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Beginning of the end?


JBS
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So yesterday I rang my “new” game dealer to take in my freezer full of pigeons only to discover he has ceased trading, this wouldn’t normally be a problem as I would drive the extra 20 minutes to keythorpe game in tugby.

The problem is, I’d heard on the grapevine he didn’t want frozen pigeons any more so I decided to give him a ring, turns out he isn’t taking FRESH OR FROZEN pigeons at the minute as there is no market for them as he says there is an excess of them in cold storage in this country.

Now this is only one game dealer but it’s something I’ve never heard of before and makes me wonder if this is the beginning of the end of pigeon shooting as we know it? My stock of frozen will be used up as decoys and unless I can find another game dealer local enough birds will be left where they drop or I will stop shooting them.

i don’t care how much I get for them either, it’s more important to me that they are used.

If anyone knows of another game dealer local to Leicester, Northampton, Rugby or Ketttering direction I would be glad to hear of them.

i have two well known “guides” in my area in Matt Cole and Toby Manners and it makes me wonder where all their birds go, perhaps I should contact them and try to find out

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This appears to be happening a bit more, but I feel there will always be a good market for pigeons. Luckily, the place I take my birds are still paying the same as before. They even gave me 20p for a frozen cock pheasant last week!

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Just now, crossy 666 said:

If you shoot them with steel shot mate I will happily buy as many as you can get me. 

This might be my only option, the problem is I shoot with others and would have to convince them to convert to steel too

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1 minute ago, crossy 666 said:

If you shoot them with steel shot mate I will happily buy as many as you can get me. 

How much are you paying? I was shooting a lot of pigeons with steel, but the bloke who was buying turned out to be unreliable.

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A roost shoot I was on recently was having their birds collected by a dealer.....have no idea how much they were being paid. There is a huge chicken processing plant locally; they will take all manner of things for processing into pet foods etc. 

I usually breast mine and feed them to the dog. You can get an awful lot of pigeon breasts in a freezer. Any I cant use are left. 

I doubt very much it spells the end of pigeon shooting.

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Don’t know if its still the case but I was told most pigeons were exported to Europe, wonder how much Brexit will effect this trade? But yes there seems to-be less dealers taking fresh or frozen pigeons.

Will it be the end of pigeon shooting, I doubt it, someone will shoot them, just as people shoot blacks.

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I love a bit of pigeon breast, but cant get it around here.

 

A colleague in my last place of work used to drop me an occasional bag of pigeon breasts but would never accept payment no matter how hard I tried. 

 

Once there is more space in the freezer I might be interested in pricing up posting a batch over if anyone is looking to get rid of some or is more local to Belfast. 

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15 minutes ago, old'un said:

Yes..a bit like people who shoot black’uns

:yes: I did wonder about that, lets hope that info never falls into enemy hands

42 minutes ago, Wb123 said:

I love a bit of pigeon breast, but cant get it around here.

 

A colleague in my last place of work used to drop me an occasional bag of pigeon breasts but would never accept payment no matter how hard I tried. 

 

Once there is more space in the freezer I might be interested in pricing up posting a batch over if anyone is looking to get rid of some or is more local to Belfast. 

Thats the same as me. Ive been trying for years to get some pigeon breast sent up here

Edited by islandgun
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1 hour ago, islandgun said:

:yes: I did wonder about that, lets hope that info never falls into enemy hands

Thats the same as me. Ive been trying for years to get some pigeon breast sent up here

I think the enemy as you call them, knows just as much as we do.:yes:

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Must admit I have trouble giving them away. We had 60 the other week and once my mate and me had what we wanted we had about 12 birds left. My mate is an ex butcher so the birds were all prepped perfectly but no one wanted them. Ended up giving them away to a friend down our local for dog feed. Seems a real waste when it’s one of the best birds for eating in my opinion. 

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On 11/03/2018 at 21:43, Benthejockey said:

I’ll always take pigeons. Lead shot or steel. Just not blown to pieces. Preferably fresh but I’d take frozen as well. And pretty much as many as you’ve got. 

Shame your not closer! Or do you collect for a big amount?

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On ‎11‎/‎03‎/‎2018 at 12:23, islandgun said:

Great to see so many options for pigeon..:good:..... last time this topic was raised on here, some people were throwing them in the ditch

I have not shot a pigeon since 2016 this is when  my local game dealer stopped trading and my nearest in the next county would not take fresh pigeons   .Pigeons are good meat and should not be wasted of left  for foxes  it now seems that supply is bigger than demand . If a close season for pigeon  came about it might change things but it would not suit the farmer .

Feltwad

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