Jump to content

The Rat Pack


Clodhopper
 Share

Recommended Posts

Well the title does not elude a group of suave handsome gentlemen but rather the occurrences of the day.

 

Our possy (JDog, Giles and myself) met up at JDogs' mansion shortly after midday on Friday to begin our pursuit of the woodpigeon which are currently so abundant in the wolds. JDog had been out on a reccy a few days prior and had noticed a nice line of birds coming from a nearby town and heading into some chopped maize crops. 

These maize crops are set in stunning surroundings where the wolds roll down into grass valleys and one can imagine September partridges bursting out of these crops to split over a line of guns stood down in the bottom of the valley. Pairs of Partridge were scattered around the place as we arrived along with numerous brown hares which lazily lopped out of our way safe in the knowledge that they had the speed to skip across the plough if required. There was a patchy blue sky interspersed with clouds which dashed across the horizon with the increasingly strong South Easterly breeze.

We pulled off the main road and sat up to watch what was going on. Pigeons were heading on the line JDog had previously identified as well as a couple of weaker lines from some Spruce plantations in the opposite direction, this situation looked very promising indeed.

It was whilst we were sat here that we noticed another vehicle parked up in gateway which also accessed our desired area. We feared the worst as this is a shared permission and there was only one logical place to shoot. We headed off down the track to meet up with this other vehicle only to see another 4X4 parked up in the valley with 2 lots of pigeons chasing each other round in circles on an adjacent game crop, disaster! We met with the first vehicle and it transpired that they had a pack of terriers and were there for the noble sport of ratting. The only problem being that they were targeting the prime spot where the pigeon lines crossed, pleasantry's were exchanged and we wished them the best of luck. We introduced ourselves to the other shooter and wished him farewell, he was in the wrong spot, and headed across the valley to see what we could make of the situation. 

We spied some birds deviating from the mainline and sitting up on some ploughing which adjoined some spring drilling we had not previously seen. This was far from ideal but  would be far enough away from the other sportsmen to not interfere with them however we would need to pull the birds 150 - 200 yards off there line. We decided to give it an hour as this line was very strong, we had already seen upwards of 400 birds travelling along it.

 

We set up 2 hides 60 yards apart with 9 dead birds on the plough, 2 on the magnet, 1 on the flapper and 1 on a bouncer. The birds reacted almost immediately with singletons peeling off the main line to come and look at the decoys. This was not decoying in its purist sense but more a case of trying to pull them away from where they wanted to be and hopefully within range. Dead birds were put on sticks as we shot them which increased the pulling power. Over the course of next couple of hours hundreds of birds flew along the main flightline but occasionally the line would deviate as some came for a closer inspection of the birds on the plough. We all shot some lovely birds  and missed some sitters. The craic was as good as ever with plenty of leg pulling and banter.

 

We finished the day with 58 pigeons in the bag of which only about 12 properly committed to the decoys. The bag could have easily been three times this had we been able to shoot in the correct spot but we made the best of what we had, enjoying a lovely afternoon beautiful surroundings.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As with Ginger Cat's post last week I have little to add. There is little doubt that had we been on the main line that developed during our session we would have shot at least three times what we ended up with.

Bare field decoying.

Bare_field_decoying.jpg

 

The enormous hide which my companions shared (for Giles' head apparently after one or two good shots).

Giant_hide.jpg

Giles_with_the_bag.jpg

Edited by JDog
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, pigeon controller said:

Sounds like a brilliant day with good banter a occasional pigeon . You did will the divert some from the line. Just one question, did the perimeter of the hide have to be that big to accommodate JDogs Cap??

Cheeky boy. The hide that my two companions built reminded me of the 'blinds' that American duck hunters use. The videos I have seen show a duck arriving and all of a sudden six highly camouflaged guns with baseball caps facing the wrong way round and armed with seven shot autos jump up and fire twenty shots. This hide could easily have accommodated those six guns plus their dogs and their truck. Mine was a much more modest affair.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, pigeon controller said:

Sounds like a brilliant day with good banter a occasional pigeon . You did will the divert some from the line. Just one question, did the perimeter of the hide have to be that big to accommodate JDogs Cap??

JDog's hide was indeed a modest affair. But he forgot to mention his second hide in which he secreted his butler, driver and dog man. I am on the large side  and Giles has a big head so we needed the extra room.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...