How Much Longer Will We Be Abel To AFFORD To Shoot Pigeons ??

[ditchman]

On 17/08/2022 at 22:32, TOPGUN749 said:

I rarely believe those inflation calculators,I instead think back to take home wages then and now,I find it a more accurate comparison.In 1975 a man in a typical manual/ factory job would take home circa £30 a week,today similar job £380.,making £40 equivalent to £508.In terms of buying power we are far better off now.

good post.........those inflation calculators are not really accurate.....

[kitchrat]

WOW, 30p/pigeon! In the early '70's I was at university and my annual grant was £595. Beer was 13p in the student bar and 15p in a pub. (now £5+) Petrol was 32p/gallon (now £7++) It cost 35p to go and watch Newcastle play soccer (now £25 min) So a pigeon was worth: About 3 pints in the SU or 2 in a pub(£10) About 1 gall (£7++) About 1 visit to the soccer (£25 min) I was pleased the 1st time my take home pay was £20 but now my OAP is about £150. So, income up by 7.5 times, pigeon value a third! We ARE worse off!! (sorry about the format!)

[Deadeyealan]

1 hour ago, kitchrat said:

WOW, 30p/pigeon! In the early '70's I was at university and my annual grant was £595. Beer was 13p in the student bar and 15p in a pub. (now £5+) Petrol was 32p/gallon (now £7++) It cost 35p to go and watch Newcastle play soccer (now £25 min) So a pigeon was worth: About 3 pints in the SU or 2 in a pub(£10) About 1 gall (£7++) About 1 visit to the soccer (£25 min) I was pleased the 1st time my take home pay was £20 but now my OAP is about £150. So, income up by 7.5 times, pigeon value a third! We ARE worse off!! (sorry about the format!)

Wye is your pension so low you should at least get outher support on top of this low pension?

[kitchrat]

2 hours ago, Deadeyealan said:

Wye is your pension so low you should at least get outher support on top of this low pension?

I didn't work the full number of years. The £150 is an approximation but quite close I think, a bit over £600/month, x 12, divided by 52....

[Deadeyealan]

4 hours ago, kitchrat said:

I didn't work the full number of years. The £150 is an approximation but quite close I think, a bit over £600/month, x 12, divided by 52....

You should get on to Martin Lewis web site he has a good pension advice page to get help to claim extra when you're pension is too low.

[kitchrat]

11 hours ago, Deadeyealan said:

You should get on to Martin Lewis web site he has a good pension advice page to get help to claim extra when you're pension is too low.

Thanks for the idea. I'm lucky in that I have very simple tastes and low running costs. Still have the 1st SxS I brought early '70's for £17.50, plus a 2nd hand o/u.

My better half also has a decent pension (ex local Gov!) She also is low maintenance! (Thank God!!)

Forgot to add- no kids to drain the system!!

Edited September 7, 2022 by kitchrat
add info

[marsh man]

23 hours ago, kitchrat said:

WOW, 30p/pigeon! In the early '70's I was at university and my annual grant was £595. Beer was 13p in the student bar and 15p in a pub. (now £5+) Petrol was 32p/gallon (now £7++) It cost 35p to go and watch Newcastle play soccer (now £25 min) So a pigeon was worth: About 3 pints in the SU or 2 in a pub(£10) About 1 gall (£7++) About 1 visit to the soccer (£25 min) I was pleased the 1st time my take home pay was £20 but now my OAP is about £150. So, income up by 7.5 times, pigeon value a third! We ARE worse off!! (sorry about the format!)

Just to add insult to injury we were buying cartridges by the 1000s and they were £40 a 1000 for the budget ones , which worked out 4d each in old money and about 3p in today's , if we were in the money we would treat ourselves to a better shell , these were either Eley Grand Prix, or Richardsons of Halesworth Style , these we would buy a slab at a time for £12 / 10s .

In those far off days they would even pick a minimum of a 100 or so up for nothing and it was also talked about that Cissel Frost from Frostgame would supply a freezer to those who shot big numbers , and if you took any up and they were shut you could leave them near his house with your name on and he would pay you cash when you went up when they were open , that's how much they were in demand  

[Gas seal]

Hi marsh man times have really changed 1,000,000 urgently required, I wonder who required them. We have more pigeons now and a generation that doesn’t want them.  It could be the love for chicken not dark pigeon meat. I was always told not to eat to many or you will get gout. I used Russian or Cheap cartridges l even made lead pellets to load my cartridges. I would never thought I would be shooting pigeons with steel pellets and bio wads or air gun pellets made from alloys. As Bob Dylan said The times they are a changin and more changes to come.

