Third Time Lucky

[bunny_blaster]

On Thursday I went and checked the Barley I’ve shot for the last 2 weeks running, it was raining and there weren’t many birds flighting. When I arrived the farmer was spreading slurry on the stubble and the pigeons didn’t like it. What birds were there were concentrated on the areas where they hadn’t yet spread any slurry. I decided to give it a go Friday and let the farmer know, he said he would leave the remaining stubble and slurry the grass fields whilst i was there.

My usual buyer of steel shot pigeons is still full so for the first time in 7/8 years I had to use lead, my plan was to shoot Friday, chill everything down over night and then take them to the game dealers first thing Saturday morning as they only take fresh birds. I’ve been looking for a trap gun for a few weeks and my local rfd had an old Miroku 800 trap with 30” barrels choked full and full which I borrowed to have a go with and he did me a deal on some Eley select 7.5s. The game dealer is only paying 30p a bird so I wanted the cheapest cartridge he had.

I arrived Friday to a bright and breezy day and the birds were coming down the line well. They have started cutting the wheat further on from the barley and most of the birds wanted that. Plenty decoyed but I also killed some great crossers and driven birds as they made for the wheat stubble. I finished at 6.30 with 372 pigeon.

My freezers are almost full but I’ve got enough room for about 150 birds so today I set myself a challenge. I took my side by side and 100 steel cartridges and had an afternoon on some rape stubble that the pigeons have been on for weeks. It’s well greened up now but they are still on it well. I finished the afternoon with 80 pigeons. I’ll be back to using lead next weekend. 

[marsh man]

Your enthusiasm is second to none Ben and I noticed on the second bag you took 100 cartridges and finished up with 80 , I am not very bright but I easily worked it out at 8 out of 10 and I very much doubt your were not far out from the twenty you ( missed )

The first bag was another incredible amount of Pigeons , are you in for a personal yearly best , or have you done better ?

Hope your dealers can keep finding enough room for your huge bags , where would you be without them ?      MM

[gilbert]

Cracking bag, well done. It must of been enjoyable but hard work.   Thanks for posting

[pigeon controller]

Hi Ben you will be glad when I return from Greece so you can fill my freezers??
Two more excellent bags of pigeon and well worth the effort of checking on Thursday as the field would have been all slurry. 
Did the dealer check  the lead shot birds for condition when you delivered which they used to when I delivered fresh in the last century!!

Thanks for posting as it keeps me interested while I’m sweating in the shade.

[Old Boggy]

Two more excellent bags and a good write up.

You certainly have plenty of birds in your area with the wherewithal and knowledge to come to terms with them.

You say your game dealer is only paying 30p per bird. That’s a very good rate in my neck of the woods. The going rate being more like 10p per bird fresh.

Many thanks for posting.

OB

[marsh man]

9 hours ago, pigeon controller said:

Hi Ben you will be glad when I return from Greece so you can fill my freezers??
Two more excellent bags of pigeon and well worth the effort of checking on Thursday as the field would have been all slurry. 
Did the dealer check  the lead shot birds for condition when you delivered which they used to when I delivered fresh in the last century!!

Thanks for posting as it keeps me interested while I’m sweating in the shade.

When I used to take up a lot of fresh Pigeons they would sometimes pull some feathers away from from the rear vent to see if they had gone Green , also if it had been hot humid weather they would check the beaks to see if they had fly eggs inside , if they did they would pull the heads off , you cannot cut corners with fresh Pigeons , leaving them in the sacks for any amount of time is asking for trouble , the heat they generate can hatch any fly eggs off in no time at all and by the morning they will be crawling with maggots , if it was hot I would put mine in the fridge bit of a fridge / freezer I had in my garage to cool them off overnight and then in the morning I would transfer them into my chest freezer , now they don't hardly want fresh let alone frozen ones , the heyday of wanting frozen Pigeons is now a thing of the past and unlikely to ever return .    MM

2 hours ago, Old Boggy said:

Two more excellent bags and a good write up.

You certainly have plenty of birds in your area with the wherewithal and knowledge to come to terms with them.

You say your game dealer is only paying 30p per bird. That’s a very good rate in my neck of the woods. The going rate being more like 10p per bird fresh.

Many thanks for posting.

