Where Have All The Posters Gone ?

[marsh man]

At one time March was one of the best months to make good bags of Pigeons over the drilling's , from around the second week in March we would scan the fields to see if the tractors were pulling the ground up and if one of the tractors had a drill on the back we knew we would be in for a days shooting , both Spring wheat and barley were good but Peas were even better , in those days you didn't have to kick the soil about to see what was in the ground as you could easily see the Pea seed scattered about and very often the Pigeons were already on the field before the tractor was finished putting the seed in .

Now it is a non event and even though our tractors were drilling sugar beet , Spring barley and the spud contractors were getting there fields ready there was no no sign of any Pigeon activity anywhere apart from on the Rape fields , last Saturday afternoon I went on a large Rape field that was only just beginning to take off , didn't see 1000s of Pigeons but mid afternoon they were about in good numbers as the gas guns were keeping them of some of the fields that had a fair amount of Pigeon damage on , I was set up by two pm and time the sun was getting low at 4 . 30 I had 22 , not a big bag by any means but a very enjoyable two hours or so and my dog never lost one , by the way , I was very happy with the choice of cartridge , Gamebore 28 gm 7 1/2 size shot , if you were on them up to 40yds they were dead or very nearly .

Now back to the title , We haven't heard from JDog lately , Pigeon Controller and Lakeside 1000 to name a few , normally they would hit a field that was either wet or badly prepared for a seed bed and pick up a good bag , P C seem to get Pigeons when us lesser mortals give up at the first or second hurdle , and my old mate Alan ( Lakeside ) would stick it out in any condition to fill his bag up .

So are they alright or just putting there feet up until a request come in from the land owner saying the fields are Blue with Pigeons , can you come and sort them out ?

[WalkedUp]

16 minutes ago, marsh man said:

We haven't heard from JDog lately

I have been thinking the same, I always look out for his well written and entertaining posts. 

[ditchman]

2 minutes ago, WalkedUp said:

I have been thinking the same, I always look out for his well written and entertaining posts. 

hasnt logged in since the 4th of march...........think he might have got fed up....i hope his health is ok 

[bunny_blaster]

I’ve been having a very good winter on the pigeons but every time I go to upload a post with pictures it says the file is too big. I’m not computer literate so I dont bother posting. 
 

Ben

[Mice!]

16 minutes ago, bunny_blaster said:

I’ve been having a very good winter on the pigeons but every time I go to upload a post with pictures it says the file is too big. I’m not computer literate so I dont bother posting. 
 

Ben

If your using your phone take a screenshot,  then crop out the border and upload this, it takes way less space.

[bunny_blaster]

1 hour ago, Mice! said:

If your using your phone take a screenshot,  then crop out the border and upload this, it takes way less space.

I’ll give it a go

[WalkedUp]

6 hours ago, bunny_blaster said:

I’ll give it a go

I send them via WhatsApp to myself to quickly reduce file size. Helps I have a work phone and a naughty phone. 

[marsh man]

All this Whats App is way out of my league , I use imgBB and find that fairly easy to upload and then download to the forum , how it all work ? , haven't got a clue 

Another member we haven't heard from for some time is my fellow county member Motty  always a interesting read from a top Pigeon shooter .

[clangerman]

just like the rest of us the usual  posters have things to do sure business will resume when less busy 

Edited March 22, 2022 by clangerman
typo

[the hitman]

Interesting post MM - I agree that drillings are a bit hit and miss now , whereas they were a sure bet not so many years ago.

Also I have noticed the fair weather brigade out and about at this time of year. I hardly heard another shot when I was sitting freezing my nuts off protecting OSR in deepest winter- now in my patch most fresh drillings have a vehicle in the gateway.

I will be keeping an eye on the bare patches of OSR next month- that’s where they will be after drillings are done.

I also have quite an acreage of peas to go in , and Easter school holidays-so hopefully I will have another shooting report soon.

Hitman

[dead eye alan]

Been too wet round here to drill got 3 fields of beans going in any time soon? 2 barley next week. Not shot a pigeon for 3 weeks there on the grass fields with the new lambs  or horse fields both unshootable. Be out on the lookout later today. 

