Mad dogs and English men

[old'un]

Not necessary out in the midday sun but as most of the younger shooters only have the weekend to shoot I wonder how your pigeon shooting as been effected by all this rain, I am retired and I have struggled to find a decent day, even on the rape stubble, and today seems to be a washout for most of the UK.

[JDog]

One of the problems with a wet harvest season, at least from a pigeon shooters point of view, is that stubbles are cultivated when rain prevents harvesting. I haven't had a day on rape stubble and now there are none left.

[mossy835]

not shot the rape stubble now its all ripped up.just been out to shoot on laid wheat,weather said its good for 2 hours gets out the farm and it rained.so come home and the suns out, thats me done for the day,

[Stephen-H]

Got to shoot it rain or shine and make the most of it while the birds are there sadly better than being stuck in the house. Good umbrella under a tree if you can set up camp with a flask & butties.

[marsh man]

The rape stubble along with most of the grain stubble have been pretty poor shooting to say the least , the seed in the rape pods were already falling to the ground before it was cut , with the ground being damp from constant rain it was all in Green leaf when at last the combine came on , now it is tottally free from Pigeons and so are a lot of the barley stubbles , a friend rang me up early part of last week to see if he can have a go today , I replied yes of course you can and I will look around to find you somewhere to go , I have been out every day looking and could not find him anywhere decent , one day they cut and bale up and the next day they are gone , then the muck spreaders come on and give it a good ole covering of horse and cattle muck , the following day it is then pulled up , if the stubble don't need any muck then the drill come on and direct drill the fodder beet , I rang him last night and told about two fields where he might get a few shots and told him he can go where he want on any of the stubbles , with the rain at the moment he would be better off playing with his girl friend , cards that is 

Last year they started on the 10 / 11th of July and carried on cutting non stop until they were nigh on finished over a four week period , this year in the same amount of time they are about a third done , the Wheat , spring barley , Seed Peas and Winter beans are all lying there getting sodden wet as the rain today is heavy and should start clearing out later on today so again no shooting , should be a bit better next week , lets hope so 

[Old Boggy]

All the rape stubbles here have greened up with volunteer rape so very little pigeon activity there.

A wheat stubble at the back of my house (combined on Wednesday) had a few down feeding but weather now prevents play.

Another wheat field half cut and a few down feeding during dry spells, so looking forward to next week when it`s supposed to be a bit better and hoping that the combines continue and that the stubbles aren`t scratched up(disced).

No barley sown locally only acres upon acres of maize for biofuel.

My two main farmers have confirmed that they won`t be drilling rape for next year, so hopefully it will be a good acorn year or as JDog has already mentioned, a good year for beech mast, so shooting might be mainly in the woods. Fortunately there are no syndicates hereabouts, so I have a few small woods available to me throughout the winter.

OB

[yickdaz]

We shot today it was miserable  manged 32 on barley stubble in 4hrs getting very fed up with this weather now

[marsh man]

11 hours ago, yickdaz said:

We shot today it was miserable  manged 32 on barley stubble in 4hrs getting very fed up with this weather now

You must had been part of the small majority up and down the country who battled the harsh conditions yesterday , I kept looking out of my window and after dinner it was chucking it down and accepted defeat.

I would push myself on a crop field but on a stubble field then there is always another day , people sit it out in the rain under an umbrella , the only time I would use an umbrella is to keep the sun off , but you boys are made of sternner stuff.

Well done and well deserved .

[Wilts#Dave]

I was very much looking forward to the rape stubbles, last year I had several 150 plus days but this year as everyone has said the floor was damp and green when cut so the pigeons barely touched it! 
Has a couple of hours on one patch as a back up one afternoon and they never returned (shot 4) and that was that. 
Really odd and disappointing summer so far really, the weather certainly hasn’t helped. 
Hoping the beans will produce this year! 
Had a good afternoon on a small strip of peas a couple of weeks back and a 40/65 since but was certainly expecting more! 

[Old Boggy]

13 hours ago, yickdaz said:

We shot today it was miserable  manged 32 on barley stubble in 4hrs getting very fed up with this weather now

I went out last Thursday as the man from the Met said it would be dry all day. Got set up on a rape stubble about 12 ish, shot 5. Saw some big black clouds approaching and not being hardy enough to sit it out, decided to up stumps, but not quite soon enough to avoid a soaking. That couple of hours out was still enjoyable despite the soaking at the end.

This coming week looks to be far better, so as the rape stubble is now fully greened over and consequently devoid of pigeons, it will have to be wheat stubble.

OB

[old'un]

1 hour ago, Wilts#Dave said:

I was very much looking forward to the rape stubbles, last year I had several 150 plus days but this year as everyone has said the floor was damp and green when cut so the pigeons barely touched it! 
Has a couple of hours on one patch as a back up one afternoon and they never returned (shot 4) and that was that. 
Really odd and disappointing summer so far really, the weather certainly hasn’t helped. 
Hoping the beans will produce this year! 
Had a good afternoon on a small strip of peas a couple of weeks back and a 40/65 since but was certainly expecting more! 

