Name me a film with a sequel just as good!

[Jim Neal]

Tricky.  I've found it the same when trying to replicate a good roost shooting session.  I think I might have got close last weekend though!

I'm a bit late getting this report up, but after my very good session a week last Saturday I was brimming with hope and anticipation because the weather forecast promised a bit of very windy weather to hit the area on Friday;  I fancied going back to the wood with the tall Leylandii to have another crack at the pigeons on my own.  I freed up my time for the late afternoon/early evening, but then on Thursday watched in dismay as the predicted gale seemed to fizzle off the forecast completely.  Ah well, too late now to worry or change anything.  It was a very busy session before with no wind to funnel the birds onto a line - I think the feature of those trees is so prominent that it's one of the rare places you don't need to rely heavily on the wind to bring the birds to you.

I had a very busy day with a mixture of things to get done:  some actual work in the morning (I do go out and earn a living sometimes), followed by a couple of urgent errands that I needed to run.  Also, I was very kindly gifted a fallow buck last Sunday which I'd already got butchered but needed to get the noisy job of mincing it done before I went out, so I didn't keep anyone awake that night making sausages!  (I do sleep sometimes)

Babysitter installed (love you, mum!), I headed out a bit later and a bit more stressed than planned, at about 15:30.

It's only 5 minutes to the wood, where I let myself in the gate and decided to forego the 300-odd yard walk that can sometimes yield a few snap shots as you surprise the sitting pigeons out of the trees.  I drove all the way round the pen and parked only about 40yds behind the hide.  It's quite handy that the wood has several lateral and longitudinal rides in a grid system, and it's so dry at the moment they're firm going in a vehicle.

I chucked the special needs spaniels out of the car and let them blast off some energy.   Of course, one of them almost instantly finds the only pheasant left in the wood!!  Two squirrels dashing up a tree along the ride were noted, to be harassed at a later, more convenient time.

I hastily scooped up gun and cartridges, plus remembered the all-important dog leads!  Seems as it was only a short stagger, I took a bucket to chuck empties in, loading it up with my flask and cup, water for me, plus due to the unusually warm temperature a bottle of water and bowl for the dogs to knock all over my boots every time I put the gun up.  This saves me time cleaning the boots myself, I just have to refill the bowl every 5 shots or so.  What frustrates me is they sit there panting but don't drink a drop.

I'd brought one more thing from the car: my bow-saw.  As I had found last week on my first visit to it this year, the hide needed a bit of TLC.  5 Minutes later, after hacking a few branches off the neighbouring young Leylandii that had self-set under the huge parent trees, the hide was looking a bit more like concealing me to the front and left and I was ready for action.

First customer in was a crow, tantalisingly at the upper limits of the 27g 7.5s I'd loaded into the gun.  Of course, I missed it.

The shot unsurprisingly stirred up the wood and a few pigeons began darting this way and that, out of range to begin with.  A few opportunities presented themselves to me and I capitalised on one - a right-to-left snap shot as a bird came over my shoulder, skimming the top of the tall conifers behind me.  Then another came on almost exactly the reverse line, attempting to go where its now departed friend had come from.  I dropped the bird only about 5 yards behind me, testing the strength of the dog leads and, of course, giving my boots their first watering of the afternoon.

Purely as an aid to training the young cocker, I left the pigeon where it was downed, in full view of the dogs.  No problem for the apprentice but the old springer damn near choked herself in a bid to go and fetch it for me.  She was giving me that look:  "Can't you SEE IT???  It's just THERE!!!!".  She calmed down eventually.

I settled in to the session, but the pigeon numbers were understandably a lot less than 6 days previous, which was the first time I'd shot the wood this year.  There wasn't so much of a "mad 10 minutes" as the first shots rattled up the nearby sitting pigeons, but I managed to loose off a good 8 or 10 shots before the obligatory lull set in.

I got caught napping, looking to my right (the usual line in) as a pigeon swooped across me from the left side.  It would have been an almost dead cert, only maybe 20-odd yards out in front, but by the time I'd called myself a rather rude name it had swung around me and disappeared through the evergreen screen provided by the backdrop of conifers.