[marsh man]

2 hours ago, the hitman said:

Interesting post MM - I agree that drillings are a bit hit and miss now , whereas they were a sure bet not so many years ago.

Also I have noticed the fair weather brigade out and about at this time of year. I hardly heard another shot when I was sitting freezing my nuts off protecting OSR in deepest winter- now in my patch most fresh drillings have a vehicle in the gateway.

I will be keeping an eye on the bare patches of OSR next month- that’s where they will be after drillings are done.

I also have quite an acreage of peas to go in , and Easter school holidays-so hopefully I will have another shooting report soon.

Hitman

I often forget how difficult it is for the younger members who have to work to pay the bills , run a house , young families to look after and try to fit in some pigeon shooting , when you have only got the odd day to go you don't want to spend most of the day looking around your area trying to find enough for a few shots , this can sometimes work but the odds are stacked against you at this time of the year , take yesterday for example , I dropped my wife off at the garden centre for her weekly two hours out😉 while I go and scan my area which start just across the road , my plan was to find some for today as I drop 25 pigeons off at the pub on a Wednesday which is also on my patch and then have a couple of hours shooting .

Wherever you looked you could see tractors working , conditions were ideal for working the land and for getting about , my first port of call was the rape field I got 20 odd off Saturday , pulled up to the field and couldn't see a pigeon then a minute or two later a loud bang went off quickly followed by another , disaster , they have finally put a new gas on the field , never mind I will go and look at some more Rape fields , after driving around for a hour and half and walking my dog around three more rape fields I had seen next to nothing , it was now time I had to think about getting back to the garden centre ,  as luck would have it, when I was driving down one of the minor roads I met the keepers wife with her three dogs , I stopped and had a chat and the first thing she said was , are you looking for Pigeons John ? , yea , just been round the rape fields , well she said when she went to see her husband on Monday there were several Pigeons on some fields that were getting ready for drilling up on the other side of the estate , as time was running on I thanked her for the information and said I will go up that way later on today , with that I then started to make my way back to pick the good lady up , so today it is another case of looking around again before the car is loaded up for a few hours shooting .

I accept for the majority of younger members spending that much time away from home would be very, very hard to say the least . 

[Lsto]

8 hours ago, marsh man said:

I often forget how difficult it is for the younger members who have to work to pay the bills , run a house , young families to look after and try to fit in some pigeon shooting , when you have only got the odd day to go you don't want to spend most of the day looking around your area trying to find enough for a few shots , this can sometimes work but the odds are stacked against you at this time of the year , take yesterday for example , I dropped my wife off at the garden centre for her weekly two hours out😉 while I go and scan my area which start just across the road , my plan was to find some for today as I drop 25 pigeons off at the pub on a Wednesday which is also on my patch and then have a couple of hours shooting .

Wherever you looked you could see tractors working , conditions were ideal for working the land and for getting about , my first port of call was the rape field I got 20 odd off Saturday , pulled up to the field and couldn't see a pigeon then a minute or two later a loud bang went off quickly followed by another , disaster , they have finally put a new gas on the field , never mind I will go and look at some more Rape fields , after driving around for a hour and half and walking my dog around three more rape fields I had seen next to nothing , it was now time I had to think about getting back to the garden centre ,  as luck would have it, when I was driving down one of the minor roads I met the keepers wife with her three dogs , I stopped and had a chat and the first thing she said was , are you looking for Pigeons John ? , yea , just been round the rape fields , well she said when she went to see her husband on Monday there were several Pigeons on some fields that were getting ready for drilling up on the other side of the estate , as time was running on I thanked her for the information and said I will go up that way later on today , with that I then started to make my way back to pick the good lady up , so today it is another case of looking around again before the car is loaded up for a few hours shooting .

I accept for the majority of younger members spending that much time away from home would be very, very hard to say the least . 

