985 pigeons in a day

[NatureBoy]

49 minutes ago, kitchrat said:

Surely a picture or video of a grey horde lifting off a rape or pea field would be better PR than a heap of dead pigeons which are unlikely to all find their way into the food chain??

By the way, how would you move that many, must have a fleet of pick-up trucks....

Even better! That would make  great before and after pics! Pest control is what we do! It's not a guilty secret!  Never a better time for us all to step up engage with and educate folk about how and why we do what we do and the wider countryside! Try it! It's surprising how many folk agree understand why and get it! Especially if you are offering them  FREE wild food that's a bit different they may never have tried before! Not all are sucked in by the negative press! It;s easy for us to get down about it all! Get behind and support our orgs! Particularly  SBS and CRT! They doing great fact/science based  stuff  that don't get enough publicity!    NB

[motty]

1 hour ago, kitchrat said:

Surely a picture or video of a grey horde lifting off a rape or pea field would be better PR than a heap of dead pigeons which are unlikely to all find their way into the food chain??

By the way, how would you move that many, must have a fleet of pick-up trucks....

All of the 985 were taken to the game dealer. Two pick up trucks would easily manage that lot, if not just one.

[zipdog]

The general public do not even like to think their meat which they buy from Tesco’s, and thoroughly enjoy eating, was once an animal that has been killed and put into a packet. What on earth makes people think they will sympathise  and connect with a heap of a 1000 dead pigeons? They won’t, they don’t want to think about, or know about, the killing bit of the process. 

 

[zipdog]

If when I went to Mc Donald’s I was greeted with a display board of a man with a bolt gun grinning and stood on top of a 1000 dead cattle and underneath saying Welcome To Mc Donalds I would think differently about ordering my burger. That photo on Facebook is a welcome to pigeon shooting to the Average Joe who’s never tried shooting!! Not good advertising!!

Edited July 23, 2019 by zipdog

[JRDS]

On 23/07/2019 at 17:26, motty said:

All of the 985 were taken to the game dealer. Two pick up trucks would easily manage that lot, if not just one.

And about 800 were probably green.

[yickdaz]

35 minutes ago, JRDS said:

And about 800 were probably green.

and it sounds like you are with envy

[motty]

23 hours ago, zipdog said:

If when I went to Mc Donald’s I was greeted with a display board of a man with a bolt gun grinning and stood on top of a 1000 dead cattle and underneath saying Welcome To Mc Donalds I would think differently about ordering my burger. That photo on Facebook is a welcome to pigeon shooting to the Average Joe who’s never tried shooting!! Not good advertising!!

Sorry, but your analogy falls down. Nobody goes to a field of barley to eat pigeons!

38 minutes ago, JRDS said:

And about 800 were probably green.

What are you talking about?  Have you ever shot pigeons before?

[Harnser]

56 minutes ago, motty said:

Sorry, but your analogy falls down. Nobody goes to a field of barley to eat pigeons!

What are you talking about?  Have you ever shot pigeons before?

I think what he is saying is that if you shot that many birds in a day due to the numbers they wouldn’t be laid out to to cool in the field and would be left we’re they were shot . This would encourage them to start to rot . They would tend to go green around the vent and become unfit to eat . It doesn’t take long this time of the year .

harnset

[motty]

19 minutes ago, Harnser said:

I think what he is saying is that if you shot that many birds in a day due to the numbers they wouldn’t be laid out to to cool in the field and would be left we’re they were shot . This would encourage them to start to rot . They would tend to go green around the vent and become unfit to eat . It doesn’t take long this time of the year .

harnset

There is no reason to assume that they turned green. For starters, the temperature was far cooler than it is now.

[zipdog]

16 hours ago, motty said:

Sorry, but your analogy falls down. Nobody goes to a field of barley to eat pigeons!

No and most people don't go to Mc Donalds because they are staving and there is no other choice. Im sure 99.9% of their customers have other food products at home. But Mcdonlads positive branding and advertising makes people want their product, or try it at least  

The point is Mc Donalds media coverage would prevent such an adverting campaign because it is not what the public like to see.

If we want people to try pigeon shooting, agree with pigeon shooting, or be sympathetic to our cause, posting a picture of 1000 dead pigeons is not positive. Just like Mc Donalds we need to be selling and showing photos of the experience, the countryside views, the fresh air,  the you vs nature bit. Not photos of a pile of dead animals. 

 

[marsh man]

Pigeon shooting always was and unfortunately always will be a numbers game , we are all partly to blame for that , like most members on here we have a P B ( personal best ) and when the day arrive where we get close to it the sport side goes out of the window as the only thing on the mind is creating a new P B , as we all know , shooting over stubble's is not one of the hardest forms of pigeon shooting , you can easily go to where the pigeons want to be and the young pigeon population are out in force and following the parents to the feeding grounds , and on a good day , numbers will create numbers , the more you put out the more will come in .

