Shooting in the Rain

[pigeon controller]

Friday

I had a call on Friday morning from DB, work had been called off , so he was able to go shooting. The decoys were still frozen, so I loaded the Disco and made the flasks and picked him up at 09.00 in the steady rain. We drove out to a maize field to find nothing except standing maize. We saw no birds flighting except crows. We found a maize field that had been cut late on in the week due to the amount of mud on the road it must have been difficult. All it had on it was corvids not one pigeon. We looked at the voluteer rape we shot last week, not a bird.

The rain started to ease and we were in an area we do not shoot that much due to it being turned into numerous livery yards and horse grazing. As we pulled up in a gateway to scan a wood we suddenly came aware of approx one hundred pigeons on the hawthorns . Now this is an old victorian farm that has all of its land in approx five acre paddocks, all of them bordered by stockproof hawthorn hedges. Now these hedges have not been cut for years and the result is tall hawthorns bending double with the weight of berries. The pigeons not ones to miss an oportunity were having a feast.

The plan was to phone the farmer, then as we had no decoys to walk either side of the hedge and try a shoot some decoys also move the feeding birds from the area with the shots and then set up or pattern. The area had various flightlines coming in from different directions which led us to believe they had been on this food source for a few days. So permission granted, walked the field five decoys shot and hide set up behind the brolly in the hedge between two fields. Magnet set up and three other decoys on spikes. It was now 12.30 and the returning birds came to the decoys within range and we increased the size of the pattern to ten on spikes the next ten went the otherside of the hedge on the next field with two flyers.

The wind and rain was fierce but we were dry in the shelter of the brolly and the birds came at regular intervals until we packed up at 16.45 and picked up eightyone pigeons.

Saturday

We went out today at 09.00 and covered one hundred and twenty miles in the constant heavy rain, drove through many flooded roads and located the rape fields on eight farms. we saw limited amounts of pigeons but nothing worth setting up for. We reurned home at 14.30 and the dog was disgusted that we had taken him for a RIDE with two pee and one poo stops!!!

It was interesting to see the different stages of growth on the rape with the flea beetle leaving its mark on some and others four inches high.

81 Pigeons

[TIGHTCHOKE]

Great result in poor weather

[JDog]

You had no decoys? That is as bad as me running out of cartridges.

[pigeon controller]

3 minutes ago, JDog said:

You had no decoys? That is as bad as me running out of cartridges.

No that's " Confidence" 

[Wooder]

Great read interesting about the hawthorn berries, well done for getting out in the rain.

[kenholland]

hawthorn bush In next doors garden , stripped it bare inside 2 weeks , opportunity knocks for you once more , well done .

[lakeside1000]

Well written, thanks for that, and for reminding me, I have just one location where there has always been birds on the hawthorn berries and I had completely forgotten about them, so needless to say where I will be on Monday at least its worth a look, I usually do the same, walk and shoot the hedge first before setting up, still a lot of birds in the old stubble as well around here but better left until mid afternoon as they seem to like it as a last top up before roosting.

[figgy]

Good day and nice write up.

[Clodhopper]

As always, a nice account of your days out. It appears to be a very good year for Hawthorn berries in my part of the world. Not shot any pigeons on them yet but will be looking over the next week or two for an opportunity.

[muncher]

Well done PC, nice write up.

[marsh man]

I think for most of us who are in a lower division would have opened the door , seeing how hard it was raining and promptly shut it without going outside , but not the man from the Midlands who take whatever the weather is all in his stride and just carry on regardless , well done on the Fridays bag and you certainly deserved better results yesterday .

We got away with a more or less dry morning and an early afternoon , then it started to rain on the sixth and last drive which didn't make that much difference , my luck was slightly better than yours as I won the sweep which was £21 , the good lord knew who need it the most

[pigeon controller]

46 minutes ago, marsh man said:

I think for most of us who are in a lower division would have opened the door , seeing how hard it was raining and promptly shut it without going outside , but not the man from the Midlands who take whatever the weather is all in his stride and just carry on regardless , well done on the Fridays bag and you certainly deserved better results yesterday .

We got away with a more or less dry morning and an early afternoon , then it started to rain on the sixth and last drive which didn't make that much difference , my luck was slightly better than yours as I won the sweep which was £21 , the good lord knew who need it the most

Well done, result.