pin Posted September 3, 2007 Report Share Posted September 3, 2007 Went with garyb to a local club for their club championship 50 skeet which dragged on (won it though), driving back about 2pm I took a detour past one of my farms and we couldn't believe our eyes, it was blue! We watched them for 20 minutes to see where they were arriving from, all over the place! There was a strong flightline in a direction I have never seen them come on this farm, plus like I say they were literally coming from everywhere. Mr Giles was part way through stacking bales of barley straw where we needed to be but he was nowhere in sight. I knew he would come back to it but I just had to go get the gear and give it a go. Got there for about 2.30 and just watched in amazement. There must have been 1000+ birds feeding with them coming in every minute or so in 3's and 5's - sometimes more. After more of a shifty closer with the bins we noticed there were hundreds of feral with them too Took me ages to work out how to shoot them, needed to be on the flightline but that was going to put us right where Mr Giles would need to be picking up the bales. I knew I only had about an hour in the magnet battery so we resigned ourselves to what little time we had and getting on with it. Blowing a gale we had problems with the hide, built around the base of a large oak in the middle of the field, facing down a hill with the wind from our right which is where the main flight was coming from, but good numbers were coming from the left and bottom too. I knew it would be hard work as this particular farm left combining far too late on this field of barley and it was ruined, he didn't collect the grain just firing it out the combine as he cut for the straw for his cows. This meant there was tons of food on the ground for them and explains why there were so many on there Anyway, we had a bit of a nightmare, inexperience from me perhaps in setting up how we did. Horseshoe pattern head into wind with the magnet 10 yards in front of that to the right of us closest to the flightline. Had the hypaflaps on there to start with the first two shot replacing them. All the flaps did was scare woody away, pulled the ferals in though As predicted Mr Giles came back to start picking the bales so had a word with him and as always he said "you shoot them lad, bloody things don't mind me" Great character this guy a real one off Shot for just over an hour with 20 shot (one not picked) plus 2 ferals (one each by mistake) for 33 carts. The magnet was dying, gary had to get back for a bbq (this wasn't planned) and Mr Giles was getting close as a farm hand came who ragged the life out of the picker and made short work of the half of the field to our left. Main problem was how much food there was, there were birds landing 50, 100, 150, 200, 250, 300 yards away and after a while the longer ones wouldn't get up to the sound of a shot. They were landing everywhere. Ideally to shoot it properly we'd need about 4 guns to cover it I think. There was a big bag to be had there that day, no word of a lie I think 200+ and perhaps more. However there is so much food there I know they will be hitting it hard and on my way home I saw good numbers there. Now if only I had the time to shoot them during the week, it's all I could think about at work Pic of the bag, only 19 picked but they were great sport - 90% of birds that came in range were feral and given this was over stubble (nothing left standing or anything drilled) we left the ferals, numbers of racers around too so best we did. Edit 2 left and rights for me and one memorable high bird, I won't say how high, plummeting down to a thumbs up from Mr Giles Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferret Master Posted September 3, 2007 Report Share Posted September 3, 2007 Well done. FM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grasshopper Posted September 3, 2007 Report Share Posted September 3, 2007 Sounds like you had some cracking shooting in a short space of time it,s gonna bug ya at work though,knowing there in that field tommorrow Nice shooting still GH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pin Posted September 3, 2007 Author Report Share Posted September 3, 2007 On the way home from work today I was cursing knowing I couldn't get on them. Tomorrow on the way to work I know I will HAVE to drive past them knowing I have a full diary Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john faul Posted September 3, 2007 Report Share Posted September 3, 2007 well done pin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loopy bunny blaster Posted September 3, 2007 Report Share Posted September 3, 2007 a good day's shooting! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lurcherboy Posted September 3, 2007 Report Share Posted September 3, 2007 Sounds like one of those magical days Pin when we just can't find the time. I could do with one of them right now LB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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