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A Friendly Warning.


johng
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In August 2017 I booked a days pigeon shooting through a well known West Country supplier of pigeon shooting equipment,to whom I paid a deposit of £30 ,the date was arranged and I went with a non shooting friend to meet the BASC  pigeon guide.We drove from Devon up to Wiltshire where we met the guide who was Welsh,he took us to a combined field of rye with some laid barley in the next field,he set everything up for me and assured me there would be plenty of pigeons coming in.Having been a shooter for the last 52 years I was surprised by the plastic decoys,holey nets and drum seats but excited to be somewhere different.I paid him the remaining £120 and he departed. To cut a long story short from 10.20 am until 15.55pm I fired a massive EIGHT SHOTS. We packed up totally disgusted and when we were driving home met the BASC guide who sympathized and PROMISED he would contact me again to arrange a free days shooting to replace the awful day. Since then i have rung the company I booked with four times and each time I have been promised he would get it sorted.NOTHING IS FORTHCOMING and it is now March.

I just want to warn other fellow pigeon shooters not to get caught like I did. Basically I paid £18.75 ( plus the cartridge price ) per shot.  DO NOT GET CAUGHT  AS I DID.

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johng ..no disrespect, but I am always wary of first time forum mmbers, joining the forum just to complain/rant about the supplier of something.

However reading your account the first thing that surprises me is that you were basically abandoned. The good guides I know would not do that, some would not even leave the vicinity and if things were not working out would quickly move you to an alternative site. 

As TIGHTCHOKE says it appears you have been done.  You say he is a BASC guide, then call BASC and ask them what is going on.

No matter how good a guide and I have hunted around the world in some fantastic places, loaded with animals and seen nothing.  I actually guided in Texas for seven years and promised one client that I could find him a trophy audad(barbary sheep). We hunted the 48 square miles of country for a whole week and saw a fair few aoudad ewes but not one single ram.

He left and the following day I said to my wife we would have a picnic on one of our favorite hill tops and ..yes you guessed ...as we sat there about 50 aiudad rams, some huge trophies came grazing up towards us.  It happens but not in the way you were treated for sure.

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Unfortunately no to both, but I did have a witness , the deposit i paid to the booking agent by credit card and the witness saw me pay and heard the BASC guide promise me a FREE day.

Edited by johng
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6 minutes ago, johng said:

Yes he is based in Bristol and has a decoying equipment online business. Naming him could  get me in trouble.Anyone who pigeon shoots will know who I mean.

How can naming someone who gave poor service get you in trouble?

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Clearly you must be talking about A1 Decoys, I have to say that all my dealings with them ( buying bits of kit that is ) over the last two years have been very good, always very helpful and kit has always arrived next day. I do hope that as they are a trade member on here they can come to an outcome that leaves you more satisfied than you are now!

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Yes I am, I have dealt with them for many years for equipment and have had great products and excellent service.  That is why I chose to book through them. i thought satisfaction would be guaranteed; ( as much as it can be decoying ). Eight shots all day and what is worse 7 were at blacks is not good quality.I have rung them 4 times in the last 6 months and each time been assured it will be sorted, good  job i wasn't holding my breath .

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anyone who takes your money then just ;leaves is a con man, they should monitor the day and move you somewhere different if it isn't happening on the first place they put you  and you pay them at the end of the day not the start 

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Had a very similar experience. Bought my son a days shooting a couple years back. We sat all day with 2 shots each and they were in the next county (long impossible shots?) Anyway,....... at one point our guide phoned us and said his dad had driven by and our magnet was too slow. It made no difference as there were no bleedin pigeons to see it any way. I gave the bloke the benefit of the doubt as he promised another free day........ I'm still waiting. Pigeons can be very fickle and I'm sure there are good guides and companies offering excellent shooting experiences, pick carefully and get past customers reviews.

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12 hours ago, Old farrier said:

Cheaper than pheasant shooting ☹️

Sorry you had a bad day however please tell us if you had a contract for the day and a recipe for your payment 

all the best 

of 

Only these are wild birds that cost nothing to rear or feed, that’s why I can’t see why a free day would be such a hardship to them, 

As said, hope you get it sorted I’m sure you will

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I don't know how some of these"guides" sleep at night. I worry that a guest might not have a good day, let alone someone who might pay! Thankfully, I generally do a bit of homework, to make sure my guests end up with some shooting.

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johng ..... You didn't say what time of the year you paid to shoot pigeons , but with it being Rye stubble I would have thought around mid august , if I was taking anyone out for a days decoying this would be the time of year I could more or less guarantee the person would get some sport , more so with the amount of fields at there disposal that could attract pigeons.

By then the barley and peas round our way would be finished , the wheat and rape field would either be started on or finished and any guide could of easily had several options if for any reason the field he gave you didn't produce.

Pretty poor show , and the least he could do is offer you another day , although he needs to put a lot more effort in and show willingness to please than the so called day you already have had the misfortune to experience .

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35 minutes ago, motty said:

I don't know how some of these"guides" sleep at night. I worry that a guest might not have a good day, let alone someone who might pay! Thankfully, I generally do a bit of homework, to make sure my guests end up with some shooting.

I still worry that my invited guests, who are my friends, will not get enough sport to make their journey worthwhile. There is a limit to the number of jokes I can tell or hand stands and backflips I can do to keep them entertained.

As far as Johng is concerned this matter is disappointing but it should have been resolved months ago. There is no way that the Agent would have kept hold of my money for this length of time.

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