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Not a field of rape in sight.


JDog
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20220208_115826.jpg.5ba6f5bc5b2de06c469b6a7ffd7d5507.jpgThe curse of winter rape shooting has struck me of late so I wanted to try something different. 

This maize cover crop is only two miles from home and in passing of late I have seen pigeon activity around it. There is inevitably a hill involved and I had to brace myself for the struggle to get to my chosen spot. 

The hide was erected in the top corner of the maize with guy ropes holding the thing together. I took only a handful of shell decoys and two floaters.

A hundred birds got up as I approached my position and away they went to the large sitting up woods behind. I shot a pigeon after one minute then another after five and then nothing for thirty minutes when numbers started to return.

Today I changed to half choke as I imagined that there would be long crossers and so it proved. 

In an hour and a half I shot and picked twenty one pigeons.20220208_115850.jpg.56cc24d46192b2ba7b609a75f9c7b186.jpg

Edited by JDog
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3 hours ago, JDog said:

20220208_115826.jpg.5ba6f5bc5b2de06c469b6a7ffd7d5507.jpgThe curse of winter rape shooting has struck me of late so I wanted to try something different. 

This maize cover crop is only two miles from home and in passing of late I have seen pigeon activity around it. There is inevitably a hill involved and I had to brace myself for the struggle to get to my chosen spot. 

The hide was erected in the top corner of the maize with guy ropes holding the thing together. I took only a handful of shell decoys and two floaters.

A hundred birds got up as I approached my position and away they went to the large sitting up woods behind. I shot a pigeon after one minute then another after five and then nothing for thirty minutes when numbers started to return.

Today I changed to half choke as I imagined that there would be long crossers and so it proved. 

In an hour and a half I shot and picked twenty one pigeons.20220208_115850.jpg.56cc24d46192b2ba7b609a75f9c7b186.jpg

Just go to show how mild the Winter have been with all the cobs still on the Maize , conditions today were very Spring like and would have been nice sitting in a hide , but alas we have got very few Pigeons, the roost shooting last Saturday was more or less a non event , 25 was the highest I heard that were shot on some freshly lifted Beet , in the woods , the best I heard of was 12.

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Nice going again Jdog. 21 in an hour and a half is a nice spell ! 
I had high hopes for the rape this winter as had a bit more to go at, but been disappointing really and only shot over one small block. Seem to be there one day and not the next, with the usual flock and poor lines in. 
A maize cover would be the dream, but in short supply round here unfortunately…..when that’s flailed I expect the pigeons will hit it even harder! 
Glad you’re keeping busy. 

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12 hours ago, Wilts#Dave said:

Nice going again Jdog. 21 in an hour and a half is a nice spell ! 
I had high hopes for the rape this winter as had a bit more to go at, but been disappointing really and only shot over one small block. Seem to be there one day and not the next, with the usual flock and poor lines in. 
A maize cover would be the dream, but in short supply round here unfortunately…..when that’s flailed I expect the pigeons will hit it even harder! 
Glad you’re keeping busy. 

Yes I love watching pigeons on my 'days off' when I am not shooting. 

Last week I saw a great line into a field adjacent to one where I have permission. Taking the bull by the horns I drove to the estate office and asked to see the owner who I had met once before. I asked if I could shoot that particular field at which point he produced a map of the farm (2000 acres) with this year's cropping on along with a key to the barriers and said carry on. 

I don't need any more land and I will attempt to pass it on to you know who.

Edited by JDog
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25 minutes ago, JDog said:

Yes I love watching pigeons on my 'days off' when I am not shooting. 

Last week I saw a great line into a field adjacent to one where I have permission. Taking the bull by the horns I drove to the estate office and asked to see the owner who I had met once before. I asked if I could shoot that particular field at which point he produced a map of the farm (2000 acres) with this year's cropping on along with a key to the barriers and said carry on. 

I don't need any more land and I will attempt to pass it on the you know who.

do you know when the keeper will slash the maize down.........should be good shooting that day or the day after .....

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14 minutes ago, pigeon controller said:

Well done JDog , we have so much rape around that’s all that they want you to shoot. The problem is that you just move them onto the farm next door.

That is what make your regular bags even more impressive , having the odd field in a large area is ideal but to get loads of fields scattered about make it hard work and for a lot of us , a waste of time.

There was talk that there wasn't as much rape grown that there once was , this might well be the case in some places, but I can safely say that we have as much as we normally have , on the estate's farm alone there are at least six fields , and the tennant farms have a few more on top of that , once you leave the estates boundary you then see even more fields , we show willing and damage this year is down to a minimum , not my doing I might add ,

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4 hours ago, marsh man said:

That is what make your regular bags even more impressive , having the odd field in a large area is ideal but to get loads of fields scattered about make it hard work and for a lot of us , a waste of time.

There was talk that there wasn't as much rape grown that there once was , this might well be the case in some places, but I can safely say that we have as much as we normally have , on the estate's farm alone there are at least six fields , and the tennant farms have a few more on top of that , once you leave the estates boundary you then see even more fields , we show willing and damage this year is down to a minimum , not my doing I might add ,

Very much area dependant!
Rape acreage is way down nationwide, some areas just don’t seem to be so affected by flea beetle. Since the rapid decline in rape being grown in my area winter shooting has gone off the boil too. Where I thought a smaller acreage might concentrate them and give good shooting the opposite has happened and they seem to just disappear from the area through winter and return in the spring. Never shot PC bags but used to enjoy chasing 50 bird days through the winter! Yet our summer pigeon shooting seems unaffected! 

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