Happy to Help Out

[pigeon controller]

While walking the dog along the canal yesterday and with him running up and down the banks he disrupted a few nesting pigeons which I hit every one in my mind. I then had a text from Bunny_Blaster who is on holiday in Spain. A farmer had contacted him regarding some direct drilled barley and peas which are being hit by the local corvids, he requested if I could contact the farmer  and help out. It was 09.02 so we walked back the two miles to sort the gear out. First job was to find some corvids and pigeons and put them out into the sun to thaw. Rushing around in the garage to sort out cartridges, no magnet or flapper so no battery just back to basics. Ben text me the field to be shot and I had a look on Google Earth so I had an idea of where I was going ,drink and off.

I arrived at the field at approx 11.00 phoned the farmer and left a message as it would appear that he had three fields all sprayed off and direct drilled but not a bird on any. I parked up and walked the field , it had green clover, drilled barley and peas on the surface. To me it was an ideal pigeon field, but nothing . As I walked back to the car a tractor came down the lane and turned into another field. I walked across and it was the farmer. We walked back to the field I had parked in and he said it was covered this morning when he took his son to school but nothing now. I agreed to set up as I had seen a couple of jackdaws flight between to Oak trees and he left.

It was very hot with a slight breeze in the centre of the field but nothing on the edges due to the trees and hedges. I put out six frozen pigeons at about forty yards out towards the centre of the field to catch a little wind and six corvids fifty yards to my right at the base of an Oak tree, the idea being that they would concentrate on the decoys and pass my hide without spooking.

I was shooting 28gram 71/2 steel in case the pigeons came but realised in my haste to leave the house had take 32gram 5s Fiocchi which have a habit of not ejecting from my Beretta I did have some Proper Cartridges 32gram 6s in lead  for the corvids.

First birds in were jackdaws and flew exactly where I wanted them to be out of the sun, this went on for the first hour ,all corvids. Then high pigeon came over the first shot hit the tail the second did the business, he went out on a flying frame as did the next carrion crow.

After about two hours the farmer drove up to see how I was going on and took half a dozen birds to lay out on the other fields, he seemed happy with my results so far. The day progressed  well with the exception of loading lead in the gun and then seeing a pigeon make for the decoys and having to swop to steel and then shooting two Fiocchi carts and having to ram rod them out with a fibreglass rod. I got to about 17.30 and did a mental count up and thought I had shot 90 corvids so I had to make it up to the ton this took me to 18.10 and the farmer turned up with his son to see the result and they helped me collect the birds to lay them out . The total for the day was 113 corvids 10 bonus pigeons and a dove which must have caught a ricochet from a hit bird!!! 

[marsh man]

Nice to see you are back amongst the corvids again and your laying out the bag is still as good as ever .

Your missus might not approve but I have stuck a couple of frozen Pigeons in the micro wave oven when I have needed a couple at short notice , I haven't blown myself up yet , it have been near but not near enough 

[hushpower]

Well shot. Going having alook at the cereals ona far i shoot nx week. This time last year they were starting to show an interest

[marsh man]

39 minutes ago, hushpower said:

Well shot. Going having alook at the cereals ona far i shoot nx week. This time last year they were starting to show an interest

Your cereals must be more advanced than ours down this neck of the woods , last year at this time we had constant warm, to hot weather and no heavy rain when the grain fields were in the milky stage so we never shot no Pigeons as nothing got laid , we started the harvest on the 11th of July and the first Pigeons we shot on any grain fields was on Winter barley stubble .

What type of grain fields are you going to look at next week ?

[hushpower]

Wheat, barley & oats  with all this dry weather we need some rain to help with the milky stage ...was only saying to my bro this morning. In the Cheshire Plains we are

[bunny_blaster]

Well done PC. Thanks for going at such short notice 👍

[pigeon controller]

30 minutes ago, bunny_blaster said:

Well done PC. Thanks for going at such short notice 👍

No problem, thank you.

