Today's shooting

[yickdaz]

One area has been head an shoulders above anywhere else we shoot this last few months this it just keeps throwing up good bags and today was no exception, it's a huge block of land separated by ditches most the stubbles have either been disced or ploughed apart from one small 5 acre stubble  when I arrived sure enough that's where they was, 3 lines heading to it easy decision where to set up so I did at 1.30pm it was obvious it was going to be a good afternoon,my dad was on a partridge and duck day rang me to see how I was getting on  I said 40 on the clicker the next Time he rang to say he was on his way I had 88  by the time he got to the hide I was on 122 so I let him shoot the remainder of the session   finished up with 141 on the clicker and  bagged up  125 

 

[Bobba]

Well done. Green with envy. 

[Wilts#Dave]

Cracking session that, it’s just great when you happen to have an area that keeps producing…..certainly narrows down where you need to look! 
I find the same most years, usually when the right crops are grown in the right areas I shoot. 
Beats a partridge / duck day value for money wise that’s for sure! 

[TIGHTCHOKE]

Well done.  

[Good shot?]

A great day ,well done.

[marsh man]

Sure was a brilliant afternoon and I recon your dad had as much shooting in the short time he was with you as he did on the Partridge and duck day , what did he think of the duck drives this time of the year ?   MM

[yickdaz]

1 minute ago, marsh man said:

Sure was a brilliant afternoon and I recon your dad had as much shooting in the short time he was with you as he did on the Partridge and duck day , what did he think of the duck drives this time of the year ?   MM

i didn't ask to be honest 

[Weihrauch17]

Do you have an outlet for them?

[yickdaz]

38 minutes ago, Weihrauch17 said:

Do you have an outlet for them?

yeah i sell them to bird of prey owners

[Weihrauch17]

6 minutes ago, yickdaz said:

yeah i sell them to bird of prey owners

Good stuff, we used to sell ours dressed to two pubs for years then they were taken over and will only buy from Game Dealers!  With no outlet all we shoot now is what I can use myself or give away. 

[yickdaz]

2 minutes ago, Weihrauch17 said:

Good stuff, we used to sell ours dressed to two pubs for years then they were taken over and will only buy from Game Dealers!  With no outlet all we shoot now is what I can use myself or give away. 

that's exactly why we went down the steel shot birds route the game dealers we used for donkeys years just stopped taking them 

[pigeon controller]

Well done Daz, three lines in that’s all that you need. It’s nice when an area keeps producing. 
We went down the raptor route some years ago otherwise we would never get rid of a bird's as all the game dealers seem to not want pigeons. The export market has dried up also.

[marsh man]

11 hours ago, yickdaz said:

that's exactly why we went down the steel shot birds route the game dealers we used for donkeys years just stopped taking them 

 

3 hours ago, pigeon controller said:

Well done Daz, three lines in that’s all that you need. It’s nice when an area keeps producing. 
We went down the raptor route some years ago otherwise we would never get rid of a bird's as all the game dealers seem to not want pigeons. The export market has dried up also.

Some interesting points regarding off loading your bags , going down the raptor route seem the way to go but if all the big bag shooters followed suit then that outlet would very soon be where the supply out streath the demand as the rator boys can only hold so many and they would need a lot of hawks ect to eat a fraction of the Pigeons shot in this country .

When the game dealers either stopped taking Pigeons , or were paying so little it didn't cover your fuel I put the feelers out to the local pubs , butchers and resturants , to begin with all went well and one pub took just over 700 throughout the Summer and then bought game off me in the Winter , so far so good , then the dreaded virus struck and he along with many others had to close down more or less overnight , all his bookings went for a burton and he told me he had over £300 of food stuff in the freezer and fridge that he ended up dumping or gave it away , these were only a young couple and when the P M again closed things down after the Boxing Day then this was the final nail in the coffin and when his four year lease was up it didn't renew it .

Then new people took it on and although they wanted a few pigeons it was only about 25 every two weeks and as the chefs worked for someone else they were not that keen in handleing dead Pigeons so this small outlet dried up , same with some small butchers , even though you delivered them for nothing and only charging a small amount for the Pigeons they just couldn't sell many to the public.