Then for some of us we get to the stage where our own P B don't no longer mean a thing, as in my case I know for a fact I will never beat it and I have no intention to even try , it is now about sport and whatever I get in a few hours in the afternoon I am more than happy with .

After the recent scare and pigeon shooting on stubble was one of the main problems the different shooting organisations had to iron out, is it now really necessary to lay out a huge bag of pigeons to wind up the ones who opposed and the majority of the general public , ?? 

[aga man]

I can see both sides of the argument regarding displaying the bag. Personally I have always seen it similar to an angler showing a photo of their prize catch, a certain amount of fieldcraft and expertise is no doubt involved even though the chap in question is obviously in highly populated pigeon area.

Sadly our nation is increasingly becoming more and more populated with folk who have no understanding of was goes on in controlling pest populations.

Worth adding though that the pictures were shown on a closed pigeon group were only members can see, most of which are pigeon shooters , so not exactly there for the general public to see.

[Maxus Hunter]

Hada agree mith Motty on this 1, he's talking sense, unfortunately the pigeon numbers aren't to the same scale in northern Ireland as they are over with u guys but 1 farmer was on fone crying out for help during the week cause they were on his wheat field, shot a few last night to keep him happy but I'll be out all day Saturday to get as many as possible, we shot just over 💯 last Saturday in a neighbouring field as well so yes they need controlled 

[Hamster]

The only way you can hide these kinds of pictures is to not take them in the first place, imagine if we all made a conscious effort to only show these pics to one another in very closed secretive meetings ! Eventually some anti would get hold of them and use the fact we are secretive about it as a sign we are ashamed of it ! 

[motty]

W

12 hours ago, marsh man said:

Pigeon shooting always was and unfortunately always will be a numbers game , we are all partly to blame for that , like most members on here we have a P B ( personal best ) and when the day arrive where we get close to it the sport side goes out of the window as the only thing on the mind is creating a new P B , as we all know , shooting over stubble's is not one of the hardest forms of pigeon shooting , you can easily go to where the pigeons want to be and the young pigeon population are out in force and following the parents to the feeding grounds , and on a good day , numbers will create numbers , the more you put out the more will come in .

Then for some of us we get to the stage where our own P B don't no longer mean a thing, as in my case I know for a fact I will never beat it and I have no intention to even try , it is now about sport and whatever I get in a few hours in the afternoon I am more than happy with .

After the recent scare and pigeon shooting on stubble was one of the main problems the different shooting organisations had to iron out, is it now really necessary to lay out a huge bag of pigeons to wind up the ones who opposed and the majority of the general public , ?? 

Whatever your view, there is no chance that the majority of the general public are opposed to shooting!

[marsh man]

1 hour ago, motty said:

W

Whatever your view, there is no chance that the majority of the general public are opposed to shooting!

Are you saying if that photo of nearly 1000 pigeons shot on a none crop field was on the front page of one of the daily papers you would get very little comment from the general public. ??

Aga man was saying the photo was only for like minded members , how hard ( or easy ) is it for any body to come a member , like this forum really , answer a few questions and you are a member.

As a small instance , many years ago I used to sell a few duck to a chap who had a stall on the Yarmouth market , these were hung up on a Saturday and at first everything was fine , then he started to get the odd complaint about the dead birds hanging up , after a while he got that much hassle  he stopped selling them .

Then moving on to a few years ago I sold some pigeons most weeks to a butcher in the same place , these were hung up in his shop  as some of his customers liked to pluck them themselves , then the moaning started again about dead birds hanging up so he kept them in the feather in the fridge , within a few weeks the health officers moved in and told he can no longer put them in the fridge with other meat , so not been beaten by the pen pushers he took them home and plucked them in the garden , this only lasted a short while as his neighbours complained when he burnt the feathers , we have to face facts we are now living in a totally different era and the public are offended seeing dead animals and birds , like it or not , this is something we have got to learn to live with .

[yickdaz]

2 hours ago, marsh man said:

Are you saying if that photo of nearly 1000 pigeons shot on a none crop field was on the front page of one of the daily papers you would get very little comment from the general public. ??

Aga man was saying the photo was only for like minded members , how hard ( or easy ) is it for any body to come a member , like this forum really , answer a few questions and you are a member.

As a small instance , many years ago I used to sell a few duck to a chap who had a stall on the Yarmouth market , these were hung up on a Saturday and at first everything was fine , then he started to get the odd complaint about the dead birds hanging up , after a while he got that much hassle  he stopped selling them .