I have to agree with this. I have a young family myself and the only farm I have is part of a syndicate. As such it is always pretty pressured. Going for a recce is just turning up and hoping for the best. I try to go a few afternoons a week if I can after work. In the winter it's hard because I'm only allowed to shoot during daylight and by the time I finish work it's dark and weekends are always full of odd jobs and chores and entertaining the little ones. This time of year I can get out but there is usually not much to see, only a couple of heavily shot rape fields and I don't think people want to hear about my mediocre 3 or 4 birds I manage in the dying hours of the evening if I'm lucky.

That said I have missed the reports from PC, yourself and JD etc and I hope normal business will resume shortly. I always enjoy having a read while I'm at work.

[marsh man]

12 minutes ago, Lsto said:

I have to agree with this. I have a young family myself and the only farm I have is part of a syndicate. As such it is always pretty pressured. Going for a recce is just turning up and hoping for the best. I try to go a few afternoons a week if I can after work. In the winter it's hard because I'm only allowed to shoot during daylight and by the time I finish work it's dark and weekends are always full of odd jobs and chores and entertaining the little ones. This time of year I can get out but there is usually not much to see, only a couple of heavily shot rape fields and I don't think people want to hear about my mediocre 3 or 4 birds I manage in the dying hours of the evening if I'm lucky.

That said I have missed the reports from PC, yourself and JD etc and I hope normal business will resume shortly. I always enjoy having a read while I'm at work.

I can fully understand your predicament and Pigeon shooting can take up a lot of your time which for people like yourself is often in short supply , I have always said that if you want to shoot a lot of Pigeons you need a lot of time . a lot of land and of course a lot of Pigeons , when I say a lot of land it need to be land where Pigeons are likely to feed , time wise , it was roughly thought of that you look on average for two days for one days shooting and then you need Pigeons in good numbers.

I might be wrong but I dare say the majority of regular posters who shoot medium / large bags of Pigeons are either retired , semi retired or have got a good job where they can get away at a moments notice , when you have only got say the Saturday to shoot on and you have sneaked away during the week and found a likely field that have just been drilled , Pigeons are building up nicely and on the Friday the wind direction is ideal with a dry but cloudy day , a perfect day to get a good bag , then early Saturday morning the wind direction change with rain moving in , time you get your gear out to put in the motor the wind had dropped and the rain is now heavy and set in for the day , sadly you have missed out where one of the above would have been there the Friday .

This situation do happen and might be one reason that you see a lot of Pigeon gear in the other sales section .

[ehb102]

Did anyone read the article in The Field this month about how pigeon shooting has changed over the years? I would be interested to hear if anyone here agreed. I'll see if I can find my copy and post a picture. I'm trying to remember what was said specifically, mostly I think that flappers aren't much use any more. 

[oldypigeonpopper]

10 hours ago, ehb102 said:

Did anyone read the article in The Field this month about how pigeon shooting has changed over the years? I would be interested to hear if anyone here agreed. I'll see if I can find my copy and post a picture. I'm trying to remember what was said specifically, mostly I think that flappers aren't much use any more. 

Hello, that would be interesting to see, 

[TIGHTCHOKE]

10 hours ago, ehb102 said:

Did anyone read the article in The Field this month about how pigeon shooting has changed over the years? I would be interested to hear if anyone here agreed. I'll see if I can find my copy and post a picture. I'm trying to remember what was said specifically, mostly I think that flappers aren't much use any more. 

Madam, what was the title of the article as "how pigeon shooting has changed over the years" doesn't find much on their website.

[wymberley]

In my neck of the woods spring drillings - any drillings really - and pigeon have been a contradiction in terms for several years now. Apart from an accidental spillage, you hardly ever see a seed and so no pigeon either. The corvids have wised up, though. At one time you waited for the shoots to show and then either got the bangers out or put the hides up as this is what the corvids had been waiting for. No longer. They simply wait until the rough plough has turned into a billiard table and go for it. How they are able to do it I have no idea, but we've watched them. With absolutely nothing showing above ground they'll peck about until they hit pay-dirt and then peck about some more until they find another seed. Two points and they've got a straight line and they're off and seem also to be able to work out the drill distance between the seeds.

