An embarrassment of riches.

[JDog]

Through his contact in the local pea growing group Mighty Mariner is fortunate enough to have lots of pea growing land to shoot over. I am lucky enough to get invited along sometimes and today was one of those days. He had numerous choices, one where he had heard of hundreds of pigeons but which had been shot a lot recently, another with a decent line across the field which had been shot last weekend, and another with good numbers which we hoped had not been shot at all. We chose the latter.

When we met at 2 pm it was 21 degrees and sunny and I had on shorts and a t-shirt. Luckily I had trousers and a jacket in the car because as soon as we were set up at 3 a sea fret moved in and the temperature plummeted to around 10 degrees. The wind was blowing a hooley too. There were two adjacent fields of peas, quite large ones, and MM chose to set up under the main line in. This meant he faced the wind. I set up about 500m away from him across both fields with my back to a thin hedge and with the wind at my back. I never expected that we would not shoot side by side so I had no decoys apart from two scabby dead birds, nor did I have a rotary or a flapper.

For the first hour I scratched away at long birds which were not decoying but were intent on going to a small spinney to my left. In the meantime MM had begun to bang away and between us we moved pigeons around nicely. I had only taken a few cartridges and I ran out after an hour and a half. My car was three miles away so I had to beg some from MM who told me that the price had gone up above £1/cartridge. I agreed and took some of his Eley something or other which I have disparaged on this forum in the past. No more though as I shot some real stormers including possibly three of the best pigeons I have ever shot.

We agreed a 7 pm finish and as I begun to pick up my birds MM was banging away frequently despite the fact that his kit was packed away and he was simply hiding behind a hedge. The peas were thin and I managed to pick most of my pigeons by using a series of tramlines as guides whilst I searched backwards and forwards. Carting my kit down to the road was easy but carrying 85 pigeons was not and I thought my time was up several times during that effort. MM had shot well at difficult birds from behind and I was delighted when he said he had picked 50, making a total of 135 for the session.

I am dog tired now and that outing has satiated my desire to shoot pigeons, at least until tomorrow.

[Walker570]

Nice

[ditchman]

run out of cartridges AGAIN.............is this a part of some cunning ploy.?

[yickdaz]

 

 you left the car 3 miles away  with  cartridges in it so run out of carts yet  again, and  NO GIZMOS OR GADGETS  your slipping mr dog 

Edited June 30, 2018 by yickdaz
wrongly worded

[pigeon controller]

It sounds a wonderful days pigeon shooting and interesting that you had difficulty with the birds not wanting to decoy at first. It's interesting that the " expensive" cartridges gave you some memorable shots. The question is couldn't you have sent a member of staff to collect a  fresh supply cartridges and also to carry your quarry off the field????

The weather change was significant in keeping you comfortable and also inducing the birds to feed and you were in the right place at the right time, well done, successful day.

[ditchman]

44 minutes ago, pigeon controller said:

It sounds a wonderful days pigeon shooting and interesting that you had difficulty with the birds not wanting to decoy at first. It's interesting that the " expensive" cartridges gave you some memorable shots. The question is couldn't you have sent a member of staff to collect a  fresh supply cartridges and also to carry your quarry off the field????

The weather change was significant in keeping you comfortable and also inducing the birds to feed and you were in the right place at the right time, well done, successful day.

its just sooo difficult to get good staff now-a-days...........i suppose we must continue to muddle thro'

[Mightymariner]

An accurate report in most parts.

It was a memorable day, one of those bonkers sessions when the pigeons just seem determined to get into your decoys. We could have shot till 8.30pm. 

Yes JDog ran out of cartridges AGAIN. But he had to walk across the field to me, get my keys, walk down to my truck and then return, so that's punishment enough.

I am pleased we split up as I think had we shot together we would have had half the bag. 

My birds were unpredictable, coming over my shoulder but once I got 'in the groove' I did hit a few. I picked 49 from around my hide, then remembered one which had dropped 200 metres away, which took me to 50. 

We estimated we had shot 150 with the birds we both couldn't find or pick.

[Clodhopper]

Well done to both of you on a fantastic combined bag. That sea fret certainly did drip the temperature quickly and obviously turned the birds on. I imagine MM will make a tidy profit on those posh cartridges he sold you.

[dead eye alan]

OK point 1 run out of cartriges again! realy farthers day just gone, Christmas not long ago and no one suplyed you with a large cartridge bag?

 

polnt 2 the butler has been absent on both of yor recent excursions that required his assistants.

 

polnt 1 remedy. Request for very large cartridge bag for birthday gift.

 

polnt 2 remedy. Employ more efficient butler, or get the wife to fill in in his absance.

 

PS nice report keep them coming.

[aga man]

Well shot boys. Nice report, that made very good reading whilst sat in a busy airport.

Hope my peas are as busy next week!