Old Boggy Posted July 11, 2018 Report Share Posted July 11, 2018 (edited) Having watched the pigeons build up on a wheat stubble over the last few days, I decided to give it a go yesterday afternoon. The field in question was wheat that had been taken off for biofuel as it was full of black grass, which due to this not being just restricted to patches, but spread all over, could not be sprayed effectively. The farmer had therefore decided to cut his losses and not let the wheat reach maturity. My observations had detected two flightlines to and from the field, so I decided to position as close to, or virtually under, the strongest line as possible. This was alongside a large clump of weeds/grass surrounding a telegraph pole. As I was able to drive my ancient little 4x4 up to the hide position, nothing was spared regards to paraphernalia. So armed with rotary, flapper, floaters,a mottley assortment of artificial decoys, hide poles, hide netting, seat, gun, cartridges and plenty of water, I set up my stall. The hide netting, a desert colour, which I recently obtained from Cranfield on here (thanks Brian) blended in perfectly with the stubble. My hide was positioned such that the slight breeze was from behind coming over my right shoulder, so any birds arriving would be from left to right which gave a more natural swing to this left-handed (or some would say cack-handed) shooter. Also, I would be firing `across` the flightline rather than spooking the birds firing from whence they come. The rotary was positioned well to my right and upwind, with two groups of decoys set out with a largish gap between. The decoys within each group were set fairly close together which is how I`d seen them feeding from my previous reconnaissance I had just driven the vehicle away and returned to my hide and was still unprepared for the first two pigeons in, having not yet loaded up. Once prepared, the next few in, decoyed in textbook style and I achieved five hits on the trot. However, complacency set in and a few misses ensues, but with more concentration began to hit them again. Not having any dead birds to go on the rotary, I had put a couple of `hyperflap` thingies on with a view to changing to dead birds once a couple had been shot. As they continued to decoy well, I decided to leave them on as I believe that `if it ain`t broke don`t fix it`. Also, I didn`t bother putting out the flapper as I believe in the least trips out of the hide, the better, apart from fetching a runner or if things need adjusting due to the pigeons reluctance to decoy, neither of which was evident. My short session, due to my domestic commitments, dictated that I shoot these days for no longer than 3/4 hours so this session lasted from 1.30pm until 3.45pm by which time I had shot 30, with 2 lost in a rape field behind, so picked 28 (27 in the photo * with one more picked on way back across the field), which was sufficient for me and kept me fairly well occupied during that time, but nevertheless enabled me to down nearly 2 litres of water in that searing heat. Not that I`m complaining as it was most pleasant to get out again after what seemed a long time of inactivity with my pigeon shooting exploits. Perhaps today would have been the better day with a drop in temperature, but my good wife, bless her, had other ideas. Thanks for reading. OB * Sorry, still not got my head round how to post photos using ImgBB. Attempt this later. Edited July 12, 2018 by Old Boggy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDog Posted July 11, 2018 Report Share Posted July 11, 2018 A very good read about your outing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wooder Posted July 11, 2018 Report Share Posted July 11, 2018 Nice to hear you got out and shot a few ! that's a good bag. Nothing been taken off over my way yet, but plenty of birds about. no doubt the wife wanted a trip to westwood cross ! did you have many young birds ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pigeon controller Posted July 11, 2018 Report Share Posted July 11, 2018 A well thought out session and well executed. The heat in the hides at present unbelievable . Again well done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Boggy Posted July 11, 2018 Author Report Share Posted July 11, 2018 8 hours ago, Wooder said: Nice to hear you got out and shot a few ! that's a good bag. Nothing been taken off over my way yet, but plenty of birds about. no doubt the wife wanted a trip to westwood cross ! did you have many young birds ? Fortunately this week has been Westwood Cross free , but no doubt she`ll have something in mind for next week. None of the birds were that young i.e. no white neck band, but some were clearly this years birds. Several fields of rape to be combined starting on Friday and over the weekend. OB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Boggy Posted July 12, 2018 Author Report Share Posted July 12, 2018 22 hours ago, Old Boggy said: Having watched the pigeons build up on a wheat stubble over the last few days, I decided to give it a go yesterday afternoon. The field in question was wheat that had been taken off for biofuel as it was full of black grass, which due to this not being just restricted to patches, but spread all over, could not be sprayed effectively. The farmer had therefore decided to cut his losses and not let the wheat reach maturity. My observations had detected two flightlines to and from the field, so I decided to position as close to, or virtually under, the strongest line as possible. This was alongside a large clump of weeds/grass surrounding a telegraph pole. As I was able to drive my ancient little 4x4 up to the hide position, nothing was spared regards to paraphernalia. So armed with rotary, flapper, floaters,a mottley assortment of artificial decoys, hide poles, hide netting, seat, gun, cartridges and plenty of water, I set up my stall. The hide netting, a desert colour, which I recently obtained from Cranfield on here (thanks Brian) blended in perfectly with the stubble. My hide was positioned such that the slight breeze was from behind coming over my right shoulder, so any birds arriving would be from left to right which gave a more natural swing to this left-handed (or some