Is Pigeon Shooting Over Spring Drillings Now A Thing Of The Past ?

[JDog]

4 minutes ago, Krico woodcock said:

Can any one explain why pigeons ignore drilled beans?? I have seen fields covered in beans drilled and harvested and maybe not a pigeon on them. Hard to understand...

They need time to find the food source. I have bean drillings in a good pigeon area with lots on top and the pigeons are just getting on them two weeks after being drilled.

Imagine this. Those fields have been barren of food all winter and therefore of no interest to pigeons. Why should they suddenly materialise in numbers?

 

On 11/04/2021 at 15:27, muncher said:

Never shot over Drollings, I will look forward to that 😂

Even 'drollings' in Motty and Muncher's part of the world produce decent bags.

[clangerman]

my best guess would be they don’t like those particular fields have block of rape barley and beans which they won’t touch until food drys up after harvest same happens every year there most strange 

[Krico woodcock]

2 hours ago, JDog said:

They need time to find the food source. I have bean drillings in a good pigeon area with lots on top and the pigeons are just getting on them two weeks after being drilled.

Imagine this. Those fields have been barren of food all winter and therefore of no interest to pigeons. Why should they suddenly materialise in numbers?

 

Even 'drollings' in Motty and Muncher's part of the world produce decent bags.

I understand jDog, but I have watched fields covered in beans when drilled, and again when harvested and pigeons won't be on them, crows yes.. the same fields when barley, wheat or rape are in you'll be guaranteed pigeon shooting. Beans are never productive for me, yet I read you lads do be getting great shooting on them, especially in the harvest. It does be hard to fathom it cause there could be a carpet of beans on ground. A pigeon wouldn't have to spend long on ground til his crop would be full!

[lakeside1000]

I have spent the last week  (3 visits) shooting over freshly drilled peas, what a waste of time, best day was 5 birds down , for 4 hours in the cold , even though there was plenty of seed cast on the surface it was bright red, presumably some kind of anti fungal coating or something, one gateway had a huge spill of seed laying on the surface but the birds were ignoring it , just a few crows getting in for a feed.

I noticed on the spring barley the birds were on it right behind the tractors but only stayed for a couple of days as there was very minimal spill , anything on the surface was quickly cleaned up and the birds were gone within 2 to 3 days. 

My best days are still on the rape, I imagine if there is no seed for them on drillings they will return to somewhere the feeding is easier and this time of the year that means mainly rape around here. I have noticed some small numbers on grass and clover fields where the local horses graze but no chance of any shooting there. I guess its just a sign of the time, more efficient drilling will mean they go elsewhere.😏

[old'un]

Don't think anyone really knows why some fields get hit hard and others never get touched, I don't think its length of time a field as been sown or how much seed is on the top, I have seen fields hit the same day, some fields a week later and some not at all.

I remember three fields that run alongside a brook with trees lining both banks, its always been a corridor for pigeons and the fields have produced some good bags over the years, one year the farmer said I might try some peas this year, I had visions of hundreds of pigeons flying up this brook and into the peas, whoopee…..well I watched these fields from the day they were sown till it was harvested, over that period I shot a grand total of 10 and I know it was not shot by anyone else.

 

Been shooting pigeons a long time and I still do not understand them.

[Wilts#Dave]

3 hours ago, lakeside1000 said:

I have spent the last week  (3 visits) shooting over freshly drilled peas, what a waste of time, best day was 5 birds down , for 4 hours in the cold , even though there was plenty of seed cast on the surface it was bright red, presumably some kind of anti fungal coating or something, one gateway had a huge spill of seed laying on the surface but the birds were ignoring it , just a few crows getting in for a feed.

I noticed on the spring barley the birds were on it right behind the tractors but only stayed for a couple of days as there was very minimal spill , anything on the surface was quickly cleaned up and the birds were gone within 2 to 3 days. 

