Where are all the posts?

[JDog]

Are there any pigeon shooters left on the forum?

New content of late contains no reports of pigeon shooting outings. There are plenty on politics, Covid, Packham and the usual suspects bullying about other people’s dogs but nothing on what is supposed to be the core subject.

Are people not going out or are they just too lazy to spend time sharing their experiences with others?

Edited November 1, 2020 by JDog

[mellors]

8 minutes ago, JDog said:

Are there any pigeon shooters left on the forum?

New content of late contains no reports of pigeon shooting outings. There are plenty on politics, Covid, Packham and the usual suspects bullying about other people’s dogs but nothing on what is supposed to be the core subject.

Are people not going out or are they just too lazy to spend time sharing their experiences with others?

Had a lot of small steady days. Been out this morning with the keeper on some maize. Watched them the last three days building up while it's been raining so first chance today. Two hours not a pigeon 😞. Going to try again later. So much stubble and not being able to drill there everywhere. It's pot luck at the moment but must keep trying. Still a lot of young one's about looks like it's been a very good year for them hopefully it will get better when the cold weather comes. 

 

[marsh man]

For a lot of us our attention turn to wild fowling and game shoots , as far as crops go's there is very little damage done at this time of the year through Pigeons and if your land is connected with game shoots you would have to put pigeon shooting on hold.

I agree there are very few reports on not just pigeon shooting but most types of shooting and yet here we are coming up to half way through the season , mind you , we might now get several reports on why we can't go even if you still can for the time being .

[mossy835]

i have been out but with all the fields drilled.pigeons have gone after they have picked the corn on top.and no rape for me any where i shoot,

[matone]

Personally nothing to tell as it`s been the poorest year I`ve ever known for pigeons ! No real numbers in the area and those dispersed by the amount of variation in crops due to last years drilling (or lack of) ,followed by a diverse mixture of greening crops sown at various times.

Only went out one day in Sept which resulted in 5 for 9 shots.......

[clangerman]

trying my best still doing the reccys but nothing out there only seen about five yesterday oct nov always the worst time for me 

[oldypigeonpopper]

Hello What's a pigeon 🤔😆

Just now, oldypigeonpopper said:

Hello What's a pigeon 🤔😆

 

[old'un]

Perhaps people are just not shooting any pigeons or their efforts are so small its just not worth writing about, I am seeing plenty of pigeon movement but they just seem to-be moving up and down the woodland with no real pattern or obvious destination, tried getting on a couple of promising flight lines but after a few shots it just moves ½ a mile away or stops completely.

 

 

Be interesting to see what reports we get once it turns a bit colder and the pigeons start to look at rape, but we do not know the situation with regards the amount of rape sown up and down the country, some are reporting just as much rape as previous years, where others are reporting very little or no rape being sown, I know this area is well down on previous years.

[Walker570]

Very few pigeons around me at the moment. Had a couple of days on some new drillings on the Blacks but very few pigeons showing there.  Difficult to report on nothing.

We have all got to be good little boys and stay home now for a month so little chance of anyhting until mid December.

[dead eye alan]

13 minutes ago, Walker570 said:

Very few pigeons around me at the moment. Had a couple of days on some new drillings on the Blacks but very few pigeons showing there.  Difficult to report on nothing.

We have all got to be good little boys and stay home now for a month so little chance of anyhting until mid December.

Personally i do not see the need to curtail shooting pigeons due to lock down, as I will be self isolating in the hide. Well I will if I can find any number of pigeons to make it worth while.

[Clodhopper]

Well here is a little report from this morning.

Like many others, pigeon shooting has been virtually non existent for me since before Harvest. Lots of birds about but I cannot seem to get to grips with them. This is mainly due to the fact that I do not have as much free time as I used to have and reconnaissance is limited to an hour or two at weekends. 
 

Any way back to today. It started last Sunday afternoon when I had seen a few drifting across a wheat stubble and heading to a stand of mixed spruce and hardwoods. The other side of which is around 150 acres of Rape. From past experience I knew that when the birds found the Rape in this valley they followed a certain line first thing in the morning and on a windy day the shooting can be spectacular.  
 

So with a good wind forecast this morning I was up well before dawn getting excited at the prospect of a little sport. I rang my cousin up shortly after 6am to get him out of bed, the lazy *** was still asleep! And we met at his farm and headed down to the wood just as it was getting light.

No netting was needed as we stood in a shallow ditch, Giles concealed in the nettles around a fallen Elm and myself tucked up against the trunk of a dead but still standing Elm in the edge of the wood.

 

The birds started flighting around 7.30 and the sport was brilliant. We had groups from around 15 up to 150 heading to us battling into the wind. Some were following the contours 3 feet off the ground and others were sliding past high on the gathering wind. Those that were low provided a relatively easy first shot but as the rest starburst away on the wind the second shot was nearly impossible.

The shooting lasted only 1 hour but was well worth getting out of bed for. We picked 15 with a couple more dropping in the wood behind that we couldn’t locate.