[Spr1985]

Well done pc, a great account of your day and I’d assume one happy farmer and one happy bunny blaster 👏🏻

[Accuspell]

Amazing. I have never got to grips with decoying at all, the most I have ever shot in a day (over 50 years of shooting) is 13!   I have read plenty of books and articles by Archie Coates and co on how to lay the birds for a decoy pattern. I have a dozen Flexicoys and a couple of flocks that I can hoist up about 20 feet. I don't think we get the numbers concentrated like you do. I have shot more roosting with the air rifle than ever I have decoying with the shotgun. Most of the farm was grassland with just a few acres of arable for feed.  I shall keep trying because I do enjoy it. Any extra tips that might make ne more successful than the odd one or two as a general rule?

[jall25]

3 hours ago, Accuspell said:

Amazing. I have never got to grips with decoying at all, the most I have ever shot in a day (over 50 years of shooting) is 13!   I have read plenty of books and articles by Archie Coates and co on how to lay the birds for a decoy pattern. I have a dozen Flexicoys and a couple of flocks that I can hoist up about 20 feet. I don't think we get the numbers concentrated like you do. I have shot more roosting with the air rifle than ever I have decoying with the shotgun. Most of the farm was grassland with just a few acres of arable for feed.  I shall keep trying because I do enjoy it. Any extra tips that might make ne more successful than the odd one or two as a general rule?

Hi Accuspell - by the sounds of it you are simply not setting up in the right place

 

You need to be where the birds want to be 

 

More recon needed 

[marsh man]

6 hours ago, Accuspell said:

Amazing. I have never got to grips with decoying at all, the most I have ever shot in a day (over 50 years of shooting) is 13!   I have read plenty of books and articles by Archie Coates and co on how to lay the birds for a decoy pattern. I have a dozen Flexicoys and a couple of flocks that I can hoist up about 20 feet. I don't think we get the numbers concentrated like you do. I have shot more roosting with the air rifle than ever I have decoying with the shotgun. Most of the farm was grassland with just a few acres of arable for feed.  I shall keep trying because I do enjoy it. Any extra tips that might make ne more successful than the odd one or two as a general rule?

Could well be a number of reasons why you have found it difficult to get a large bag , to begin with you need the quantity of Pigeons on your perm(s) in the first place , then you would need the crops to hold them , if you have had only a few Pigeons going on a certain crop then 13 is not a bad bag , if you put up 2 / 300 and plenty are on the move going backwards and forward then yes you could be doing something wrong , although for the number of years you have been shooting you should be learning by your mistakes ( if you are making any ) it's easy to say you should be doing this and that but t b h someone who have done a lot of Pigeon shooting and know what he is doing could easily say what you are doing right or wrong, need to be there when you have found a nice lot to have a go at .

GOOD LUCK and I hope you drop onto a P B ( personable best ) in the coming weeks . MM

[Accuspell]

On 30/05/2023 at 15:49, jall25 said:

Hi Accuspell - by the sounds of it you are simply not setting up in the right place

 

You need to be where the birds want to be 

 

More recon needed 

I can onlu go where I am allowed to go. As I said mostly grass and just a couple of fields of arable.

On 30/05/2023 at 18:35, marsh man said:

Could well be a number of reasons why you have found it difficult to get a large bag , to begin with you need the quantity of Pigeons on your perm(s) in the first place , then you would need the crops to hold them , if you have had only a few Pigeons going on a certain crop then 13 is not a bad bag , if you put up 2 / 300 and plenty are on the move going backwards and forward then yes you could be doing something wrong , although for the number of years you have been shooting you should be learning by your mistakes ( if you are making any ) it's easy to say you should be doing this and that but t b h someone who have done a lot of Pigeon shooting and know what he is doing could easily say what you are doing right or wrong, need to be there when you have found a nice lot to have a go at .

GOOD LUCK and I hope you drop onto a P B ( personable best ) in the coming weeks . MM

Thanks - I think my opportunity is limited by the few fields I have that are down to crops, the rest is open grassland.

[jall25]

3 hours ago, Accuspell said:

I can onlu go where I am allowed to go. As I said mostly grass and just a couple of fields of arable.

Thanks - I think my opportunity is limited by the few fields I have that are down to crops, the rest is open grassland.

