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Back on the clover


motty
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Jules happened to be in Tenerife on Saturday, so I asked his brother (Gerard) if he wanted to join me for some shooting if I found some birds. He agreed, stating that he would scout some fields, too. I decided to go looking after work on Friday, thinking an hour should be enough to find something worthwhile. After less than 5 miles and the first field looked at, my search was over. I thought I might have to go to one of the further farms, checking the barley, but it was to be the clover that would be my field of choice for the following day. There must have been in excess of 600 pigeons on the ground, with more joining as I watched. That was all I needed to see. I also saw plenty of corvids, but not as many as when the field was cut, just shy of a fortnight ago.

Gerard was late as usual. The 9am meet up time was loosely adhered to. He arrived around 45 minutes later, to find me all set up around a pit hole, with a few birds down.

I had hinted the day before that I was expecting at least 50, possibly 100 but my early shooting didn't help our cause of maximising the bag. I was using my Beretta Silver pigeon 4, which I had not used for some time. I took it out for some practice, as the Wash wildfowlers' inter-club clay shoot is in a fortnight. I wasn't shooting terribly,  but I was getting singles where perhaps I should have got pairs.  I did improve, however.

To be honest, we both shot pretty well throughout the day, using all sorts of different cartridges. We used lead, steel and some tin that I wanted to use up. The tin wasn't as bad a performer as we had expected, providing the birds weren't too far out. The pigeons came from mainly one line, which is one of the most reliable I know. They came in singles and pairs mainly, with the odd larger bunch. I used the semi later on to try to get some triples. I failed twice in a row, getting just two each time.

I had expected to see more corvids try to get back to the field,  but we made pay the only ones to come close enough.

By 3pm, we had certainly had the best of it, and decided to pack up at half past. It had been a great day, made even better By the fact that the weather had been kind.

We finished with 154 pigeons, 1 crow, 1 rook and a jackdaw.

 

WP_20190615_001.jpg

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3 minutes ago, muncher said:

I'm sure you save that field untill I'm unavailable 😭 well done though ,I'm surprised you expected Farmergeddon to be on time.

I did expect him to be on time, really. Maybe there will be another go on there before the birds move onto the barley etc.

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15 hours ago, Shotguneddy said:

Clover is that crop protection is it

Protecting the next or adjacent crop. All perfectly legal under GL36.

Not grown for animal feed in this neck of the woods, only appears in horse paddocks, hence my comment regards adjacent crop, but agree where grown specifically for animal feed then it is a protectable crop.

OB

Edited by Old Boggy
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I was just wondering as I have a field with clover also with a lot of pigeons feeding on it, I haven't had the time to keep up, and haven't yet been out since the New new licenses I will make sure I read properly and understand first, then I shall have ago, thanks great bag to

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8 minutes ago, JDog said:

Very good Maestro. That field is a pigeon magnet.

Some of the responses on this and other posts just show how ignorant some people are about farming practices and the new General Licence.

I agree , Clover was and still is a brilliant crop to shoot over , sadly due to a lot of the dairy farmers round here selling there dairy herds and versifying into other ways to make a living there is now very little Clover grown for commercial use ,  still it's good to hear the North Norfolk boys are up and running and I dare say we will hear about several more big bags before to long , more so now Muncher have charged his batteries up and will be eager to exercise his trigger finger when he get back from his holidays . 

As you say about the response regarding the G L and some members knowledge about farming practices , can you really wonder why some of them are struggling to obtain permissions ?  

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1 hour ago, marsh man said:

I agree , Clover was and still is a brilliant crop to shoot over , sadly due to a lot of the dairy farmers round here selling there dairy herds and versifying into other ways to make a living there is now very little Clover grown for commercial use ,  still it's good to hear the North Norfolk boys are up and running and I dare say we will hear about several more big bags before to long , more so now Muncher have charged his batteries up and will be eager to exercise his trigger finger when he get back from his holidays . 

As you say about the response regarding the G L and some members knowledge about farming practices , can you really wonder why some of them are struggling to obtain permissions ?  Never seen cannons bangers flags etc on clover mate that's y I asked

 

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Sorry I'm not a no it all, like some on this topic, just saying never seen bangers,cannons,flags etc on a field of clover that's y I asked the question if u had actually read my post I said I hadn't had time to get upto date and haven't been out for a while and I've never shot over it,

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dont know if im speaking above my pay grade here...............but as i see it...anything that is growing out of the ground is there for either 

  1. human consumption
  2. beast consumption
  3. soil improver..(nitryfing bacteria on clover noduales par ex')
  4. chitting seed for #1 or effective weed control)
  5. protection of flora for bees
  6. for human use...(daffs etc ..linseed..etc)
  7. Biofuel crops

 

:hmm:

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9 hours ago, Shotguneddy said:

Sorry I'm not a no it all, like some on this topic, just saying never seen bangers,cannons,flags etc on a field of clover that's y I asked the question if u had actually read my post I said I hadn't had time to get upto date and haven't been out for a while and I've never shot over it,

Clover is generally grown as a feed for livestock both for fattening and milk production. Also used to fix nitrogen in the soil. Pigeons love it and obviously a lot of them can deplete the crop, hence crop protection.

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On 17/06/2019 at 21:47, muncher said:

I'm sure you save that field untill I'm unavailable 😭 well done though ,I'm surprised you expected Farmergeddon to be on time.

He wasn't late,  he based his arrival time on mottys usual time keeping 😂

When are you taking me motty?!

Edited by Big Mat
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