Pigeon shooting in the battle trenches

[Krico woodcock]

I seen on social media some where in uk that three lads shot over 1200 pigeons on fodder rape, or something similar? They got a mini digger and dug three small trenches 50 yards apart around their decoys,  flappers,  magnets. Good idea, if you can do it. That's some bag of pigeons,  400 + average to each  3 guns is marathon session. That's 3 pigeons shot every minute for 7 hours, constant, between 3 guns . I'm getting tired even thinking about it. Never mind the gruelling chore of picking them up. Them lads hadn't to be rocked to sleep after all that!.

[ditchman]

HHmmmmmmmmmmmm...!!!!

[marsh man]

2 hours ago, Krico woodcock said:

I seen on social media some where in uk that three lads shot over 1200 pigeons on fodder rape, or something similar? They got a mini digger and dug three small trenches 50 yards apart around their decoys,  flappers,  magnets. Good idea, if you can do it. That's some bag of pigeons,  400 + average to each  3 guns is marathon session. That's 3 pigeons shot every minute for 7 hours, constant, between 3 guns . I'm getting tired even thinking about it. Never mind the gruelling chore of picking them up. Them lads hadn't to be rocked to sleep after all that!.

You need stamina and plenty of it to shoot in those conditions , now I am pushing on a bit I can honestly say I wouldn't want , and couldn't take on a day like that , firstly I wouldn't be physically fit enough and wouldn't be hungry enough to shoot a bag on that scale , this was not always the case as when the Wheat was taller and got laid in the Summer months I thought nothing of knelling in thr tram lines for seven or eight hours and had no ill effects after wards  , now I would be alright for about ten minutes and then I would be ready to be laid out with the bag , how nice to be young again 

[Weihrauch17]

3 hours ago, Krico woodcock said:

I seen on social media some where in uk that three lads shot over 1200 pigeons on fodder rape, or something similar? They got a mini digger and dug three small trenches 50 yards apart around their decoys,  flappers,  magnets. Good idea, if you can do it. That's some bag of pigeons,  400 + average to each  3 guns is marathon session. That's 3 pigeons shot every minute for 7 hours, constant, between 3 guns . I'm getting tired even thinking about it. Never mind the gruelling chore of picking them up. Them lads hadn't to be rocked to sleep after all that!.

Great PR for shooting not, how stupid are some people posting stuff like this with all that is going on.  Absolutely insane, roll on the next crowd funded Wild Justice GL challenge.  Anti shooting Labour Govt next in power, great work guys. Did they did a trench to bury them too!

Edited July 10, 2023 by Weihrauch17

[dogone]

Didn’t Archie Coates shoot over 1200 on his best day? Alone!

[marsh man]

5 hours ago, dogone said:

Didn’t Archie Coates shoot over 1200 on his best day? Alone!

No , I think the most he ever shot solo was around 550 , still a massive bag for one person , at the time I believe it was a record for the amount shot in one day in the UK by one person , but records are there to be broken and with the help of modern aids it have now been broken many times , maybe this day and age it might well be a record to be kept quite.   MM 

[Westley]

I believe Alan Wood did. He stopped just short of the 1000 when someone complained about the noise upsetting horses. He used 2 Beretta semi auto's. He has 2 guys that travel around the North West areas 'spotting' for pigeons. They then track down the land owner, offer some silly amount of money and he comes along the following day.  The 2 guys set out everything for him, he turns up and shoots. He also had this plastered over Sporting Gun at the time. It was followed by him having full length silencers fitted to his 2 Berettas, which provided another article for Sporting Gun. Check out Sykes media videos on YouTube.  There is one of a couple of French guys shooting pigeons at the same location. I don't think putting a post on here makes much difference when the videos have been available for a few years now  !

[Bigbob]

Isn't one of Chris Greens Dvds 10,000 pigeons 

[Old Boggy]

2 hours ago, Bigbob said:

Isn't one of Chris Greens Dvds 10,000 pigeons 

Yes, this one.

Still for sale if anyone is interested.

£10 posted.

OB

[Wilts#Dave]

On 12/07/2023 at 09:39, Westley said:

I believe Alan Wood did. He stopped just short of the 1000 when someone complained about the noise upsetting horses. He used 2 Beretta semi auto's. He has 2 guys that travel around the North West areas 'spotting' for pigeons. They then track down the land owner, offer some silly amount of money and he comes along the following day.  The 2 guys set out everything for him, he turns up and shoots. He also had this plastered over Sporting Gun at the time. It was followed by him having full length silencers fitted to his 2 Berettas, which provided another article for Sporting Gun. Check out Sykes media videos on YouTube.  There is one of a couple of French guys shooting pigeons at the same location. I don't think putting a post on here makes much difference when the videos have been available for a few years now  !

 Haven’t heard much of Alan Wood for some time but remember him in the Jim Albone videos / Tom Sykes ones and reading about his having people scout for him. Plenty of money, no doubt very annoying as your usual pigeon shooter  if he frequented your area…..but same old, money talks! 

[marsh man]

53 minutes ago, Wilts#Dave said:

 Haven’t heard much of Alan Wood for some time but remember him in the Jim Albone videos / Tom Sykes ones and reading about his having people scout for him. Plenty of money, no doubt very annoying as your usual pigeon shooter  if he frequented your area…..but same old, money talks! 

I have still got some of Jim Albones videos lying about which must now be twenty odd years old so the ones who were taking part in them are now pushing on a bit , another one was John Batley , he shot with Archie Coates so no longer a young man , mind you , there are plenty of up and coming younger men to take there place .

