Yesterday’s session

[bunny_blaster]

Last Monday I had a call from a farmer saying he’d started cutting wheat at a block of ground which is up there with some of my best ground. The flight lines to this ground are excellent and big numbers of birds use it at certain times of the year. I didn’t get chance to look at it during the week but I’ve shot this ground for a long time and knew it would produce a bag of some sort. I invited a friend to join me in the hide and whilst I waited for him to arrive I sat and watched what was going on. There were birds moving but not in big numbers, this is the norm for this place early on in the day but the lines normally pick up from 14.00 onwards. We got set up and we started shooting straight away. During the afternoon the shooting was non stop. We packed up at 5.30 as we had birds down all over the place and I also had to get home to pack for a weekend away with the family. We finished with 492 pigeon. I’m sure we could have picked 500+ if we’d of carried on looking but my dogs were shattered. They consumed over 10 litres of water whilst picking up and I’d certainly be lost without them. 

[muncher]

Brilliant day Ben. You are definitely in amongst them. 

[old'un]

Don’t know your age but looking at that bag I know how draining shooting and picking up after can be, well done.

I have a few farms like that near the M5, you can almost guarantee birds in big numbers before and after its combined, shot some very big bags on some of those farms, PC shot one of the farms some years back, I think with DB? Think they shot close to 400 on a field of wheat that had been part combined, he beat me to it.

[TIGHTCHOKE]

WOW!

VERY well done.   

[clangerman]

excellent effort wish we had those sort of numbers around 

[marsh man]

That is certainly a lot of Pigeons , you seem to get these huge bags now on a regular basis and do you see any difference in the overall numbers in the area or the land you shoot over ? , Have a good weekend with the family and lets hope the weather is better than it is now as it is raining hard and a lot colder than it had been   . 

[bunny_blaster]

18 minutes ago, marsh man said:

That is certainly a lot of Pigeons , you seem to get these huge bags now on a regular basis and do you see any difference in the overall numbers in the area or the land you shoot over ? , Have a good weekend with the family and lets hope the weather is better than it is now as it is raining hard and a lot colder than it had been   . 

I was having this conversation with PC yesterday whilst dropping some of the birds off. I think there are more birds about this year than there has been for a few years. We generally have very good numbers of birds every year but this year seems to be exceptional. 

[marsh man]

1 hour ago, bunny_blaster said:

I was having this conversation with PC yesterday whilst dropping some of the birds off. I think there are more birds about this year than there has been for a few years. We generally have very good numbers of birds every year but this year seems to be exceptional. 

What do you put the exceptional numbers down to , could it be less Pigeons are shot overall now the demand have hit rock bottom , or high breeding numbers left over from the mild Winters ?  

[oowee]

What a day and all on your doorstep. I have to go to Africa for days like this. Excellent well done. 

[pigeon controller]

Well done Ben another exceptional day. Re the numbers of pigeons I think it is the mild winters and the birds are breeding all the year round. I hope the Bass fishing goes well.

[mossy835]

very well done out stading numbers your shooting. well done

[yickdaz]

Outstanding again ben 👏 Bags like that are getting more and more common these days Pigeon numbers are definitely on the increase  

[bunny_blaster]

30 minutes ago, yickdaz said:

Outstanding again ben 👏 Bags like that are getting more and more common these days Pigeon numbers are definitely on the increase  

They certainly are but in reality how many people are set up to deal with large numbers of birds? I run a big walk in chiller with a friend and then between PC and myself we have a fair few chest freezers which run constantly. With large bags being shot more and more I can see large volumes being dumped which isn’t good

[marsh man]

32 minutes ago, bunny_blaster said:

They certainly are but in reality how many people are set up to deal with large numbers of birds? I run a big walk in chiller with a friend and then between PC and myself we have a fair few chest freezers which run constantly. With large bags being shot more and more I can see large volumes being dumped which isn’t good

They say that records are there to be broken , back in Archie Coates day to get a 500 bird day was like running a mile in less than four minutes , then like waiting ages for a bus you then see two coming in quick succession , the records for Pigeons shot in one day kept being broken and I haven't a clue what it is today .

Ben , you have seen huge numbers of Pigeons in your time and in your own opinion you think numbers are increasing , we have to accept that if there is a chance to break the record with the most Pigeons shot in a day then someone will try to do it , weather it's right or wrong .

In your opinion , what do you think is the maximum one person could shoot in a day , we know it would be in the high 100s , do you think it would be possible to get 1000 

[bunny_blaster]

11 hours ago, marsh man said:

They say that records are there to be broken , back in Archie Coates day to get a 500 bird day was like running a mile in less than four minutes , then like waiting ages for a bus you then see two coming in quick succession , the records for Pigeons shot in one day kept being broken and I haven't a clue what it is today .

Ben , you have seen huge numbers of Pigeons in your time and in your own opinion you think numbers are increasing , we have to accept that if there is a chance to break the record with the most Pigeons shot in a day then someone will try to do it , weather it's right or wrong .

In your opinion , what do you think is the maximum one person could shoot in a day , we know it would be in the high 100s , do you think it would be possible to get 1000 

I’m sure there are people out there who have shot 1000+ in a day. We only see what’s being shot because of forums like this and social media. There are many people who dont have social media and keep what they shoot to themselves. Didn’t Anthony Poolman have a big day last year or the year before where he shot over a 1000 birds in a day?

