How Long Do You Shoot Rape Stubble ?

[marsh man]

Today was the third time I have shot the rape stubble's and I feel the best is over , our rape was cut around 10 to 12 days ago and the seed is already getting leaf on .

I have found once the stubble is covered in germinated rape seed , it is no longer any good as far as shooting pigeons off it , maybe if you are in a area where they ( pigeons ) haven't got a lot of choice you might be lucky and get a few more days off it , but on my patch there are fresh grain stubble's for the pigeons to go on and beans are now turning black .

So are your findings the same ? , or what do you think ?

[kenholland]

it always amazing that once it germinates they just switch off those tender little leaves don't taste nice? , then on to the next food source .

[motty]

In my area there are a LOT of pigeons still on the rape stubbles. These have a lot of green on top now.

[TIGHTCHOKE]

Yes plenty of lost seed shooting up, but if they will decoy I will go after them.

[mossy835]

went out tuesday afternoon on rape,had a good time, went same field today  nothing on it.

[marsh man]

38 minutes ago, kenholland said:

it always amazing that once it germinates they just switch off those tender little leaves don't taste nice? , then on to the next food source .

That is what I find.

 

33 minutes ago, motty said:

In my area there are a LOT of pigeons still on the rape stubbles. These have a lot of green on top now.

We have still got pigeons on the rape but nowhere near the same quantity , Wednesday I could have shot a big bag if I had give a whole day and being more agile , I didn't go till after dinner and set up where I could drive to as my back was playing up a bit , with me shooting sitting down I only took the ones out in front rather than risk twisting my back taking the ones on the side , throughout the afternoon I saw a lot of pigeons and after three hours I have had enough and picked up 33 , when I left there were still Pigeons on the move so I fully expected good numbers on there today , yes there was pigeons but not the quantity I was expecting ,

 

43 minutes ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

Yes plenty of lost seed shooting up, but if they will decoy I will go after them.

I do as well ,   but I am not sure whether they are scabbing about for seed without leaf or if they are eating seed with the fresh leaf on , which I doubt they are .

 

9 minutes ago, mossy835 said:

went out tuesday afternoon on rape,had a good time, went same field today  nothing on it.

Might have found a new food outlet , the last two days on ours they have been cutting the spring cereals , again more choice . 

[Guest stevo]

You may find some more action if you have volunteer crop coming though , have had some awesome days one that . ?

[TIGHTCHOKE]

5 minutes ago, marsh man said:

That is what I find.

 

We have still got pigeons on the rape but nowhere near the same quantity , Wednesday I could have shot a big bag if I had give a whole day and being more agile , I didn't go till after dinner and set up where I could drive to as my back was playing up a bit , with me shooting sitting down I only took the ones out in front rather than risk twisting my back taking the ones on the side , throughout the afternoon I saw a lot of pigeons and after three hours I have had enough and picked up 33 , when I left there were still Pigeons on the move so I fully expected good numbers on there today , yes there was pigeons but not the quantity I was expecting ,

 

I do as well ,   but I am not sure whether they are scabbing about for seed without leaf or if they are eating seed with the fresh leaf on , which I doubt they are .

 

Might have found a new food outlet , the last two days on ours they have been cutting the spring cereals , again more choice . 

Opening the crops of birds we have shot recently the contents were either picked up spilt wheat grain or un-chitted rape seed.

[marsh man]

2 minutes ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

Opening the crops of birds we have shot recently the contents were either picked up spilt wheat grain or un-chitted rape seed.

Excellent way to find out what they have been feeding on TIGHTCHOKE , trouble is , a few days farming this time of the year can make a big difference in a pigeons eating habits .

[TIGHTCHOKE]

Oh I quite agree, as ever turning up and conducting a little reconnaissance is the order of the day.

[marsh man]

9 minutes ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

Oh I quite agree, as ever turning up and conducting a little reconnaissance is the order of the day.

As the late , great Archie Coats stated , Time spent on reconnaissance is never time wasted , ........ never a truer word spoken .

[Harnser]

The biggest problem now is harvest is almost over . My farmer friend will have finished harvest on Monday ,the earliest finish he can remember . Now that harvest is almost over there are to many stubble fields available for choice for the pigeons . A couple of shots at them and away they go to another field . That’s why I always pay attention to the first fields harvested and hit them hard .