[Krico woodcock]

How many pigeons do most lads need to shoot before the "kill" starts to wear off in a day. If I'm lucky enough to shoot 100 to 120 the" kill " really wears off, and I'm more than content. That could be a duration of around 4 to 6 hours. I have seen me set up in a evening and shoot 50+ in over a hour,  hectic enough for me.  Years ago I shot 164 in two and a half hours one late afternoon.  I had to stop early,  as I had to go away but I remember I didn't want to shoot another pigeon.  I was out yesterday on a cut field,  from just before 12 til just after 5 I shot 40 pigeons.  And I was more than happy. But them lads shooting 400 + to their own gun have a good bit of bite between their teeth to knock birds. And I won't knock them for doing it cause they have their homework done,  obviously a high volume of birds in area, and they go to do a job.  But less would do me.

[old'un]

34 minutes ago, Krico woodcock said:

How many pigeons do most lads need to shoot before the "kill" starts to wear off in a day. If I'm lucky enough to shoot 100 to 120 the" kill " really wears off, and I'm more than content. That could be a duration of around 4 to 6 hours. I have seen me set up in a evening and shoot 50+ in over a hour,  hectic enough for me.  Years ago I shot 164 in two and a half hours one late afternoon.  I had to stop early,  as I had to go away but I remember I didn't want to shoot another pigeon.  I was out yesterday on a cut field,  from just before 12 til just after 5 I shot 40 pigeons.  And I was more than happy. But them lads shooting 400 + to their own gun have a good bit of bite between their teeth to knock birds. And I won't knock them for doing it cause they have their homework done,  obviously a high volume of birds in area, and they go to do a job.  But less would do me.

I think age and if you can offload them quickly plays a big part, when I was in my 30s I would stay till the last bird had gone home and that was even if I had shot a bagful, although I was lucky as I had someone who would take every pigeon I had shot on that day and his place was on the way home and he paid a good price for fresh birds.

Today I am happy with 30-40.

[Westley]

2 hours ago, Wilts#Dave said:

 Haven’t heard much of Alan Wood for some time but remember him in the Jim Albone videos / Tom Sykes ones and reading about his having people scout for him. Plenty of money, no doubt very annoying as your usual pigeon shooter  if he frequented your area…..but same old, money talks! 

Yes, money talks every time. The Farmer also had some rather excellent game shooting from it too.

[Westley]

43 minutes ago, Krico woodcock said:

How many pigeons do most lads need to shoot before the "kill" starts to wear off in a day. If I'm lucky enough to shoot 100 to 120 the" kill " really wears off, and I'm more than content. That could be a duration of around 4 to 6 hours. I have seen me set up in a evening and shoot 50+ in over a hour,  hectic enough for me.  Years ago I shot 164 in two and a half hours one late afternoon.  I had to stop early,  as I had to go away but I remember I didn't want to shoot another pigeon.  I was out yesterday on a cut field,  from just before 12 til just after 5 I shot 40 pigeons.  And I was more than happy. But them lads shooting 400 + to their own gun have a good bit of bite between their teeth to knock birds. And I won't knock them for doing it cause they have their homework done,  obviously a high volume of birds in area, and they go to do a job.  But less would do me.

I don't believe anyone goes out with the intention of shooting a record bag of birds. How many average pigeon shooters take over 1000 cartridges out on a usual days shooting.  ?? My best was just over 300 birds picked, but I ran out of cartridges, I had only taken 450 with me. Thankfully the bulk of my birds were heading for an oak tree just to the side of my decoys,  so they all fell under the tree whereby they were easy to pick up. I too was able to take the birds straight to a Game Dealer.

[marsh man]

1 hour ago, old'un said:

I think age and if you can offload them quickly plays a big part, when I was in my 30s I would stay till the last bird had gone home and that was even if I had shot a bagful, although I was lucky as I had someone who would take every pigeon I had shot on that day and his place was on the way home and he paid a good price for fresh birds.

Today I am happy with 30-40.

I believe that pigeon shooters who are roughly in the same age group were very similar , to begin with we had the strength and mobility to handle big bags , we also had the ( desire ) to shoot as many as we could , none of this going for two to three hours and pack up while pigeons are still about , and then which I think was more inportant than the above was having a easy outlet to off load every pigeon , big or small it didn't make much difference , even feral pigeons went to the dealer , no one ever mentioned , well they are only vermin we will chuck them under the hedge or dump them down the farm pit , something I have never done and in my remaining time pigeon shooting I never will .

Now we still enjoy reading about the guys who get these big bags as we know the workload needed to get these sort of bags is not for the faint hearted , but I know fully well that for me the days of shooting a big bag is well and truly over , I now do enough to still enjoy it , if I stay longer when my back is a bit tender than it only make it worse so the two to three hours I spend shooting is now enough and I can normally handle the amount I shoot ,   MM

[Old Boggy]

I admire the persistence, keenness  and endurance of those younger men shooting large numbers of pigeons and wish them well and certainly don`t begrudge them their sport.

However, like many of a similar age to me, I no longer have the desire or stamina to shoot in excess of say 50 in any one session and like Marsh man am more than content to shoot 30-40 which would be a very good day for me.

Therefore I greatly admire the stamina of Pigeon Controller on here, who I know is a similar age to myself, but spends many hours out looking for and shooting large numbers of pigeons. I do admit to probably spending more time out looking for pigeons (more or less every day) than actual shooting them, but for me, that is a great part of the enjoyment.

I`m lucky that my shooting is all within a five mile radius of home so reconnaissance doesn`t involve much driving.

OB