Maze

[getthegat]

I had some rough news this week that a big part of one of my perms will be a no go from now on, real shame as the buck wheat is being hammered. So I went over to another little farm that has only done hay for the last 3 years but has a fairly big quantity of maze being harvested this week (weather permitting) As with all crops I guess its about what's left on the floor, but other than corvid, has anyone had good pigeon shooting over it?

[muncher]

Yes , I have  had several big bags over maize.

 

 

[Wilts#Dave]

Personally never shot as many over maize when it’s harvested early, usually little to nothing left on the floor…..worth a look though! How come your other perm is now a ‘no go’? Gutting that. 

[yickdaz]

we haven't had a lot of success on cut maize the odd pigeon and crow shoot never over a 50 bag and i can't ever recall shooting on drilled maize

[marsh man]

Maize is normally chopped up this time of the year for cattle feed in the Winter months , it can and do produce bags of both Pigeons and Corvids , but you need to be on the ball as they will very soon get the tractors on once it is cut to pull it up , the best shooting on Maize is when they cut the cover strips down at the end of the game shooting season , this is when Pigeons are hungry and make a nice change from eating rape leaves .  MM

[Old Boggy]

Never had any joy shooting over maize at drilling time even with plenty of seed on the surface.

However, a few years ago one field of maize near me was hit hard with strong winds and heavy rain, flattening much of the crop. Come harvest, there was much of the mashed and whole cobs left on the ground that the combine couldn`t gather. 

As a result, this attracted pigeons from harvest for several weeks, even after the field was direct drilled with wheat and the wheat was about a foot high. The pigeons were still finding the cobs. I had some really good continual shooting with 50 plus bags, which was and still is a good bag for my few hours out per trip. Acres upon acres of maize is grown for biofuel around here, sent to a local anaerobic digester.

[getthegat]

1 hour ago, Wilts#Dave said:

Personally never shot as many over maize when it’s harvested early, usually little to nothing left on the floor…..worth a look though! How come your other perm is now a ‘no go’? Gutting that. 

The farmers son is building an area to train fork lift and digger drivers and is afraid the trainees may get injured! or report to the police, getting helicopters and cop cars turning up (his words) The crop in the nearby fields are not even his, so he is not worried about the pigeon damage. Some fields are over 1/4 mile away and he is not even open to a hushpower. His dad actually asked me to shoot there only a week ago, but he has signed the farm and running of it over to his kids. They try and keep him out of the loop with everything that happens.  Unfortunately another shooter took some possible "paying customers " there last Sunday and with no wind, the shots could be heard for miles 

[bunny_blaster]

I’ve had some decent bags on maize over the years but I’ve never had a day where the birds have decoyed well. I’ve always had to work hard to get them