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Will I never learn?


old'un
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So out this morning knowing I was unlikely to shoot any pigeons but the draw of the cold and snow was to much, I must have spent 2+ hours driving around looking for some movement, the first field of tallish rape about 9 inches where I thought they maybe showing, but nothing, I then went to a field that backs onto a small wood, the rape was about 2-3 inches tall, this was completely covered not a bird in sight so onto the second tall rape and about 150-200 pigeons sat in the trees, not doing a lot and just dropping down onto a couple of patches where the top inch or two was sticking above the snow, I sat there and watched them for about ¾ of an hour, I felt sorry for the poor things as they tried to land on the snow and walk about (I remember the winter of 78/79) as they were not doing much damage I let them be, I then went onto another 5 fields all of varying heights, not a lot on these, but as I stood by the car a flock of 800+ pigeons and a mile high flew over me, I watched these through the binoculars and they just kept on going until I lost sight of them, back home for 1:30 and a cup of tea, we have had about 8 to 12 inches of snow here so until we get a bit of a thaw and they can get to the rape I think I will find something to-do around the house, mind you talk about thaw the weather forecast for tonight is minus 10-15 what!

 

Why do I keep chasing them in the winter, mind it was nice to-be out but it was bloody cold this morning.   

 

First field of tall rape.

tall 1.JPG

 

Short rape that backs onto a small wood.

short rape.JPG

tall 2.JPG

Edited by old'un
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10 minutes ago, Benthejockey said:

I went out for a few hours this morning and shot a handful of crows and jackdaws floating round a silage pit. Managed just shy of two hours before my feet gave up on being frozen and I had to go for a sit in the car. :lol:

Yep, it was a cold one today, makes you think how these birds survive sitting in a tree all-night with these temperatures, brrrrrr.

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39 minutes ago, motty said:

Reminds me why I rarely go out at this time of year!

Yep, I used to cover a very large area and chase them all over the place during the winter, I stopped chasing them over this large area some years back, I now just cover about ten farms all within 10 to 30 minute drive of home, finding and shooting pigeons on winter rape is not the same as it was back in the 70s, early 80s when the next rape field was 5 or more miles away.

you are right of course :good:

 

44 minutes ago, JDog said:

You will have some success on those fields once the thaw sets in I am sure.

Hope so, but as motty rightly said, chasing them at this time of year is a bit of a fools game, you would have thought I would have learnt by now, mind you its nice being out but it was bloody cold.

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A few years ago i was shooting with Monkey Hanger (KW ) used to be a member on here,,

Anyway we went to one of his permissions and the rape field was covered in snow but we decided to set up as there were a few pigeons about..

Got the hide set and then we laid our spare nets out about 25yds from the hide so they looked like an island in the snow there were  3 hides nets stretched  out with a few decoys on them it was one of the best days we have had in the winter on rape the pigeons just kept coming all day.. even had a snipe land on the nets..

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5 hours ago, JDog said:

If there is snow on the ground use a long branch to clear a patch in the rape suitable for a rotary to be placed in the middle of it. I have had success using this method in the past.

I did see on one of the d v ds I have got where the bloke was shooting over decoys before he had a heavy snow shower that covered both the ground and decoys , when the shower passed over he shook the snow off the decoys then got a large branch and cleared the snow off the rape and around the pattern and then carried on shooting with results as if nothing had happened .

So your method is well worth trying , also with todays lightweight nets and if two or three of you were together, using Hawkeye method could also bring results when the normal way of during things draw a blank , you will never know unless you give it a try , GOOD LUCK

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