Homemade Hide Netting

[Suveran]

Hi all

first post for me..

I'm looking to make a homemade /custom , second, outer hide net to hang in front of my existing ghost net for extra concealment.

ive looked through various different ready made nets and can’t find anything that really suits or satisfies my obsessive hide building condition.

im trying to create something that will blend with the lower part of the local hedge row flora and fauna, so would need to be a long grass, nettle kind of effect for the lower two thirds of the hide, if you get where I’m coming from. I know the obvious would be to use the natural vegetation but just looking to create something that will blend and can’t just be attached with ease and speed  for the shorter sessions.

Have been looking to create something using ghillie suit materials and other natural looking fibres on a black nylon net.

Has anybody ever had a go at this and was it worth the extra hassle..

 

 

 

[TIGHTCHOKE]

Have a search for Pigeon Controllers Naked Hide thread from a while back.

[Westley]

35 minutes ago, Suveran said:

Hi all

first post for me..

I'm looking to make a homemade /custom , second, outer hide net to hang in front of my existing ghost net for extra concealment.

ive looked through various different ready made nets and can’t find anything that really suits or satisfies my obsessive hide building condition.

im trying to create something that will blend with the lower part of the local hedge row flora and fauna, so would need to be a long grass, nettle kind of effect for the lower two thirds of the hide, if you get where I’m coming from. I know the obvious would be to use the natural vegetation but just looking to create something that will blend and can’t just be attached with ease and speed  for the shorter sessions.

Have been looking to create something using ghillie suit materials and other natural looking fibres on a black nylon net.

Has anybody ever had a go at this and was it worth the extra hassle..

 

 

 

No and er.......No   !

I really do not believe that a hide needs to be 'invisible' , I have seen more pigeons shy away from movement inside the hide than from the hide itself. I have shot many pigeons without any hide at all. Keeping still until the last second and then up and shoot in one movement is how I have 'flighted' many pigeons in the past. In a couple of weeks time I shall be roost shooting pigeons in a small copse, I take 1 small piece of scrim net and a couple of poles to provide a small screen, behind which I sit. This allows me to stand the gun up and pour a coffee, with less chance of being seen. If I do not take the net, I just make sure that I remain still at the foot of one of the trees, until the birds are committed to coming in. Of course if making your pigeon shooting gear gives you pleasure, then do it.

[captainhastings]

bit of sheep wire and thread a bit of local vegetation through it. Put net on the inside and your good to go. Roll up and leave tidy in the hedge for next time. Work a treat our hides have been invisible using this method of late. Been using two bit cable tied to give what ever height we want. Can bend it over it needed. 

[Suveran]

Thanks for your comments westley , I’m in agreement with you about being still and limiting movement but the idea of the second net was to conceal that  movement and give me an area to reload and poor a coffee etc without spooking anything and  leave the top section of the hide for viewing the field.

So my idea was to try and get it to blend in a little without the faf of cutting out the hedgerow or grasses.

The ghost net blends well but is quite transparent, maybe not a good choice in the first place..

 

I do like building and creating my own bits and pieces..

[Old Boggy]

Firstly, welcome to Pigeon Watch.

I agree with Westley that it's movement, or lack of it, that's important, especially when the pigeons are approaching. Any slight movement can be spotted from a distance, but once they are committed to the decoys, I believe that their peripheral vision changes to an 'ahead' vision and they are then not so aware of the shooter and so that is the time to shoot. This of course is when decoying. Similar advice when roost or flightline shooting, as Westley says to mount and shoot at the last possible moment.

However, we all like to make our hides looking as natural as possible and there's nothing whatsoever wrong with that. 

As Tightchoke mentioned, Pigeon Controller went into great detail in how he made his own hide which seems to cover most eventualities regards blending in with any background. Suveran, If you look at any of PC's great weekly posts in Sporting Pictures, you will see that his hide is made up from lots of different coloured rags. It certainly works for him as his weekly bags bear testament.

OB

[Suveran]

Thanks Boggy, great to be here..

Totaly agree with your and Westleys statement about keeping still and moving at the last moment and have proved this to my self by standing up still with pretty much my top half above the net and keeping the gun etc below the net and it certainly works when I’m alone but I regularly share a hide with a friend so double the movement to conceal I guess.

will take a look through the posts you mentioned, sounds like what I’m trying to achieve.

[snow white]

As westly stated it’s movement that puts birds of pigeons/crows

[marsh man]

With all the nets that are now on the market very few people will bother with making there own , the nearest I ever got to making my own was with the old army  surplus hessian net , it would normally come with a good few open patches , after cutting a few strips of old netting up and threading in the gaps you then had a decent net , mind you , the weight was horrendous and even worst when it got wet , but then again , when you are young , strong and with little other choice you just made the best with what was available .

Nowadays with all the light weight nets on the market very few people now would bother in lugging those heavy nets about , if I was you I would buy a couple of two or three ply , 5 mtr nets in a Summer and Winter shade , these are long enough to make a hide for two people , light to carry and you could either put one on the outside of your ghost net ( which are next to useless ) or take the two and put on top of each other , one will be darker than the other so you have got a choice with the back ground and at the time of year you are going .