 

The fact that there is only a couple of areas of arable on the farm though will concentrate whatever numbers you have 

If you are shooting more roosting with an air rifle than decoying that says the birds are in the area but you just to find where they are feeding 

[Accuspell]

On 01/06/2023 at 13:25, jall25 said:

 

The fact that there is only a couple of areas of arable on the farm though will concentrate whatever numbers you have 

If you are shooting more roosting with an air rifle than decoying that says the birds are in the area but you just to find where they are feeding 

Well, I haven't found the feeding patterns in over 35 years on this ground.... and I am on it daily. Not always shooting.

[jall25]

27 minutes ago, Accuspell said:

Well, I haven't found the feeding patterns in over 35 years on this ground.... and I am on it daily. Not always shooting.

You seem to take it very personally Accuspell - You wanted tips and pointers but get all defensive when i tell you its recon you need to do 

You are defo doing something wrong if your best bag is 13 in over 50 years shooting  ! Simple

I have just shot over 350 crows perhaps 400 in the last few weeks - why because i watch where they want to be - and if i set up and they dont want to be there i move - and then move again if need be - recon is 90 percent of it 

[Accuspell]

jall,

I do understand that, I think I saw you post about your 500 birds on FB - but you were out by 04.00. I have no hope of that, and likewise staying until late is also out of the question. I have the same problem if I go fishing - I can only go when I can go, as opposed to when I ought to be going.

[jall25]

2 hours ago, Accuspell said:

jall,

I do understand that, I think I saw you post about your 500 birds on FB - but you were out by 04.00. I have no hope of that, and likewise staying until late is also out of the question. I have the same problem if I go fishing - I can only go when I can go, as opposed to when I ought to be going.

Not me on FB Accuspell

You will always just have to get whet you get then if you cant put the time in 

Hope that makes sense 

Just now, jall25 said:

Not me on FB Accuspell

You will always just have to get whet you get then if you cant put the time in 

Its just you said you are on the ground daily 

Hope that makes sense 

 

[marsh man]

1 hour ago, jall25 said:

Not me on FB Accuspell

You will always just have to get whet you get then if you cant put the time in 

Hope that makes sense 

 

Slightly drifting off the track, but do people still go early in the morning ? , in my much younger days I had loads of early morning shooting at both Corvids and Pigeons , this time of the year I was often in position at around four in the morning , when Birds Eyes were taking in Peas at Yarmouth the fields I had were some of the first to be vined , this would be around the last week in June and I can remember one morning I shot a Pigeon over decoys a few minutes before 4 am , this can only be done around the longest day as a couple of weeks after that the day light start getting shorter by a few minutes more or less daily , I would get in a couple of hours or so shooting and start packing up at 6.30 , time I got home and had a bit of breakfast I was still at work by 8 am , also you can easily get in a couple of hours in when you leave off , mind you , living and working close to your perms will make a big difference , but I always find that if you wanted something bad enough you can normally find the time somewhere , although you might have to find the excuse to go rather than find an excuse where you can't go 

[jall25]

We tend to set up on the crows at the moment at 530 ish Marsh man

We would go earlier but the farmer rents out the holiday cottage and thinks thats not too early if we disturb people Lol !!!!

[marsh man]

6 hours ago, jall25 said:

We tend to set up on the crows at the moment at 530 ish Marsh man

We would go earlier but the farmer rents out the holiday cottage and thinks thats not too early if we disturb people Lol !!!!

I am glad there are still people about who enjoy being out at day break and I can fully understand why you and others have to start slightly later mainly due to disturbance .

What I was getting at is we hear a lot about ( through work and family commitments ) I just haven't got the time to go until Saturday afternoon , you need to be keen by going early in the morning and maybe when you leave off work but it can easily be done .

Up until about five years ago I never missed a single early morning start on the start of the wildfowling season for around 50 years , as I lived very close to the marshes I didn't have to leave mine till around 4.30 am , twenty minutes later I would be in position down the side of one of the large fleet dykes , on a clear morning you would hear the first shots around 5.00 am , the flight would last about an hour and a little after 6.00 am I would start making my way back home , I then had plenty of time for bite to eat and a cuppa and still get to work by 8.00 am

This time of the year Pigeons will very often keep eating till after 7.00pm and time wise reach there peak in a two or three weeks time when you can sometimes shoot till around 8.00 pm , from then onwards it start getting earlier but on the early grain stubbles you can easily shoot till 7.00 pm .

