Spoiled For Choice

[marsh man]

Today I was going to go on the rape stubble that was cut Thursday , but when I walked round it last night I was put off by the long stubble , (a) it wouldn't have done my motor any good if I had tried to drive through it and (b) it would have been dangerous for my dog to run about in it , not only that , with it only been cut for two days it wont do any harm by leaving it a few more days before having a go .

So my next port of call was some cut barley fields that had been baled up , driving down the lane I could see the dust and the yellow lights going on another barley field besides the ones that were already cut , when I pulled up to the baled field I could see pigeons flying on and off , when I watched them there pigeons flying from one stubble field to another one and looking in the direction of the other one there were pigeons flying into the one I was looking at , two things put me off of the barley fields , one was sitting in the middle of the field in the heat and the other one was weather it was a good idea driving over the stubble with a hot exhaust pipe in the tinder dry conditions .

Well my next option was going on the old pea stubble which was between the two fields , we are always saying go where the pigeons want to go and not where you want to go , well today I broke another rule and went where I wanted to go and not where the pigeons wanted to go . I picked this spot because i could drive over in ease and had the shade for most of the afternoon under a nice tree , I was all set up by 1.45 with 25 decoys , two floaters at the back and a magnet well in front .

It was one of those afternoons where pigeons were on the go all the while going backwards and forwards to the various fields they had on offer , also it was also a rare event where I shot well all the while I was there plus the dog made one or long distance retrieves on the odd one that dropped out across the field , all in all , a perfect afternoon.

By five o clock the breeze had died down to nothing and heat was intense as by now I had very little cover for shade so  I gave it till 5.30 and called it day .

When i went to get my car it was 27 degrees and according to the forecast it is going to be in the low 30s next week , anyhow , another good afternoon with 61 picked which was excellent sport considering the weather conditions .

[JDog]

Very good MM. You made the right choice.

[Clodhopper]

Lovely pictures MM. It was indeed uncomfortably hot.  I had a dabble on some rape stubble for an hour, shot 6 nice pigeons and one unlucky fox. Packed up and went home, neither pigeons nor I  fancied the heat.

 

Lovely looking dog by the way.

[aga man]

Nice report mm and a very tidy bag. That dog is a beauty.

[pigeon controller]

Well done MM, great result, as I write this response it's just hit 40 degrees. You made the right choice , I've seen rape storks penetrate tractor tyres, God knows what it would do to a poor dog. Great pictures.

[marsh man]

11 hours ago, JDog said:

Very good MM. You made the right choice.

THANKS Mr JDog ...... I enjoy the sunny weather , but you can have to much of a good thing , on the estate they normally have 20 / 25 days of combinable crops , roughly starting 2nd / 3rd week in July and with the weather breaks ect try and finish around the August bank holiday , this year they started on the 11th July and have been going every day and when I was on my way last night they were still at it , talking to the farm manager , he was saying the barley crop isn't brilliant but better than expected and he fear the worst for the wheat crop .

 

11 hours ago, Clodhopper said:

Lovely pictures MM. It was indeed uncomfortably hot.  I had a dabble on some rape stubble for an hour, shot 6 nice pigeons and one unlucky fox. Packed up and went home, neither pigeons nor I  fancied the heat.

 

Lovely looking dog by the way.

THANKS Clodhopper .

 

10 hours ago, aga man said:

Nice report mm and a very tidy bag. That dog is a beauty.

THANKS aga man , my dog is now 3 1/2 years old , he is out with me every day of the week and a couple of days during the week I take him down the lake for a swim and to cool off , I think if I took him out any more than I do I could be reported for being cruel ?

 

40 minutes ago, pigeon controller said:

Well done MM, great result, as I write this response it's just hit 40 degrees. You made the right choice , I've seen rape storks penetrate tractor tyres, God knows what it would do to a poor dog. Great pictures.

THANKS P C , I hope in a way we never get 40 degrees over here , I went to Arizona once on holiday , I nearly burnt my feet walking bare footed to the swimming pool , silly me.

Hope your cider hold out during your stay.

[ditchman]

jeeesus..........i come all ova in a sweat looking at them pics..that look hot..........................ey....thats my lump hammer you have there boy....is that what you use for a preist...bit overkill.