Don't get to paranoid about the hide , because if things are not going your way it is very rare the hide is the main reason .

[TIGHTCHOKE]

3 hours ago, marsh man said:

With all the nets that are now on the market very few people will bother with making there own , the nearest I ever got to making my own was with the old army  surplus hessian net , it would normally come with a good few open patches , after cutting a few strips of old netting up and threading in the gaps you then had a decent net , mind you , the weight was horrendous and even worst when it got wet , but then again , when you are young , strong and with little other choice you just made the best with what was available .

Nowadays with all the light weight nets on the market very few people now would bother in lugging those heavy nets about , if I was you I would buy a couple of two or three ply , 5 mtr nets in a Summer and Winter shade , these are long enough to make a hide for two people , light to carry and you could either put one on the outside of your ghost net ( which are next to useless ) or take the two and put on top of each other , one will be darker than the other so you have got a choice with the back ground and at the time of year you are going .

Don't get to paranoid about the hide , because if things are not going your way it is very rare the hide is the main reason .

Amen to that, just like a miss is the fault of the gun or cartridge, not the shooter!

[ditchman]

18 hours ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

Have a search for Pigeon Controllers Naked Hide thread from a while back.

his netting is made with greek womens stocking and suspenders all cut up...........and when the wind blows thro it on a hot day he gets an extra pole to hold it up...........

[pigeon controller]

15 minutes ago, ditchman said:

his netting is made with greek womens stocking and suspenders all cut up...........and when the wind blows thro it on a hot day he gets an extra pole to hold it up...........

Shh!!!!!, don't tell every on they will all want one.

[kenholland]

I just new your magical hide would be dragged in to this somewhere , ditchman would have you dancing the seven veil's aswell , he is into that sort of thing.

[Walker570]

Adds a new meaning to 'pole dancing'

Back to the subject.......

Natural materials added to the right colour camo has always worked for me.   I did use some string netting and tied strips of hessian to it then sprayed the hessian different greens browns and black but still put any local weeds and grasses etc against it.   I did set up behind an old tractor once and kept very still and had a cracking morning on the blacks and pigeons but ever so difficult getting it in the Landie for the trip home....joking apart, using the local natural surroundings is the best. The old double hedges where golden for that job.  Find a way in and then snip a shooting hole in the top.

[pigeon controller]

Ive added a few pictures of my homemade hides , its not easy to see due to the bright sun but they are lighter at the base and double sided so spring?summer one side and winter the other. The Ghillie was made for walking up on rabbits at night with nightvision with an air rifle. This was made from dyed string recovered from roll cages and was very succesful as it was a total block. The hide nest were made from strips of material from indian sari shops

 

 

https://ibb.co/jJ4xU7
https://ibb.co/dWXHU7
https://ibb.co/ma4LhS

https://ibb.co/tm4Nwbc
https://ibb.co/44k1qcw

[B725]

Is that a Yeti in the last picture 😁

[ditchman]

6 minutes ago, B725 said:

Is that a Yeti in the last picture 😁

looks like fat sarah before she has combed her hair in the morning.....

[marsh man]

2 hours ago, Walker570 said:

Adds a new meaning to 'pole dancing'

Back to the subject.......

Natural materials added to the right colour camo has always worked for me.   I did use some string netting and tied strips of hessian to it then sprayed the hessian different greens browns and black but still put any local weeds and grasses etc against it.   I did set up behind an old tractor once and kept very still and had a cracking morning on the blacks and pigeons but ever so difficult getting it in the Landie for the trip home....joking apart, using the local natural surroundings is the best. The old double hedges where golden for that job.  Find a way in and then snip a shooting hole in the top.

Most series Pigeon shooter are practical minded , or if they are not , then they should be  , in most places where you set up you are sure to find some materials to add to your hide if you think it is needed , or if you are using the same spot for a hide then why not make a semi permanent hide that you can take down when the crop have been harvested .

I once made a lovely hide in a thick hedge by inter woven the thin branches into each other in the Spring at the height you are happy shooting , in my case I sit down and I left a five gallon oil drum in the hide so all I had to do was take the decoys , this is fine if you are the only one who shoot the field , if it is shared then don't bother as you don't want to encourage Tom , Dixk and Harry to take advantage of your hard work .

[Westley]

For a hide out on a hedge or the base of a tree out on the field, I have only ever used 2 large pieces of plastic scrim. 1 dark green and 1 light green. The backing on the dark green is brown and the backing on the light green is beige (dead grass colour). Using one as a base layer and with the most appropriate on the front, this has worked for me for the last 35 years or so. The hide is thick enough to block out any 'see through' from the quarry, but remains light enough for my mid seventies, overweight frame to haul across fields etc.  I recall about 5 years ago, watching 2 shooters across the field at the rear of my house.  They were using one of these so called 'ghost hides'. I could see their every movement and those of their dogs from some 500 yards away. When I looked through binoculars, I could clearly see them pouring out drinks and moving around inside the hide.  Suffice it to say, they did not do too much shooting,  the pigeons did not need binoculars  ! That sort of put me off the new netting stuff, good style.