[Deadeyealan]

59 minutes ago, Gas seal said:

Hi marsh man times have really changed 1,000,000 urgently required, I wonder who required them. We have more pigeons now and a generation that doesn’t want them.  It could be the love for chicken not dark pigeon meat. I was always told not to eat to many or you will get gout. I used Russian or Cheap cartridges l even made lead pellets to load my cartridges. I would never thought I would be shooting pigeons with steel pellets and bio wads or air gun pellets made from alloys. As Bob Dylan said The times they are a changin and more changes to come.

Yes more changes to come but not for the better I predict.

[marsh man]

1 hour ago, Gas seal said:

Hi marsh man times have really changed 1,000,000 urgently required, I wonder who required them. We have more pigeons now and a generation that doesn’t want them.  It could be the love for chicken not dark pigeon meat. I was always told not to eat to many or you will get gout. I used Russian or Cheap cartridges l even made lead pellets to load my cartridges. I would never thought I would be shooting pigeons with steel pellets and bio wads or air gun pellets made from alloys. As Bob Dylan said The times they are a changin and more changes to come.

The main outlet for the dealers were the E U , whenever you went up to drop some Pigeons off you would see at least one artic and very often two loading 100s of trays full up with Pigeons and other game in season , I told you that once he paid me £5 for a brace of Pheasants I took up in October before the big shoots started ( last year they were 30p for a hen and 40p for a coxk ,and that was better than some were paying ) , Hares were making £4 each , Mallard were similar to what they are today , Fresh were £1.50 and frozen were a £1 , When I was single and lived at home I would freeze all my surplus game and duck and take them up just before Christmas and buy all our Xmas meat, and believe you me we lived well over the festive period .

[kitchrat]

21 hours ago, marsh man said:

Just to add insult to injury we were buying cartridges by the 1000s and they were £40 a 1000 for the budget ones , which worked out 4d each in old money and about 3p in today's , if we were in the money we would treat ourselves to a better shell , these were either Eley Grand Prix, or Richardsons of Halesworth Style , these we would buy a slab at a time for £12 / 10s .

In those far off days they would even pick a minimum of a 100 or so up for nothing and it was also talked about that Cissel Frost from Frostgame would supply a freezer to those who shot big numbers , and if you took any up and they were shut you could leave them near his house with your name on and he would pay you cash when you went up when they were open , that's how much they were in demand  

I

 

21 hours ago, marsh man said:

Just to add insult to injury we were buying cartridges by the 1000s and they were £40 a 1000 for the budget ones , which worked out 4d each in old money and about 3p in today's , if we were in the money we would treat ourselves to a better shell , these were either Eley Grand Prix, or Richardsons of Halesworth Style , these we would buy a slab at a time for £12 / 10s .

In those far off days they would even pick a minimum of a 100 or so up for nothing and it was also talked about that Cissel Frost from Frostgame would supply a freezer to those who shot big numbers , and if you took any up and they were shut you could leave them near his house with your name on and he would pay you cash when you went up when they were open , that's how much they were in demand  

I can't remember what ammo cost but in my university holidays I worked on a farm and my mate and I could shoot rabbits at night from the back of my mini pick-up. I had to shoot Baikal "shoulder-busters" as they were the only ones that came in a box of 10, which I could afford. (maybe that's why I don't have problems with shoulder mount today?)

We had to be careful with our shots, if we got about 8 rabbits we could go to the pub, sell most of them, have a beer, refuel the pick-up and buy another box of 10 Bailkals for next week, with, maybe a rabbit or 2 for dinner.

I'm still careful with my shooting and usually average about 1.5 shots/pigeon, not because I'm a great shot but I'm frugal with the ammo!

[Gas seal]

Hi kitchrat I can’t remember the cost of cartridges, to far back.I used Baikal cartridges in the dark for duck the flash was blinding. I never used them in the dark for rabbits they were to loud. We used old hammer guns and my first new gun was a Baikal single barrel. My brother and I bought one each from mams catalog, couldn’t do that now. We had to be frugal with cartridges . I shoot pigeons in tramlines and on tracks next to the crop I will often shoot two or three with one shot, on the ground, steel shot is good for this as it has a tight pattern.still frugal.  It’s like shooting pigeons with an air rifle, different type of shooting harder than it looks. With the cost of cartridges going up more people will be frugal with them. I was always told that they don’t grow on trees.