[yickdaz]

nice one a 60 bag is a good day out and gives you enough shooting for the day 

[marsh man]

6 hours ago, ditchman said:

jeeesus..........i come all ova in a sweat looking at them pics..that look hot..........................ey....thats my lump hammer you have there boy....is that what you use for a preist...bit overkill.

Your mechanical eyes don't miss much Mr Ditchman , during these rock hard conditions the hammer and chisel are now part of the essential equipment , last weekend I bent one of my hide poles behind repair trying to get it into the concrete soil , not even the services from the Cantley Engineering Referrals could have put it back into active service ..........or could they ??????? 

[oldypigeonpopper]

hello, i have a 3 spike rotary and know it can be a hammer job, in some soft soil it can move with the constant whirling so i found some flat steel 6 inch by 2 inch by about 1/8 inch at the farm with hole already drilled so i squared it off to fit the centre spike, no more wobble,

Edited July 22, 2018 by oldypigeonpopper

[kenholland]

is that where the term hot barrels comes from , well done.

[marsh man]

16 minutes ago, oldypigeonpopper said:

hello, i have a 3 spike rotary and know it can be a hammer job, in some soft soil it can move with the constant whirling so i found some flat steel 6 inch by 2 inch by about 1/8 inch at the farm with hole already drilled so i squared it off to fit the centre spike, no more wobble,

Mine isn't to bad,  it have a fairly long center point with two shorter ones on the outside , once I knock a hole in for the middle spike , the two on the outside are strong enough to take a few well placed whacks ?

 

5 minutes ago, kenholland said:

is that where the term hot barrels comes from , well done.

Certainly was , in fact I had to use the dogs water to cool them down a bit , had to use the dogs as he had drunk mine thirst ? . 

[motty]

Good show,MM. Muncher and myself opted for a spot in the shade on a rape stubble on Saturday, for a bag of 75.

As you say, the pigeons are spoiled for choice at the moment. I looked at about 8 or 9 rape fields before deciding on that one.

[marsh man]

4 minutes ago, motty said:

Good show,MM. Muncher and myself opted for a spot in the shade on a rape stubble on Saturday, for a bag of 75.

As you say, the pigeons are spoiled for choice at the moment. I looked at about 8 or 9 rape fields before deciding on that one.

Looking at the weather today , your neck of the woods look like one of the hottest spots in the country with Thetford recording a little over 33 degrees .

When I went and looked today they were cutting the last field of rape and then it will be the turn of the Winter Wheat followed by the Spring drilling's , tomorrow the combine have been going 14 days non stop , I very much doubt if it have been done before and by all accounts the dry weather is set to continue for at least another week.

I did see plenty of pigeons today on the barley stubble's that had the bales on , the problem is most of the fields around them are also cut barley fields , the only good thing about cutting each day is they haven't  got time to pull any fields up , although one or two pulled up wont do a lot of harm.

[dead eye alan]

Grounds too hard to do anything with round hear so we will have stubbles for some time i think.

[marsh man]

23 minutes ago, dead eye alan said:

Grounds too hard to do anything with round hear so we will have stubbles for some time i think.

At the moment there isn't anyone available to work on the land , combining and irrigating is still priority , winter barley and the rape is all finished and they made a start on the wheat yesterday , all the straw is contracted out and the baling machine try and bale up as soon as the combine is done .

We have three fair size ponds on the estate and in the 30 odd years I have been on there I have  seen them nearly empty but never completely dry , now they are cracked with not a drop of water in sight and we are not out of July yet . 

[oldypigeonpopper]

5 minutes ago, marsh man said:

At the moment there isn't anyone available to work on the land , combining and irrigating is still priority , winter barley and the rape is all finished and they made a start on the wheat yesterday , all the straw is contracted out and the baling machine try and bale up as soon as the combine is done .

We have three fair size ponds on the estate and in the 30 odd years I have been on there I have  seen them nearly empty but never completely dry , now they are cracked with not a drop of water in sight and we are not out of July yet . 

hello, on my friends farm, barleys done, rape has 2/1/2  fields to go, wheat last, barley bales nearly finished, interesting the large barley straw bales have gone up in price, the hot weather around the vale some farmers are using the silage and hay that was set aside for winter  as no grass,