[Bobba]

In my sack I have secateurs, machete, and a bag of those black spring clips you get in £ stores. I then forage natural materials cutting ivy from trees,  tall grasses etc and attach these to the hide poles and netting with the spring clips. Seems to work for me.

[Suveran]

16 hours ago, pigeon controller said:

Ive added a few pictures of my homemade hides , its not easy to see due to the bright sun but they are lighter at the base and double sided so spring?summer one side and winter the other. The Ghillie was made for walking up on rabbits at night with nightvision with an air rifle. This was made from dyed string recovered from roll cages and was very succesful as it was a total block. The hide nest were made from strips of material from indian sari shops

 

 

https://ibb.co/jJ4xU7
https://ibb.co/dWXHU7
https://ibb.co/ma4LhS

https://ibb.co/tm4Nwbc
https://ibb.co/44k1qcw

Good work,

That’s the sort of thing I was looking to create..

maybe a little sparser as it will be a second net.

Many thanks for sharing pc

[old'un]

13 hours ago, Westley said:

For a hide out on a hedge or the base of a tree out on the field, I have only ever used 2 large pieces of plastic scrim. 1 dark green and 1 light green. The backing on the dark green is brown and the backing on the light green is beige (dead grass colour). Using one as a base layer and with the most appropriate on the front, this has worked for me for the last 35 years or so. The hide is thick enough to block out any 'see through' from the quarry, but remains light enough for my mid seventies, overweight frame to haul across fields etc.  I recall about 5 years ago, watching 2 shooters across the field at the rear of my house.  They were using one of these so called 'ghost hides'. I could see their every movement and those of their dogs from some 500 yards away. When I looked through binoculars, I could clearly see them pouring out drinks and moving around inside the hide.  Suffice it to say, they did not do too much shooting,  the pigeons did not need binoculars  ! That sort of put me off the new netting stuff, good style.

Agree about these newish ghost nets, I also watched a shooter some 200 yards from the field gate, what made his movements more obvious was the sun behind him, I could see his every move.

I just use two bog standard green/brown camo nets, if a pigeon spooks its something I have done and not the hide, sometimes I think people are over thinking what a pigeon makes of objects in the field, be they round bails appearing out of nowhere or a square green/brown box.

[Suveran]

23 hours ago, marsh man said:

With all the nets that are now on the market very few people will bother with making there own , the nearest I ever got to making my own was with the old army  surplus hessian net , it would normally come with a good few open patches , after cutting a few strips of old netting up and threading in the gaps you then had a decent net , mind you , the weight was horrendous and even worst when it got wet , but then again , when you are young , strong and with little other choice you just made the best with what was available .

Nowadays with all the light weight nets on the market very few people now would bother in lugging those heavy nets about , if I was you I would buy a couple of two or three ply , 5 mtr nets in a Summer and Winter shade , these are long enough to make a hide for two people , light to carry and you could either put one on the outside of your ghost net ( which are next to useless ) or take the two and put on top of each other , one will be darker than the other so you have got a choice with the back ground and at the time of year you are going .

Don't get to paranoid about the hide , because if things are not going your way it is very rare the hide is the main reason .

Thanks m m

The net I have is a two ply net with a black scrim net on the back and a woodland pattern leaf cut style front net.

The issue I’m having is that the light beams through  under the gap at the bottom of the hedge rendering the net almost see through in the lower half. The aim is to cover this area with the most natural looking pattern I can create. I have looked at a lot of the nets on the market and can’t find one that satisfies my OCD.

I am under no illusions that a new net will magically increase my success rate but if I can mitigate any issues with every bit of kit I use by putting in a little work and effort,  then when it’s applied with the correct field craft it can, surely only be a positive. And TBH pheasant season will soon be drawing to a close and there is not a lot of pigeon about my perms at present,  so I’m going to need something to occupy me.

[Westley]

I used to sit in my hide and during quiet periods I would be thinking up some weird and wonderful ideas to attract every pigeon in the County and the next County too, to my decoy pattern. I can recall many years ago, in what I think was Sporting Gun, reading about some top pigeon shooter or other, experimenting with the bright orange plastic netting used on roadworks, to make a hide. Guess what  ?.......................it worked. I would not decry any efforts you make to increase bag size or give you an edge, after all I have probably done most of them myself in the past. When you have gone as far as to develop a a glider decoy that slid down a nylon fishing line into the pattern, then beware the men in white coats  !  The only reason that I have abandoned all of these experiments  ?...............................I JUST GREW OLD AND WAS UNABLE TO CARRY THEM ALL  !     😂

[TIGHTCHOKE]

I make mine from landing net material and scrim held on with tywraps!

 

I too remember at least a couple of articles about using the orange road gang metre wide perferated sheet.