20 gauge day

[yickdaz]

Went out looking for pigeons initially met up with the old fella on a block of land with a couple of rape fields  on it nothing touching the rape which is weird in this cold spell and hardly any acorns around this area so we ended up having a walk round the ditch sides and  some rough cover i recently bought a  20g  and hadn't shot any game or pigeons with it only clays to get used to the gun  turned out to be a cracker of a day ended up with 7 pheasants and a couple of pigeons in the bag between us one was a feral  using 24g steel 4s and 5s 

[mossy835]

thats very good for a walk around the fields.nice to get out

[pigeon controller]

Well done nice report and day.

[oowee]

Cracking. 

[Wilts#Dave]

Sometimes those walk rounds turn into the most enjoyable forays don’t they. 
Love the smaller bores, extremely effective and satisfying to shoot! 

[marsh man]

Nice write up yickdaz and photo to match , glad your dad enjoyed it and is still active enough for a good walk around .

Looking back over the years I dare say some of the most enjoyable days shooting was walking around a lot of the rough ground we had for the odd Pheasant or whatever created a shot , A good days Pigeon shooting is great but the bag is often more important than the sport . 

When my boss's children were younger I always got an invite to walk around the marshes on Boxing Day that were not part of the main shoot , these were brilliant days , walking up the dykes , reedbeds and the marsh carr's ( woods ) the bag was never that big and by mid afternoon we would call it a day so they could go back to the hall for a late lunch ,   we would lay the bag out on the floor in the game larder and often have 10 or more different species of , game , wildfowl and vermin . now all the children are married with there own children and these rough shooting days don't no longer have the same appeal as they once did on a Boxing Day    MM

[yickdaz]

I grew up rough shooting it used to be a weekly thing In season and some of the bags we got were so varied at times pheasant partridge duck woodcock pigeon  a wish I could of took some pics of them but didn't have mobile phones 35 years ago only over the last  15 years or so I started taking bag pics first on a digital camera then phone camera  I remember one day 3 of us had our own DIY shoot had  a walk round it was blowing a gale and cold  we had partridge duck and pheasant in the bag then  came across a pigeon flightline going into a small wood so we headed to it and spent rest of the afternoon in the wood  2 small flight ponds in it the pigeons kept coming  ended up with 65 then the teal and mallard  came into the ponds so  bagged more duck I can't remember a better day than that or what the final head of game and wildfowl was but it was very good  it was about 1998 I think 

[marsh man]

53 minutes ago, yickdaz said:

I grew up rough shooting it used to be a weekly thing In season and some of the bags we got were so varied at times pheasant partridge duck woodcock pigeon  a wish I could of took some pics of them but didn't have mobile phones 35 years ago only over the last  15 years or so I started taking bag pics first on a digital camera then phone camera  I remember one day 3 of us had our own DIY shoot had  a walk round it was blowing a gale and cold  we had partridge duck and pheasant in the bag then  came across a pigeon flight line going into a small wood so we headed to it and spent rest of the afternoon in the wood  2 small flight ponds in it the pigeons kept coming  ended up with 65 then the teal and mallard  came into the ponds so  bagged more duck I can't remember a better day than that or what the final head of game and wildfowl was but it was very good  it was about 1998 I think 

Days like that stick in the memory bank for ever, and then you don't realise how good they were until at a later date when you can look back with knowing you will be unlikely to ever get another day as good as that one 

From the day we were married I have always pencilled in Boxing Day as a shooting day and still do , I remember many years ago we had a very cold spell over the Christmas period and I intended to spend the day on the shoot I rented at the time , the first bit of luck I had was the track that ran across the marsh is normally to wet for a two wheel car to drive over , with it being a hard frost it then made it easy to drive on and this saved a good half an hour of walking , parked near the river , I was well in time for the morning flight , the river was full of duck as all the splashes and dykes were frozen over , I had a very good flight with a bag full of duck , after a bite to eat it was time to go to the bale hide to shoot some Pigeons on the rape , once the frost cleared the Pigeons came in a treat and this carried on till well gone two , time I cleared up and had a bit of lunch it was time to get back to the river before it got dark , again the river had a lot of duck on the move and with having only one dog I had to wait for him to bring one back before I had a shot at another one , very quickly it got dark and I knew then that a day like that is never likely to be repeated , since then I have some good , fair and poor Boxing Days with neither one getting anywhere near the one I have just mentioned .   MM