Blimey, I shot some pigeons

[Mightymariner]

Well, I haven't been shooting for months due to work commitments and other issues, so I finally had a few hours free last week and was determined to get out.

We have had lots of drilling recently when the weather has held up so I thought there might be somewhere.

In my head I was heading to one farm but I had a text from a local pigeon shooter telling me some fields very close to home were "blue over", so I thought I would look on my way. He doesn't have permission on this land so I knew no one would beat me to it.

For info and JDog (who shot this field with me when it was peas), the field is beside a busy road which takes traffic to Skegness but it is big enough to shoot safely. It borders a large block of woodland on its far edge, and there is a good stand of trees alongside another edge which birds often flight up.

When I got there, there small flocks flitting about but only a few on the ground (it's beans by the way). I decided the best spot was the hedge dividing the larger field from a smaller one behind, with me facing down the large field and the northerly wind at my back.

I thought this would allow me to walk to the stand of trees and shoot any flighting pigeons if they didn't decoy.

There was little action to start with, though I did manage to down one bird for the flapper. I had a couple of very large flocks head my way but most traffic was heading along the stand of trees. So, with my cartridge bag and gun I walked down to the trees. This paid dividends immediately, with birds battling a 20mph wind over the trees. I shot quite well, amazingly, and had six down fairly quickly. More followed and when I had 12, I decided that was plenty to carry back to the hide.

Back at the hide, I spread the dead birds around and thought I would have an hour to see if any more would come.

The attraction of dead birds worked well, with plenty of birds peeling off their flightline and coming to investigate. Some decoyed, some didn't. 

I shot pretty well, even managed a couple of left and rights.

By about 5.30pm it was all over, which was fine by me as I had it all to carry back up the field.

I lumbered back to the car with exactly 24 pigeons.

A lovely afternoon all told.

 

[TIGHTCHOKE]

Well done.  

[old'un]

Glad you managed to find some sown fields to shoot and 24 in the bag, well done.

[marsh man]

A lovely way to spend an afternoon MM , nice lot of shooting and you don't do yourself an injury in lugging a load back .

[stockybasher]

Well done to you !!

[JDog]

Good stuff MM. I believe I know that field.

Good to see you out and about.

[pigeon controller]

Well done for getting out, good result, thanks for posting.

[stu nesling]

wel done, a great way to spend a few hours 👍

[Wilts#Dave]

Well done. A nice number to carry back with the kit too!