Jump to content

Its Never Easy


pigeon controller
 Share

Recommended Posts

We started out in the fog this morning and we had recieved  a heads up from Bunny_Blaster that he had seen birds on one of our permissions in the week.

So we headed out that way to find about twenty on the field which is bordered by an Oak wood we drove to view the other side of the wood and found approx thirty birds down but very tight, on inspection of the field it had pigeon carcases around. We put a shot acros the field and it lifted the birds from both sides of the wood. We drove back to the field we shot last week and it had no birds on it at all. The field next to it had been seeded and nothing feeding at all so we had done our job on that farm. We looked at other farms on our way back and found nothing other that fives and sixes under Oak trees. We found one maize field still standing and that was put in the memory banks for next week. When we arrived back at the fields that we had spooked the birds off nothing had returned. 

We drove back to the fields we shot two weeks ago and watched, it was difficult as the field is in the middle of an old estate and difficult to view. As we watched we saw birds were dropping in on the old maize , woodies and doves. We drove round to the farm but the farmer was not home so we gave him a ring to gain permission to drive his field. This was give but make sure you close all the gates as he has had people drive down leaving tyre marks of unknown vehicles. As we drove across the maize stubble approx fifth birds lifted half of which were doves, so we set up shooting away from another farms game cover.

it was now 14.00 and we had been looking from 09.00. We set up with ten fresh birds and two on the magnet from last week and had to wait approx ten minutes before any birds returned and they did all in one flock so we let them circle and move off as they did not want to decoy, we shot two tailenders which had the effect of spooking the flock in all directions. The birds were very spasmodic in the retun to the field and even less wanting to decoy which gave us some testing shots. the one thing we did notice was the contents of the shot birds were acorns and hawthorns, no maize. This pointed out to us that the birds down feeding on the maize when we arrived had not returned but we were shooting birds passing on the flightline. The last thirty minutes of the session were very quiet as we packed up at 17.00 after three hours shooting and picked up fifty one pigeons and thirteen corvids which only goes to prove that " Its Never Easy".

As we left the field the track was blocked by a small car, I flashed my headlamps and there was some hurried movement in the passenger seat as I pulled over to pass on the offside and as the driver moved the car to the side. DB informed me that the female passenger was very flushed as we passed and closed the gate behind them!!!!

100-3197.jpg

51Pigeons 13 Corvids

Edited by pigeon controller
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Maybe a below par bag for you two after last weeks big bag , but to us lesser mortals it would be a Red letter day at the moment , today most of the fields I looked at, had beaters walking across stubble fields waving colored flags , tractors ploughing  , tractors drilling and tractors taking Spuds and Beet up in Summer like conditions , as it turned out the biggest flock of birds I saw today was a large amount of Pinks running into several 100 resting on some old wheat stubble :good: .

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Another great report PC showing that your determination paid off in the end. As MM said, the bag may well have been a reduction on your usual, but to us would have been a good bag.

Out of interest, have you ever had much success decoying around oaks where they're clearly feeding on acorns ?

OB

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Old Boggy said:

Another great report PC showing that your determination paid off in the end. As MM said, the bag may well have been a reduction on your usual, but to us would have been a good bag.

Out of interest, have you ever had much success decoying around oaks where they're clearly feeding on acorns ?

OB

Yes we have in the passed decoyed Oaks , but you need to see a large number feeding or on a good flightline. We had a farm that had a ten acre mature Oak wood which he cleared with pigs and then grassed it at this time of year it was a mega draw for the birds. The farm was bought by  Yuppie and stopped all shooting , we still see birds in it now but are unable to get close

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

30 minutes ago, pigeon controller said:

Yes we have in the passed decoyed Oaks , but you need to see a large number feeding or on a good flightline. We had a farm that had a ten acre mature Oak wood which he cleared with pigs and then grassed it at this time of year it was a mega draw for the birds. The farm was bought by  Yuppie and stopped all shooting , we still see birds in it now but are unable to get close

Thanks for that, only quite a few of the pigeons I shot in the week on an old maize field had acorns in, so next time out, that maybe the only option as my pal has seen a good flightline to a line of oaks bordering a field of rape. They won`t be on the rape yet, so I suspect they are on acorns.

