berries from the bushes surrounding the field. I saw nothing feeding on rape anywhere. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
7daysinaweek Posted December 2, 2017 Report Share Posted December 2, 2017 All power gentlemen for braving that weather.What had they been feeding on? Looks Bleddy cold. atb 7diaw Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marsh man Posted December 2, 2017 Report Share Posted December 2, 2017 3 hours ago, Cranfield said: That sounds like some exciting shooting, with flightline shooting I think you get more variations of target than you do with decoying. The numbers you are seeing (and I believe you) are amazing, I have a lot of rape to cover this year and on an all day recce yesterday I saw a total of about 25 pigeons, the biggest group being 8 sat on telephone wires over a rape field and every now and then they would drop down, to eat ivy berries from the bushes surrounding the field. I saw nothing feeding on rape anywhere. We could be talking about the exactly same fields that I have got to keep an eye on Cranfield , although we are a few hundred miles apart, I was out looking yesterday and this morning and what pigeons I saw feeding were still on Ivy berries , with the leaves now off the trees and with telegraph wires running over some of my best fields it should be easy to see if any pigeons are feeding on the various rape fields , although ( for us ) it is still early in the Winter to expect any big numbers interested in rape yet , still part of the enjoyment of pigeon shooting is trying to find them to shoot in the first place , so the search goes on Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GingerCat Posted December 2, 2017 Author Report Share Posted December 2, 2017 18 minutes ago, 7daysinaweek said: All power gentlemen for braving that weather.What had they been feeding on? Looks Bleddy cold. atb 7diaw They wanted the bean stubble. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
7daysinaweek Posted December 2, 2017 Report Share Posted December 2, 2017 Ahhh maybe they get a longer calorific burn from the glycaemic value of the bean in the cold weather over greens, more sustained energy release. As jd has said in the past sometimes pigeons feeding patterns make sense and other days do not even to the educated in these matters. atb 7diaw Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pigeon controller Posted December 3, 2017 Report Share Posted December 3, 2017 Great report, great company , well done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dead eye alan Posted December 3, 2017 Report Share Posted December 3, 2017 Well done you lucky boys, is it a case of 2s company 3s more fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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