September "Roost" Shooting in the Fens

[TIGHTCHOKE]

We decided to get out after a few Wood Pigeons and headed to the Benwick area in the Fens.

After we had accessed the farm through the electric gate we were aware of a 4x4 parked at the end of one of the tracks.

We drove along the track until we could see a pattern and the associated hide. Stopped for a chat with Steve and headed along to a spinney about half a mile away in the hope that we might benefit him and vice versa with keeping the birds moving.

We shot more than 30 and the vast majority were immature birds. 

Steve stayed a bit longer than we did and ended on 46.

Result one very happy farmer.

[mel b3]

That's a cracking job dave 👍.

[TIGHTCHOKE]

Was good fun for a couple of hours, strange thing was, both of us took our Game Guns, almost as if we independently decided to practice.

[ditchman]

and you only used one red cartridge ..and that was a pretty manky one

[mel b3]

Interesting choice of cartridges though dave 🤔 

[TIGHTCHOKE]

Just now, mel b3 said:

Interesting choice of cartridges though dave 🤔 

First ones I grabbed, red ones are somewhere in one of the stacks.  

2 minutes ago, ditchman said:

and you only used one red cartridge ..and that was a pretty manky one

I picked up an old rusty Winchester shell that someone else left behind.

[marsh man]

Excellent job Dave , as you say , one happy farmer and three very happy shooters , never done any roost shooting in September mainly due to a lot of leaf on the trees and from now on wards we tend to keep out of the woods , a good bit of ( sport ) had by all.

I was just about to put up a thread about the quantity of young birds about and I would imagine they have done well up and down the country and not just around our way , we have still got a lot of stubble's due to the ground being rock hard and no moisture in the soil , one area we have got that have produced a lot of Pigeons over the Summer period is still attracting a lot of Pigeons , if anything it is to big and would be a advantage if two or three shot it at the same time but as I said on a previous thread that very few people now seem interested in shooting Pigeons , no one have been in touch with now for two weeks and now the duck and game season have started I can't really see anyone willing to have a go .

Getting back to the quantity of young ones , yesterday when I looked there were 100s of Wood Pigeons and a large amount of Feral , these I leave alone but it can at times be hard to tell what's what when the sun is in your eyes or if you have got a dark back ground , still I can just about tell the difference between the two and after dinner I set up sideways to the sun, not only to keep the sun out of my eyes but also to keep the heat off as well , today it got up to 26 degrees with very little cloud let alone rain , the ground was far to hard to put the magnet out and it can also have the adverse effect in the bright sunshine , so my set up was getting fairly close to a wood they use throughout the day and a bakers dozen of Flexicoys and a bouncer with a fresh dead Pigeon at each end to the decoys , my intention was to shoot 20 Pigeons if I can in the time I was there , or pack up when the football finish on the radio ( Norwich v Coventry ) , to begin with it was a bit slow but as soon as a couple of shots were fired there was a lot of Pigeons on the move , to make my session last out a bit I was only using one cartridge if more than one came in and was mainly just taking the ones on my left or at best straight ahead , for some reason I was getting a lot of cripples and it seem just about every one my dog brought back was still alive , I was using a good shell , Fiocchi Pigeon  32gm 6s and these came as a job lot and not what I would normally buy, but T C must have had late night when these came up for sale and somehow I beat him to it . anyhow time was moving on and the game finished at 4.45 and by then I had 17 which was enough for me , when I got home and laid them out I had 8 young with no White neck bars , 4  with the neck bars just starting to appear and five old uns , not a detailed survey I know , but I don't often get more young ones than old and at that rate we are going to have a lot of Pigeons for the farmers to worry about .

 

[TIGHTCHOKE]

Thank you John

We used the spinney as cover and shot the birds as they arrived at the trees or flew over, I enjoyed so called "Left and Rights" but even better were the high birds that came down. The low birds just arrived in you view and it was great fun shooting a few as "Snap" targets.

We enjoyed our "Sport" while undertaking valuable "Pest Control" for the Farmer!

Indeed, as you say, I feel the Wood Pigeon population is burgeoning, hopefully we will have a good winter on them in between the Game Shoots.

Glad you got a deal on some cartridges, MelB3 was asking me how I was getting on, around about 12000 sitting in four stacks in the Gun Room at the moment. So no rush to buy any more unless they are bargains.

[mossy835]

glad you had a good day, not many young round here at the moment.

[Scully]

Sounds like a good few hours. It’s just great to be out there. 
Rain has stopped play here currently. 😕

[old'un]

Well done  that's my type of day, I now prefer shooting flighting birds to shooting from a hide.

Yep, pigeons have had a good breeding year, warm dry, no rain storms or gales to knock young birds off the nest, should get some good days this winter if the birds stay in the area and the farms have managed to get some rape in.

[marsh man]

2 hours ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

Thank you John

We used the spinney as cover and shot the birds as they arrived at the trees or flew over, I enjoyed so called "Left and Rights" but even better were the high birds that came down. The low birds just arrived in you view and it was great fun shooting a few as "Snap" targets.

We enjoyed our "Sport" while undertaking valuable "Pest Control" for the Farmer!

Indeed, as you say, I feel the Wood Pigeon population is burgeoning, hopefully we will have a good winter on them in between the Game Shoots.

Glad you got a deal on some cartridges, MelB3 was asking me how I was getting on, around about 12000 sitting in four stacks in the Gun Room at the moment. So no rush to buy any more unless they are bargains.

Sound's like a good session and that is what shooting is all about , testing your ability to shoot , wouldn't it be boring if we only took on shots we would be sure of hitting ? , with Pigeon shooting you get every shot in the book and many more they didn't know exist , age is getting the better of me now and I can no longer take those overhead snap shots while sitting down , one reason why I decoy a long way out is to give me more time to line up a shot , still , as they say , it's the taking part what counts .

I believe I bought the cartridges from a member near the Bury St Edmunds area and I met him about half way in Diss , I also bought a slab recently that a member put me onto who only live a mile or so away , these were Clear Pigeon in 32gm , a bit powerful for me so I only bought one slab and he let me have them for £55 , a bargain .