motty Posted April 21 Report Share Posted April 21 I covered a fair few miles on Friday afternoon scouting for birds. I found good numbers of pigeons on a few drilled fields. However, on checking again, they were absent, with nothing flighting to them. A couple of other farmers were drilling other likely fields, but alas too late for a Saturday shoot. I phoned another farmer to ask if he had been drilling, as time was getting on. He told me that he had drilled some barley, and that a "gang" of pigeons were on there. This became my focus for the reconnaissance on Saturday morning. I arrived around 9am to watch. Jules was checking the fields I had looked at yesterday, just in case. He found little. I watched a couple of weak lines heading across my field, following some power lines and then into the distance. A decent number started to drop in where I was, and by the time Jules arrived, a couple of hundred were down and things looked half promising. It wasn't until we had set up that I began to feel like we would struggle, especially as the line following the power lines had got stronger and mostly completely ignored our set up. We persevered, though, and decided to stick it out. We had to put up with strong winds yet again, made worse by unforecasted showers that made shooting tricky. I was shooting like a one armed Stevie Wonder to start with, which frustrated me, considering I have been shooting pretty well lately. Jules was shooting just fine. I turned it around, though. We knew a big bag wasn't on the cards, but we were enjoying a mixture of decoying birds and some nice flighted ones. No easy shots. A couple of times during the afternoon we spied a cloud of perhaps 2000 pigeons that erupted from the fields in the distance. I had a slight sinking feeling, as I thought I knew where it was - a farm I have shot in the past. I should have checked those fields earlier...... I won't know for sure if we might have had a real day to remember had we shot there instead, but I felt like maybe we missed out. Never mind. I consoled myself with the fact that I still had a good day out with my mate and we had a good craic and shot some good birds. The final pickup was 51 pigeons and 1 jack. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
motty Posted April 21 Author Report Share Posted April 21 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marsh man Posted April 21 Report Share Posted April 21 Nice one , You can still have an enjoyable day without shooting big numbers , no doubt you would sooner shoot 50 good sporting Pigeons rather a 100 dropping on top of each other after each one is shot . After a wet Winter and early Spring you are now finding if the conditions are right for one farmer then it could be the same for his neighbour's so several fields are all drilled at the same time , a bit like when they start harvesting , nice write up and a respectable bag . MM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDog Posted April 21 Report Share Posted April 21 Well done Motty. I have missed your erudite posts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muncher Posted April 21 Report Share Posted April 21 We had a good time , that’s all the matters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
motty Posted April 21 Author Report Share Posted April 21 58 minutes ago, marsh man said: Nice one , You can still have an enjoyable day without shooting big numbers , no doubt you would sooner shoot 50 good sporting Pigeons rather a 100 dropping on top of each other after each one is shot . After a wet Winter and early Spring you are now finding if the conditions are right for one farmer then it could be the same for his neighbour's so several fields are all drilled at the same time , a bit like when they start harvesting , nice write up and a respectable bag . MM Yes, plenty of farms drilling at the same time. Part of the challenge is picking the right spot. And yes, 50 good birds beats 100 real easy ones, though I like a mixture sometimes.... 48 minutes ago, JDog said: Well done Motty. I have missed your erudite posts. Thank you. I felt it was about time I wrote a little report, J. 22 minutes ago, muncher said: We had a good time , that’s all the matters. Absolutely! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marsh man Posted April 21 Report Share Posted April 21 1 hour ago, JDog said: Well done Motty. I have missed your erudite posts. So have many others , glad he is back in the fold and hopefully a video will be along shortly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aga man Posted April 22 Report Share Posted April 22 A good read Motty👍 Seems pigeons have too much choice all of a sudden in many areas. Most of us would be happy with a bag of 50 at the minute. Well shot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stu nesling Posted April 24 Report Share Posted April 24 nice bag and a good write up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wilts#Dave Posted April 25 Report Share Posted April 25 I think we’ve all had days where we’ve shot a bag but couldn’t help feeling it would have been much bigger had we chosen a different field…..51 isn’t to be sniffed at though and there’s always another day 👍🏼 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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