You can actually see just enough dappled sky through the top 10 feet or so of these trees to know if any birds are swinging in behind you.  This was the case as I tracked a few arriving birds, circling the edge of the wood about 150yds in front before they disappeared behind the tall trees.  I let my gaze linger just long enough to catch a glimpse of movement coming my way from behind the foliage.  I mounted the gun a bit clumsily due to being swivelled around - I always feel that I need to pay more attention to my footwork when roost shooting, but always seem to freeze on the spot, I believe because I'm trying to minimise my movement - but I got locked on to the pigeon as it came overhead and was very pleased with a clean, first-barrel kill which landed a decent way out in front of me.

I took a couple more "bread and butter" birds which came almost straight on to me passing to my right.  This invariably results in them hitting one of the Leylandii, and then (hopefully) bouncing down through the branches to the ground.  It's a sort of smack-smack-smack-THUD.  Only, one of these birds didn't do the THUD at the end.  They can get stuck if they hit the tree a fair way up because the upper branches are more dense.  Sometimes they drop out unexpectedly a little while later, other times you'll find the feathers on the ground where something made a meal out of it at a later time!

One more kill of note: a very fast moving bird which circled clockwise around me, turning sharply as it came past.  I don't often congratulate myself out loud, but this pigeon was going some and I folded it stone dead in the air, first barrel, as it was about to pass over the top of the trees, which must be 100ft tall.  There was a very loud THUD somewhere way back behind me, and at that moment I felt it wouldn't get any better than that this afternoon.

One very unwise, unsuspecting pigeon dropped in to the bare branches of a beech tree about 20yds in front of me, but it didn't get comfortable there - quite the opposite.  Sunset was fast approaching and the sky grew duller by the minute.  The calls of crows in the background became more regular and I sensed it was time to slip the gun and give the dogs their long-awaited reward.

I knew where I hadn't dropped any birds  - anywhere between 12 and 3 on a clock face, if you look at it like that.  Therefore I set off straight out in front from the hide, knowing I'd be wise to sweep the whole of the wood out to 150yds away from me, then arc round to the left to bring that side back to the hide.  Both dogs justified their outing with me, and I actually came back from that sector with one more than I thought I'd pick.  Then we went up and down the line of conifers, either side of the hide position.  On either side I was one bird short of what I wanted to pick.  I knew the reason on the right side, but was disappointed with only 2 out of 3 on the left.  I'd maybe not connected as well as I thought with one of them and it had run off.  I chose to keep the dogs tethered up and settled for the duration of my session seems as it was a bit shorter than usual, to avoid them scaring off any further incomers and to help keep my focus on the birds in the sky rather than the lunatics on the ground.  That bird evidently should have been retrieved straight away so my mistake.

With my left arm aching from carrying a fistful of pigeons, and my right hand using the whistle to occasionally re-direct the picking up team, I started sweeping the area behind the hide and deposited the birds picked so far on the roof of my car.  Both dogs did me proud, hunting hard and finding anything that was downed.  Happy I'd done all I could to pick up, I returned to the hide to retrieve my gear, now in almost complete darkness.  I loaded up the car and headed off home with 9 woodpigeons, a bucket full of 29 empties and two happy spaniels.

I always like to reward my dogs for their hard work out in the field with me, so they got their customary pigeon dinner and a spot on the sofa in front of the fire that evening.  Happy days.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

I treated myself to a lie-in on Saturday morning, which meant the other half took the dogs on their morning walk.  Upon her return, I'd dragged myself as far as the kettle, where I was vigorously interrogated as to the whereabouts of the dog leads.  I checked coat pockets, table outside, shed, back of the car... DOH!  The leads were still tethered up to the hide in the wood!  In my haste to set about picking up before the light went, I'd broken protocol; instead of making sure my kit was all ready to just pick up and go, I'd simply slipped the dogs off their leads and set off.  I didn't see my mistake in the dark!