My best days are still on the rape, I imagine if there is no seed for them on drillings they will return to somewhere the feeding is easier and this time of the year that means mainly rape around here. I have noticed some small numbers on grass and clover fields where the local horses graze but no chance of any shooting there. I guess its just a sign of the time, more efficient drilling will mean they go elsewhere.😏

It’s really odd and you/we will never understand why some areas pigeons are just drawn too in huge numbers while another area that grows the same ‘magic’ crops produce very few birds......some of the guys you see shoot endless huge bags it’s not that that they’re ‘better’ but simply have the numbers to go at week in week out. It’s actually rather easy to shoot good bags of pigeons if you know what you’re doing when there’s plenty about, well I find that to be the case anyway! 
Likewise some people shoot them over crops that they might not touch in your area, which is hard to fathom sometimes.
When you love pigeon shooting it’s tough reading about the endless amounts of pigeons some people get the opportunity to shoot when pickings are slim where you are right now, but that’s just how it is! 

[captainhastings]

Not so much pigeon but hundred upon hundred of rooks on the drillings but in sunny wales we can't touch them

[marsh man]

Like most places that grow Peas ours are put in the same fields every four years , wherever they go in on the area I shoot I have more than likely been on that field many times in the past when it have been Peas , like already said , for no reason known to us is some fields will shoot better than others , while one field is getting hammered the same crop two fields away is left well alone , we can only surmise the reason but the truth is we don't really know why .

As for drilling , last week I had a call to say the Peas are now in and a field that should have been Winter beans but at the time was to wet have now been drilled with Spring barley , off I go to just have a look and the Peas had been rolled and not a Pea in sight , in fact I wasn't convinced the Peas were in until I scraped the soil with my boot and finally found one a good four inches down , so I then moved on to the Spring barley and this was the same as far as seeing any new seed , there were some Rooks and Crows on but I think they were just eating the rotton bits of stalks or roots from last year crops  , so now , most if not all the drilling is now finished and not a pigeon have been shot , so not on every ones land, but the area I shoot is what I believe when it come to shooting over drillings is now a thing of the past . 

[kenholland]

we all expect the same routine every year but farming pattern's are changing with some crops that normally go in have stopped , we just have to go with the flow, saying that, just makes it a little bit harder to have a good day , at least we are lucky enough to be able to get out for the day and take it all in.

[dodgy dave]

On 11/04/2021 at 15:28, motty said:

**** off! 😁

oooo moty thats not like you

[lakeside1000]

On 14/04/2021 at 17:41, Wilts#Dave said:

It’s really odd and you/we will never understand why some areas pigeons are just drawn too in huge numbers while another area that grows the same ‘magic’ crops produce very few birds......some of the guys you see shoot endless huge bags it’s not that that they’re ‘better’ but simply have the numbers to go at week in week out. It’s actually rather easy to shoot good bags of pigeons if you know what you’re doing when there’s plenty about, well I find that to be the case anyway! 
Likewise some people shoot them over crops that they might not touch in your area, which is hard to fathom sometimes.
When you love pigeon shooting it’s tough reading about the endless amounts of pigeons some people get the opportunity to shoot when pickings are slim where you are right now, but that’s just how it is! 

I totally agree Dave, on a really good day I may get into the 70's, several times in the 50's and 60's but to average out over the year I would say at best 25 for a 5 hour session.

This time of the year I get ok days on rape, but awful days on any drillings due to the depth of seed and no spill drills used now, I keep going because I like the sport and feel I am at least doing a service for the farm, but if this was fishing I think I would have sold my gear and taken up another sport.

Lets hope it picks up when we get into harvest time.

[motty]

On 14/04/2021 at 10:39, Krico woodcock said:

Can any one explain why pigeons ignore drilled beans?? I have seen fields covered in beans drilled and harvested and maybe not a pigeon on them. Hard to understand...

They don't ignore them, as such. It is the same as any other crop that a pigeon will eat; they must find them, for starters, then maybe there is something in the area they prefer.

On 15/04/2021 at 09:16, dodgy dave said:

oooo moty thats not like you

That is like me when talking to him!!

[dodgy dave]

hes a greedy booger anorl