 Not a big bag but really good fun and the best sport I have had in quite a few months.
 

 

[Farmboy91]

There was big numbers here yesterday in the rain, there's a few fields of drilled rape which they have left alone. I watched them for a while from the comfort of the sofa drop on and off the field next door which still has beet in. 

Going for a walk shortly to see what's what, nothing moving on the fields either side of me at the moment though. 

[Grandalf]

Very quiet around here.

Not many about anywhere.

[bruno22rf]

Had a few a couple of months back on Peas but when the Peas came out the birds cleared out - last 2 trips I've only pulled the trigger to break the deafening sound of silence. Fields covered in Rape now with little interest at the moment - floor is carpeted with Acorns though.

Edited November 1, 2020 by bruno22rf

[Old Boggy]

3 hours ago, JDog said:

Are there any pigeon shooters left on the forum?

New content of late contains no reports of pigeon shooting outings. There are plenty on politics, Covid, Packham and the usual suspects bullying about other people’s dogs but nothing on what is supposed to be the core subject.

Are people not going out or are they just too lazy to spend time sharing their experiences with others?

You’ve shamed me into putting finger to keyboard, but only once I get home, as posting an account of my latest foray last week on this damned phone will take a month of Sundays.

OB

 

[Ultrastu]

out this morning chasing the crows over a sprouting wheat field .they didn't want to play today but there were a lot of pigeons about in flocks of 50 - 100 so I put out some pige decoys and had 5 of them as they passed over for a looky see . Lovely shots they were too .

 

[Centrepin]

There are big numbers on my perm, on 4 fields of rape and several of just been planted.

However, due to the steepness of the land and soft greasey going im struggling to get to where they are. In the parts I can get to, either they see me and don't come back or I simply walk them off and again they don't come back.

If I get off 10 shots I've had a busy morning. That's shots not kills. Yesterday 8 shots at range and zero picked. 

If I did a write up on how I watched them for an hour and walked them off in the waterlogged bottoms or sat looking at them watching me from the woods I don't have permission to shoot in. Nothing interesting there.

On the other hand if I was shooting pheasant, I regularly put up birds worth shooting but I have a gentlemans agreement not to shoot game as there are people paying for the privilege, so I just pretend and say bang. Never missed one yet on that score.

No foxes seen only traces of. No rabbits seen. Odd deer, but not with a shotgun and definitely not at the range I see them. No more tree rats either.

Farmers happy, I'm keeping birds off his fields and I'm getting fresh air so it's not all bad news. 

[marsh man]

What we can also take into account is the rubbish weather we have had since mid September , rain more or less nearly everyday , some days light rain and then really heavy showers the next , even if I found a few pigeons I am not that keen getting everything wet for the sake of a few shots , also , like Spring drillings shooting pigeons on Autumn drillings are now a thing of the past and seldom produce any shooting , 

On top of all the doom and gloom that is going on all around us , we seem to be lacking the main ingredient you need to shoot pigeons and it don't take a lot of thinking to know what that is , Pigeons , Friday we had a shoot and the half estate we shot on we saw very few Pigeons , although there was one hanging up in the larder and that was in perfect condition . 

[WalkedUp]

8 hours ago, JDog said:

Are there any pigeon shooters left on the forum?

New content of late contains no reports of pigeon shooting outings. There are plenty on politics, Covid, Packham and the usual suspects bullying about other people’s dogs but nothing on what is supposed to be the core subject.

Are people not going out or are they just too lazy to spend time sharing their experiences with others?

I think one is a symptom of the other. It has been a very difficult year. I have been getting out as much as possible but the numbers were poor in my area and harvest very late. I haven’t been able to shoot a single game day yet this year. Have had a few flights wild fowling which have been great. Last pigeon I shot was September. 

[Old Boggy]

This is in response to JDog`s post wondering where all the posts of pigeon shooting are. My excuse to date is that I`ve not shot many of late and nothing really worth writing about, but anyway, here goes -:

After my last few trips out where bags ranged between 1 & 5, I thought that last Tuesday I would go to a small wood close to home complete with gun, seat, a few cartridges, but also secateurs and a folding saw with a view to cutting some hazel sticks and also two blackthorn sticks that had caught my eye last time out. The plan was that if there were no pigeons coming into the wood, then my time would still be well spent returning with some sticks for next years stickmaking.

However, before going to the wood I remembered that my farmer friend had said that he was direct drilling some late wheat on a wheat stubble. This particular field was due to have rape, but at that time it was far too dry to drill, so now after much rain and too late for rape, he decided to drill wheat on wheat stubble. Not something he normally does. Anyway, I decided just out of interest to have a look, not expecting to see any pigeons about on the now sodden ground albeit that there was quite a bit of dressed seed on the surface. A small shave of trees edges onto this field and walking along the edge I put out about fifty pigeons which seemed determined to return back to the trees rather than their normal option to disappear into the next county. Whilst there were none down feeding, they were clearly there for a feed at some time during the day. It was a chance not to be missed having had very meagre bags recently, so I shot home, just five minutes away, to pick up hide poles, net, whirly and two hypaflap artificial decoys to go on it in the absence on two thawed out dead birds and also ten flocked half shells.

