Did it work for you?

[kitchrat]

Several posters have been asking for a spell of cold weather to focus the pigeons on rape. Well you got it, but did it work?

For me, strangely, it was a negative event. Pre-snow, I had a large farm with lots of patchy rape which was getting attention. In spite of the inevitable gas guns and game cover, I managed a good day's sport in high wind the other week, even though they  came from the wrong direction (behind me), down wind at Mach 2 and swirled away on seeing it was a trap, I had 20 birds and some great sport. (I could not shoot in the other direction due to a busy road) Another few farms, with better established taller rape were also getting interest.

Then it snowed - lovely!!??

Spent all day Tuesday riding round. The snow had (naturally) covered the shorter, chewed up rape but the birds had not gone on to the taller stuff which was showing through. Saw some on ivy, a few on acorns and one flock sitting in the trees(when I stopped the truck, 200 yards away, they flew off, never to return). Overall, I saw far less birds.

Just goes to show how unpredictable they can be.

Off to see what the thaw has brought....

[Catamong]

Kitch,

I'm sure we've had this debate before..?... but I'm of the opinion that pigeons will feed pretty constantly throughout the shorter Winter days whether it's plus 5 degrees or minus 5 degrees, it makes no significant noticeable difference to their appetite, but on this forum, we see the often quoted "Old Wives Tale", generally from Newbies to the game that "we need a good cold snap to get the birds to show interest in the rape", absolute cobblers I'm afraid, in fact my biggest bags over Winter rape have been when the weather has been relatively mild, not frozen solid.

As for snow cover, that is a disaster for pigeon shooters, as the birds appear reluctant to venture out of the woods, those that do display a kind of "snow blindness" and seem unable to see pretty much anything on the ground, and if the snow cover is prolonged the birds will leave the area and move off to other less snowy areas, often never to return.

Freezing conditions and snow are the last thing that pigeon shooters should pray for..!

Cat.

[kitchrat]

2 hours ago, Catamong said:

Kitch,

I'm sure we've had this debate before..?... but I'm of the opinion that pigeons will feed pretty constantly throughout the shorter Winter days whether it's plus 5 degrees or minus 5 degrees, it makes no significant noticeable difference to their appetite, but on this forum, we see the often quoted "Old Wives Tale", generally from Newbies to the game that "we need a good cold snap to get the birds to show interest in the rape", absolute cobblers I'm afraid, in fact my biggest bags over Winter rape have been when the weather has been relatively mild, not frozen solid.

As for snow cover, that is a disaster for pigeon shooters, as the birds appear reluctant to venture out of the woods, those that do display a kind of "snow blindness" and seem unable to see pretty much anything on the ground, and if the snow cover is prolonged the birds will leave the area and move off to other less snowy areas, often never to return.

Freezing conditions and snow are the last thing that pigeon shooters should pray for..!

Cat.

Cat, That's my point exactly!

Kitch

[marsh man]

7 hours ago, Catamong said:

Kitch,

I'm sure we've had this debate before..?... but I'm of the opinion that pigeons will feed pretty constantly throughout the shorter Winter days whether it's plus 5 degrees or minus 5 degrees, it makes no significant noticeable difference to their appetite, but on this forum, we see the often quoted "Old Wives Tale", generally from Newbies to the game that "we need a good cold snap to get the birds to show interest in the rape", absolute cobblers I'm afraid, in fact my biggest bags over Winter rape have been when the weather has been relatively mild, not frozen solid.

As for snow cover, that is a disaster for pigeon shooters, as the birds appear reluctant to venture out of the woods, those that do display a kind of "snow blindness" and seem unable to see pretty much anything on the ground, and if the snow cover is prolonged the birds will leave the area and move off to other less snowy areas, often never to return.

Freezing conditions and snow are the last thing that pigeon shooters should pray for..!

Cat.

I agree with you entirely , the only pigeon shooting I like in snowy conditions is roost shooting in a good wood . I now leave decoying well alone in icy conditions and leave that to those who are more resilient to the cold than me , and that is most of them

[old'un]

On 12/14/2017 at 12:16, Catamong said:

Kitch,

I'm sure we've had this debate before..?... but I'm of the opinion that pigeons will feed pretty constantly throughout the shorter Winter days whether it's plus 5 degrees or minus 5 degrees, it makes no significant noticeable difference to their appetite, but on this forum, we see the often quoted "Old Wives Tale", generally from Newbies to the game that "we need a good cold snap to get the birds to show interest in the rape", absolute cobblers I'm afraid, in fact my biggest bags over Winter rape have been when the weather has been relatively mild, not frozen solid.

As for snow cover, that is a disaster for pigeon shooters, as the birds appear reluctant to venture out of the woods, those that do display a kind of "snow blindness" and seem unable to see pretty much anything on the ground, and if the snow cover is prolonged the birds will leave the area and move off to other less snowy areas, often never to return.

Freezing conditions and snow are the last thing that pigeon shooters should pray for..!

Cat.

Spot on, I’ve had some of my best days in winter when its been overcast and blowing a good wind but not freezing cold, if it’s calm with blue sky’s and sunshine I don’t bother going out.

[Lloyd90]

When the snow hit last week one area I went had a good few inches deep. 

I went to another farm that wasn’t hit very hard, there were hundreds of crows down in the lower end of the field (warmer down in the valleys maybe?) and they were constantly coming in to that end of the field the entire time we were there. 

[old'un]

5 minutes ago, Lloyd90 said:

When the snow hit last week one area I went had a good few inches deep. 

I went to another farm that wasn’t hit very hard, there were hundreds of crows down in the lower end of the field (warmer down in the valleys maybe?) and they were constantly coming in to that end of the field the entire time we were there. 

So how many did you kill?

[shootingmachine]

No one will ever work them out never mind what kit you got they are a wild bird that's what I love about pigeon shooting especially on the winter rape it keeps you constantly trying to outwit them noone ever will which keeps everyone on their toes I shot 5 Wednesday and enjoyed every minute of trying to get them to come in I got all the kit tried every trick in the book that's what I love about this sport if your seeing them keep trying if there's none about go home.

[Lloyd90]

5 hours ago, old'un said:

So how many did you kill?

We weren’t shoot it mate doing the rounds for the club dropping Christmas drinks off to the farmers ?? 

 

[Lloyd90]

5 hours ago, old'un said:

So how many did you kill?

We weren’t shoot it mate doing the rounds for the club dropping Christmas drinks off to the farmers ?? 

 

[Continental Shooter]

In my experience the only time i see pigeon on snowed rape is when the snow has been on for some time (at lest 1 week) and it's frozen. I always believed at that stage rape is the only visible/diggable food and it's only then that it get attention. Other than that, snow in my patch is good for flighting and sometimes help congregate and decoying geese over stubble 

[sako751sg]

Had some great sport on rape in the snow but its not been a random pick.

Usually its over pretty quickly and dont tend to stay longer than a couple of hours but the flight can be hectic in the time its on.

Had a few hours on them last week on a wee strip of uncut barley and had 13 and 23 which by no stretch are big bags but good sport for the time we were there.Some huge numbers going about although with this snow they might shift.

Edited December 16, 2017 by sako751sg