PIGEON SHOOTING FREE

[Digger79]

NO LONGER AVAILABLE 

Just a heads up to anyone nr Heathrow looking for pigeon shooting, (Maxtich) username on UKVARMINTING is offering free pigeon shooting.6 days a week except Sundays

Edited March 23 by Digger79
Position taken

[TIGHTCHOKE]

And the STAMPEDE hasn't started......................................Come on Lads.

[Donkey]

Down the road from me seems he is all sorted now

[Digger79]

Yes he's sorted now. Can't believe it didn't go quickly

[old'un]

18 hours ago, Digger79 said:

Yes he's sorted now. Can't believe it didn't go quickly

It always amazes me how little take-up there is on offers of shooting, I cover a fair area, mainly pest control, pigeon shooting being number 1, years ago I would bump into other pigeon shooters regularly but now I might meet another pigeon chaser every 2 or 3 years and most of those are getting on, so where are all the keen young shooters, clay shooting?

 

[Westley]

GAMING   ?

[Sweet11-87]

1 hour ago, old'un said:

It always amazes me how little take-up there is on offers of shooting, I cover a fair area, mainly pest control, pigeon shooting being number 1, years ago I would bump into other pigeon shooters regularly but now I might meet another pigeon chaser every 2 or 3 years and most of those are getting on, so where are all the keen young shooters, clay shooting?

 

young families, cost of living crisis, application to grant time running beyond months into years, modern farming practices, bananas weather,  cartridge prices sky rocketing ...take your pick

might just be me but my permissions haven't really produced for a few years now, genuinely have more enjoyment and consistency doing a short sharp roost shoot after work but another month or so and that will be it. i really struggle to decoy well these days, im glad ive got pretty much every other type of shooting to fall back on

having said that if a post like this came up near me id be all over it.

 

 

Edited March 24 by Sweet11-87

[old'un]

22 minutes ago, Sweet11-87 said:

young families, cost of living crisis, application to grant time running beyond months into years, modern farming practices, bananas weather,  cartridge prices sky rocketing ...take your pick

might just be me but my permissions haven't really produced for a few years now, genuinely have more enjoyment and consistency doing a short sharp roost shoot after work but another month or so and that will be it. i really struggle to decoy well these days, im glad ive got pretty much every other type of shooting to fall back on

having said that if a post like this came up near me id be all over it.

 

 

All the above is true to a point but I also think it takes someone who is keen, very keen….to go out in all weather and any time of year, to drive to farm after farm looking for that one day when everything falls into place.

Over the years I have meet a few youngish shooters 30-35 and they tell me they are the next best thing to sliced bread and are going to get farm after farm and they will be checking the field every week, I always say good luck to them but usually after a winter or two chasing them on the rape they just disappear, never to be seen again, mind you, you do get an upturn in shooters come stubble time, so they do have the time and the money when things are easy.

[marsh man]

52 minutes ago, old'un said:

All the above is true to a point but I also think it takes someone who is keen, very keen….to go out in all weather and any time of year, to drive to farm after farm looking for that one day when everything falls into place.

Over the years I have meet a few youngish shooters 30-35 and they tell me they are the next best thing to sliced bread and are going to get farm after farm and they will be checking the field every week, I always say good luck to them but usually after a winter or two chasing them on the rape they just disappear, never to be seen again, mind you, you do get an upturn in shooters come stubble time, so they do have the time and the money when things are easy.

I don't know what it was like around your way at the time when you were looking for perms, but when we were looking for new perms it was never that hard , yes we did get the odd setback with the land owner saying we have all ready got someone but then as time wore on we ended up getting those farms as well , finding the Pigeons were a lot easier then than it is now , the Spring drillings were something to look forward to and you would often see the Pigeons on the field while the drill was going backwards and forward , the cereals got laid more with having the longer stems , the Rape seem to attract a lot more Pigeons with a lot less of the crop being grown and then when you shot a good bag or filled your freezer up you could then move them on and get most of , if not all your cartridge money back , now I couldn't afford to shoot half the numbers we used to get with none, or very little outlet for them even if I was in good enough condition to shoot them in the first place.

I used to rent a first class rough shoot that ticked every box in the book for a good 20 odd years , we shot big numbers of Pigeons on both my shoot and several farms that border each other so we had a lot of good Pigeon land to go on , then about 15 years ago I got a knee problem and couldn't walk the long muddy track in the Winter time to get to a lot of the marshland we had at the time so I gave the shoot up as I had a fair bit a lot closer to home , then a couple of years ago the landowners son came on ours with a group of farmers for a days game shoot , we got talking dinnertime and I asked him who do the Pigeon shooting on his land nowadays and yes you have guessed right , no one , although the land down the marsh is now all grazing land and the uplands is contracted out , still you could still find Pigeons out there if you spent the time but sadly nowadays no body seem to have the time , or it is to far , or so on and so on and so on   MM 

[Scrimshanker]

Seems most land have the old guard holding on to them so not many about for younger shooters to get on? Still on the hunt for a perm and will keep knocking, posting cards, beating and paying for days in the hope I’ll get one at some point. 