On a Friday we could finish at 3.00 pm and if I was going on say the Peas when I left off I have known the time where I would go and set up in my dinner break which was 12.30 till 1.00pm , then two hour later I would be in the hide all ready to recieve the first customer as early as 5 past 3  , I would then carry on then till about seven and home for a late tea at 7.30 pm , tea time was slightly later but I have had three hours of good shooting ,

Like I said it is a lot easier when you live near to your perm , or better still work on the place like I did but you still needed the commitment to make the shooting priority and sadly not that many people have got it .   MM

[jall25]

4 hours ago, marsh man said:

I am glad there are still people about who enjoy being out at day break and I can fully understand why you and others have to start slightly later mainly due to disturbance .

What I was getting at is we hear a lot about ( through work and family commitments ) I just haven't got the time to go until Saturday afternoon , you need to be keen by going early in the morning and maybe when you leave off work but it can easily be done .

Up until about five years ago I never missed a single early morning start on the start of the wildfowling season for around 50 years , as I lived very close to the marshes I didn't have to leave mine till around 4.30 am , twenty minutes later I would be in position down the side of one of the large fleet dykes , on a clear morning you would hear the first shots around 5.00 am , the flight would last about an hour and a little after 6.00 am I would start making my way back home , I then had plenty of time for bite to eat and a cuppa and still get to work by 8.00 am

This time of the year Pigeons will very often keep eating till after 7.00pm and time wise reach there peak in a two or three weeks time when you can sometimes shoot till around 8.00 pm , from then onwards it start getting earlier but on the early grain stubbles you can easily shoot till 7.00 pm .

On a Friday we could finish at 3.00 pm and if I was going on say the Peas when I left off I have known the time where I would go and set up in my dinner break which was 12.30 till 1.00pm , then two hour later I would be in the hide all ready to recieve the first customer as early as 5 past 3  , I would then carry on then till about seven and home for a late tea at 7.30 pm , tea time was slightly later but I have had three hours of good shooting ,

Like I said it is a lot easier when you live near to your perm , or better still work on the place like I did but you still needed the commitment to make the shooting priority and sadly not that many people have got it .   MM

 

 

Yeah its funny how people are so keen to come shooting until you actually ask them !

 

I go foxing most nights and people are "wow " you shoot a lot - can we come etc etc - Yeah sure see you at 9 pm and you will be home for 2 - 2.30 am

GULP - WHAT - ER - WHEN - ER hahahah

I suppose im lucky no work gets in the way - but i was still out when it did

 

I was tired last week though - out friday till 1am - Up the shoot from 630 till 2 pm 

Then on the foxes on a sheep farm from 6 till 3am - and out on the crows at 530 am !

 

[marsh man]

3 hours ago, jall25 said:

 

 

Yeah its funny how people are so keen to come shooting until you actually ask them !

 

I go foxing most nights and people are "wow " you shoot a lot - can we come etc etc - Yeah sure see you at 9 pm and you will be home for 2 - 2.30 am

GULP - WHAT - ER - WHEN - ER hahahah

I suppose im lucky no work gets in the way - but i was still out when it did

 

I was tired last week though - out friday till 1am - Up the shoot from 630 till 2 pm 

Then on the foxes on a sheep farm from 6 till 3am - and out on the crows at 530 am !

 

You can also understand why some people find it hard to get perms , Pigeons and Corvids eat seven days a week and not just on a Saturday afternoon , I don't no longer get many phone calls from the land owner or his farm staff as I am out most afternoons either looking or shooting and many times I know where the birds are , or what they are going on before the farm boys know , this time of the year they are spraying , cleaning out the grain stores , serviceing the combine and know at long last we have got some hot weather they spend a lot of time on irrigating , having said that I do get the odd call when they see some building up on the odd field down the marsh , in most cases I would look the same day as I get the call and weather permitting I would shoot it the following day , luckily enough I have got the time to be out on a daily basis but what would happen if the farmer rang a person who was short of time on a Monday morning to say my Peas are getting hammered , can you come and sort a few out , it wouldn't be much good to him if you said the earlist I can come will be Saturday afternoon when we get back from shopping , which by then he won't have that many Peas left .

That situation isn't fiction , it's a known fact and happen a lot .   MM