I was back to the trees within ten minutes which were again filled with pigeons, so it looked quite promising for at least a few shots. These were walked off and I was set up within fifteen minutes. No sooner had I returned to the hide than a few started to return and a very pleasing right and left was made with the 16g side by side. There ensued a hectic 5 minutes which put another 5 in the bag although with a couple of easy misses. A shower of rain stopped proceedings for a while, but once that passed through, a few more were coming to the decoys but clearly being initially attracted from a distance to the hypaflaps on the whirly. At this stage I did not bother changing the hypaflaps for dead birds as the former seemed to be doing their job OK and `if it ain`t broke, why fix it` came into play. I`ve experienced on a couple of occasions where the hypaflaps seemed to work well, due I think to the obvious flapping movement of the wings. On these occasions, I have put on dead birds which had the effect of putting the birds off, so the hypaflaps were returned and the birds were once again attracted. Of course each day and circumstance is different.

After 2 1/2 hours there was another shower, much heavier this time which again put a hold on things, so once this had gone through, I decided to up stumps having picked up 17 pigeons with one dropping out dead three fields away and unretrievable.  Half of these were young birds, no doubt the reason why they decoyed so well, but none the worse for that as they are the ones I keep for home consumption. I took 12 to my game dealer friend in the next village and as I had built up a `kitty`from previous shot pigeons taken to him, I came away with four partridges, two pheasants and two rabbits, the likes of which I don`t get too much chance to shoot, so they are a very welcome addition to the freezer. So in expectation of cutting a few sticks and very few shots, I had a great couple of hours, some excellent shooting, a few young pigeons and a mixed bag of game. 

It doesn`t get much better than that, although I must confess to missing the company of Stour-boy, or more especially his wife`s cake ! I had to make do with pork and pickle pies and a couple of Aldi sloe gin mince tarts.

No doubt the sticks will be cut either during my next shooting trip out on Tuesday or in the ensuing weeks as part of my daily exercise during lockdown.

OB

 

 

[Dr D]

Haven't posted for a good while. But I have had pretty steady shooting since september. Here's a few pics

[dead eye alan]

16 hours ago, Dr D said:

Haven't posted for a good while. But I have had pretty steady shooting since september. Here's a few pics

Nice pics but no write up, shame as some good bags thire.

[Shearwater]

Been shooting ferrals for last few outings, didn't think it was worthy of posts; however I have had the opportunity to try new carts and that's about all my news

On 01/11/2020 at 13:59, Ultrastu said:

out this morning chasing the crows over a sprouting wheat field .they didn't want to play today but there were a lot of pigeons about in flocks of 50 - 100 so I put out some pige decoys and had 5 of them as they passed over for a looky see . Lovely shots they were too .

 

Those dam crows don't give themselves up easy

[NatureBoy]

Very few my way also. Last decent bag (for me anyway) was at the end of September. 33 on wheat drillings Before getting caught in a bad thunder storm. The farmer was racing to get seed into very wet ground as more rain was coming. Loads of seed on top. Amazed how his claydon drill coped and worked in such conditions. Puddles and poached up ground on the ends. Thought i would have other good days on those fields as no way were they gona be rolled. Wasn't to be, they simply disappeared. To wet maybe. Notice a lot of farms seem to be using a lot more slug pellets this year. Rape seem to be doing well where it was got in early and where it has been planted with buckwheat. That method new to my area. Mixed cover/forage crops containing various clovers and brassicas don't seem to be pulling them either. But English partridges and hares liking it. Hard to get around a lot of land to recon as so wet. One thing i find odd /interesting is pea fields on two farms that were getting hammered by pigeons and i was protecting/getting good bags of pigeons off during last lock down ( bags of 40-80 odd) were disced after harvest left and now have loads of volunteer peas growing. So many that from a distance they look like a crop with some in flower. But pigeons hardly paying them any attention now or since harvest. Again though english partridges and hares liking it. Lot of skylarks and buntings in them to. Why would they of left them? Was told peas not great on heavy land at best of times. Some was partly sprayed off at one time, but only like every other pass. Some of that even grew again. Experiment maybe?  Many acres of parsly grown my way last few years they ignore to.   . . . . Plenty of early broods of pheasants done well this year and looking good. Very weary. I can't remember seeing so many wild English about since i was a kid in early 70's. Still to many magpies coming in. Shot another 3 yesterday going to roost and a mink that didn't quite make it to a land drain. That will get stuffed.      NB

[Jacko3275]

On 01/11/2020 at 09:32, JDog said:

Are there any pigeon shooters left on the forum?

New content of late contains no reports of pigeon shooting outings. There are plenty on politics, Covid, Packham and the usual suspects bullying about other people’s dogs but nothing on what is supposed to be the core subject.

Are people not going out or are they just too lazy to spend time sharing their experiences with others?

They are all on here now