OB

Link to comment
Share on other sites

46 minutes ago, Old Boggy said:

 

Thanks for that, only quite a few of the pigeons I shot in the week on an old maize field had acorns in, so next time out, that maybe the only option as my pal has seen a good flightline to a line of oaks bordering a field of rape. They won`t be on the rape yet, so I suspect they are on acorns.

OB

Over the last 3 weeks or so I have seen good numbers on rape around here.

 

 

Well done, PC. Another good effort. I must disagree, though. Sometimes it is easy!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, GingerCat said:

Wait a few months and start it was 2019. I'm sure there's a few more titles in you left. 

Out of interest- how many of them do you eat? Im always looking for new recipes and you must have a couple tucked away.

I've only had pigeon twice, once my late French neighbor cooked a carp that unfortunaly died in a carp sack with a whole roasted pigeon as a starter. The second time I was trying to use up the 12 decoys that I start shooting with rather than leave them in the field after defrosting. So I debreasted them and cut them into strips and fried with onions and served with mash and gravy. Over thirty years I have always found an outlet for shot birds.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, pigeon controller said:

I've only had pigeon twice, once my late French neighbor cooked a carp that unfortunaly died in a carp sack with a whole roasted pigeon as a starter. The second time I was trying to use up the 12 decoys that I start shooting with rather than leave them in the field after defrosting. So I debreasted them and cut them into strips and fried with onions and served with mash and gravy. Over thirty years I have always found an outlet for shot birds.

I've never had an issue getting rid of them but I prefer eating them. 

Burgers and sausages are good, jerky wasn't bad at all. Pan fried has been ok.    will try a moroccan pigeon pie this week. Given the amount you plug I felt sure you'd have a recipe book to plunder.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You do a pretty professional job every week Mr. Controller & I think we all wish we could be so consistant..but you do put in the miles I have to say.I would think that a lot of us also look forward to your reports at Sunday breakfast,inspiring us to try harder.Don't retire that's all I say!

Shot a few yesterday in Herefordshire & noticed a couple of things;One was that there were one or two bigger 'flocks ' around & they might be starting to flock up just now & also that a fair proportion had Hawthorn berries in their crops even though we were on late drilled wheat.The acorns never really came to anything  as yet.

 Not seen the 'migrations' as yet if it happens this year.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 21/10/2018 at 11:29, motty said:

Over the last 3 weeks or so I have seen good numbers on rape around here.

 

 

Well done, PC. Another good effort. I must disagree, though. Sometimes it is easy!

Why do you say sometimes it’s easy?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, Hammeronhammeroff said:

Why do you say sometimes it’s easy?

I suppose on a scale one to ten for how easy or difficult pigeon shooting can be , number one would be decoying pigeons on late Summer stubble's when the bulk of the young ones are following there parents onto the stubble' s , at times it really can be to easy and this is mainly the time of the year when big bags are made , then on the other end of the scale I would say shooting on a flight line in a strong wind and roost shooting also in a good wind would be as hard as it would get .

Some might disagree , but I would say there are far more pigeons shot on most fields when the crop have been lifted or harvested , than when they were planted and during the growing process .

YOU will have your own opinions , so tell us what you think ?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 minutes ago, motty said:

I say that because I think it is. It can sometimes be very easy. You can drive to some fields, see birds flighting in, slap out a few decoys and shoot a hundred.

That well might be the case with people who have got a fair bit of experience behind them , you turn up and know exactly where to set up , allowing for wind direction , traffic coming in and out to the field and all the bits and pieces of field craft that comes naturally to people like yourself , but you have to remember there are people who are just starting off with the art of pigeon shooting and they will make mistakes before they get to the stage of driving to certain fields , slap out a few decoys and shoot a hundred .

One reason I no longer shoot early season duck , very little skill is needed to walk up duck from dykes but for some people that might be the only way they will put something in the bag until they get to the stage where they can do some proper fowling . 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

1 hour ago, motty said:

I say that because I think it is. It can sometimes be very easy. You can drive to some fields, see birds flighting in, slap out a few decoys and shoot a hundred.

Ok, slap out a few decoys and shoot a hundred.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...