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Early roost shoots


muntbac
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1 hour ago, muntbac said:

Now that tier 4 has been placed upon most of the UK, and game shooting has has been given an early bath.

Will shooters be heading for early roost shooting this season. 

Depends, some keepers might not want you in their holding woods as they will be catching up come Feb/Mar.

There is also the fact that there is likely to be plenty of birds left in the woods that they may try to hold in the hope of some wild broods.

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2 hours ago, old'un said:

Depends, some keepers might not want you in their holding woods as they will be catching up come Feb/Mar.

There is also the fact that there is likely to be plenty of birds left in the woods that they may try to hold in the hope of some wild broods.

We wont be having our roost shoots any earlier this year than normal which is the first Saturday in Feb , last year the 1st of Feb was on a Saturday which was also one of our clear up days so we didn't start till the second Saturday in Feb .

Either a good thing or a bad thing depending on how you look at it , is we have got a lot of woods that hold Pigeons so if only the odd gun is shooting they will be more or less wasting there time , we can easily let at least 40 guns and still leave the odd wood in peace.

Overall , the first week is the most productive , this can sometimes change due to weather conditions from a calm first week to a rough second week , but overall it slip down each week until we call it a day on the forth week , by then the days are pulling out and the excuses like shopping , football and anything else come into play when the enthusiasm wear a bit thin .

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3 hours ago, marsh man said:

We wont be having our roost shoots any earlier this year than normal which is the first Saturday in Feb , last year the 1st of Feb was on a Saturday which was also one of our clear up days so we didn't start till the second Saturday in Feb .

Either a good thing or a bad thing depending on how you look at it , is we have got a lot of woods that hold Pigeons so if only the odd gun is shooting they will be more or less wasting there time , we can easily let at least 40 guns and still leave the odd wood in peace.

Overall , the first week is the most productive , this can sometimes change due to weather conditions from a calm first week to a rough second week , but overall it slip down each week until we call it a day on the forth week , by then the days are pulling out and the excuses like shopping , football and anything else come into play when the enthusiasm wear a bit thin .

My enthusiasm for it never wears thin but as you rightly say, I start breaking curfew after the end of February due to longer days, and I've had a fair few rollockings in the past when I "come skulking in"!  Doesn't stop me doing it again though, you'd think she could just accept it by now!  I am lucky enough to be able to free up time for a quick roost shooting sortie on days other than Saturdays, so I tend to save up and use a few brownie points going onwards into the first couple of weeks of March, by which time I'm turning my attention back to working on the pens & drives and I think it's time to leave the woods in peace for nesting anyway by then.

It is very unlikely any woods on a game shoot will let roost shooting go ahead early.  We simply don't know what's happening over the next month.  We might end up actually  being able to have driven days in the last week or so of the season, so it would be stupid to drive all your birds out of the wood then come back to shoot them and they're gone!

Catching up doesn't happen anywhere near as much now as it used to, and any keeper knows the likelihood of leftover birds producing wild broods is very slim.  However, it would be foolish not to give them a chance.  It's the only choice a lot of shoots have been left with: try to hammer the foxes and corvids more than ever this spring to give the abundance of leftover pheasants a fighting chance of bringing off a few broods.  I know I'll be doing everything I can.

A moderated shotgun is the answer, you can shoot away to your heart's content as long as your physical presence isn't a problem such as being in pheasants' roosting areas around sunset.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have been roost shooting once a week for several weeks now, I just get out in the woods next to some mature spruces and in they come. I usually do a bit of Pheasant feeding first and get to my spot around 1:00 to 1:30pm. There is usually enough activity at that time, it peaks about 3pm, last week I left at 4pm when they stopped coming.

Bags are not huge, averaging six to ten, although my hit rate could be better.

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Last February I decided to try some local woods on the invitation of the gamekeeper, I got in place around 2.00 and found a good spot, Took a couple of early birds but by 3.00 there were around a dozen guns within 500 yards of my position, it seemed like every time I had a bird in my sights someone else would take a shot and scare off mine, it sounded like world war 3 had broken out, by 4.00 I was so angry I just packed up and went home.

I wont be wasting my time there again , no attempt to control the numbers or placement of guns, 

I have a few options this year but may just stick to my hide and decoys instead.

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Iv been asked to go roost shooting by gamekeeper in Feb. Obv all other woods covered and we are trying to keep the pigeons on the move. The police and Basc require written permission by farmer to roost shoot. If everyones out shooting how do I know which farmer to ask for permission?

Edited by Baikel man
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I did hear our roost shooting is going ahead this year in a slightly lesser scale than normal , one of the main changes will be the distance any permit holder will need to travel to get to the woods , so this year they are only letting people who are involved in the shoot and who live local.

Most , if not all live within seven to eight miles from the estate , the wording on the permits will be changed and each person must carry it along with there s g c in case they are stopped on route .

I doubt if all woods will be covered mainly due to a shortage of guns and some woods will have a lot of game in them due to not being shot and these will be left alone to keep the game undisturbed .

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10 minutes ago, Morkin said:

Yes me to I always thought it was Saturdays in this part of the country ,And I have been going quite a long while now .I started going with air rifle with my farther before the 4\10 days.

Hello, it was a nation wide tradition for every Saturday in February, not sure how it will go this year with lockdown but from what I have been reading on PW and talking to people I know the pigeon are not in the numbers this year compared to previous years, still it makes a good afternoon out if a fair wind blows

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6 hours ago, oldypigeonpopper said:

Hello, it was a nation wide tradition for every Saturday in February, not sure how it will go this year with lockdown but from what I have been reading on PW and talking to people I know the pigeon are not in the numbers this year compared to previous years, still it makes a good afternoon out if a fair wind blows

How it ever became a tradition on a Friday that's something I couldn't tell you and maybe the guys from those areas will enlighten us why Fridays and not Saturdays when the bulk of us have got that much more time .

We have got some very good holding woods with rape fields near by and I can safely say that we have got very few pigeons compared to other years , our roost shooting will be a bit more low key this year with only letting the guns go who live close to the woods they are allocated , unless things rapidly change for the better, I cannot see many double figure bags shot over the four Saturday afternoons . 

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46 minutes ago, marsh man said:

How it ever became a tradition on a Friday that's something I couldn't tell you and maybe the guys from those areas will enlighten us why Fridays and not Saturdays when the bulk of us have got that much more time .

We have got some very good holding woods with rape fields near by and I can safely say that we have got very few pigeons compared to other years , our roost shooting will be a bit more low key this year with only letting the guns go who live close to the woods they are allocated , unless things rapidly change for the better, I cannot see many double figure bags shot over the four Saturday afternoons . 

Hello, good luck with your roost shooting, I can only try a flight line to the woods a half mile away but that needs a good wind blowing

 

 

 

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