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controlling pests {trying anyway}


aga man
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Not posted here for a while but noticed others are making the effort so here is my meagre contribution. I was asked during the week to try and thin out the local corvid population on the local dairy farm. Numbers have really increased here and the birds are really causing a nuisance, eating cattle feed and all of the other naughty things that corvids do. My temporary licence for crows had not arrived despite me applying over a month ago. After making a phone call it turned out I could shoot under the farmers temp licence {what a farce!} and the changed again the following day soo I needn't have bothered anyway!

The Rain cleared on Thursday and I set out my stall on a fresh cut silage field, the main flocked 400+ simply cleared off to another field but those that did come for a look paid the price and I shot 27 and 1 lovely passing pigeon. 19 of the corvids were Carrions so I felt is was a great result.

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Sunday I was set to have a couple of hours out with Wilksy as it has become tradition now for us to have a shot together on Fathers day. I had been watching my pea fields closely and was pleased to see 200 hundred pigeons on one field on Friday. Sadly they had moved off by Saturday pm for no apparent reason. With only 50 or so now feeding there and very little joining I knew that have a large busy looking pattern was our only chance of shooting a few. This worked quite well and although we didn't see many birds, what did come to the field decoyed well. We finished with 24 pigeons and a rook, all shot with steel. We had a lovely couple of hours once again.

Thanks for reading.

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6 hours ago, GingerCat said:

What steel do you use? How do you rate it against lead?

After trying a few, the best factory load for me and my gun is Gamebore super steel 32gm no 5. I use the steel for pigeons going into the falcon food chain. They kill well enough  out to 40 yds or so, but honestly I prefer to shoot with lead.

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Nice to see more reports coming in after a pretty lean time over the last few weeks , silage and corvids were made for each other and our fields when cut down the marsh are normally covered in the Black buggxxs , good of you to keep the numbers down a bit .

Yours Peas are the reverse to ours , I looked last night and the flowers are beginning to drop off and the small pods from a couple of days ago are now getting a lot bigger and I would have thought they are about three weeks from vineing , cant wait now we have got the o k on shooting on stubble .

In your bottom photo the clouds look a bit dubious and heavy rain is not to far away , still you boys from the North are pretty hardy and wont let a few drops of rain ruin your day out .

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Yes marsh man, that angry looking cloud was coming our way! Luckily i had a fishing umbrella with me which was put up breifly to keep us dry as the shower passed over.

We have peas here in other parts of the county that are close to vining but most on our patch at this stage. (3 weeks).

Pigeons are yet to show interest in any significant numbers on any of the fields.

Hope you get a shot on the pea stubble. I have had good bags on pea stuble in the past as im sure you have too.

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Thanks very much for yesterday Agaman, we had a good afternoon putting the world to rights and protecting crops! His tactics were spot on and the birds decoyed well, it was my first time using steel on pigeons and to be fair if your on them it kills well we had the odd hard hit bird flying on and needing a second barrel, and Agamans young dog Bob did well gathering up any walking wounded. 

All in all a good day with good company, hard to beat it! 

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Wilksy

 

Word of warning, shooting under cables with Steel.

I was on a duck drive last year using steel I'd shot a few and had been alongside the exact same cables and both myself and the gun next to me had shot at ducks in the vicinity of the cables.

An hour after leaving the field we drone past to find the Fire Brigade and numerous Electric company vehicles in the field, the cable was at this point snapped clean in half exactly where we had been shooting and it lost tension on the pylon as far back as we could see. I t also lead to a power cut in the local town. (which I won't mention) We shot on the Friday and the repair was not finished until Sunday.

The shoot owner spoke to the fire brigade later on after the shoot, who said they were called because it was like a ground level firework display with 14000 volts arcing out on the ground. In their eyes if anybody had been in the field when it came down they would have been lucky to get out alive.

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2 minutes ago, motty said:

Nice one, Aga. I like to hear/See what you are getting up to in the field. I reckon some big bags aren't far away for you.

Thanks motty, yeah hopefully have something bit more interesting/exciting to report next time🤞

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Good report. You have to be out to shoot them. 👍

I am out in the morning on flattened barley. Birds are allover it apparently 🙂 

Either way it's a duty shoot and my pay back time so even if there is not much out I will be there for a few hours at least. 

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3 hours ago, aga man said:

Hope you have a great day oowee, take a fishing umbrella if you have one. Wouldn't be without mine at the moment with all these heavy showers!

I agree. My brolly is now a permanent fixture in the truck!

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