First go on the Rape

[bunny_blaster]

I’ve been watching several fields of rape on and off over the last couple of weeks. Today I got the chance to have a go and I wanted to make the most of it. The first block I wanted to shoot first light and shoot the flight out of roost. This worked well, I got set up in the dark and shot until 9.30 when it dried up which is usually the case when you shoot them this early in the day. I gave it until 10.00 and packed up. As I was walking my gear off the field a few birds started to flight again and I had a feeling I’d messed up and should have carried on shooting. Just as I left the ground a group of 15 dropped into the tree I was set up by. I finished the morning with 79 pigeon.

I carried on to a large block of rape about 2 miles down the road that I’d been watching 700-800 feeding on for the last couple of days, both times on the same area of the field. I arrived to find the birds down feeding hard. I got set up but it turned out to be a slow afternoon with the birds not returning. I packed up at 14.00 with a further 23 pigeon bring the total for the day to 102. On the way home I had a quick look at the ground I’d shot in the morning and it had about 300 feeding so I should of stayed there. 

[Morkin]

Well done👍Nice little day

[TIGHTCHOKE]

Well done  

[JKD]

Brilliant day, and well worth the effort 👍😃

[ditchman]

nicely done ...wish i had my youth and fitness to do this again

[7daysinaweek]

Excellent stuff!

[clangerman]

great effort worth an early start and braving the cold for that sort of number 

[the hitman]

Excellent result, thank you for sharing.

January is a notoriously difficult month to shoot a decent bag of pigeons- so very well done.

I haven’t been set up at daybreak on winter rape for a long time, but did have some success back in the day.

Keep at them - good luck.

Hitman

[marsh man]

Excellent bag of Pigeons and after an early start it was well deserved , How many times when you make a move after things quieten down only to find you would had done better if you had stayed where you were , the grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence .   MM

[Spr1985]

Nicely done @bunny_blaster bloody good day by the sounds of it, hindsight is wonderful though isn’t it. 

Edited Sunday at 13:22 by Spr1985

[yickdaz]

That's a great effort and it's always a dilemma do I stay or do I go, I did exactly what you did about 15 years ago set up early shot 11 in 2hrs drove to another rape field fairly close by hundreds on it, it was 12pm so just gave it a go shot 44 in 2hrs total of 55 if I hadn't of moved I would of ended up with 11 so that occasion it paid off, but like you say I've got it wrong by moving i would of been better staying where I was in the first place 

[pigeon controller]

Well done B_B  you certainly hit the hotspot, well deserved for the amount of reconnaissance that you manage to do. As you are aware that I ventured out and watched a field of rape on Thursday with a good number dropping in. The frustration being that I had to wait for permission to be granted, which ended up me shooting on Friday. The birds were sitting in the trees around the field and dropped in over my back in groups of ten plus . So you shoot two and spook the rest. When you dropped your birds for processing you watched me not having a shot and the birds were dropping in at the other end of the field. This was well out of range for my aching bones to get too.I ended the day with 25 !!!

We had a request for birds and now have 200 plus for delivery , thanks to you.

Again well done.

[marsh man]

2 hours ago, pigeon controller said:

Well done B_B  you certainly hit the hotspot, well deserved for the amount of reconnaissance that you manage to do. As you are aware that I ventured out and watched a field of rape on Thursday with a good number dropping in. The frustration being that I had to wait for permission to be granted, which ended up me shooting on Friday. The birds were sitting in the trees around the field and dropped in over my back in groups of ten plus . So you shoot two and spook the rest. When you dropped your birds for processing you watched me not having a shot and the birds were dropping in at the other end of the field. This was well out of range for my aching bones to get too.I ended the day with 25 !!!

We had a request for birds and now have 200 plus for delivery , thanks to you.

Again well done.

Evening P C and a very Happy New Year to you and your family .

Good to hear you are still getting out doing what you like best , we get to a certain age and condition and have to consider what we now do, where a few years ago we would had done it without thinking , since I have been taking the blood thinning tablets I really feel the cold now , all right while walking about but I wouldn't sit down the marsh at night for a duck while the weather is near freezing , same with sitting on a cold o s r field , the thought of lugging all that gear and then carry it back with maybe a sack of dead Pigeons is no longer an option as I know I wouldn't no longer do it , or even be capable of doing it , still we do what we can do and forget about what we can't do , take each day as it come and then make the most of it , we can't do any more than that .

All the best     MM

[pigeon controller]

11 hours ago, marsh man said:

Evening P C and a very Happy New Year to you and your family .

Good to hear you are still getting out doing what you like best , we get to a certain age and condition and have to consider what we now do, where a few years ago we would had done it without thinking , since I have been taking the blood thinning tablets I really feel the cold now , all right while walking about but I wouldn't sit down the marsh at night for a duck while the weather is near freezing , same with sitting on a cold o s r field , the thought of lugging all that gear and then carry it back with maybe a sack of dead Pigeons is no longer an option as I know I wouldn't no longer do it , or even be capable of doing it , still we do what we can do and forget about what we can't do , take each day as it come and then make the most of it , we can't do any more than that .

All the best     MM

Happy New Year to you MM and all the members of PW. I had not considered the effect of my medication. My Professors are very pleased with my progress manly due to my positive attitude . Two years ago I was near to death but my mental resolve is to keep doing all the things I can. Last week I had my flu jab along with four other inoculations to boost my immune system so that may have had an effect with the cold weather. I’m still walking the dog between six and eight miles a day. My attitude is that I would rather pass away in the field doing what I want to do than sitting in a chair watching daytime TV.