Not Been Out for Ages

[pigeon controller]

 

I was called out last Wednesday as the farmers agrologist had informed him that the pigeons were destroying his rape. So I headed out to the field with the thought of shooting loads of pigeons. When I arrived the field was devoid of any birds so I set up in my favourite place under a giant Ash tree, which gives me plenty of protection from the wind and sun. During the time I was setting up six pigeons flew over me seeing the decoys. Once I was set up and in the hide nothing for thirty minutes. Then I heard the familiar cry of a Canada goose as the flock flew over me to land in the field, they were too high to shoot so I put up a warning shot and they landed on the lake on the next farm.

After three hours no pigeons arrived and I packed up. Stopping at the farm on the way back home I had a talk with the farmer and he will put a gas gun on the edge of the field close to the lake!!

 

On Thursday night I had a missed call from Bunny­­_Blaster he sent me a text on Friday saying he was going out looking and would I be interested to shoot on Saturday. It was a YES obviously. I had been out looking but not seen a bird on my permissions. He rang me to say he had found a good number on one of his rape fields so we arranged to meet up at 09.00.

As I set out in the morning it was minus 3 degrees and foggy , they predicted that it would clear for two hours then freeze again. I met up with BB and we drove around the estate in the fog disturbing nothing out of the trees and decided to set up in the hope that the fog would clear and give us some shooting. I had eleven thawed birds as decoys put two on the magnet and the others on cradles above the rape. Not sure of the time but could have been 10.30. We had various gas guns around us and they sent us birds, the first in BB dropped two and I had a third. I went downhill after that missing bird after bird ( I had not shot since August) The fog thinned a bit but did not clear as predicted. We shot till 15.00 and picked up 46 pigeons. I must thank BB for the invite and the banter it was refreshing.

I must also thank Yickdaz and our other Northern Shooters for sending down the pigeons south as part of the “Levelling up Process”!!

Just a quick update on my current condition. I have concluded eleven months of four weekly infusions and daily steroids which has brought my Myeloma under control. In a  few weeks I will have a plasma extracted from my blood cleansed ready for a Stem Cell transplant in January.

I have built up my fitness to walking on average 5.5 miles a day, which has allowed me to be put forward for the treatment

[yickdaz]

34 minutes ago, pigeon controller said:

 

I was called out last Wednesday as the farmers agrologist had informed him that the pigeons were destroying his rape. So I headed out to the field with the thought of shooting loads of pigeons. When I arrived the field was devoid of any birds so I set up in my favourite place under a giant Ash tree, which gives me plenty of protection from the wind and sun. During the time I was setting up six pigeons flew over me seeing the decoys. Once I was set up and in the hide nothing for thirty minutes. Then I heard the familiar cry of a Canada goose as the flock flew over me to land in the field, they were too high to shoot so I put up a warning shot and they landed on the lake on the next farm.

After three hours no pigeons arrived and I packed up. Stopping at the farm on the way back home I had a talk with the farmer and he will put a gas gun on the edge of the field close to the lake!!

 

On Thursday night I had a missed call from Bunny­­_Blaster he sent me a text on Friday saying he was going out looking and would I be interested to shoot on Saturday. It was a YES obviously. I had been out looking but not seen a bird on my permissions. He rang me to say he had found a good number on one of his rape fields so we arranged to meet up at 09.00.

As I set out in the morning it was minus 3 degrees and foggy , they predicted that it would clear for two hours then freeze again. I met up with BB and we drove around the estate in the fog disturbing nothing out of the trees and decided to set up in the hope that the fog would clear and give us some shooting. I had eleven thawed birds as decoys put two on the magnet and the others on cradles above the rape. Not sure of the time but could have been 10.30. We had various gas guns around us and they sent us birds, the first in BB dropped two and I had a third. I went downhill after that missing bird after bird ( I had not shot since August) The fog thinned a bit but did not clear as predicted. We shot till 15.00 and picked up 46 pigeons. I must thank BB for the invite and the banter it was refreshing.

I must also thank Yickdaz and our other Northern Shooters for sending down the pigeons south as part of the “Levelling up Process”!!

Just a quick update on my current condition. I have concluded eleven months of four weekly infusions and daily steroids which has brought my Myeloma under control. In a  few weeks I will have a plasma extracted from my blood cleansed ready for a Stem Cell transplant in January.

I have built up my fitness to walking on average 5.5 miles a day, which has allowed me to be put forward for the treatment

Well done and don't mention it, but can you send them back up this way thanks 👍 

[Old Boggy]

Many thanks PC for the detailed report of your first outing out for a while.

I greatly admire your persistence and determination under what must be very tiring conditions for you and wish you the very best for your ongoing treatment.

OB

[TIGHTCHOKE]

Well done PC, like Chris says, glad your fitness level has risen and good luck with the next stage of treatment.  

[pigeon controller]

Thanks to you Both.

[Wilts#Dave]

Great to hear you’ve been out again, and well done on the fitness regime…..commendable and hopefully you’ll be back out with the regularity you’re used to very soon! 
Nice that BB invited you out, bet that was a nice phone call to receive. 
Pigeons thin on the ground here aLao although I could have shot some big numbers on maize where I used to have permission frustratingly. 
Shot a cracking 35 on my usual roosting flightline 10 days ago, if the wind and rain return again I’ll give that another go! 