Same here.

 

I always find that a late harvest due to wet conditions does not produce the bags you get on July stubble on a nice warm sunny day, as you say rain on rape basically kills any decent bags.

[dead eye alan]

23 hours ago, JDog said:

One of the problems with a wet harvest season, at least from a pigeon shooters point of view, is that stubbles are cultivated when rain prevents harvesting. I haven't had a day on rape stubble and now there are none left.

Same here 5 fields of rape stubble already ploughed in had one 3 hour session producing just 26 birds.

[Wilts#Dave]

44 minutes ago, old'un said:

Same here.

 

I always find that a late harvest due to wet conditions does not produce the bags you get on July stubble on a nice warm sunny day, as you say rain on rape basically kills any decent bags.

I agree. Last year it was blistering hot conditions every time I was out, rape seed in particular is so small it germinates quickly with rain and they won’t peck around trying to pick it up when the ground is wet. Shame, but that’s pigeon shooting isn’t it….can never expect the same every year! 

[marsh man]

Stubble shooting was always pay back time for looking arter the crops from drilling to the time they are taken up , now the window get smaller and smaller with the time they are left as stubble , you will often see a tractor on pulling the stubble up or the drill come come on as early as the same day if the straw is smashed up , or within a day or two once the bales have been carted off , this year with the various farms struggleing to get the crops in I have found the pigeons moving with the combines , one day you will see a lot and the next day they are gone , we might look back with tinted glasses but decent bags on stubble nowadays and very few and far between .

[the hitman]

Hi folks 

90% of rape and cereals are still waiting to be harvested locally- so I might have a shooting report to share in a week or so.

I personally enjoy stubble shooting- mainly because I can usually get the car to where I want to shoot from, and saves my old legs.

I agree that it’s very time sensitive as the plough is almost following the combine.

 

[old'un]

15 hours ago, the hitman said:

Hi folks 

90% of rape and cereals are still waiting to be harvested locally- so I might have a shooting report to share in a week or so.

I personally enjoy stubble shooting- mainly because I can usually get the car to where I want to shoot from, and saves my old legs.

I agree that it’s very time sensitive as the plough is almost following the combine.

 

Blimey they will have their work cut out as its due to turn wet and windy next weekend, hopefully they can get on the fields this week but the fields round here are wet and the wheat will take some drying as most of them are as flat as a pancake and turning black.

Got one farm with nearly 200 acres of wheat on some heavy ground, would not surprise me if some of it is lost.

[marsh man]

10 hours ago, old'un said:

Blimey they will have their work cut out as its due to turn wet and windy next weekend, hopefully they can get on the fields this week but the fields round here are wet and the wheat will take some drying as most of them are as flat as a pancake and turning black.

Got one farm with nearly 200 acres of wheat on some heavy ground, would not surprise me if some of it is lost.

Speaking to the farm manager today , at the moment he is not to worried and  have still got a lot of cutting to do but today they were muck spreading and with a bit of luck they could be combining the Peas tomorrow , slowly but surely they are getting the crops in and are taking advantage of every small oppotunity in the weather , with this week looking a lot better they should be able to get on with the wheat fields , luckily they have got some good gear and a drier to fall back on if needed .

[the hitman]

Spotted a cut rape field on my patch with pigeons on it - it must have only been cut yesterday as the farmer is currently cutting the adjacent field.

Decent forecast tomorrow- so hopefully I will get a day before the plough moves in.

A settled spell of weather is forecast locally, so they will be working long hours to get it in during this window.

[marsh man]

12 hours ago, the hitman said:

Spotted a cut rape field on my patch with pigeons on it - it must have only been cut yesterday as the farmer is currently cutting the adjacent field.

Decent forecast tomorrow- so hopefully I will get a day before the plough moves in.

A settled spell of weather is forecast locally, so they will be working long hours to get it in during this window.

GOOD LUCK for today , looked at all our rape stubbles yesterday and I have got more Pigeons around our bird table than what I saw on the rape stubbles , they are now off the looking list and hopefully today they are going to combine the seed Peas , we are now very quiet with Pigeon activity and if they are not near and handy then it don't really mater what crop they are taking up , certainly not an above average Summer Pigeon shooting season .

[old'un]

18 hours ago, the hitman said:

Spotted a cut rape field on my patch with pigeons on it - it must have only been cut yesterday as the farmer is currently cutting the adjacent field.

Decent forecast tomorrow- so hopefully I will get a day before the plough moves in.

A settled spell of weather is forecast locally, so they will be working long hours to get it in during this window.

Dont know where you got your forecast from but but I hope you did get some sunshine, it started raining here about 10am and its still raining, although only light rain but still to wet for any combining.