Start times

[martinj]

Here's something I haven't seen mentioned while perusing this site, I have a friend who is a pigeon guide and, during the winter months, even now, he sets his clients up at daybreak so they are ready for action at sunrise. He will have done his homework and, from experience, will know where to set people up. They get the majority of their action in the first few hours of the day. If it's all over by 10:00am they have the choice of leaving or staying on, they often get good bags, he has some maize where it has been producing 100+ bags once a week fairly consistently and he's doing the last one today.

The maize consists of his game strips which are all concentrated on a 30 acre area, to keep it going he'll smash small sections every week until it's all gone, even then he'll top it up with broken maize cobs.

It's not only maize that he shoots over, he has plenty of choice, all he needs to do is find the birds. I might add, that I don't find this as much fun as setting up in the day and shooting until tea time, I have been out with him on occasions, (it wasn't always successful,) and it feels strange to be on the way home at 10:00am. He finds enough people who are interested enough to do it.

[pigeon controller]

I've always found that setting up at dawn you get the first birds out of roost and the shooting can be hectic but they move off enbloc and find other food so it is all over at approx 10.00. If you set up on the field at approx 12.00 they will return all afternoon. That's my findings.

[martinj]

That's interesting and I for one would rather shoot in the afternoon than at some god forsaken time in the morning.

Knowing this chap, he does it for a reason, he's been doing the job for about 45 years and knows his stuff. (I'm not saying you don't ) I think he scores when birds are not feeding in the afternoons, he likes his kip as much as the rest of us

[marsh man]

I used to go a lot early in the mornings , more so during the Summer months and I well remember once getting a pigeon on the stroke of 4 o clock in the morning , this was on Peas and it would have been around the last week in June , I would often get three hours shooting before I went to work and as soon as I finished work I would then go and set up for a couple of hours before a late dinner .

Now my early mornings and any mornings come to that are long over and now it is very rare I go during the a m period , I might well look during late morning and the earliest I set up is just after mid day and a bit later as the days get longer.

I now look at it , what pigeons I don't no longer get in the morning I might get the same ones later on during the day , well that my theory , at least I now get a good nights sleep

[motty]

I have often had good results at this time of year on rape or maize when starting at first light. I think it was about 12 years ago when I shot the same rape field about 5 times in as many weeks - each for scores of over 100. I can't remember each day without consulting my diary, but I remember the first day I shot 138, and off home by 11.30.

If what you do works, keep doing it. If something doesn't work, change it.

I must admit to less early starts these days, but I do still get out for first light.

[JDog]

For the last three days of roaming around I have seen very little pigeon movement in the mornings (admittedly not first light), but plenty from 2pm onwards.

[martinj]

There you have it, if you take away the sheer unpleasantness of getting up early the option is there to be explored, admittedly not by me, although I have done it and it works (when you get things right.)

I'm sure nearby residents would look upon the activity favourably

[dead eye alan]

21 hours ago, martinj said:

There you have it, if you take away the sheer unpleasantness of getting up early the option is there to be explored, admittedly not by me, although I have done it and it works (when you get things right.)

I'm sure nearby residents would look upon the activity favourably

Get a hushpower! 😎

[martinj]

To be fair to the afore mentioned pigeon guide, he will phone up the local constabulary to say who he is and what he's doing, they give him a reference number in case he or his clients get a visit by the police. There are never any problems if he plays it by the book, even if someone does complain about the noise.

Naturally he doesn't go asking for trouble and keeps a reasonable distance from residential areas.