[TIGHTCHOKE]

14 minutes ago, Scrimshanker said:

Seems most land have the old guard holding on to them so not many about for younger shooters to get on? Still on the hunt for a perm and will keep knocking, posting cards, beating and paying for days in the hope I’ll get one at some point. 

The "OLD GUARD have probably spent a good deal of time getting their permissions and will not just give them away.

[Scrimshanker]

.

 

Edited March 24 by Scrimshanker
Duplicate

[TIGHTCHOKE]

1 minute ago, Scrimshanker said:

I totally understand why when they are hard to come by but I guess that may be why Old’un doesn’t see as many as he once did out? 

Find a farm where the "OLD GUARD" fail to turn up, that is the simplest way to get a permission.

[Scrimshanker]

3 minutes ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

The "OLD GUARD have probably spent a good deal of time getting their permissions and will not just give them away.

I totally understand that too. I would be the same. Just think this may be why Old’un doesn’t see as many shooters out anymore? I’ve paid to shoot pigeons last year but I think this sets a bad precedent and shouldn’t even happen but needs must. 

3 minutes ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

Find a farm where the "OLD GUARD" fail to turn up, that is the simplest way to get a permission.

Sure would! Fingers crossed. 

[marsh man]

17 minutes ago, Scrimshanker said:

Seems most land have the old guard holding on to them so not many about for younger shooters to get on? Still on the hunt for a perm and will keep knocking, posting cards, beating and paying for days in the hope I’ll get one at some point. 

The ( Old Guard ) cannot go on for ever and the older you get you are less inclined to sit about on a cold Winters day in the hope of getting the odd shot of a Pigeon , I know I am and now it is beginning to warm up a bit then I will show more willing , some of the problem's with the younger ones is that they have to go to work to pay the bills and cannot always get to the field when the Pigeons are doing the damage , then it depends on where you live . if you live in the town centre then you cannot spend the time looking around for the pigeons , you said you go beating , did that bring any results as the beaters normally get first choice when they knock the game covers down and the odd door begin to open , so the old guard might be a bit of a pain but even when the weather is nice they cannot be everywhere at once and even when they do go they only go for a few hours , the first perm is always the hardest one to get but once you have the first one then word will soon spread if you are doing a good job and you will find that others will soon follow . so keep at it and it might help you if you asked the shoot captain or the land owner if there is any vermin they want thinning out , you just never know until you ask , GOOD LUCK .

[Scrimshanker]

47 minutes ago, marsh man said:

 

I meant no offence by my comments I understand why it is the way it is and you don’t walk into perms too easy but as you say age doesn’t help when the winter hits and may be why it’s rare to see others out.
I’ve not made a huge effort to secure my own perm as like you say work gets in the way for us that still work, it must be good to dedicate more time to shoot when work ceases 😁.

I had a decent amount of shooting last year approx 50 foreshore outings, a beaters day, a few paid driven & rough days and a couple of paid days on the pigeons. joined a syndicate for next season and will renew my Wildfowling membership. May have a bit of shooting over the summer with the keeper and a few others and that will probably be enough for me personally. 

[marsh man]

5 minutes ago, Scrimshanker said:

I meant no offence by my comments I understand why it is the way it is and you don’t walk into perms too easy but as you say age doesn’t help when the winter hits and may be why it’s rare to see others out.
I’ve not made a huge effort to secure my own perm as like you say work gets in the way for us that still work, it must be good to dedicate more time to shoot when work ceases 😁.

I had a decent amount of shooting last year approx 50 foreshore outings, a beaters day, a few paid driven & rough days and a couple of paid days on the pigeons. joined a syndicate for next season and will renew my Wildfowling membership. May have a bit of shooting over the summer with the keeper and a few others and that will probably be enough for me personally. 

No offence taken and it's nice to know how folk do it in there area , you done very well to get a lot of flights on the foreshore  and I hope you had a very good season , both our local wildfowling clubs have got a lot of Pigeon shooting and believe it or not the land have very few Pigeon shooters keeping a eye on them , so it might be worth you seeing if your club have got any Pigeon shooting , What is the fowling like around the Portsmouth area ? , I was down that way when I was in the R N but never got the chance to go wildfowling .    MM

[Scrimshanker]

I’m ex RN myself but from here originally. It’s good for canadas and have had some mallard and teal but they are few and far between. I’m about 4 mins from home where I park to enter the marsh so it is ideal for me and keeps me keen! The club had woodland in seasons past but we no longer have the lease. I believe the committee keep an eye out to get some more though. 

