It's not always a fib.

[Longstrider]

We've all heard the farmer complaining of his field being "covered in pigeons", "It's ruddy blue with 'em boy!" or similar, only to turn up just in time to witness 3 scraggy birds wandering along the headland looking for company.

Sometimes though, they're right !

Had a call from one of my farmers yesterday afternoon saying that a certain field of Spring wheat was alive with pigeons. He sounded a bit like the guy in the film Zulu ... "There's Farsands of 'em Sarge!", so I sneaked off work an hour early, got my gear sorted and got over there. It really was thick with them ! The fastest hide build in history and a quick scattering of decoys and I was in for a mad half hour. Shooting with the semi-auto I was almost struggling to reload fast enough to keep up with the incoming birds for a short while.

30 minutes of shooting (Before the pigeons disappeared en-masse to less hazardous places) saw me put 47 of them on the ground. Then they just turned off like a tap.

Anyone know where I can get a belt-fed semi-auto for the next time this happens ?

[pigeon controller]

Was the spring wheat seed or sprouting? 

[JDog]

Excellent work. That's the equivalent of 94 per hour. Some on this forum will not believe that that's possible. 

[Penelope]

2 minutes ago, JDog said:

Excellent work. That's the equivalent of 94 per hour. Some on this forum will not believe that that's possible. 

A few years back I shot 66 (with a good few misses) in 2 1/2 hours, after moving, and thought that was manic.

[motty]

A decent result, but maybe you were there too late.

[muncher]

The first time I invited Motty to shoot with me, he had to go to football game at midday ish ,when he left it went that hectic I gave up for while laying in a shallow dyke calling for assistance from my brother. I just couldn't load up fast enough.

[kenholland]

same here had a call last week pigeon's on my beans , he drilled a week ago , got there nowt  zilch nothing , anyway I had done the miles , so I gave it a try 8/30 till 12 that's it had enough , 2 jacko's 2 pigeon , look's like they had cleaned up and flocked off, any thought's on this , or shall I give it another try.

[motty]

1 hour ago, kenholland said:

same here had a call last week pigeon's on my beans , he drilled a week ago , got there nowt  zilch nothing , anyway I had done the miles , so I gave it a try 8/30 till 12 that's it had enough , 2 jacko's 2 pigeon , look's like they had cleaned up and flocked off, any thought's on this , or shall I give it another try.

That is why I try to do the recon myself. If I had to rely on the farmers, I would shoot 80% less pigeons at least.

[marsh man]

2 hours ago, kenholland said:

same here had a call last week pigeon's on my beans , he drilled a week ago , got there nowt  zilch nothing , anyway I had done the miles , so I gave it a try 8/30 till 12 that's it had enough , 2 jacko's 2 pigeon , look's like they had cleaned up and flocked off, any thought's on this , or shall I give it another try.

This time of the year you might had done better by going dinner time and giving it the afternoon , rather than going fairly early in the morning till the time you packed up , you most probably live to far from the perm to keep a regular eye on it, but seeing is believing is always the best policy , and not second hand  by somebody who think a few pigeons is a large flock.

[kenholland]

I will have another look on Monday,and  have a bash in the afternoon ,weather is still looking o k , you are right , some farmers don't see it from our side of the fence , still if you get a call out you after check it out , thanks lads

[Wilts#Dave]

That’s some going shooting that many in half an hour, warmed the barrels up nicely!! Too late perhaps, but good while it lasted eh. 

I shot 62 in an hour a few years back on some pea stubble when the farmer turned up to disc it in, that was hectic enough. 

[marsh man]

36 minutes ago, kenholland said:

I will have another look on Monday,and  have a bash in the afternoon ,weather is still looking o k , you are right , some farmers don't see it from our side of the fence , still if you get a call out you after check it out , thanks lads

GOOD LUCK for Monday, should be nice and warm so I think the afternoon will ( or should ) be better than the morning .

[Longstrider]

The wheat on this field was about 2" high, but the farmers drill is ancient so there is always plenty of loose grain around when he's been through and a good deal of that is/was still sitting on the surface for the birds to find. I was definitely there too late in the day or it could have been a real red letter day, but by some grossly unfortunate turn of events I actually have to work for a living and can't always be where I want to be at any given time or day. Work .. the curse of the shooting classes !

[Penelope]

On 18/05/2018 at 16:42, motty said:

A decent result, but maybe you were there too late.

Yes, although I moved fields as soon as I saw the activity.