[bunny_blaster]

To add to that, you would need a serious amount of birds using an area to shoot that sort of number in a day and also someone who can shoot very straight. 

[marsh man]

55 minutes ago, bunny_blaster said:

To add to that, you would need a serious amount of birds using an area to shoot that sort of number in a day and also someone who can shoot very straight. 

Morning Ben ... I understand what your saying and yes you would need a huge amount of Pigeons going onto one particular field , as for shooting straight , I have found in the past that some of the people I knew who would shoot big bags of Pigeons treated it more of a knack than a skill , they had seen so many Pigeons come into the decoy pattern that they often knew what the Pigeon was going to before the Pigeon did , I can well remember helping to pick up a big bag of Pigeons on laid Wheat where the birds were often lying dead on top of each other , no doubt you have had the same thing happen many times over the years , I think there would be far more homework done in getting near the record bag than shooting straight , although that would be a priority one the birds come into the decoys

Getting the size of the bags you have got recently is a whole new ball game to me and knowing the amount of work go into getting a bag less than half the size of your bags I am intrigued how the likes of you go about achieving these numbers , it's easy for us to read about your recent big bags but I like to dig a bit deeper and find out the workload involved , hope you don't mind me asking some of the questions but as a lifetime keen Pigeon shooter I find the likes of you are certainly in a different league to most of us .

Enjoy your few days fishing       MM

[Wilts#Dave]

2 hours ago, bunny_blaster said:

I’m sure there are people out there who have shot 1000+ in a day. We only see what’s being shot because of forums like this and social media. There are many people who dont have social media and keep what they shoot to themselves. Didn’t Anthony Poolman have a big day last year or the year before where he shot over a 1000 birds in a day?

He did, and shoots 500 plus bags multiple times a year. There aren’t many people equipped or capable of shooting the numbers, but to fair very few people will have access to the sort of numbers required to do so. And as you rightly say 99% wouldn’t be able to handle / get rid of them.
I couldn’t shoot your numbers but could easily shoot bigger bags by setting Dad up in a different spot, going out earlier etc but struggle to get rid of more than 200 in one go now so don’t bother. I wouldn’t be happy dumping large numbers of pigeons, regardless of it being pest control in reality. 

[oowee]

15 hours ago, bunny_blaster said:

They certainly are but in reality how many people are set up to deal with large numbers of birds? I run a big walk in chiller with a friend and then between PC and myself we have a fair few chest freezers which run constantly. With large bags being shot more and more I can see large volumes being dumped which isn’t good

Even if your not set up for dealing with the birds how many realise and are set up for the work involved? In Africa we shoot big numbers but I have a bird boy picking up. I have drinks, food and carts (endless supply) brought to my seat. The bird boy will pick up the empties and its still hard work. 

[JKD]

2 minutes ago, oowee said:

Even if your not set up for dealing with the birds how many realise and are set up for the work involved? In Africa we shoot big numbers but I have a bird boy picking up. I have drinks, food and carts (endless supply) brought to my seat. The bird boy will pick up the empties and its still hard work. 

Do all the birds shot out there go into the food chain ? Curious 🙃

[oowee]

1 hour ago, JKD said:

Do all the birds shot out there go into the food chain ? Curious 🙃

I wouldn't say all as there are a fair few lost but in general yes. We drop ducks and geese into a local village and the pigeons go to the bird boys if we can stop the locals trying to pick them up as we shoot them. 

[JKD]

1 hour ago, oowee said:

I wouldn't say all as there are a fair few lost but in general yes. We drop ducks and geese into a local village and the pigeons go to the bird boys if we can stop the locals trying to pick them up as we shoot them. 

👍😉

[B686]

Well done ! I don’t think I have even seen a flock in the sky or that many on a field at once since the spring drilling 🤣

[yickdaz]

23 hours ago, bunny_blaster said:

They certainly are but in reality how many people are set up to deal with large numbers of birds? I run a big walk in chiller with a friend and then between PC and myself we have a fair few chest freezers which run constantly. With large bags being shot more and more I can see large volumes being dumped which isn’t good

 never had a day in the hide where it would of been possible  and as you say  I couldn't handle that lot in one go 

[marsh man]

44 minutes ago, yickdaz said:

 never had a day in the hide where it would of been possible  and as you say  I couldn't handle that lot in one go 

A lot of people who have never shot a three figure bag would dream about having a day like Ben keep having but in reality , how many people would be capable of shooting around three slabs of cartridges , tidy up the pattern now again ,shoot strait throughout the day , handle that lot at close of play , and having a big enough motor to put everything in .

I would imagine for most people who shoot moderate bags it is like running a 100mts and then with no training to take on a half or even full marathon .

In my 40s I was as fit as a fiddle and could lay bricks all day with no problems  , never went to the doctors and didn't smoke , I remember shooting just over 200 on some laid barley , I picked quite a few as the day worn on and my hide must had have half the fly population in Norfolk , it was a very hot day and when I finished I had to take about six sacks full back to my motor , I never had enough room in my shed at home as I had shot several during the week so I took them all up the farm where I worked as they had a cool concrete floor in the toilet block , as I was laying them out the farm manager came to see how I got on as he heard a fair bit of shooting , when we were talking he said , are you alright John ? , I said yes why are you asking , he said I looked drained out , covered in sweat and looked pale where I am normally as Brown as a berry , he was dead right , this was harder than a days work , now at nearly 77 those sort of days are long gone and I admire the stamina that these big bag guys need .