This meant I'd have to go back that afternoon.  Ah well, may as well take my son for a wander, and the dogs.... might as well take the gun for a walk as well, then!  I've actually been struggling with a really bad cold this last week and, although I felt OK Friday, Saturday found me decidedly unmotivated to get out of bed or go outdoors.  I'd already made a call to last week's companion Matt, who I'd expected would want to go for the usual Saturday outing, but as chance would have it he'd been invited elsewhere decoying so I didn't have to let him down.  Later that day, I dragged myself, son, dogs and gun back to the wood only 30 minutes or so prior to sunset.

As we parked up, I could hear shotguns popping about a mile away in another wood where I'd placed two of our guns who wanted to roost shoot that day.  I also saw those two squirrels again but moved them down the priority list.  We set off towards the hide to retrieve the leads and I chatted to my son along the way.  As we got near the line of tall Leylandii, my young cocker, out in front about 20 yards, froze momentarily and set something at the base of the trees.  Then, quick as a flash she was in there.

Then, quick as a flash, out came a woodpigeon, flying about 3 feet off the ground and off across the wood.  The pair of them disappeared out of sight.

My initial reaction was to yell at her to leave it; I desperately don't want to undo the hard work I've put in to prevent her chasing flushed game, but realised it was probably futile to do so at this moment, plus possibly fruitful if that bird was indeed an injured one from yesterday.  My instincts were right as it turned out.  Only a minute later, one very proud-looking cocker spaniel came galloping back towards me with a pigeon in her mouth.

This filled me with both pride and dread, in equal amounts.  It's amazing to see a young dog beginning to act on its instincts whilst at the same time doing something you want it to do.  However, retrieving has been a disaster with this dog so far.  She's possessive with a retrieve - shows you what she's got in a fly-by sort of manoeuvre - and then won't deliver it or let you get close to her in an attempt to relieve her of her prize.

The bird's head was still up, which is a remarkable improvement in her handling of game.  With both a pigeon and a pheasant in recent times she's thrashed and shaken them.  On a recent syndicate day I had to chuck the remnants of a pheasant she got hold of that was stuck in a fence.  This pigeon was still alive and thus far not damaged by the dog, so hopefully the shredding isn't going to be a habit.

I employed the tactic of ignoring her.  I turned my back on her and walked the pack away, to get the leads from the hide.  Sure enough, once crouched down untying the leads, she trotted up with her new "best thing in the world ever" and with just a little bit more coaxing (and a quick grab of the scruff, not ideal but least worst option) I got her sat and released the bird from her mouth.  I de-feathered her chops and gave her a bucket load of praise, and crossed my fingers that this could hopefully be a corner turned in her retrieving!

I don't know if this bird was the unaccounted one from my left side, the one that got stuck in the tree on my right side, or none of the above.  Either way around I'm glad it was retrieved and dispatched, but regret it had to suffer for 24 hours first.

Right, about those squirrels........ well, I found a drey in the tree just above the feeder they scarpered from, knocked on the door with barrel no.1 and...... a woodpigeon bolted out of a tree only about 30 yards away!  Barrel no.2 chased down this unexpected gatecrasher, which helicoptered into the trunk of a nearby sycamore.  I knew I'd not hit it well, so immediately sent the dogs on.  Experience won out over youth on this occasion, with the old springer following my hand signals and her nose straight on to the bird.

Two pigeon dinners on the trot for the dogs, and I'd felt happy about both of those extra pigeons, for different reasons.  Just better than a 3:1 ratio on a roost shooting session.  Venison sausages for Sunday dinner, washed down with a nice bottle of red.  I've possibly done a Star Wars and managed to follow up quite well with an Empire Strikes Back.  Not a bad weekend.

 

Edited February 22, 2023 by Jim Neal

[ditchman]

epic report ...very readable...and well worth it..

[Old Boggy]

Wow, what a report that was and thoroughly enjoyable.

Many thanks for taking the time to post what is a most interesting and detailed report.

Keep them coming.

OB

[HIDENSEEK]

Thanks for sharing! nice to know someone else has dogs that are less than Field Trial standard!