  A couple of seasons ago I watched them harvesting the first field of rape and the birds were dropping in behind the combine . I planned to go early the next day and have ago . When I arrived the next day they had only combined half the field as it had started to rain and it was to wet . I set up and had birds come in almost at once .I finished up with about 80 picked . I decided to go back the next day to have another go at them . It was raining again when I arrived and they couldn’t start harvesting because it was to wet . I set up on another part of the field and shot another 60 odd . Always take advantage of the first fields harvested 

harnser

 

[marsh man]

1 hour ago, Harnser said:

The biggest problem now is harvest is almost over . My farmer friend will have finished harvest on Monday ,the earliest finish he can remember . Now that harvest is almost over there are to many stubble fields available for choice for the pigeons . A couple of shots at them and away they go to another field . That’s why I always pay attention to the first fields harvested and hit them hard .

  A couple of seasons ago I watched them harvesting the first field of rape and the birds were dropping in behind the combine . I planned to go early the next day and have ago . When I arrived the next day they had only combined half the field as it had started to rain and it was to wet . I set up and had birds come in almost at once .I finished up with about 80 picked . I decided to go back the next day to have another go at them . It was raining again when I arrived and they couldn’t start harvesting because it was to wet . I set up on another part of the field and shot another 60 odd . Always take advantage of the first fields harvested 

harnser

 

Believe it or not , the first barley stubble fields are already being worked on to prepare the land for next years rape .

Another big farm I go on have got a tractor driver who do nothing from now on apart from ripping the stubble's up , the rape normally last a couple of days before you see a big Yellow Caterpilla going up and down pulling it to bits , that don't bother me to much because if pigeons are going on there you can still decoy them and I think the decoys show up better .

As you say , take advantage of any situation ,as the window this time of the year is very narrow .

[Old Boggy]

11 hours ago, marsh man said:

Today was the third time I have shot the rape stubble's and I feel the best is over , our rape was cut around 10 to 12 days ago and the seed is already getting leaf on .

I have found once the stubble is covered in germinated rape seed , it is no longer any good as far as shooting pigeons off it , maybe if you are in a area where they ( pigeons ) haven't got a lot of choice you might be lucky and get a few more days off it , but on my patch there are fresh grain stubble's for the pigeons to go on and beans are now turning black .

So are your findings the same ? , or what do you think ?

I've found exactly the same. Once a bit of rain to germinate the lost seed, there's an almost instant turn off. Pigeons in my area now on wheat stubble but there's so many fields been combined and still being so, birds spread over a large area. Just have to watch for favourite flightlines as certain fields, albeit the same crop, seem to be favoured by pigeons. 

I've never found volunteer rape to be attractive to pigeons. Perhaps it's that there is always another crop i.e stubble, clover etc more palatable at the time.

Just my observations, other may disagree.

OB

[marsh man]

2 hours ago, Old Boggy said:

I've found exactly the same. Once a bit of rain to germinate the lost seed, there's an almost instant turn off. Pigeons in my area now on wheat stubble but there's so many fields been combined and still being so, birds spread over a large area. Just have to watch for favourite flightlines as certain fields, albeit the same crop, seem to be favoured by pigeons. 

I've never found volunteer rape to be attractive to pigeons. Perhaps it's that there is always another crop i.e stubble, clover etc more palatable at the time.

Just my observations, other may disagree.

OB

I find the same with Pea and Bean stubble , Pea stubble have about a two week margin at the most and Beans are slightly different , it seems the pigeons take a little while in finding they have been cut and then cant keep off them until the loose Beans start getting a leaf on them .

Another reason I find pigeon shooting so enjoyable , always trying to keep one step ahead of them , sometimes you do , and a lot of times you don't , but who would want to get it right all of the time

[aga man]

I normally find that pigeons turn off the rape soon after it re germinates and greens over like many others here. I am hoping to be out this afternoon though on a rape stubble that was only harvested last week yet still has lots of germinated seed which has fallen through the ripe standing crop over the past week or so.

Plenty of birds on it yesterday so will report back.

 

[ditchman]

14 hours ago, motty said:

In my area there are a LOT of pigeons still on the rape stubbles. These have a lot of green on top now.

thats what i have found out in past years...........the rape here has been lightly disced...and the pigeons have moved off......there is so little moisture in the ground nothing has germinated...when it does i expect the numbers to return..........

[mossy835]

iv shot the rape 2 times, first time hit 16, second time nothing about, so im done with it.for this year.

[marsh man]

7 hours ago, aga man said:

I normally find that pigeons turn off the rape soon after it re germinates and greens over like many others here. I am hoping to be out this afternoon though on a rape stubble that was only harvested last week yet still has lots of germinated seed which has fallen through the ripe standing crop over the past week or so.

Plenty of birds on it yesterday so will report back.

