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What a Difference a Day Makes


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Last Sunday we had the call out on some barley stubble but I had a post wedding family dinner so DB turned out after the rain had stopped with a slab of shells. He chose his shots and delivered two hundred and forty four pigeons, some shooting.

Monday I had a call that the rape had been cut help yourself, so on Friday DB and I set out to look at the rape. This Farm has ten large fields of rape so we drove the the seven that were cut and it had birds all over them, so we watched for a flightline. To be honest the birds were coming from all directions, realy high then dropping into the fields. So we set up between two fields with the wind off our backs and the main flight line left to right we knew the sun would be a problem later on. We had a magnet on both fields for movement but the decoys to our left. We were set up for 12.00 and the first bird in landed in the decoys so we thought we were in for a good day. The first hour was busy but then it tailed off and the wind changed direction in our face and the birds were flighting further down to our left  to the furthest rape field. So drove the Disco down through the five other fields to spook the birds. I did two circuits of the lower field the put the fear of god into the pigeons. I parked up to see if they return, I could hear DB "missing a few". Now this field has  Green Damsons which I picked a few plastic bags full in past years when it was barley much to the delight of Mrs PC who is a " Jam and Jerusalem " member ( WI). I walked over to see if they were any good and all the lower branches had been eaten, suspect Deer. The next field on another farm was barley stubble and covered, so I had and accidental discharge which lifted a good three hundred birds, two of which were low enough for me to hit !!!

I did this twice for same effect. The keeper contacted me by phone and aske me to not shoot the lower field as he had his poults in the adjacent wood. We called it a day at 18.00 and we picked up seventyseven birds, we suspect it had been shot in the week.

So today, Saturday we set out at 09.00 and drove to the barley stubble that DB had shot last Sunday. As we drove down the grass to the field we could see birds down and lots of birds flighting to it. So we set up on a hedge with the sun behind us and a cooling breeze off our backs. Last week DB had taken in his magnet as the birds did not seem to like it , so this week we would employ the Remote  FF6 Auto Bouncer as a trial. DB is very wary of any new fangle bits and bobs but we use to have four manual flappers working from the hide 25 years ago, the dog use to keep running through the strings and causing mayhem.  We were all set up for 11.00 and the birds were coming to the decoys with the Disco parked in front.

The birds came to the decoys without the use of the flapper but as the day went on the flapper was bringing birds to us from all corners of the field. You could see a distinct change in direction  when we opperated it. Its all about movement . We had carp sacks hanging on the fence to get the wind through them to cool the birds and prevent fly blow. We had three with a hundred birds in each when we decided to split and I moved down the hedge about sixty yards  to maximise on the last hour as up to then we had been shooting in turns from the same hide. We stopped shooting at 17.00 as the dark clouds were coming across to us. We picked up four hundred and one pigeons so a fantstic day, just as we left the field it started to rain. I got home and loaded the four Freezers with the birds and managed to have my Spagboll 8.45 and just two pints of cider, as I may have been dehydrated !!!!

I'm not normally in the UK for the stubbles but it is fantastic shooting much easier than the December Rape Fields!!

 

I hope you enjoy my ramblings and I hope it gives some insight as to how we go about our shooting which at times can be frought with concerns but at the endo of the day " You Get what you Get"

 

 

 

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77 pigeons
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401 pigeons

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1 hour ago, Old farrier said:

Nice read well done 

look forward to your new each week 

a question if I may 

i noticed your hide netting is very thick 

do you think it’s important not to be able to see through it? 

All the best 

of 

As you may be aware the hide is homemade out of strips of material and is quite translucent, we see the birds at distance and watch through the top edge of the hide as we do not sit for shooting , standing all day. Movement is the killer , as I've stated before Move,mount and Shoot.

1 hour ago, JDog said:

Two very good outings and a good report.

Prepare for the backlash from those delicate souls who have strong views and opinions about shooting large bags but who have never actually been out shooting themselves.

It's OK , JDog I'm a thick Brummie, Beaky Blinder !!!!

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Edited by pigeon controller
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6 minutes ago, marsh man said:

Excellent report , this must be close onto a all time high bag on P W ? , do you normally cool the Pigeons off overnight or put a large bag straight into the freezers ?

Normally I lay out in garage with a roof mounted fan running overnight and one layer in each freezer. Hanging the carp sacks on the fences in the shade with the strong breeze blowing through them cooled them enough to put straight into the freezer with frozen bags of fifty pigeons on top. I have a scientific vertical freezer with elements between shelves which take twenty five birds in crates which goes down to -25C and holds 175 birds which I transfer to bags of fifty when frozen for storage.

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11 minutes ago, pigeon controller said:

Normally I lay out in garage with a roof mounted fan running overnight and one layer in each freezer. Hanging the carp sacks on the fences in the shade with the strong breeze blowing through them cooled them enough to put straight into the freezer with frozen bags of fifty pigeons on top. I have a scientific vertical freezer with elements between shelves which take twenty five birds in crates which goes down to -25C and holds 175 birds which I transfer to bags of fifty when frozen for storage.

Well Done both of you.

Do you dampen the sacks to increase the cooling effect.

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4 hours ago, muncher said:

PC, were they all **** with steel shot?

Yes, delivered frozen today.

6 hours ago, dead eye alan said:

I'M AMAZED,  and you didn't run out of cartridges! best get on to proper cartridges and place an order NOW! :good:  

I am having to shoot steel at present as I do not have an outlet for lead shot, George does not make steel at present.

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30 minutes ago, Old farrier said:

Couple of politically correct picture from my days crop protection 🙄

In comparison to pc pictures and post they are mega boaring 

well done on some good days never tire of your posts 😊

hopefully you don’t mind me adding some pictures for the snowflakes 😞

all the best 

of 

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E9F1A3D5-5357-4FB1-8ED4-6ACBEFB10E29.jpeg

So that was the start , what was the finish.???

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