[marsh man]

A very detailed account on two afternoons of sport , a brilliant report and you made a good job in highlighting the finer details that we often overlook , as the years are rolling by at an alarming pace I am finding the bag is becoming less important than it once was , I am now taking more note of what is going on around me and I have often missed a chance of a shot while watching a Red Kite or something else of interest , over the years I have had 1000s of shots at Pigeons but only a few sightings of Red Kites hovering just above me , so where once I would only look at how many birds had been shot throughout the afternoon ,I now take note of all the finer things that is going on and just being out is often enough to make the trip worthwhile .     MM

[Old Boggy]

1 hour ago, marsh man said:

A very detailed account on two afternoons of sport , a brilliant report and you made a good job in highlighting the finer details that we often overlook , as the years are rolling by at an alarming pace I am finding the bag is becoming less important than it once was , I am now taking more note of what is going on around me and I have often missed a chance of a shot while watching a Red Kite or something else of interest , over the years I have had 1000s of shots at Pigeons but only a few sightings of Red Kites hovering just above me , so where once I would only look at how many birds had been shot throughout the afternoon ,I now take note of all the finer things that is going on and just being out is often enough to make the trip worthwhile .     MM

I`m totally with you on this John.

The highlight of my last trip out apart from the few pigeons shot and being out in our lovely countryside, was the sight of a beautiful barn owl that just sat on a branch looking at me.

We get the very occasional red kite and my last but one trip out saw a hen harrier. Something we rarely see in these parts. Another rarity a few weeks ago was a white tailed eagle no doubt blown off course from Old Farrier`s neck of the woods on the Isle of Wight.

I apologise to Jim Neal for slightly derailing his wonderful post.

OB

 

[ditchman]

only a person owning a spaniel ...would describe them as "special needs"..............it is soooo accurate a description...........it dosnt include the money that goes to councilling at the end of a days picking up

[pigeon controller]

What a report, brilliant, it’s not about numbers it’s about enjoyment of the situation and you certainly captured that. Well done for letting us enjoy your sessions, more to come in the future we hope.

[kitchrat]

14 hours ago, Jim Neal said:

Tricky.  I've found it the same when trying to replicate a good roost shooting session.  I think I might have got close last weekend though!

I'm a bit late getting this report up, but after my very good session a week last Saturday I was brimming with hope and anticipation because the weather forecast promised a bit of very windy weather to hit the area on Friday;  I fancied going back to the wood with the tall Leylandii to have another crack at the pigeons on my own.  I freed up my time for the late afternoon/early evening, but then on Thursday watched in dismay as the predicted gale seemed to fizzle off the forecast completely.  Ah well, too late now to worry or change anything.  It was a very busy session before with no wind to funnel the birds onto a line - I think the feature of those trees is so prominent that it's one of the rare places you don't need to rely heavily on the wind to bring the birds to you.

I had a very busy day with a mixture of things to get done:  some actual work in the morning (I do go out and earn a living sometimes), followed by a couple of urgent errands that I needed to run.  Also, I was very kindly gifted a fallow buck last Sunday which I'd already got butchered but needed to get the noisy job of mincing it done before I went out, so I didn't keep anyone awake that night making sausages!  (I do sleep sometimes)

Babysitter installed (love you, mum!), I headed out a bit later and a bit more stressed than planned, at about 15:30.

It's only 5 minutes to the wood, where I let myself in the gate and decided to forego the 300-odd yard walk that can sometimes yield a few snap shots as you surprise the sitting pigeons out of the trees.  I drove all the way round the pen and parked only about 40yds behind the hide.  It's quite handy that the wood has several lateral and longitudinal rides in a grid system, and it's so dry at the moment they're firm going in a vehicle.

I chucked the special needs spaniels out of the car and let them blast off some energy.   Of course, one of them almost instantly finds the only pheasant left in the wood!!  Two squirrels dashing up a tree along the ride were noted, to be harassed at a later, more convenient time.

I hastily scooped up gun and cartridges, plus remembered the all-important dog leads!  Seems as it was only a short stagger, I took a bucket to chuck empties in, loading it up with my flask and cup, water for me, plus due to the unusually warm temperature a bottle of water and bowl for the dogs to knock all over my boots every time I put the gun up.  This saves me time cleaning the boots myself, I just have to refill the bowl every 5 shots or so.  What frustrates me is they sit there panting but don't drink a drop.

