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Roost shooting


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1 hour ago, bruno22rf said:

I thought they had to actually be causing damage before you can shoot, you also need to be able to confirm that all other methods have been tried?

Up until now I don't think anyone have ever been brought to court over shooting pigeons on non crops fields .

Our estate try to do everything by the book and in February they write permits out for four Saturdays roost shooting so if anybody was stopped they can produce written evidence why they were shooting pigeons , and I am pretty sure they would have done there home work before up to 30 odd guns were out roost shooting .

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4 hours ago, blankfirer said:

Wanted some roost shooting please 3 to 4 guns all insured around north west area gotta be somewhere please help

I wish you luck in your search. I have never heard of anyone selling roost shooting as it is zealously guarded and seen as a real treat. 

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57 minutes ago, JDog said:

I wish you luck in your search. I have never heard of anyone selling roost shooting as it is zealously guarded and seen as a real treat. 

i agree with that....i believe i know of the best roost shooting wood in east anglia..........the gamekeeper has the rights to it...and takes 2 folk now and then for a shed load of money...he has been doing this for 20 odd years...never even had a sniff at it.....

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Gordon Bennett, what an interesting thread you have started here Blankfirer!   :lol:

As stated above, I have never known it to be available for hire with the exception of the venue that Ditchman always wanted to visit.

Access is limited and savoured and the actual shooting is fast and difficult to do well.

Blankfirer I feel your best hope would be to get out and about in the beating world, make contacts and hope to be offered some good roost shooting in the future.

Good luck.

Edited by TIGHTCHOKE
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My earliest shotgun shooting was roost shooting in a little wood which regularly produced sport. 
Unfortunately, after twenty years the woodland was bulldozed and became part of what at the time was the largest privately owned housing estate in Europe.  
I have never managed to replace it.  
I think roost shooting is still my favourite shooting.

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I agree you need to get out beating on a place that let's the beaters go roost shooting after the season

 

I used to beat on a place in Northumberland that had well organised roost shoots 

 

You can't just rock up to a wood and hope for the best ,it takes planning and all the woods need to be manned or the birds just go to a wood and stay there

 

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I dare say a lot depend on the area you are in and the demand for shooting in general.

Most of the local estates offer roost shooting but that is mainly for the helpers on the game shoots , we did have an estate around the Holt area up in North / Norfolk where you could pay for a Saturday afternoon in February and early March , this was several years back and the cost was £5 a day and that went to a local charity , on our place it is roughly the same , we all pay £20 for four weeks and it is the same for everyone , even though I worked on the place I still had to pay for the roost shooting , the money collected went to a different charity , family in need or anyone who had fell on hard times .

We normally limit the permits to around 30 and with the odd collection and a donation from the boss we would give whoever was in line for the money around £500 as we still had a word of thanks in the guns waggon from the Air Ambulance for that amount . 

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On 28/12/2021 at 09:01, London Best said:

My earliest shotgun shooting was roost shooting in a little wood which regularly produced sport. 
Unfortunately, after twenty years the woodland was bulldozed and became part of what at the time was the largest privately owned housing estate in Europe.  
I have never managed to replace it.  
I think roost shooting is still my favourite shooting.

Back in the 70s I picked up and beat on the Maxstoke Castle estate and the Captain always had the beaters etc have the roost shooting in the small woods dotted around the estate.  My pal and I had some of the very best shooting you could imagine, particularly on a still afternoon when they would come from all directions and we literally stood back to back to cover every angle.  This new year I intend having a couple of afternoons in my own wood which has now matured enough for it to harbour a couple of hundred pigeons every night.  The Mossy Husher pumper may have it's barrel warmed up again for a change.  The high pole decoy system is similar to the permanent ones I have seen used in France and Belgium but they used live tame pigeons where they had a system to tilt the perch which made the pigeon flap to keep it's balance.  Very effective.

Also remember an estate down at Roundwood near Andover way where the owner had erected high scaffolding pylons and guns stood just under the tops of the trees and shot like driven grouse almost. 

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9 minutes ago, Walker570 said:

Back in the 70s I picked up and beat on the Maxstoke Castle estate and the Captain always had the beaters etc have the roost shooting in the small woods dotted around the estate.  My pal and I had some of the very best shooting you could imagine, particularly on a still afternoon when they would come from all directions and we literally stood back to back to cover every angle.  This new year I intend having a couple of afternoons in my own wood which has now matured enough for it to harbour a couple of hundred pigeons every night.  The Mossy Husher pumper may have it's barrel warmed up again for a change.  The high pole decoy system is similar to the permanent ones I have seen used in France and Belgium but they used live tame pigeons where they had a system to tilt the perch which made the pigeon flap to keep it's balance.  Very effective.

Also remember an estate down at Roundwood near Andover way where the owner had erected high scaffolding pylons and guns stood just under the tops of the trees and shot like driven grouse almost. 

Yes Neville, I too have had good roost shooting on several estates where I have picked up/loaded. What I meant was that I had never managed to replace my own personal bit of wood that had a good supply of pigeons.

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On 27/12/2021 at 21:19, ditchman said:

i agree with that....i believe i know of the best roost shooting wood in east anglia..........the gamekeeper has the rights to it...and takes 2 folk now and then for a shed load of money...he has been doing this for 20 odd years...never even had a sniff at it.....

Got to disagree with you ditchy. I shoot the best roost shooting wood in East anglia. The only reason the keeper can't take it off me is the big boss gave me the permission and I'm never giving it up.

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I had some stalking on an estate and had to shoot foxes and keep them off the rearing pens as part of the package. Favourite time was dawn and dusk sitting up in the trees on a roof shooting the roosting pigeons and rooks (off season), Super sport. 

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1 hour ago, JDog said:

Roost shooting is also hit and miss. Sometimes they use a wood, the next day they go somewhere else.

It would be difficult to justify charging if the pigeons didn't turn up.

That is why we only shoot the four Saturdays in February , on the first Saturday we would normally get the maximum number of guns out , this help everyone else by keeping the Pigeons on the move , we do have a few bags in the 20s and the odd one over , sometimes you can strike lucky by having a rape field joining the wood , some of the old hands get there a bit early and set up a magnet to increase the amount of shooting to be had .

Mainly through weather conditions the second week can be better than the first but normally the first week is the best , by the forth week with the days pulling out and the novelty wearing a bit thin it is then a good time to call it a day . ,

No one really begrudge £20 for four afternoons shooting and the majority keep the same wood each year , also with the crop rotation it can vary each year so if a wood didn't shoot that well last year it could be the reverse this year , 

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11 minutes ago, marsh man said:

That is why we only shoot the four Saturdays in February , on the first Saturday we would normally get the maximum number of guns out , this help everyone else by keeping the Pigeons on the move , we do have a few bags in the 20s and the odd one over , sometimes you can strike lucky by having a rape field joining the wood , some of the old hands get there a bit early and set up a magnet to increase the amount of shooting to be had .

Mainly through weather conditions the second week can be better than the first but normally the first week is the best , by the forth week with the days pulling out and the novelty wearing a bit thin it is then a good time to call it a day . ,

No one really begrudge £20 for four afternoons shooting and the majority keep the same wood each year , also with the crop rotation it can vary each year so if a wood didn't shoot that well last year it could be the reverse this year , 

The good old days when BASC ran the Saturdays in February.

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