November Stubble shoot

[martinj]

An old school friend who is a pigeon guide called me on Sunday and asked if I'd like to shoot the next day (Monday,) that's all the notice he ever gives. There would be four of us shooting. He had done the reconnaissance so I can't claim any credit.

I went in my mates car, we met Bill at about 8:15, he had been watching his field, (maize stubble) for 20 minutes and said there were 500 birds on it when he arrived. While we set him up between a couple of oak trees in a hedge row there were large groups of birds trying to get back onto the field, we left him facing south into the wind with a pigeon magnet and about 20 dead birds as decoys.

Next we drove 10 miles onto a large farm and met Ted, we set him up with his back to a hedge facing north - whirly and dead birds as before. The large field was old barley stubble, sloping away into a valley. While we were watching there was a steady stream of pigeons from behind - south - and maybe 600 mooching around to the north. Passing birds were already showing interest as we put the decoys out.

My turn, we drove about a mile to the west onto another Barley stubble field, my hide was erected in a hedge between two large oak trees, I was facing south into the wind, over a pigeon magnet and perhaps 15 dead birds, about 6 were on cradles. There were 5-600 birds on my field when we arrived and maybe 1000 on the horizon to the west. We all had instructions not to shoot at large groups, if they came in en masse just get out and show ourselves until they disappear, hopefully to straggle back in smaller numbers. I perched in the hide and things got off to a slow start, I was keen to get more dead birds out as the local birds were used to seeing hundreds at a time, I was shooting one or two then setting them up as I went along, with heads up on sticks. At about 12:00 I had to obey the no shooting rule as a hundred birds or so dropped into the decoys and surrounding trees, from then until 2:00-ish  there was a steady stream of pigeons from the south in groups of up to 25 or so. There was barely time to tidy up, there were heavy showers coming from the south, each shower pretty much stopped the flow of birds. I kept setting more birds out until there were about 40 decoys and I kept some in reserve in case I had to replace soggy birds with dry ones. I also wiped off the rain drops from the decoys a couple of times. My shooting was a bit erratic at first, I haven't shot many pigeons recently and clays aren't the best practise for this kind of shooting. I was shooting a lot of birds with the second shot, the odd left and right and enough misses to be annoyed with myself. Things gradually tailed off until my mate drove up about 3pm and we packed up.

We went to pack up Ted's setup, he had shot 112, I had shot 64, my mate shot 27 and Bill shot 12 - A very enjoyable day and I was pretty well knackered! We dropped the birds off at the game dealer's on the way home and picked up Bill's kit which he had left in a safe place before leaving for home.

Edited November 7, 2019 by martinj

[JDog]

A fine report of an excellent outing.

[martinj]

Thank you sir, it was my best day's pigeon shooting for a couple of years, probably more.

[dead eye alan]

Great report very nice read and enjoyable day out.

[Wilts#Dave]

Sounds like a great day! 
I had a similar bag a couple of weeks back on an old stubble, large flocks there too which can be really hard to shoot. 

[motty]

Sounds like a good day was had by all.

I personally would have shot at some of the fringe birds of any large flocks.

[martinj]

21 hours ago, motty said:

Sounds like a good day was had by all.

I personally would have shot at some of the fringe birds of any large flocks.

Yes, a good day thanks - if you shoot at fringe birds you still alert the whole flock and why should they come back? you'll only shoot two at most. I could afford to let them go and start shooting a couple of minutes later, it probably pays off but who can say for sure.

It's late in the year and we would not expect large numbers around here right now so every day is a bonus. He did it again on Friday and the group shot 300+. I drove him round on a recce yesterday (Monday) as his car was in for a service, there were far less birds around (unsurprisingly) but still enough, with good flight lines for another go this week, I did get the offer but sadly have to work sometimes.

Edited November 12, 2019 by martinj