Day out on pea stubble

[the hitman]

Hi Folks 

I found 2 side by side pea fields late last week- both pulling a fair number of pigeons. The weather has been shabby locally so I kept my powder dry until an opportunity arose. Yesterday I went for a recce and discovered that one of the pea fields had be harvested and was covered in pigeons. With a dry forecast and a decent wind I loaded the gear and was set up on the cut field by 12 noon. I chose to use 20 sillosocks which were soon bellowing and moving in the wind . The wind was coming over my left shoulder and the pigeons were crossing from the right and swinging around. The first 10 minutes produced 2 pigeons which I put out on the magnet which gave the eye catching movement they were looking for. I was surprised how many large groups of pigeons were flying about- I sometimes had 20 + pigeons over the decoys at the same time. Most of my kills were singles to begin as they were cautiously skirting the outside of the pattern. I replaced the sillosocks  with shot birds which really helped and gave the pigeons the confidence to commit to the middle of the pattern and soon I was knocking down the occasional left and right.

I had that annoying spell of missing easy shots plus the school boy error of changing my mind and looking for an easier shot - resulting in 2 missed shots. After a talking to myself I shot 13 straight without a miss. By 3pm the sun was out and the pigeons were giving me plenty of shooting. One pigeon was committed to the decoys- just as I stood up to shoot- a large female sparowhawk came out of nowhere in hot pursuit, but at the last moment she chose to attack one of my dead bird decoys instead.

I needed to be somewhere else by 5pm so I called it a day at 4pm - with 68 pigeons in the bag.

This was my best bag in some time and a very enjoyable afternoon out 

This was the view from my hide with Holy island and Bamburgh castles in the distance, and Berwick upon tweed’s famous royal border bridge.

Hitman 

 

[NatureBoy]

Cracking day! And one hell of a view!      NB

[JDog]

Very good sport.

I will be staying on the Tweed at Horncliffe next week. That must be pretty close to where you were shooting. 

 

Edited July 13, 2021 by JDog

[Scully]

Sounds great! Nice part of the country too.👍

[TIGHTCHOKE]

Nice when it all comes together, well done.

[aga man]

Looks a lovely place to shoot pigeons.  Nice report👍

[clangerman]

good effort there always nice to get a few 

[marsh man]

Good report of a great day out , Pea stubble is certainly one of the best stubbles to shoot over , trouble is the stubble don't last long before it goes Brown and the Pigeons move on or back to the grain fields .

Our Peas were cut Sunday and I hope I am well enough to at least have a look over the next couple of days with the intention of shooting it Saturday , the weather down here is hot and dry over the weekend , bring it on .

[the hitman]

12 hours ago, JDog said:

Very good sport.

I will be staying on the Tweed at Horncliffe next week. That must be pretty close to where you were shooting. 

 

Yes indeed- about 2 miles upstream of where I was shooting. Nice village with good fishing on the Tweed . I think the chain bridge which take you into Scotland is currently closed due to ongoing repair work.

[mossy835]

well done thats a good days shooting,and a good number of birds.

[lakeside1000]

I had a call Monday from the farm , pea fields being cut and would be ready Tuesday for some shooting, so I arrived early afternoon, quite a few birds already there but well spread out, with a mix of shells and full bodied decoys plus around a dozen old dead birds I set up and had a steady afternoon until the rain and high winds put a stop to the sport, picked just 20 but well worth the visit, hope to get back again before the stubble gets too old and dry,