the hitman Posted June 21 Report Share Posted June 21 Hi folks This is my first shooting report since my last outing in February. One of my permissions had held back drilling peas as it had been so wet in April & early May and these 2 pea fields were drilled the last week in May. The farmer messaged me to say the pigeons had arrived if I was available- today was my first chance. I hadn’t done any proper recce but pigeons were on the field when I arrived at 9am- I was set up by 9.30 with the sillo’s bellowing in the wind. Bit of a slow start with pigeons landing at the other end of the field- but I was plugging away and had about 10 down in the first hour. Due to my lack of reconnoissance I had to regularly walk out and scare birds off the field, which worked well as with nothing else to draw them they decoying well. My hide location was perfect for the shooter- sun at my back, and a good S/W wind blowing over my left shoulder. Pairs & singles kept me busy and I also added a couple of carrions to the bag. Once I had about 30 down the pigeons decoyed really well- to the point where I was just shooting easy hovering birds. I had a rough count at 1.30pm and thought 2.30pm would be a good time to stop I wanted to get the shot birds away and the game dealer which was 20 miles away. I picked 71 pigeons- lost 4 in tall grass ( I miss not having a dog) and 2 crows. It was just nice to be back in the hide after such a long break. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TIGHTCHOKE Posted June 21 Report Share Posted June 21 Well done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marsh man Posted June 21 Report Share Posted June 21 Great report Hitman and a very respectable bag , our Peas are now well in flower and the Pigeons are already moving on to the knocked about barley , nice to hear your dealer is taking Pigeons , do he take frozen ? MM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the hitman Posted June 21 Author Report Share Posted June 21 Hi MM The farmer has just messaged to say one of the two pea fields if going to be re- drilled this week- which is fortunate for me. I have seen pigeons on laid corn locally, however I am always reluctant to shoot on this as you tend to lose so many in standing crop. I think they only take fresh shot birds as they process the birds on site then freeze. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wilts#Dave Posted June 21 Report Share Posted June 21 Cracking stuff, those peas must be the lowest out there! I shot a good bag earlier in the week over peas coming into flower, a long way in front of those…..should give you some good sport from now on 👍🏼 What is the farmer re-drilling with at this late stage, Maize? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marsh man Posted June 21 Report Share Posted June 21 53 minutes ago, the hitman said: Hi MM The farmer has just messaged to say one of the two pea fields if going to be re- drilled this week- which is fortunate for me. I have seen pigeons on laid corn locally, however I am always reluctant to shoot on this as you tend to lose so many in standing crop. I think they only take fresh shot birds as they process the birds on site then freeze. Cheers , Your Peas are very late up your way , at one time I used to have a weeks holiday the last week in June , it nearly always worked out that I would shoot on Peas that were ready to be vined at the beginning of the week , me and my wife would have a day up the Royal Norfolk Show midweek and then by the end of the week we would be shooting on Pea stubble , some times they would bale the stubble up to use for animal feed , and I can go back to when they carted the cut peas on flat lorries to the factory ( Birds Eye ) to be vined and when at a later date they started to use Pea viners on the field a farmer I knew used to fork all the Pea stubble onto pallets to dry it out , again for stock feed , now that will take you back a bit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the hitman Posted June 22 Author Report Share Posted June 22 9 hours ago, Wilts#Dave said: Cracking stuff, those peas must be the lowest out there! I shot a good bag earlier in the week over peas coming into flower, a long way in front of those…..should give you some good sport from now on 👍🏼 What is the farmer re-drilling with at this late stage, Maize? Peas are going back in - it will be autumn before they flower. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the hitman Posted June 22 Author Report Share Posted June 22 8 hours ago, marsh man said: Cheers , Your Peas are very late up your way , at one time I used to have a weeks holiday the last week in June , it nearly always worked out that I would shoot on Peas that were ready to be vined at the beginning of the week , me and my wife would have a day up the Royal Norfolk Show midweek and then by the end of the week we would be shooting on Pea stubble , some times they would bale the stubble up to use for animal feed , and I can go back to when they carted the cut peas on flat lorries to the factory ( Birds Eye ) to be vined and when at a later date they started to use Pea viners on the field a farmer I knew used to fork all the Pea stubble onto pallets to dry it out , again for stock feed , now that will take you back a bit MM The pea consortium begin drilling in March up here - they drill in stages so they can harvest in stages. We had 6 weeks of rain where peas could not be drilled and add the ground drying time then it was late May when they got around to drilling on this farm which is one of my permissions. This company drill all over southern Scotland and north Northumberland and do have many fields of peas in flower. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Boggy Posted June 22 Report Share Posted June 22 51 minutes ago, the hitman said: MM The pea consortium begin drilling in March up here - they drill in stages so they can harvest in stages. We had 6 weeks of rain where peas could not be drilled and add the ground drying time then it was late May when they got around to drilling on this farm which is one of my permissions. This company drill all over southern Scotland and north Northumberland and do have many fields of peas in flower. You are very lucky to have peas drilled in your area as none grown around here. Good report of your excellent bag and thanks for posting. Keep us updated (and envious) of your future outings. OB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pigeon controller Posted June 22 Report Share Posted June 22 Good report, well done. Thanks for posting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old'un Posted June 22 Report Share Posted June 22 Lucky boy on both counts, one, a nice bag of pigeons and two, somewhere to off load them, well done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wilts#Dave Posted June 22 Report Share Posted June 22 2 hours ago, the hitman said: Peas are going back in - it will be autumn before they flower. I’ve never heard of peas grown at this late stage, should give you some good sport 👍🏼 Had some good shooting on the peas here so far, would be interesting to see how the pigeons reacted to a fresh field of drilled peas at this time of year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marsh man Posted June 22 Report Share Posted June 22 2 hours ago, the hitman said: MM The pea consortium begin drilling in March up here - they drill in stages so they can harvest in stages. We had 6 weeks of rain where peas could not be drilled and add the ground drying time then it was late May when they got around to drilling on this farm which is one of my permissions. This company drill all over southern Scotland and north Northumberland and do have many fields of peas in flower. Your quite right , I never took the wet weather in consideration , we had it bad, but a lot of counties had it worse than us , our Winter crops on the marshland took some hammering as it is heavy soil and a lot of the crops were under water for most of the Winter , now you can see the effect with large bare patches , our o s r also took some stick with two fields pulled up and a cover crop is now growing where the o s r should had been , some worrying times for the land owners . MM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clangerman Posted June 22 Report Share Posted June 22 tidy bag there well done more on barley here than the peas Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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