would say cack-handed) shooter. Also, I would be firing `across` the flightline rather than spooking the birds firing from whence they come. The rotary was positioned well to my right and upwind, with two groups of decoys set out with a largish gap between. The decoys within each group were set fairly close together which is how I`d seen them feeding from my previous reconnaissance I had just driven the vehicle away and returned to my hide and was still unprepared for the first two pigeons in, having not yet loaded up. Once prepared, the next few in, decoyed in textbook style and I achieved five hits on the trot. However, complacency set in and a few misses ensues, but with more concentration began to hit them again. Not having any dead birds to go on the rotary, I had put a couple of `hyperflap` thingies on with a view to changing to dead birds once a couple had been shot. As they continued to decoy well, I decided to leave them on as I believe that `if it ain`t broke don`t fix it`. Also, I didn`t bother putting out the flapper as I believe in the least trips out of the hide, the better, apart from fetching a runner or if things need adjusting due to the pigeons reluctance to decoy, neither of which was evident. My short session, due to my domestic commitments, dictated that I shoot these days for no longer than 3/4 hours so this session lasted from 1.30pm until 3.45pm by which time I had shot 30, with 2 lost in a rape field behind, so picked 28 (27 in the photo * with one more picked on way back across the field), which was sufficient for me and kept me fairly well occupied during that time, but nevertheless enabled me to down nearly 2 litres of water in that searing heat. Not that I`m complaining as it was most pleasant to get out again after what seemed a long time of inactivity with my pigeon shooting exploits. Perhaps today would have been the better day with a drop in temperature, but my good wife, bless her, had other ideas. Thanks for reading. OB * Sorry, still not got my head round how to post photos using ImgBB. Attempt this later. I think, if I`ve done it correctly that there should be a photo of my bag Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Boggy Posted July 12, 2018 Author Report Share Posted July 12, 2018 23 hours ago, Old Boggy said: Having watched the pigeons build up on a wheat stubble over the last few days, I decided to give it a go yesterday afternoon. The field in question was wheat that had been taken off for biofuel as it was full of black grass, which due to this not being just restricted to patches, but spread all over, could not be sprayed effectively. The farmer had therefore decided to cut his losses and not let the wheat reach maturity. My observations had detected two flightlines to and from the field, so I decided to position as close to, or virtually under, the strongest line as possible. This was alongside a large clump of weeds/grass surrounding a telegraph pole. As I was able to drive my ancient little 4x4 up to the hide position, nothing was spared regards to paraphernalia. So armed with rotary, flapper, floaters,a mottley assortment of artificial decoys, hide poles, hide netting, seat, gun, cartridges and plenty of water, I set up my stall. The hide netting, a desert colour, which I recently obtained from Cranfield on here (thanks Brian) blended in perfectly with the stubble. My hide was positioned such that the slight breeze was from behind coming over my right shoulder, so any birds arriving would be from left to right which gave a more natural swing to this left-handed (or some would say cack-handed) shooter. Also, I would be firing `across` the flightline rather than spooking the birds firing from whence they come. The rotary was positioned well to my right and upwind, with two groups of decoys set out with a largish gap between. The decoys within each group were set fairly close together which is how I`d seen them feeding from my previous reconnaissance I had just driven the vehicle away and returned to my hide and was still unprepared for the first two pigeons in, having not yet loaded up. Once prepared, the next few in, decoyed in textbook style and I achieved five hits on the trot. However, complacency set in and a few misses ensues, but with more concentration began to hit them again. Not having any dead birds to go on the rotary, I had put a couple of `hyperflap` thingies on with a view to changing to dead birds once a couple had been shot. As they continued to decoy well, I decided to leave them on as I believe that `if it ain`t broke don`t fix it`. Also, I didn`t bother putting out the flapper as I believe in the least trips out of the hide, the better, apart from fetching a runner or if things need adjusting due to the pigeons reluctance to decoy, neither of which was evident. My short session, due to my domestic commitments, dictated that I shoot these days for no longer than 3/4 hours so this session lasted from 1.30pm until 3.45pm by which time I had shot 30, with 2 lost in a rape field behind, so picked 28 (27 in the photo * with one more picked on way back across the field), which was sufficient for me and kept me fairly well occupied during that time, but nevertheless enabled me to down nearly 2 litres of water in that searing heat. Not that I`m complaining as it was most pleasant to get out again after what seemed a long time of inactivity with my pigeon shooting exploits. Perhaps today would have been the better day with a drop in temperature, but my good wife, bless her, had other ideas. Thanks for reading. OB * Sorry, still not got my head round how to post photos using ImgBB. Attempt this later. Well, that seemed to work OK for the bag, now let`s see if the hide appears ! If so, I feel that I am very slowly dragging myself into the 21st. Century. Thanks for your patience, OB Yes, success at last. Now hopefully I can remember how I did it for the future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dead eye alan Posted July 12, 2018 Report Share Posted July 12, 2018 Great read that thanks for posting, going to try the photo thing when i retern from turkey, the last atempt did not work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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