I'd brought one more thing from the car: my bow-saw.  As I had found last week on my first visit to it this year, the hide needed a bit of TLC.  5 Minutes later, after hacking a few branches off the neighbouring young Leylandii that had self-set under the huge parent trees, the hide was looking a bit more like concealing me to the front and left and I was ready for action.

First customer in was a crow, tantalisingly at the upper limits of the 27g 7.5s I'd loaded into the gun.  Of course, I missed it.

The shot unsurprisingly stirred up the wood and a few pigeons began darting this way and that, out of range to begin with.  A few opportunities presented themselves to me and I capitalised on one - a right-to-left snap shot as a bird came over my shoulder, skimming the top of the tall conifers behind me.  Then another came on almost exactly the reverse line, attempting to go where its now departed friend had come from.  I dropped the bird only about 5 yards behind me, testing the strength of the dog leads and, of course, giving my boots their first watering of the afternoon.

Purely as an aid to training the young cocker, I left the pigeon where it was downed, in full view of the dogs.  No problem for the apprentice but the old springer damn near choked herself in a bid to go and fetch it for me.  She was giving me that look:  "Can't you SEE IT???  It's just THERE!!!!".  She calmed down eventually.

I settled in to the session, but the pigeon numbers were understandably a lot less than 6 days previous, which was the first time I'd shot the wood this year.  There wasn't so much of a "mad 10 minutes" as the first shots rattled up the nearby sitting pigeons, but I managed to loose off a good 8 or 10 shots before the obligatory lull set in.

I got caught napping, looking to my right (the usual line in) as a pigeon swooped across me from the left side.  It would have been an almost dead cert, only maybe 20-odd yards out in front, but by the time I'd called myself a rather rude name it had swung around me and disappeared through the evergreen screen provided by the backdrop of conifers.

You can actually see just enough dappled sky through the top 10 feet or so of these trees to know if any birds are swinging in behind you.  This was the case as I tracked a few arriving birds, circling the edge of the wood about 150yds in front before they disappeared behind the tall trees.  I let my gaze linger just long enough to catch a glimpse of movement coming my way from behind the foliage.  I mounted the gun a bit clumsily due to being swivelled around - I always feel that I need to pay more attention to my footwork when roost shooting, but always seem to freeze on the spot, I believe because I'm trying to minimise my movement - but I got locked on to the pigeon as it came overhead and was very pleased with a clean, first-barrel kill which landed a decent way out in front of me.

I took a couple more "bread and butter" birds which came almost straight on to me passing to my right.  This invariably results in them hitting one of the Leylandii, and then (hopefully) bouncing down through the branches to the ground.  It's a sort of smack-smack-smack-THUD.  Only, one of these birds didn't do the THUD at the end.  They can get stuck if they hit the tree a fair way up because the upper branches are more dense.  Sometimes they drop out unexpectedly a little while later, other times you'll find the feathers on the ground where something made a meal out of it at a later time!

One more kill of note: a very fast moving bird which circled clockwise around me, turning sharply as it came past.  I don't often congratulate myself out loud, but this pigeon was going some and I folded it stone dead in the air, first barrel, as it was about to pass over the top of the trees, which must be 100ft tall.  There was a very loud THUD somewhere way back behind me, and at that moment I felt it wouldn't get any better than that this afternoon.

One very unwise, unsuspecting pigeon dropped in to the bare branches of a beech tree about 20yds in front of me, but it didn't get comfortable there - quite the opposite.  Sunset was fast approaching and the sky grew duller by the minute.  The calls of crows in the background became more regular and I sensed it was time to slip the gun and give the dogs their long-awaited reward.

