Catch up Report

[pigeon controller]

14/07/20, I had a call from a farmer, pigeons on the Spring Wheat. I agreed to shoot the next day and as I drove up the long drive to the farm the fields looked like billiard tables with not a blade out of place. I scanned the farm from the the yard and could not see any birds , as I drove round to the back of the farm I disturbed about forty birds feeding on a muck heap. The farmer came out to meet me and proceeded to chew the fat for about an hour on how the situation was causing changes in his life with his two children back from uni and his wife working from home etc. All this time I was watching the birds flight along a grass meadow to the muck heap. He than informed me that he had been setting off rockets and using his rifle to spook the birds off the wheat. I asked which part of the field they had favoured and he said allover. I think he just wanted to talk to someone. I suggested that I could shoot the muckheap to reduce the numbers and he said it was too close to the farm so I agreed to shoot the flightline on the grass meadow, to which he agreed but requested that any birds dropping in the standing crops I leave as to not damage the crop. 

I had six real birds as decoys and set them up two as flyers and four as stand ups on spikes, I built the hide and the first bird in settled in with the decoys, so popped my head over the hide and spooked it and shot. The rest of the afternoon was frustrating as the birds followed the flightline over the meadow but flew along a band of tree bordering a pond I shot a few of these but they all fell into the pond and as I have no dog were lost. This made the shooting selectable in the way that when they followed the tree line I had to make a decision to shoot or not. 

After three hours shooting the line stopped and I packed up with thirtyeight pigeons and two corvids for the day which was enjoyable. 

The following Friday Bunny_Blaster invited me to shoot the farm we had the three hundred plus birds on the week before, we met at the farm and scanned the fields and agreed to shoot under an Oak tree which would give us some shade from the hot sun. I set up the hide and B_B put out a magnet and two flappers above the spring wheat. The action started straight away at approx 12.00 with B_B using his auto and me a silver pigeon. As the action became hectic my gun refused to eject the shell on the first barrel and I ended up using a fibreglass rod up the barrel to eject the hull, the next five or six shots would work fine, talk about frustration. As we were shooting over a standing crop we used a clicker to record the downed birds to give us a clue when picking up with B_Bs dog. We shot till 18.30 I think and then started the pick up, we were aware that we had shot more than the previous week, around the 335 but the kill zone had been consistent and the birds had been in the same area. We ended the day with a threehundred and twentyfive bird pick up which was most satisfying.

 

The next day I was due to resume shooting with my normal shooting partner DB but he had some construction being carried out at home and suggested that I do my own thing. I 'd had a call in the week about some spring wheat being hit hard so I made my way over to it only to find a Moto Cross event being held in the next field and no pigeons, B_B had given me a heads up on some cut rape on one of my perms so I headed over. It had a few birds down and a flightline across the end of the field to a wood so I set up under the flightline with twelve real birds , two on the magnet the rest on spikes. It was now 14,00 and I shot till 18.00 and picked up forty three birds. Then the fun began!!!!

Previously I was packing up on a farm and drove the Disco to the hide to load up, when I went to start it the immobiliser kicked in, I tried the spare key, Nothing DB agreed to drive me to a local garage to buy a new fob battery which cured the problem. two days later on my drive it did it again so changed the fob battery OK. Now today I changed the battery again Nothing, both keys I was stuck.

Now Ive had this Discovery 2 from new, completete  197K miles but I never had the Emergency Key Access code (EKA). This allows you to override the Immobiliser. So a call to my son and he drove out in his" Disco  V-8"I met him at the roadside and we drove up the field. We disconnected the battery and the horn as the alarm was activated till nothing. So we agreed to tow me home, now his disco was next to mine he went to start it and it too was immobilised !!!!!  We rolled my Disco down the field and his was OK, so we connected a very short piece of rope to my towing eye and set off on my "Hair Raising "ride home. He was in his V-8 I was in a TD5 with no power steering and no  brake survo. It felt like I was Water Skying behind him. We arrived home and I turned the key  and it fired up!!!!! And its not missed a beat since.

This Friday B_B invited me to shoot some peas and when we arrived at the field another shooter was aready setting up, so we agreed to split and chose our hide positions. I chose a tree on a hedge and set up with six real birds. two on the magnet, two on flappers and two as flyers. The wind was slightly in my face from my left but I put the decoys well out into the field so they could turn in front of me. the first birds in did that and were dispatched. The presentation of the birds was not good as they were jinxing left and right . The wind became stronger and more direct into my face , so I decided to move the hide out into the field using the tram tracks, this gave me better presentation and the birds were more confident. We finished the day with one hundred and twentyfour between us , the other shooter had thirtysix.

 

 

38 Pigeons 2 Corvids

325 Pigeons

43 Pigeons

124 Pigeons
 

[TIGHTCHOKE]

Presentation is key!

[butchdickason]

Thanks, enjoyed the write up.  

[dead eye alan]

That's a fine tally of birds nice write up enjoyed reading that.

[Farmboy91]

Cracking read, throughly enjoyed 👍

[motty]

You're starting to get the hang of laying the birds out properly!

[pigeon controller]

On 31 July 2020 at 03:08, motty said:

You're starting to get the hang of laying the birds out properly!

Yes my therapist is saying that that my OCD is receding and I'm overcoming my resistance to change!!!!