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Busy Week with a Twist


pigeon controller
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Its been a strange week, on Monday I received a call from a Farmer I have not shot for for two years " Loads of Pigeons on the Rape". I arrived at the field at approx 11.00 and saw about fifty birds in the far corner of the field. I watched to see any joining birds, after twenty minutes not a bird. So I knew I was into a hiding for nothing as the birds lifted as I made my way across the field. I was set up for 12.00, ten on spikes two on the magnet. After fiteen minutes nothing had moved other than the magnet, behind me at some distance a few shots rang out. This had the effect of sending me a few birds which passed over me and then banked into the pattern, two down. These shots then brought me birds from in front and this was the pattern for the rest of the day. I stopped shooting at 16.00 and picked up seventy birds, so it was worth turning out and renewing my shooting rights. 

Thursday, I had received a call on Wednesday concerning the rape and agreed to turn out , so arrived at the designated field to find six birds in the centre ash tree and a few on the floor. I watched it and nothing came to the field in thirty minutes, so I decided to walk the field to see if it had been shot. After fortyfive minuts I was back at the Disco and no birds had come back so was not sure what to do. My phone rang and another farmer whos land I shot last week called to inform me that it was covered again so I agreed to drive over to him. I found out today that the field I was on had been shot Saturday ( Six Guns) Sunday (One Gun ). 

When I arrived at the other rape the farmer was still there and we scanned the field together. Now last week I had asked if I could drive to the far end of the field and he had refused. Now last week the temperature was 1 degree today it was 8 degrees and the field too wet to drive. As we watched the field a flock of approx two hundred came in and dropped at the far end . His banger went off and they all lifted off and went to a farm on the left after five minutes that banger went off and they came back to our field I put a shot off and they all went to a farm on the right which had a banger on it and subsequently they lifted again  all in one flock with no joining birds. The farmer left and I decided to go for the long walk. No Magnet, six decoys and four flying frames and off I went. I set up at the base of a High tension cable pylon and put out my six birds, four on spikes and two on flying frames. Yes you guessed it two hundred in my pattern at once, two down one hundred and ninetyeight spooked. I had started shooting at 13.00 and packed up at 1600 and picked up twentysix pigeons. When I eventuallu got back to the Disco my Garmin read that I had walked 6.99 mile today. I was wacked and it was a good thing that I did not shoot  a big bag. Next time it will be wheel barrow job. 

Today Saturday, We had a look at three local farms with low numbers of birds, so we decided to travel to the end of our permissions and work back. When we arrived at our first stop we found a flightine running across the fields which was not normal and due to the wind being a south westerly it was putting the pigeons across a narrow field close to a house. Due to the wind and the size of the fields it was only possible to shoot a corner of the field which was low as the rest of the crop was covered with very tall  Sharlock which made decoying impossible . This meant that we we were shooting away from the house but with it being two hundred metres behind us. So I decided to go and inform them what we were doing and assure them that it was safe. I knocked on the door and rang the bell twice, no answer the car on the drive had recent tyre tracks. I looked throught the window and the Christmas decorations were still displayed so I assumed they were away or deceased??

We stared shooting at approx 10.00  with twelve decoys and as we added to the pattern the birds were more confident and committed to our pattern. This was all going well till 13.30 when a figure in a dressing gown was shouting at us up the field from the house. So I went down to talk to  the the lady and tried to explain that we were her at the behest of the farmer and that I had tried to contact her in the morning which she agreed but said that as she did not know me she had not come to the door, I explained that if she was concerned we would have not set up and found another way of meeting the farmers request. I asked " If the gas gun did not disturb her " and she replied" I turn that off!!!"

She was going to call the Police, The Owner of the Ground and the Farmer. So we phoned the farmer to inform him of the situation and he said carry on but we decidet to move to another field. We packed up and moved to the other end of the farm and set up on a small five acre field next to a big wood. We were shooting by 15.00 and it started to rain and we packed up at 16.00. We had ninety one of the first field and twelve of the second. If we had not been disturbed it would have been a good one hundred and fifty bird day!!!!

 

 

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70 Pigeons
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26 Pigeons
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103 Pigeons

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37 minutes ago, Clodhopper said:

Top results again PC. Pity you had to put up with an idiot. Why do they think they can abuse people going about their lawful business.

Trouble is if you were in the right or wrong and this person felt in danger or was worried about gun fire you can expect a visit from the police , something I hate is shooting close to a built up area for this very reason , over the years I have gave up some decent land because I wouldn't be to keen to see a police officer walking over the field towards me .

I once had a fairly large area very close to where Lakeside who post on the forum live , it was a field of Peas that was surrounded by holiday chalets , when the farmer told me where this field was I had a walk around it and all I could smell was b b qs going on with people sunbathing in the gardens that was on the edge of the Peas , having walked all the way round there was no way I was going to shoot this field , even with a hide in the middle there would still been a danger of spent shot falling near or on the caravans , I rang the farmer and told him I didn't feel safe shooting on that field and he might be better off with putting a gas gun on it .

Anyhow I didn't think no more of it until a few weeks later I met up with another chap who go out that way on the neighbouring land , he then told me he rang this farmer up as he had seen these pigeons and no one was ever shooting them , he got the go ahead and was told to be careful , with him being a retired ex p c he thought he knew all the rules about gun fire , he set up and started to shoot straight away , after a couple of hours and having shot a nice lot of pigeons he then saw a blue light flashing coming down the road towards him , two officers got out and went straight over towards him , weather they knew each other that I don't know but apparently they had two reports of someone shooting towards the caravans and another said shot was falling on the caravans and they felt in danger , after trying to explain he was in the right they strongly advised him to pack up before the armed response guys would give him a visit . with this he took heed and called it a day .

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24 minutes ago, marsh man said:

Trouble is if you were in the right or wrong and this person felt in danger or was worried about gun fire you can expect a visit from the police , something I hate is shooting close to a built up area for this very reason , over the years I have gave up some decent land because I wouldn't be to keen to see a police officer walking over the field towards me .

I once had a fairly large area very close to where Lakeside who post on the forum live , it was a field of Peas that was surrounded by holiday chalets , when the farmer told me where this field was I had a walk around it and all I could smell was b b qs going on with people sunbathing in the gardens that was on the edge of the Peas , having walked all the way round there was no way I was going to shoot this field , even with a hide in the middle there would still been a danger of spent shot falling near or on the caravans , I rang the farmer and told him I didn't feel safe shooting on that field and he might be better off with putting a gas gun on it .

Anyhow I didn't think no more of it until a few weeks later I met up with another chap who go out that way on the neighbouring land , he then told me he rang this farmer up as he had seen these pigeons and no one was ever shooting them , he got the go ahead and was told to be careful , with him being a retired ex p c he thought he knew all the rules about gun fire , he set up and started to shoot straight away , after a couple of hours and having shot a nice lot of pigeons he then saw a blue light flashing coming down the road towards him , two officers got out and went straight over towards him , weather they knew each other that I don't know but apparently they had two reports of someone shooting towards the caravans and another said shot was falling on the caravans and they felt in danger , after trying to explain he was in the right they strongly advised him to pack up before the armed response guys would give him a visit . with this he took heed and called it a day .

I understand what your are saying MM, but in this instance it would appear that PC was not dropping shot on her property and made the effort to inform the occupant of his actions. 

Last spring I was followed and filmed by a trespasser on the farm who did not like me shooting crows. They also kept banging on about how it was illegal to shoot deer and that I would be reported to the local police for wildlife crimes. I told them that I would be only too happy to discuss it with the police, I never did get a visit.

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