[old'un]

 

Well done for getting out there, I know only to well what its like when something knocks you off your feet, hope your treatment is successful and you can get out a bit more, good luck.

Just to say, you did better than me, found a couple of hundred birds on some rape, walked them off and they went to a distant wood, watched them for over an hour and not one bird returned, they just sat there sunning it up, came back to the field two hours later, no birds in the wood and none on the rape, gawd knows where they went?

I also could hear a few distant gas guns going off, but I also think there is a little less rape this year due to poor sowing conditions in August.

[marsh man]

As already mentioned it was good to hear from you again and also nice to know that whatever treatment you are having is working and you fitness levels are building up , mind you if you can manage to cart off 50 odd in a sack again then I will be looking into in having the same pills you have been taking .

If the weather you had yesterday was anything like we had down here then I didn't envy you one bit sitting around in freezing , foggy conditions , when I took my dog out first thing in the morning it took me a while even getting into my motor as all the doors had froze up , once in it didn't take to long to warm up and on the dash the warning came on about possible ice on the roads , the temp was showing minus 3 and the conditions then were misty rather than fog , I could hear a few shots going off where the hardy wild fowlers were waiting for the geese to lift off , I wished them luck as they certainly needed it in these very still cold conditions .

I was back home by 8am and had enough time to read some of the paper and a bite to eat before I had to set off again to meet up for the days shoot at 9 am , after a slow journey due to the icy roads we all made it and a glass of Port was handed out to all who wanted one , as I don't drink I was more than happy having a coffee , we got away at 9.30 and the mist was already turning to freezing fog with the temp now showing minus 2.

We were ready when the guns turned up and we could just make them out while standing on the pegs , the drive started and we could hear shots but couldn't see what they were firing out and now again you could hear a thump when a Pheasant hit the hard ground so we had to move in a bit so we could see what was going on , at the end of the drive we picked up what was behind the guns and then had a quick look in the woods before we moved on to the next drive , this carried on till dinner and the fog was around the border line to be called off , as it was we carried on and got finished around 3.30 , this gave us a extra ten minutes or so to look for any ones we were told that had been clipped , I found the last cocx bird that had ran along a water course and that was it , took the birds up the game larder and they had just over 100 head of game with a few Pigeons , so all in all the guns done well to stick the day out , easily one of the coldest days shooting we have had for a while .

So P C for you sit around in those conditions I really hope it didn't do you any harm with breathing in that cold air , I always said you were super human but you still need to take it easy as reports are very thin on the ground at the moment and yours are always worth reading to sift out any little gems of advice .  STAY SAFE            MM

[pigeon controller]

40 minutes ago, marsh man said:

As already mentioned it was good to hear from you again and also nice to know that whatever treatment you are having is working and you fitness levels are building up , mind you if you can manage to cart off 50 odd in a sack again then I will be looking into in having the same pills you have been taking .

If the weather you had yesterday was anything like we had down here then I didn't envy you one bit sitting around in freezing , foggy conditions , when I took my dog out first thing in the morning it took me a while even getting into my motor as all the doors had froze up , once in it didn't take to long to warm up and on the dash the warning came on about possible ice on the roads , the temp was showing minus 3 and the conditions then were misty rather than fog , I could hear a few shots going off where the hardy wild fowlers were waiting for the geese to lift off , I wished them luck as they certainly needed it in these very still cold conditions .

I was back home by 8am and had enough time to read some of the paper and a bite to eat before I had to set off again to meet up for the days shoot at 9 am , after a slow journey due to the icy roads we all made it and a glass of Port was handed out to all who wanted one , as I don't drink I was more than happy having a coffee , we got away at 9.30 and the mist was already turning to freezing fog with the temp now showing minus 2.

We were ready when the guns turned up and we could just make them out while standing on the pegs , the drive started and we could hear shots but couldn't see what they were firing out and now again you could hear a thump when a Pheasant hit the hard ground so we had to move in a bit so we could see what was going on , at the end of the drive we picked up what was behind the guns and then had a quick look in the woods before we moved on to the next drive , this carried on till dinner and the fog was around the border line to be called off , as it was we carried on and got finished around 3.30 , this gave us a extra ten minutes or so to look for any ones we were told that had been clipped , I found the last cocx bird that had ran along a water course and that was it , took the birds up the game larder and they had just over 100 head of game with a few Pigeons , so all in all the guns done well to stick the day out , easily one of the coldest days shooting we have had for a while .

So P C for you sit around in those conditions I really hope it didn't do you any harm with breathing in that cold air , I always said you were super human but you still need to take it easy as reports are very thin on the ground at the moment and yours are always worth reading to sift out any little gems of advice .  STAY SAFE            MM

Thanks for your kind words and the great report.

[JDog]

Glad to see you are still with us PC.

I presume the plasma extraction and stem cell treatment is an attempt to clone yourself.

[pigeon controller]

2 hours ago, JDog said:

Glad to see you are still with us PC.

I presume the plasma extraction and stem cell treatment is an attempt to clone yourself.

Yes, if successful there will be at least one of me in every county!!!

[kitchrat]

All I can say is "all the breast PC", cheers!