Called out on the Barley

[pigeon controller]

I had a call on Tuesday , hundreds on the barley, agreed to attend on Wednesday after therapy in the morning. Arrived ay 13.00 and scanned the farm no birds, as the farmer came out and informed me that they were on the far edge of the farm so loaded my trolley and pressed the button. This farm will not let me drive the land as he has obstacles to prevent visitors borrowing his equipment.

So eventually I reach the field and see where the birds have been in the downed patches but nothing visible. I put a couple of shots up in each direction about 6 birds lifted out of the trees and that’s all.

I watched for an hour nothing so trekked back and left the farm I did check the barley and it was stone hard so they must have found some wheat.

I decided to have a drive around checking other farms, as I drove up to the last one on the way home the farmer met me and said they were on his wheat so I went and had a look. It was true they were on the wheat but it had no holes in it . It had approx 150 birds just flying over and dropping in the tram track or lying wings outstretched on the top and this was happening all over three fields. It was well past 16.00 so I decided to shoot it on Friday due to other commitments.

I arrived and it had a smaller amount of birds still evident all over the wheat, the one thing we had was a wind and the birds were flighting along a bank of trees. Now this farmer has OCD and will not let you walk in the crop or even damage fences or hedges . I know of other shooters who have been banned for this. So the plan was to replicate the feeding birds on the wheat and put decoys on cradled all in the tram lines. Then to shoot birds above me or to the side to drop them off the crop on the grass. Luckily the badgers have been using this corner of the field as a latrine and I could position my flyers off the tram lines without damage caused by me.

It was a long day and you had to hold off shooting just to get them to drop in the right place I did loose approx ten birds. One positive was that I have a good number of Fiocchi  32Gram 5s which tend to stick in my Beretta and DBs Browning so I took my Mossberg Pump out with me and all went well other than forgot to pump occasionally. They work in DBs and Bunny_Bashers Auto.

I finished the day at 18.00 and picked up 61 birds.

Edited July 22, 2023 by pigeon controller

[old'un]

Sounds like you had a good day in difficult circumstances, well done on shooting 70 plus birds in under 2 hours, I am also finding the birds are now only interested in the wheat, although we had two fields of rape combined Wednesday and Thursday but the birds were not interested in it, which surprised me as I thought the first fields to-be cut would have birds storming in, have not bothered looking today as its been peeing down all day, I doubt I will get any shooting on them as I find that if you get rain after its been combined it tends to kill any good shooting on rape.

Next week does not look promising with regards combining, think its going to-be a late harvest this year.

[marsh man]

On 22/07/2023 at 16:38, old'un said:

Sounds like you had a good day in difficult circumstances, well done on shooting 70 plus birds in under 2 hours, I am also finding the birds are now only interested in the wheat, although we had two fields of rape combined Wednesday and Thursday but the birds were not interested in it, which surprised me as I thought the first fields to-be cut would have birds storming in, have not bothered looking today as its been peeing down all day, I doubt I will get any shooting on them as I find that if you get rain after its been combined it tends to kill any good shooting on rape.

Next week does not look promising with regards combining, think its going to-be a late harvest this year.

I believe it took P C a bit longer than two hours to shoot just over 70 , even so how ever long it took he done very well to drop them where they can be picked , you are right in saying the Pigeons are leaving the barley and moving on to the Winter wheat , we are also getting more and more sitting on the wires above the rape fields and just to make things a little harder our Winter beans are now going Black and it wont be long before they get some attention from our feathered friends .

Combining have come to a standstill and it don't look good for most of next week , not panic stations yet but the weather need to improve before long so they can get the grain in the grain stores .

[the hitman]

Nice write up PC and well done perceiving to get a really decent bag.

I am reluctant to shoot over laid cereal- as I have historically lost so many, however I would always go at the farmers request.

I used to shoot on a permission where the farmer had some shooting rules - one of which was that decoys could not be used and a bag limit of 30 had to be observed- as he liked to see a few about. This farming family had 3 farms managed by the father and two sons- the eldest son was the rule maker and the youngest son was of the opinion that crop protection was paramount and wanted the pigeons properly controlled. I had some great bags on that permission, depending on who was home on the day.

I am hoping to get out on a stubble tomorrow- so I may have my own write up after a long period away due to family commitments.

Hitman.

 

 

[pigeon controller]

Thanks for all your comments.

[marsh man]

12 minutes ago, the hitman said:

Nice write up PC and well done perceiving to get a really decent bag.

I am reluctant to shoot over laid cereal- as I have historically lost so many, however I would always go at the farmers request.

I used to shoot on a permission where the farmer had some shooting rules - one of which was that decoys could not be used and a bag limit of 30 had to be observed- as he liked to see a few about. This farming family had 3 farms managed by the father and two sons- the eldest son was the rule maker and the youngest son was of the opinion that crop protection was paramount and wanted the pigeons properly controlled. I had some great bags on that permission, depending on who was home on the day.

I am hoping to get out on a stubble tomorrow- so I may have my own write up after a long period away due to family commitments.

Hitman.

 

 

Even though I have seen more grain fields knocked about this year with some fairly big laid patches than I have done for ages I very much doubt we will see the likes again like they were in the last century , not only were some wheat fields laid flat they were laid in dead straight lines with every stem of wheat in line with each other , hides were put around telegraph poles and any pigeon you shot that fell anywhere on the field you would find it , the harvest was a lot later as well with the wheat on the marshes normally cut around mid August ,and one year we 100s of Mallard going on a big field of wheat down the marsh that was knocked about all over , the combine went down there two days before the wildfowl season started , as luck would have it for us it was far to wet to cut , me and my mate didn't go the first night on there as we went on some late barley marshes near my house , in those days we stopped at ten duck and we got them with no trouble , the next night we went on the wheat field and could have got a load of duck , again we both stopped on ten and let the rest get on with it , a few days later it was cut and then we had a few afternoons with the pigeons and a few duck that came on the stubbles . Happy days .

[JDog]

Did you need therapy because you haven’t been shooting hundreds of pigeons as normal?

[the hitman]

27 minutes ago, JDog said:

Did you need therapy because you haven’t been shooting hundreds of pigeons as normal?

It’s been a frustrating time JD- I am in a family situation of almost daily welfare checks of an elderly parent and babysitting my granddaughter- shooting has slipped down the list of priorities.

 

 

[pigeon controller]

10 hours ago, JDog said:

Did you need therapy because you haven’t been shooting hundreds of pigeons as normal?

You’ve got it spot on

[old'un]

12 hours ago, marsh man said:

I believe it took P C a bit longer than two hours to shoot just over 70 , even so how ever long it took he done very well to drop them where they can be picked , you are right in saying the Pigeons are leaving the barley and moving on to the Winter wheat , we are also getting more and more sitting on the wires above the rape fields and just to make things a little harder our Winter beans are now going Black and it wont be long before they get some attention from our feathered friends .

Combining have come to a standstill and it don't look good for most of next week , not panic stations yet but the weather need to improve before long so they can get the grain in the grain stores .

Funny that, I must have had the 16 and 18 locked in my head when I started typing, old age.