 

Hope you get a decent afternoons sport aga man , we are just back from Norwich where it was touching 30 degrees and hardly a breath of breeze , might well be different where you are .

By the way , Mr JDog have been quite lately , I wonder if he shooting Iguanas with an air rifle , something he was showing an interest in   .

[motty]

23 hours ago, Harnser said:

The biggest problem now is harvest is almost over . My farmer friend will have finished harvest on Monday ,the earliest finish he can remember . Now that harvest is almost over there are to many stubble fields available for choice for the pigeons . A couple of shots at them and away they go to another field . That’s why I always pay attention to the first fields harvested and hit them hard .

  A couple of seasons ago I watched them harvesting the first field of rape and the birds were dropping in behind the combine . I planned to go early the next day and have ago . When I arrived the next day they had only combined half the field as it had started to rain and it was to wet . I set up and had birds come in almost at once .I finished up with about 80 picked . I decided to go back the next day to have another go at them . It was raining again when I arrived and they couldn’t start harvesting because it was to wet . I set up on another part of the field and shot another 60 odd . Always take advantage of the first fields harvested 

harnser

 

Harvest is far from over in my area. Lots of spring cereals still to go once the winter wheat is finished.

[aga man]

4 hours ago, marsh man said:

Hope you get a decent afternoons sport aga man , we are just back from Norwich where it was touching 30 degrees and hardly a breath of breeze , might well be different where you are .

By the way , Mr JDog have been quite lately , I wonder if he shooting Iguanas with an air rifle , something he was showing an interest in   .

I chose not to decoy pigeons on the rape stubble. I walked around 80 birds off and wasn't convinced by their reaction, on top of that it was way too hot to set up a bale hide in the field, especially for a fat bloke with a beard!

Instead I found a line of pigeons going elsewhere along a line of trees, I put the magnet in some standing wheat and a single bouncer in a stubble the other side, and tried to shoot the birds flighting over. I had some great sport and found that 32gm no5 super steels through the trap gun was a good combo. I fired way too many shots but shot some satisfying birds. I picked 34 and the van said 27 degrees at 6pm.

 

Edit to say I haven't seen JDog in quite a while and haven't shot with him since Feb/march time but I hope to sort that in the coming weeks when more of our wheat fields are harvested.

 

Edited August 5, 2018 by aga man

[Harnser]

55 minutes ago, motty said:

Harvest is far from over in my area. Lots of spring cereals still to go once the winter wheat is finished.

My farmer friend has been at it night and day since the 10th of July . They have had the best weather for harvest that they can remember . He will say ,”make hay while the sun shine “ they are not over thrilled with the cereal yield ,the long hot weather has not been the the best growing weather . Last year he won a national award for the quality of his malting barley .not so good this year .

harnser

 

[marsh man]

19 minutes ago, aga man said:

I chose not to decoy pigeons on the rape stubble. I walked around 80 birds off and wasn't convinced by their reaction, on top of that it was way too hot to set up a bale hide in the field, especially for a fat bloke with a beard!

Instead I found a line of pigeons going elsewhere along a line of trees, I put the magnet in some standing wheat and a single bouncer in a stubble the other side, and tried to shoot the birds flighting over. I had some great sport and found that 32gm no5 super steels through the trap gun was a good combo. I fired way too many shots but shot some satisfying birds. I picked 34 and the van said 27 degrees at 6pm.

 

Edit to say I haven't seen JDog in quite a while and haven't shot with him since Feb/march time but I hope to sort that in the coming weeks when more of our wheat fields are harvested.

 

Couldn't think of a better way to spend a Sunday afternoon aga man , I was being towed around a garden center on the edge of Norwich and it was very hot , the sweat poured off me , although I think it was the price I was charged for the plants rather than the heat.

By the way , I have only shot four young pigeons during the week out of 40 odd , which work out about one in ten which is not many for the time of year , did you get many ?

[aga man]

3 minutes ago, marsh man said:

By the way , I have only shot four young pigeons during the week out of 40 odd , which work out about one in ten which is not many for the time of year , did you get many ?

I think maybe 10 of the birds I shot were youngsters. I saw a fair few young birds but not in bunches or groups as yet. Pretty much what I would expect for this area in early August really.

[motty]

51 minutes ago, marsh man said:

Couldn't think of a better way to spend a Sunday afternoon aga man , I was being towed around a garden center on the edge of Norwich and it was very hot , the sweat poured off me , although I think it was the price I was charged for the plants rather than the heat.

By the way , I have only shot four young pigeons during the week out of 40 odd , which work out about one in ten which is not many for the time of year , did you get many ?

I shot at least 10 youngsters today. Report tomorrow.