OB

Two interesting posts regards to selling Chris , I no longer sell any Pigeons as it is just not worth the running about , the last lot of fresh ones I took to the little dealer not far from mine were 15p each , I think I took about 30 odd and they made around a fiver , now I don't get 30 odd and I don't know anyone around here who now sell Pigeons.    MM

[Old Boggy]

55 minutes ago, marsh man said:

When I used to take up a lot of fresh Pigeons they would sometimes pull some feathers away from from the rear vent to see if they had gone Green , also if it had been hot humid weather they would check the beaks to see if they had fly eggs inside , if they did they would pull the heads off , you cannot cut corners with fresh Pigeons , leaving them in the sacks for any amount of time is asking for trouble , the heat they generate can hatch any fly eggs off in no time at all and by the morning they will be crawling with maggots , if it was hot I would put mine in the fridge bit of a fridge / freezer I had in my garage to cool them off overnight and then in the morning I would transfer them into my chest freezer , now they don't hardly want fresh let alone frozen ones , the heyday of wanting frozen Pigeons is now a thing of the past and unlikely to ever return .    MM

Two interesting posts regards to selling Chris , I no longer sell any Pigeons as it is just not worth the running about , the last lot of fresh ones I took to the little dealer not far from mine were 15p each , I think I took about 30 odd and they made around a fiver , now I don't get 30 odd and I don't know anyone around here who now sell Pigeons.    MM

Morning John,

As I may have mentioned before, I do a bit of bartering with my pigeons. Those surplus to my own or friends requirements go to a game dealer near me who keeps a tally of the pigeons I bring him and then when the game season begins I exchange my `tab` for pheasants, partridges, duck or a bit of venison, items that I don`t get to shoot myself. Works out quite well and I know that I`ve always got a ready market for the extra pigeons that I shoot. Not that I get anywhere near the numbers I read about on PW, nor what I would wish to shoot these days, but don`t begrudge or envy those that do.

[clangerman]

serious good effort there I’m starting to feel like an amateur! lol 

[bunny_blaster]

On 11/08/2024 at 20:12, marsh man said:

Your enthusiasm is second to none Ben and I noticed on the second bag you took 100 cartridges and finished up with 80 , I am not very bright but I easily worked it out at 8 out of 10 and I very much doubt your were not far out from the twenty you ( missed )

The first bag was another incredible amount of Pigeons , are you in for a personal yearly best , or have you done better ?

Hope your dealers can keep finding enough room for your huge bags , where would you be without them ?      MM

I haven’t had a count up yet but it will be getting on for one of my better summers. I don’t know what I’d do if the dealers stopped taking birds, at the end of the day it’s crop protection and the birds are a byproduct but I couldn’t bring myself to just dump them, it’s such a waste and disrespectful to a bird that’s gives us so much. 

On 11/08/2024 at 23:13, pigeon controller said:

Hi Ben you will be glad when I return from Greece so you can fill my freezers??
Two more excellent bags of pigeon and well worth the effort of checking on Thursday as the field would have been all slurry. 
Did the dealer check  the lead shot birds for condition when you delivered which they used to when I delivered fresh in the last century!!

Thanks for posting as it keeps me interested while I’m sweating in the shade.

The game dealers didn’t check any of the birds, they just asked when they had been shot and transferred them into there own trays

[bunny_blaster]

On 12/08/2024 at 05:51, Old Boggy said:

Two more excellent bags and a good write up.

You certainly have plenty of birds in your area with the wherewithal and knowledge to come to terms with them.

You say your game dealer is only paying 30p per bird. That’s a very good rate in my neck of the woods. The going rate being more like 10p per bird fresh.

Many thanks for posting.

OB

10p is just daylight robbery! With the price of cartridges constantly on the rise they need to be 75p a bird really. My steel shot birds sell for 50-60p each which isn’t too bad as long as you shoot straight. I know we don’t do it to make money but it will soon get to the point where people won’t be able to afford to shoot the way it’s going

[kitchrat]

2 hours ago, bunny_blaster said:

10p is just daylight robbery! With the price of cartridges constantly on the rise they need to be 75p a bird really. My steel shot birds sell for 50-60p each which isn’t too bad as long as you shoot straight. I know we don’t do it to make money but it will soon get to the point where people won’t be able to afford to shoot the way it’s going

Fully agree, especially for someone who shoots as many cartridges as you do! If I get enough birds to do the 30-mile drive to the nearest dealer, I get 20p each. So I need 50 to cover fuel costs. If it took 75 shots to get that 50, when a Clear Pigeon costs 30p, that's still a loss of about £22. However, that is good value for a few hours of sport, cheaper than golf for example. If you scale it up to an operation of your size, my pension soon won't cover that!