So it look like the days of game dealers paying enough to cover the fuel is over as each generation that take over from the last one are not that interested in eating anything wild that have feathers or fur on , and even less so in preparing it , add on the lack of income to eat out and pay a huge ammount for a fancy meal with one Pigeon breast on you can see that selling shot game and Pigeons is all but over and is unlikely to return anytime soon .   MM

[pigeon controller]

Thirty years ago the market for pigeons in France ,Poland etc was huge do to the population growing up during wartime. Rabbits and pigeons were hung outside shops in the UK. We are so woke now you dare not mention fresh meat to youngsters , burgers are not considered meat it would seem. My grandad would never buy meat he would provide which way he could, he was a miner and would help on farms for reward of meat as payment. Rabbits and game also came his way.

We are so dependent on the retail food industry now that most young people watch the so called Experts produce pretty patterns on plates other than wholesome food in moderation with exercise to burn it off.

[marsh man]

1 hour ago, pigeon controller said:

Thirty years ago the market for pigeons in France ,Poland etc was huge do to the population growing up during wartime. Rabbits and pigeons were hung outside shops in the UK. We are so woke now you dare not mention fresh meat to youngsters , burgers are not considered meat it would seem. My grandad would never buy meat he would provide which way he could, he was a miner and would help on farms for reward of meat as payment. Rabbits and game also came his way.

We are so dependent on the retail food industry now that most young people watch the so called Experts produce pretty patterns on plates other than wholesome food in moderation with exercise to burn it off.

I can also remember various species of game hanging up outside the butchers shop and also on the stalls up on our local market , then due to complaints they started to hang them up inside the shop , this only lasted so long before the complaints again started on the owners , so one of the butchers I sold some game to would put it inside the large fridge , this also quickly came to a end when inspectors came along and told him he cannot have un processed game among the meat inside the fridge , this bloke wasn't going to be beat that easy so he took them home and plucked them inside his shed and then set light to the feathers , you can guess what happened next when the smoke was blowing towards his neighbours , after yet more complaints he finally called it a day as the demand was no longer there and now I don't know anywhere you can buy Pigeons either in our town itself or the local farm shops . sad state of affairs      MM

[Old Boggy]

Quite a few years ago I used to travel up to Derbyshire and I remember driving through Ashby de la Zouch where there was a butchers with the finest array of game, hares, rabbits, pheasants,partridges, ducks etc that I’d ever seen hanging outside their window. I very much doubt that it’s still in existence but does anyone remember it?,

[marsh man]

39 minutes ago, Old Boggy said:

Quite a few years ago I used to travel up to Derbyshire and I remember driving through Ashby de la Zouch where there was a butchers with the finest array of game, hares, rabbits, pheasants,partridges, ducks etc that I’d ever seen hanging outside their window. I very much doubt that it’s still in existence but does anyone remember it?,

Here yer go Chris , on Yarmouth maket place , and no I am not the ole boi with the walking stick , it is in fact Authur Patterson who wrote Wildfowlers And Poachers .

Maybe someone can turn the photo round   THANKS

 

[Old Boggy]

I just love those old photos.

Thanks for posting John and apologies to Yickdaz for slightly derailing his original thread of his good day out.

[yickdaz]

 

9 minutes ago, Old Boggy said:

I just love those old photos.

Thanks for posting John and apologies to Yickdaz for slightly derailing his original thread of his good day out.

Not at all crack on

[JDog]

I will not derail the thread.

Daz, you can always be relied on to shoot a decent bag if you have pigeons. Good for you.

[old'un]

there you go.

 

[marsh man]

33 minutes ago, old'un said:

there you go.

 

Brilliant , I wander how they would had got on during the recent record temps we had ? 

[old'un]

45 minutes ago, marsh man said:

Brilliant , I wander how they would had got on during the recent record temps we had ? 

I can see game birds hanging up so it would have been winter so less flies about, also hygiene was not such a big thing back in the day.