Decoying winter oilseed rape tips

[RLangford]

Evening everyone,

Reece Langford based in east and West Yorkshire, I have been decoying pigeons for three years now and been shooting game since 16.

so with three years experience decoying I would say I am relatively new to the sport.

i feel the need to reach out for help as I have endless amounts of oilseed rape year on year that needs decoying, I just don’t seem to have the luck or the numbers that I need.

with the experience behind me I do put time into reconnaissance and study the flight lines as that is not the problem. the problem I fear is my decoying method and my inexperience of knowing about what to do in what situation.

i have been out in a 70ac field of oilseed rape surrounded by trees today, I set my hide and decoys and my magnet up about 21yards away from the flight line into a wood , I put 12 decoys out with the magnet past the decoys so they had to cross the plastic decoys to get to the magnet which I was always lead to believe this was correct  , the decoys were all head into wind in a V shape.

the reason I didn’t set up directly on the flight line as I was afraid the shots would echo down the flight line and scare the pigeons away.?

the pigeons particularly in this field have been in large groups of 100 plus going from 1 wood to another not really committed to feed, however most of this afternoon when feeding they have been landing away from my decoys and they haven’t even been interested in the decoys or magnet.
 

this situation I am describing seems to be happening to me on a regular basis now and is getting a bit disheartening in the fact I may be doing something wrong and just want to do a good job for the land owners as they are destroying my crops.

do I need more decoys, do I need to use the flapper and magnet or not at all? Do I need to do something different with my decoy pattern? Is my location wrong? 
 

any help from you experts out there would be really grateful as I love this sport and when it goes well it provides some really good practice and it keeps these crops safe and also provides me with game for my dealer.

thanks everyone 

Reece.

[TIGHTCHOKE]

Welcome to Pigeon Watch.

[RLangford]

1 minute ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

Welcome to Pigeon Watch.

Thank you

[JKD]

Look up kitchrat's threads in 'Talk from the field' section,,,, you and he would get along great 👍

Welcome BTW.

[RLangford]

4 minutes ago, JKD said:

Look up kitchrat's threads in 'Talk from the field' section,,,, you and he would get along great 👍

Welcome BTW.

Thank you👍👍

[JKD]

2 minutes ago, RLangford said:

Thank you👍👍

Glad to help 🫡😆

[Ultrastu]

Winter rape .is the hardest  pigeon decoying there  is ,no doubt .

I've struggled and I don't think there is a formulate it  ,I've certainly  not found one .I do think if you set up too early in the morning you can just scare them all out the area with the first shot .

They do tend to feed best from around 10 - 2 pm  when it's warmest .and light .

Try a silenced gun if your surrounded by wood land as these will be where the birds are resting and try to shoot away from the wood or into a head wind as this will break up the noise  better than shooting with the wind behind u .

Get the decoys up as high as possible above the crop .and relatively  close together so they can be seen .

As many real birds as possible  

Try also to get your plastics to move on the wind I hang mine from fishing line below a bent wire .

Best of luck I've not had a rape field for a few years now .so your lucky .

[RLangford]

15 minutes ago, Ultrastu said:

Winter rape .is the hardest  pigeon decoying there  is ,no doubt .

I've struggled and I don't think there is a formulate it  ,I've certainly  not found one .I do think if you set up too early in the morning you can just scare them all out the area with the first shot .

They do tend to feed best from around 10 - 2 pm  when it's warmest .and light .

Try a silenced gun if your surrounded by wood land as these will be where the birds are resting and try to shoot away from the wood or into a head wind as this will break up the noise  better than shooting with the wind behind u .

Get the decoys up as high as possible above the crop .and relatively  close together so they can be seen .

As many real birds as possible  

Try also to get your plastics to move on the wind I hang mine from fishing line below a bent wire .

Best of luck I've not had a rape field for a few years now .so your lucky .

All help is appreciated thank you 👍 and I thought it was hard shooting oilseed rape so it’s good to know makes me feel slight better ha ha.

[Spr1985]

As already stated above shooting pigeon over the winter is some of the hardest and most unpredictable shooting that you’ll find. But, when it all works/comes together it’s some of the best shooting you’ll have. You’ll need to get yourself used to the idea that some days it just won’t happen, you’ll have 100’s or even thousands of birds and yet they just won’t play ball.
 

Get on google and type in “pigeon shooting patterns” switch to images and fill your boots with all the pictures/diagrams. Plenty to choose from and it’s not about right or wrong but about what works on the day. Be prepared to change your pattern too! If it’s just not working change it up, example -  go from your v pattern to a u/horseshoe or an upside down L. 
 

take note of the advice given from the more experienced amongst us, the forum is full of invaluable knowledge. 
 

you could (if your land owner allows it) take a more experienced forum member that’s local to you out for a days shooting on your perm and get some mentoring/advice tips or tricks. 
 

last of all stick at it! Don’t give up! Because it will most definitely come together at some point and you’ll feel like you e had the best days shooting you could ever dream Of and all the bad memories of it not quite working out will just disappear……then the cycle starts all over again 🤣🤣

good luck and shoot straight 👍🏻

[RLangford]

49 minutes ago, Spr1985 said:

As already stated above shooting pigeon over the winter is some of the hardest and most unpredictable shooting that you’ll find. But, when it all works/comes together it’s some of the best shooting you’ll have. You’ll need to get yourself used to the idea that some days it just won’t happen, you’ll have 100’s or even thousands of birds and yet they just won’t play ball.
 

Get on google and type in “pigeon shooting patterns” switch to images and fill your boots with all the pictures/diagrams. Plenty to choose from and it’s not about right or wrong but about what works on the day. Be prepared to change your pattern too! If it’s just not working change it up, example -  go from your v pattern to a u/horseshoe or an upside down L. 
 

take note of the advice given from the more experienced amongst us, the forum is full of invaluable knowledge. 
 

you could (if your land owner allows it) take a more experienced forum member that’s local to you out for a days shooting on your perm and get some mentoring/advice tips or tricks. 
 

last of all stick at it! Don’t give up! Because it will most definitely come together at some point and you’ll feel like you e had the best days shooting you could ever dream Of and all the bad memories of it not quite working out will just disappear……then the cycle starts all over again 🤣🤣

good luck and shoot straight 👍🏻

Again thanks for your advice, makes me feel a lot better. And yes open to somone coming with me 👍