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Shooting cut stubble


Lloyd90
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Went out last night as the farmer has recently cut the fields.

He cut the wheat last week and spoke to him / his wife yesterday and they last night cut the rape fields. 

 

I went down for a look about 1800 after work and must have lifted 150-200 birds off the wheat stubbles. 

I packed all my gear onto my back, and carried it across the field. 

Managed to get setup around 6pm ish and for a change took the semi auto. 

After getting setup to my surprise the birds started coming in, I had quite a lot fly past close and a few drop it. 

I have been using the OU almost exclusively lately and upon starting couldn’t hit a bloody thing with the semi 😣 I finally hit one and I think I just have been on 1 bird for about 15 shots!! At this point I was cursing the gun and saying how it would be up for sale that evening!!

Well thankfully after about half an hour I started to connect with a few and after a while I almost couldn’t miss. Perhaps not the gun after all. 

I started to drop some good birds and finished up about 2030. 

At the end I had managed to recover 11 birds and dropped 3 or so into the hedge / field behind me that I could not recover so finished on 14 for a counted 40 carts. Maybe I shouldn’t count the empties 😂 the OU certainly makes them easier to find. 

I spent a little while sweeping around looking for empties and any pigeons missed and then off home. 

Sadly I left my young springer at home, but it was so hot yesterday I didn’t dare take him along. 

The farmer also had cut 3 fields of rape yesterday so will need to find time to get back up there again this week. 

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Well done for getting out in the heat, 14 is a fair bag, I prefer not to count empties as it just frustrates me, worse is ripping off 3 at one bird only to watch it fly away, thankfully not too often.

I got out about 3.00 yesterday, went to where the barley was supposed to be combined but they were running late and had only just started, so I had to abort and went onto a very dry cut pea stubble where there had been a few birds, the first 2 hours was very slow in the bright sunshine , many birds just flying past at great speed, I managed to bring down 7 but was frustrated non were coming to the decoys, (about 18 dead birds plus the magnet), I reset the pattern a couple of times and around 5.30 it started to pay off with the odd bird committing straight into the pattern, as the evening went on it got busier and by 7.30 I had 19 picked with a couple lost, (sadly no dog to find them ),

The main landowner turned up for a look around and thanked me for putting in the hours, reckoned he had the best pea harvest for years thanks to a couple of us keeping the pigeons off, nice to be appreciated,

I started on 1/2 choke  with the birds being a bit standoffish, but as they started to commit I swapped to a 1/4 choke and that helped hit the close up ones a bit more often. got through about 28-30 cartridges for 21 down so not so bad. 

As I was packing away I had a huge flock of lapwings come in and also around 15 grey lag geese , mostly young birds obviously after the left over peas which are still growing in small patches all over the field , nice to see a bit more variety of wild life instead of just pigeons and crows.

 

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23 minutes ago, B725 said:

Nice couple of hour's, hope you saved a couple for training Ted. 👍

3 in the freezer mate 👍🏻 Although they may end up on the flapper when I go back up tomorrow. Gotta go feed the birds anyway. 

 

Might head up tonight for a look out as well see where they’re landing :) 

 

21 minutes ago, lakeside1000 said:

Well done for getting out in the heat, 14 is a fair bag, I prefer not to count empties as it just frustrates me, worse is ripping off 3 at one bird only to watch it fly away, thankfully not too often.

I got out about 3.00 yesterday, went to where the barley was supposed to be combined but they were running late and had only just started, so I had to abort and went onto a very dry cut pea stubble where there had been a few birds, the first 2 hours was very slow in the bright sunshine , many birds just flying past at great speed, I managed to bring down 7 but was frustrated non were coming to the decoys, (about 18 dead birds plus the magnet), I reset the pattern a couple of times and around 5.30 it started to pay off with the odd bird committing straight into the pattern, as the evening went on it got busier and by 7.30 I had 19 picked with a couple lost, (sadly no dog to find them ),

The main landowner turned up for a look around and thanked me for putting in the hours, reckoned he had the best pea harvest for years thanks to a couple of us keeping the pigeons off, nice to be appreciated,

I started on 1/2 choke  with the birds being a bit standoffish, but as they started to commit I swapped to a 1/4 choke and that helped hit the close up ones a bit more often. got through about 28-30 cartridges for 21 down so not so bad. 

As I was packing away I had a huge flock of lapwings come in and also around 15 grey lag geese , mostly young birds obviously after the left over peas which are still growing in small patches all over the field , nice to see a bit more variety of wild life instead of just pigeons and crows.

 

Sounds class that mate :) I was using 1/4 but when I got home I swapped it over to 1/2 - although debated with myself whether cylinder would be better 🤷‍♂️😂 

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I try to judge average range, if they are closer,for instance when they are decoying well, say 30 to 40 yards its a slightly better spread with 1/4, but when there are a lot of high birds and ones staying out on the edge of the pattern over 45 yards I like the extra dense pattern of 1/2, it makes short range a bit harder to hit and damage to the bird is increased but I have a hushpower sound moderator fitted to my extended 1/2 choke which is nicer to use, no ear defenders necessary, so I try to use that as much as possible. 

I made the mistake of buying ( some time ago) a Remington 3 shot with a skeet barrel, I could not believe the amount of birds out at 30 yards plus that just shook their tales and flew off, I quickly sold it and bought my Beretta Urika 2 with interchangeable chokes, never looked back and never use less than a 1/4 choke.

Edited by lakeside1000
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21 hours ago, ninjaferret said:

14 for 40 lol lol  wonder how many you didn't find as a semi spits them everywhere

 

All picked up mate spent extra time looking to ensure nothing left behind 👍🏻

 

Used my usual OU the next day had a much better hit ratio, stick to that one gun now I think 👍🏻

Edited by Lloyd90
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