I knew where I hadn't dropped any birds  - anywhere between 12 and 3 on a clock face, if you look at it like that.  Therefore I set off straight out in front from the hide, knowing I'd be wise to sweep the whole of the wood out to 150yds away from me, then arc round to the left to bring that side back to the hide.  Both dogs justified their outing with me, and I actually came back from that sector with one more than I thought I'd pick.  Then we went up and down the line of conifers, either side of the hide position.  On either side I was one bird short of what I wanted to pick.  I knew the reason on the right side, but was disappointed with only 2 out of 3 on the left.  I'd maybe not connected as well as I thought with one of them and it had run off.  I chose to keep the dogs tethered up and settled for the duration of my session seems as it was a bit shorter than usual, to avoid them scaring off any further incomers and to help keep my focus on the birds in the sky rather than the lunatics on the ground.  That bird evidently should have been retrieved straight away so my mistake.

With my left arm aching from carrying a fistful of pigeons, and my right hand using the whistle to occasionally re-direct the picking up team, I started sweeping the area behind the hide and deposited the birds picked so far on the roof of my car.  Both dogs did me proud, hunting hard and finding anything that was downed.  Happy I'd done all I could to pick up, I returned to the hide to retrieve my gear, now in almost complete darkness.  I loaded up the car and headed off home with 9 woodpigeons, a bucket full of 29 empties and two happy spaniels.

I always like to reward my dogs for their hard work out in the field with me, so they got their customary pigeon dinner and a spot on the sofa in front of the fire that evening.  Happy days.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

I treated myself to a lie-in on Saturday morning, which meant the other half took the dogs on their morning walk.  Upon her return, I'd dragged myself as far as the kettle, where I was vigorously interrogated as to the whereabouts of the dog leads.  I checked coat pockets, table outside, shed, back of the car... DOH!  The leads were still tethered up to the hide in the wood!  In my haste to set about picking up before the light went, I'd broken protocol; instead of making sure my kit was all ready to just pick up and go, I'd simply slipped the dogs off their leads and set off.  I didn't see my mistake in the dark!

This meant I'd have to go back that afternoon.  Ah well, may as well take my son for a wander, and the dogs.... might as well take the gun for a walk as well, then!  I've actually been struggling with a really bad cold this last week and, although I felt OK Friday, Saturday found me decidedly unmotivated to get out of bed or go outdoors.  I'd already made a call to last week's companion Matt, who I'd expected would want to go for the usual Saturday outing, but as chance would have it he'd been invited elsewhere decoying so I didn't have to let him down.  Later that day, I dragged myself, son, dogs and gun back to the wood only 30 minutes or so prior to sunset.

As we parked up, I could hear shotguns popping about a mile away in another wood where I'd placed two of our guns who wanted to roost shoot that day.  I also saw those two squirrels again but moved them down the priority list.  We set off towards the hide to retrieve the leads and I chatted to my son along the way.  As we got near the line of tall Leylandii, my young cocker, out in front about 20 yards, froze momentarily and set something at the base of the trees.  Then, quick as a flash she was in there.

Then, quick as a flash, out came a woodpigeon, flying about 3 feet off the ground and off across the wood.  The pair of them disappeared out of sight.

My initial reaction was to yell at her to leave it; I desperately don't want to undo the hard work I've put in to prevent her chasing flushed game, but realised it was probably futile to do so at this moment, plus possibly fruitful if that bird was indeed an injured one from yesterday.  My instincts were right as it turned out.  Only a minute later, one very proud-looking cocker spaniel came galloping back towards me with a pigeon in her mouth.

This filled me with both pride and dread, in equal amounts.  It's amazing to see a young dog beginning to act on its instincts whilst at the same time doing something you want it to do.  However, retrieving has been a disaster with this dog so far.  She's possessive with a retrieve - shows you what she's got in a fly-by sort of manoeuvre - and then won't deliver it or let you get close to her in an attempt to relieve her of her prize.

The bird's head was still up, which is a remarkable improvement in her handling of game.  With both a pigeon and a pheasant in recent times she's thrashed and shaken them.  On a recent syndicate day I had to chuck the remnants of a pheasant she got hold of that was stuck in a fence.  This pigeon was still alive and thus far not damaged by the dog, so hopefully the shredding isn't going to be a habit.