Then moving on to a few years ago I sold some pigeons most weeks to a butcher in the same place , these were hung up in his shop  as some of his customers liked to pluck them themselves , then the moaning started again about dead birds hanging up so he kept them in the feather in the fridge , within a few weeks the health officers moved in and told he can no longer put them in the fridge with other meat , so not been beaten by the pen pushers he took them home and plucked them in the garden , this only lasted a short while as his neighbours complained when he burnt the feathers , we have to face facts we are now living in a totally different era and the public are offended seeing dead animals and birds , like it or not , this is something we have got to learn to live with .

Well that's it the shooting forums are closed groups, but some anti's do get on them  and steal the pics somehow, I see both sides as well but what do you hide away from what we do and make it look all cloak and dagger and seedy, you stop doing what you have always done wild justice will have won simple as that

And why should we change our ways to suit other people, why can't they change their ways instead 

[Mightymariner]

4 hours ago, motty said:

W

Whatever your view, there is no chance that the majority of the general public are opposed to shooting!

I would agree with that. I would say the most of the general public are completely indifferent to shooting - and their attitude to shooting depends on where they live, their upbringing and many other factors.

[motty]

2 hours ago, marsh man said:

Are you saying if that photo of nearly 1000 pigeons shot on a none crop field was on the front page of one of the daily papers you would get very little comment from the general public. ??

Aga man was saying the photo was only for like minded members , how hard ( or easy ) is it for any body to come a member , like this forum really , answer a few questions and you are a member.

As a small instance , many years ago I used to sell a few duck to a chap who had a stall on the Yarmouth market , these were hung up on a Saturday and at first everything was fine , then he started to get the odd complaint about the dead birds hanging up , after a while he got that much hassle  he stopped selling them .

Then moving on to a few years ago I sold some pigeons most weeks to a butcher in the same place , these were hung up in his shop  as some of his customers liked to pluck them themselves , then the moaning started again about dead birds hanging up so he kept them in the feather in the fridge , within a few weeks the health officers moved in and told he can no longer put them in the fridge with other meat , so not been beaten by the pen pushers he took them home and plucked them in the garden , this only lasted a short while as his neighbours complained when he burnt the feathers , we have to face facts we are now living in a totally different era and the public are offended seeing dead animals and birds , like it or not , this is something we have got to learn to live with .

I did say "majority".

[Harnser]

8 hours ago, motty said:

W

Whatever your view, there is no chance that the majority of the general public are opposed to shooting!

If there was a referendum to ban all shooting and gun ownership the public would vote to ban shooting and guns . Gun owners and shooting are in a very very small minority 

harnset

[marsh man]

2 hours ago, motty said:

I did say "majority".

As we have just recently seen where a very small team of guys left all the shooting organisations in a situation where nobody thought would ever be possible , how on earth could three or four people put paid to something we have been doing for years without any opposition ? , apparently dead easy , they found a loop hole and virtually overnight what we had taken for granted for most of our lives was in jeopardy of rules and regulations we have never had to contend with , or at worse some forms of pigeon shooting could have been put in the history books.

These people will not stop at the first hurdle , and these are only a very , very small majority who are against shooting . 

[motty]

3 hours ago, Harnser said:

If there was a referendum to ban all shooting and gun ownership the public would vote to ban shooting and guns . Gun owners and shooting are in a very very small minority 

harnset

That is not what I said, though.

[Whitebridges]

Apologies, i'm a bit off the pace with this thread. I've now managed to read it through.

Things change over time, not least peoples opinions. Let's step back a while. We had Archie Coates, A.E.B. Johnson and Jim Albone etc. etc.

They killed a hell of a lot of pigeons. They made it absolutely clear why they shot all those birds. The purpose and reason was to put FOOD and DRINK in to the mouths of our people.

Barley / Beer and Whisky

Rape / Oilseed for cooks

Wheat / Bread

Sugar Beet / Sugar

Cabbage, Sprouts, Kale, peas / Greens 

etc. etc. etc....

Today we are dumb, dumber than dumb, in general terms. The mass populace have no connection with the countryside, they are absolutely oblivious as to what key things need to take place to put food and drink on our tables. Our countryside associations such as the BASC are poor at best when it comes to educating the uninitiated about the facts and benefits of shooting No 1 agricultural pest.....WOODPIGEON

We need to start influencing Hearts and Minds ***.              

      

      

[Harnser]

1 hour ago, motty said:

That is not what I said, though.

I am sorry Motty, I must have misunderstood what you said . What did you mean .

harnser

[motty]

1 hour ago, Harnser said:

I am sorry Motty, I must have misunderstood what you said . What did you mean .

harnser

Gun owners may be in the minority, but the majority of the general public don't oppose shooting. For instance, I am the only gun owner on my street (as far as I am aware). Most people on my street know that I shoot live quarry and have no problem with it. Same with the people I work with.