[marsh man]

3 hours ago, bunny_blaster said:

I haven’t had a count up yet but it will be getting on for one of my better summers. I don’t know what I’d do if the dealers stopped taking birds, at the end of the day it’s crop protection and the birds are a byproduct but I couldn’t bring myself to just dump them, it’s such a waste and disrespectful to a bird that’s gives us so much. 

The game dealers didn’t check any of the birds, they just asked when they had been shot and transferred them into there own trays

I think the majority of Pigeon shooters would hate having to dump the birds they have just shot , bad enough for the likes of us who only now shoot very small numbers compared to the bags you get week after week , no one ever made good money out of selling the bag but when they were paying 25 / 30p for frozen Pigeons and the price of cartridges were just over half the price they are nowadays it certainly helped with the costs , the other week you got an amazing 1000 plus Pigeons in a matter of days , how you shoot you might had used around 1250 / 1350 cartridges at a cost around £300 ? , fair enough in moving the birds on that would help to cover the cost of the shells , but how often could you continue to spend that sort of money and then having the problem in dumping the birds , with a young family and the cost of living still seem to be still going up then how long could you carry on shooting the numbers you do ? , MM

[kitchrat]

On 14/08/2024 at 06:34, bunny_blaster said:

10p is just daylight robbery! With the price of cartridges constantly on the rise they need to be 75p a bird really. My steel shot birds sell for 50-60p each which isn’t too bad as long as you shoot straight. I know we don’t do it to make money but it will soon get to the point where people won’t be able to afford to shoot the way it’s going

One way I offset the cost is to eat lots of them, thereby saving on food costs. I de-breasted a few I shot yesterday and got about 2kg of lean, free range meat. 2kg of beef at Tesco is £24. Cook it up in a casserole with some onions and veg, maybe add a tin of chilli for additional flavour and it will feed me and 'er for 3 days. Result all round.

[marsh man]

2 hours ago, kitchrat said:

One way I offset the cost is to eat lots of them, thereby saving on food costs. I de-breasted a few I shot yesterday and got about 2kg of lean, free range meat. 2kg of beef at Tesco is £24. Cook it up in a casserole with some onions and veg, maybe add a tin of chilli for additional flavour and it will feed me and 'er for 3 days. Result all round.

That is one solution and far better than dumping them under a hedge , trouble is , How many Pigeons can anyone eat ? , Yes we have threads in turning them into Burgers , Pies and several other ways but you are still eating a Pigeon , I am now by myself and most of the meals I buy are big enough for two and after I have had the same meal over a two or three day period then I have had enough of whatever it was for a week or so , the Pigeons I got last Saturday I kept four decent young(ish) ones for myself , Sunday morning I cut the breasts off and stuck them in the freezer in two lots of four , they are still in there now as I had other meals to use up first , now I will be going again this Saturday as the round bails are still on the field and I should get a few more to add to the ones I have already got .

I now limit myself to a maximum of 2 / 2 1/2 hours shooting , shooting up to 20, or using up around a box of cartridges , this is about right for me , I can handle the time limit , afford the cartridges and handle up to 20 Pigeons ,alright for me but wouldn't be any good for the likes of BB.      

[kitchrat]

3 hours ago, marsh man said:

That is one solution and far better than dumping them under a hedge , trouble is , How many Pigeons can anyone eat ? , Yes we have threads in turning them into Burgers , Pies and several other ways but you are still eating a Pigeon , I am now by myself and most of the meals I buy are big enough for two and after I have had the same meal over a two or three day period then I have had enough of whatever it was for a week or so , the Pigeons I got last Saturday I kept four decent young(ish) ones for myself , Sunday morning I cut the breasts off and stuck them in the freezer in two lots of four , they are still in there now as I had other meals to use up first , now I will be going again this Saturday as the round bails are still on the field and I should get a few more to add to the ones I have already got .

I now limit myself to a maximum of 2 / 2 1/2 hours shooting , shooting up to 20, or using up around a box of cartridges , this is about right for me , I can handle the time limit , afford the cartridges and handle up to 20 Pigeons ,alright for me but wouldn't be any good for the likes of BB.      

Keep at it, well done. I also give a lot away, this time of year my recipients are getting full!