[ehb102]

4 hours ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

Madam, what was the title of the article as "how pigeon shooting has changed over the years" doesn't find much on their website.

The rules of being a modern pigeon shot by Rupert Godfrey in The Field's April 2022 edition. I've taken pictures, I just need to put them somewhere you can view them.

[ehb102]

https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjzGZ3u

This should take you to a Flickr album with scans of the five pages. 

The bit that caught my eye was "Because the nutritional value of maize is so high, and cropful speedily taken, eating habits have changed too. When on a diet of rape, pigeon need to feed hard for most of the day; now they can fill up in minutes so may only come to decoy late in the day." 

I enjoyed it. It's one of the rare articles in the Field that makes me put off cancelling the subscription. I read more about shooting pigeons than I actually shoot pigeons, and some of the stuff out there is very samey and how the writer is amazing and got a big bag. This was refreshingly down to earth. 

[wymberley]

1 hour ago, ehb102 said:

The rules of being a modern pigeon shot by Rupert Godfrey in The Field's April 2022 edition. I've taken pictures, I just need to put them somewhere you can view them.

Flippin' 'eck! I've just spent a fair chunk of this month's pension on acquiring the Magazine.

However, it was money well spent as it turned out to be quite beneficial. It confirmed the validity of my decisions from 2009 to stop buying magazines and join PW instead. These moves turned out to be both more financially viable and provided far greater sporting knowledge.

I was to also discover that with no other changes, simply adding a further 0.010" of choke to a barrel it was possible with confidence to increase the maximum effective range of the gun by some 20 yards against the same quarry.

I can't comment further on other content as having read the above piece, I found that my considerable financial outlay following an involuntary action on my part had somehow ended up in the bin. 

[TIGHTCHOKE]

Thanks Liz, that was an interesting read.  

[Farma Geddon]

On 22/03/2022 at 09:27, marsh man said:

All this Whats App is way out of my league , I use imgBB and find that fairly easy to upload and then download to the forum , how it all work ? , haven't got a clue 

Another member we haven't heard from for some time is my fellow county member Motty  always a interesting read from a top Pigeon shooter .

Motty found a new mott

And won't be posting a lot

Until he has worn this one up.

[6.5x55SE]

19 minutes ago, Farma Geddon said:

Motty found a new mott

And won't be posting a lot

Until he has worn this one up.

Long time no see speak G hope you are keeping well and still knocking them Pink's down ( during the season ) give my regards to W ( motty ) 👍

[bunny_blaster]

On 23/03/2022 at 19:47, marsh man said:

I can fully understand your predicament and Pigeon shooting can take up a lot of your time which for people like yourself is often in short supply , I have always said that if you want to shoot a lot of Pigeons you need a lot of time . a lot of land and of course a lot of Pigeons , when I say a lot of land it need to be land where Pigeons are likely to feed , time wise , it was roughly thought of that you look on average for two days for one days shooting and then you need Pigeons in good numbers.

I might be wrong but I dare say the majority of regular posters who shoot medium / large bags of Pigeons are either retired , semi retired or have got a good job where they can get away at a moments notice , when you have only got say the Saturday to shoot on and you have sneaked away during the week and found a likely field that have just been drilled , Pigeons are building up nicely and on the Friday the wind direction is ideal with a dry but cloudy day , a perfect day to get a good bag , then early Saturday morning the wind direction change with rain moving in , time you get your gear out to put in the motor the wind had dropped and the rain is now heavy and set in for the day , sadly you have missed out where one of the above would have been there the Friday .

This situation do happen and might be one reason that you see a lot of Pigeon gear in the other sales section .

I must admit I’m very lucky in the fact I have a young family at home and my job allows me to start early and finish early allowing me to look for pigeons after work once I’ve picked my lad up. I’m generally looking for pigeon 3-4 afternoons a week which means i can go straight to a field on the weekends.  I finish at 10 on a Friday and shoot the afternoon, Saturday and Sunday. In the summer I quite often shoot after work and have had some great bags late afternoon/early evening