Going Out With a Bang

[pigeon controller]

I’d arranged to go out with my shooting buddy DB and picked him up at 08.30 met his new dog Jude (3 months) and we set out looking for pigeons. It was a good hard frost and it would appear that they had not gritted as it was forecast to turn mild. Well within ten minute of setting out we had an Vauxhall Astra try and climb into the back of the Disco , his crumple zone was well crumpled and I had a  rear fog guard lens smashed and a plastic bumper finisher popped off. We exchanged details a set of again.

The first farm we looked at DB had shot with Topgunners last week with not much success, as we drove down the track to the field the oak trees above us exploded with birds so this was a contender.

We drove out back on the road and saw a flight line to the farm that I had shot last week, we scanned the top fields from the road and it seemed that the birds were passing over the field and carrying on ,so we drove towards the flight line to see if we could not find the field they wanted. The only way round was to make a huge detour rounds the lanes in which time we lost the line.

We decide to cut our losses and look at other fields, three had birds but not huge numbers and nothing joining but the last one we looked at had a small number of birds flighting in but then disappearing over a bank on the field. We did not want to disturb these and drove back round the other side of the field to be confronted with possibly two hundred birds plus feeding hard.

No Brainer, so we walked them off and set up with twelve fresh birds two on the magnet and ten on cradles above the rape and waited for them to return. Well we set up for 11.00 and the first bird returned at 11.30 and then we had a steady return of single birds but not the quantity that had been down. As the day went on he had the occasional helicopter flitting about and it spooked us a few birds but at approx14.30 one went over the area we could not drive to earlier and it lifted approx four hundred birds that just went over our heads very high into the distance.

As it was nearly the shortest day and cloudy we packed up at 15.00 and picked up sixty birds it was great to be out sharing a hide again and not a bad result.

As it’s the last time I will be out before Christmas it’s my normal Christmas Photo  so can I wish all the members and readers a Safe Festive Season and a Happy New Year.   

[JDog]

Hello Santa.

An interesting day for you.

Is DB really taking out a 3 month old pup?

[TIGHTCHOKE]

Well done.  

[pigeon controller]

18 minutes ago, JDog said:

Hello Santa.

An interesting day for you.

Is DB really taking out a 3 month old pup?

No I met him at his house when I picked him up we took out George who is his father, sorry to confuse.

[enfieldspares]

38 minutes ago, pigeon controller said:

I’d arranged to go out with my shooting buddy DB and picked him up at 08.30 met his new dog Jude (3 months) and we set out looking for pigeons. It was a good hard frost and it would appear that they had not gritted as it was forecast to turn mild. Well within ten minute of setting out we had an Vauxhall Astra try and climb into the back of the Disco , his crumple zone was well crumpled and I had a  rear fog guard lens smashed and a plastic bumper finisher popped off. We exchanged details a set of again.

The first farm we looked at DB had shot with Topgunners last week with not much success, as we drove down the track to the field the oak trees above us exploded with birds so this was a contender.

We drove out back on the road and saw a flight line to the farm that I had shot last week, we scanned the top fields from the road and it seemed that the birds were passing over the field and carrying on ,so we drove towards the flight line to see if we could not find the field they wanted. The only way round was to make a huge detour rounds the lanes in which time we lost the line.

We decide to cut our losses and look at other fields, three had birds but not huge numbers and nothing joining but the last one we looked at had a small number of birds flighting in but then disappearing over a bank on the field. We did not want to disturb these and drove back round the other side of the field to be confronted with possibly two hundred birds plus feeding hard.

No Brainer, so we walked them off and set up with twelve fresh birds two on the magnet and ten on cradles above the rape and waited for them to return. Well we set up for 11.00 and the first bird returned at 11.30 and then we had a steady return of single birds but not the quantity that had been down. As the day went on he had the occasional helicopter flitting about and it spooked us a few birds but at approx14.30 one went over the area we could not drive to earlier and it lifted approx four hundred birds that just went over our heads very high into the distance.

As it was nearly the shortest day and cloudy we packed up at 15.00 and picked up sixty birds it was great to be out sharing a hide again and not a bad result.

As it’s the last time I will be out before Christmas it’s my normal Christmas Photo  so can I wish all the members and readers a Safe Festive Season and a Happy New Year.   

I enjoyed that. Thank you for sharing it.

[mossy835]

good right up, and another good day.

[aga man]

Another very decent bag off winter rape.👍

Merry Xmas to you & yours PC

All the best

[marsh man]

Nice to get the finer details before the days shooting had even started , not every day you get poked up your rear end by a complete stranger and exchange details .

Great photo and some very clean , well looked after pigeons .

A MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU and hopefully we will see your four legged friend next year . STAY SAFE 

[dead eye alan]

Disappointed no Christmas jumper, nice result though and good description sounds like you have no shortage of birds up north.  

[the hitman]

Nice write up of a very eventful day.

Good recce paid off with a great bag in a relatively short day out.

Nice picture.

Merry Christmas.

 

[maxwell]

Always a pleasure to read your reports PC, well done.

[Spr1985]

Thanks for posting pc. It was a good read! 
I hope you don’t find any underlying damage to the Landy. 

[pigeon controller]

Thanks for your kind comments, I’m glad if my amateur writings give you pleasure and hopefully some instruction.

Have a merry Christmas.