[old'un]

15 hours ago, Scrimshanker said:

Seems most land have the old guard holding on to them so not many about for younger shooters to get on? Still on the hunt for a perm and will keep knocking, posting cards, beating and paying for days in the hope I’ll get one at some point. 

I also had to earn a living and pay a mortgage, I had 3 days a week where I could go out looking for shooting, Saturday, Sunday and one day during the week, during the summer I would take my gear to work and finish about 4pm and go looking for shooting, fortunately I had a very understanding wife.

Like TIGHTCHOKE said, I/we put a lot of effort and time into getting shooting, I have built up contacts and I’ve had some lucky brakes but never found it hard to get farms to shot on, this last 15 years I have given up lot of the farms I have shot on for years to newcomers, I have taken people off here pigeon shooting and last year introduced someone off here to a farmer with a lot of land, think you need to make friends with someone like me who is getting on a bit.

[old'un]

16 hours ago, marsh man said:

I don't know what it was like around your way at the time when you were looking for perms, but when we were looking for new perms it was never that hard , yes we did get the odd setback with the land owner saying we have all ready got someone but then as time wore on we ended up getting those farms as well , finding the Pigeons were a lot easier then than it is now , the Spring drillings were something to look forward to and you would often see the Pigeons on the field while the drill was going backwards and forward , the cereals got laid more with having the longer stems , the Rape seem to attract a lot more Pigeons with a lot less of the crop being grown and then when you shot a good bag or filled your freezer up you could then move them on and get most of , if not all your cartridge money back , now I couldn't afford to shoot half the numbers we used to get with none, or very little outlet for them even if I was in good enough condition to shoot them in the first place.

I used to rent a first class rough shoot that ticked every box in the book for a good 20 odd years , we shot big numbers of Pigeons on both my shoot and several farms that border each other so we had a lot of good Pigeon land to go on , then about 15 years ago I got a knee problem and couldn't walk the long muddy track in the Winter time to get to a lot of the marshland we had at the time so I gave the shoot up as I had a fair bit a lot closer to home , then a couple of years ago the landowners son came on ours with a group of farmers for a days game shoot , we got talking dinnertime and I asked him who do the Pigeon shooting on his land nowadays and yes you have guessed right , no one , although the land down the marsh is now all grazing land and the uplands is contracted out , still you could still find Pigeons out there if you spent the time but sadly nowadays no body seem to have the time , or it is to far , or so on and so on and so on   MM 

I also think keenness in all things country starts at an early age, most of the people I know who still go out shooting regularly are in their 60s-70s and have been involved with shooting all their lives, like me, they spent most of their youth down the woods climbing trees, collecting frog spawn, bird nesting, taking some bread, sausages and a drink down the woods and making a fire to cook them on, shooting the sparrows off the next-door neighbours chimney pots, setting a few snares to catch rabbits (without permission) and generally getting into mischief.

As I got older these things progressed and the keenness grew stronger, I am now in my 70s, still keen, perhaps not as keen as I was in my 30s but still out chasing pigeons, still shooting a few crows, rabbits and squirrels.

Are times harder for youngsters today...maybe, but I don't think there's the keenness for shooting (apart from clay shooting) that there was in my youth in the 50s 60s when every other lad had an air rifle or a catapult.

Thinking back to the 70s 80s and the 90s it did seem there were pigeons on every rape field and in big numbers, bags of 80, 90 and 100 plus were common, specially the early days in the 70s, although before rape took off I would shot some pretty big bags on the corn stubbles.

[Sweet11-87]

unrelated but kind of the same. during lock down i played the game and didnt go out, when it lifted i headed to a permission id had since the dawn of my shooting days with an air rifle.  honestly dog walkers had increased about 10 fold and  having the public walk about is just not what i want in a permission plus the dogs running about off the lead did a fantastic job of keeping the birds moving.

ive not been back in about 2 years actively let it go. said to myself on the day "this is my last time up here"

i feel i miss the harvest and the drill given that they tend to do it now in the space of a couple of days and the perms ive got always seem to harvest on Monday and drill a day or 2 later, come the weekend its all over.

said it loads of times on here now decoying for me over the past 5 years or so have been pretty much a disaster. me and the local lads i talk to  are just not getting the activity anymore.

[Westley]

I have lost all of my permissions due to a variation of reasons, new housing, farms changing hands, new woodlands festooned with cycle and footpaths. But perhaps it is a blessing in disguise. I drive past the land quite regularly and there is ALWAYS  a multitude of doggy walkers everywhere. On Saturday 2 of them with dogs running free, walking through a field of sown wheat which iz up about 4". A local turf grower suffers from dog walkers all over what is essentially, his crop.