I employed the tactic of ignoring her.  I turned my back on her and walked the pack away, to get the leads from the hide.  Sure enough, once crouched down untying the leads, she trotted up with her new "best thing in the world ever" and with just a little bit more coaxing (and a quick grab of the scruff, not ideal but least worst option) I got her sat and released the bird from her mouth.  I de-feathered her chops and gave her a bucket load of praise, and crossed my fingers that this could hopefully be a corner turned in her retrieving!

I don't know if this bird was the unaccounted one from my left side, the one that got stuck in the tree on my right side, or none of the above.  Either way around I'm glad it was retrieved and dispatched, but regret it had to suffer for 24 hours first.

Right, about those squirrels........ well, I found a drey in the tree just above the feeder they scarpered from, knocked on the door with barrel no.1 and...... a woodpigeon bolted out of a tree only about 30 yards away!  Barrel no.2 chased down this unexpected gatecrasher, which helicoptered into the trunk of a nearby sycamore.  I knew I'd not hit it well, so immediately sent the dogs on.  Experience won out over youth on this occasion, with the old springer following my hand signals and her nose straight on to the bird.

Two pigeon dinners on the trot for the dogs, and I'd felt happy about both of those extra pigeons, for different reasons.  Just better than a 3:1 ratio on a roost shooting session.  Venison sausages for Sunday dinner, washed down with a nice bottle of red.  I've possibly done a Star Wars and managed to follow up quite well with an Empire Strikes Back.  Not a bad weekend.

 

Why were you using Clay ammo? Surely something a bit heavier would be better for roost shooting, high birds, trees and twigs all around?

[Stonepark]

16 minutes ago, kitchrat said:

Why were you using Clay ammo? Surely something a bit heavier would be better for roost shooting, high birds, trees and twigs all around?

Heavier is not necessarily better.  

Decent clay ammo in 2.3mm (UK 7.5) will drop pigeons to 40 yards, in 2.4mm (UK 7) to 45... If your hide is sighted correctly and with a little bit of wind (always useful when roost shooting) there is no reason to be shooting 50 yard plus "screamers".

Smaller pellets in greater numbers can pass through bunches of twigs and still have enough pattern to kill the pigeon, where a smaller number of larger pellets may not.

[Jim Neal]

Thanks all for the kind words, and don't worry @Old Boggy I don't consider that to be hijacking the thread at all, just part of a discussion

@marsh man, funny you should mention the Red Kite because the location in this report is a kite roost!  One time last year at that hide, just as I decided I'd had my last shot of the day, the kites started descending in to the trees all around me to roost up.  There must have been 20 within a stone's throw of my position.  It's reassuring to see that they are not frightened in any way by gun shots - quite the opposite, in fact!  They have learned to associate gun shots with food.  There's always going to be a bird here and there that gets pricked or you fail to pick up.  There's been a few times when I've wondered if I should take a shot because a kite is up there, albeit out of any sensible range you'd hope to hit a target species at.

In my part of the world there were extensive release programmes some years back and the birds have really thrived.  It's an everyday sight having them swooping and soaring over our village.  I'll see if I can try to remember to take a picture but most days when you go outside and look up there are at least 20 kites visible to the naked eye within a few hundred yards' radius.

A few years ago a friend showed me some photos and described how someone in the adjoining road must have put food on a garage roof or something similar.  There was literally a vortex of red kites descending and ascending in a tight circle over this one spot above someone's back yard!   He couldn't count them properly but estimated 50+ birds.

@ditchman some of the owners are just as special needs as the dogs! 😆

3 hours ago, kitchrat said:

Why were you using Clay ammo? Surely something a bit heavier would be better for roost shooting, high birds, trees and twigs all around?

I've been swapping between the above mentioned 27g 7.5 and a 29g 6 load, testing them out really.  I'm actually finding I'm a bit more consistent with the 7.5s but it's early days yet, only shot 40 or so of each so that's nowhere near enough to have any sort of opinion set in concrete.  I don't think the real pigeons know that the cartridge says "clay" on the box

@Stoneparkhas saved me the trouble, couldn't have put it any better 👍

Hopefully out again Saturday, if not before!