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 👍

[old'un]

By the sounds of it you are most likely doing nothing wrong, finding a shootable field of rape during the winter months is not easy, flight lines can be random, changing at the first signs of danger or stopping completely and leaving you staring into an empty sky.

This time of year can beat the best of us and I think January and February are two of the hardest months, pigeons are in a heightened state of survival and tend to come to fields in largish flocks (safety in numbers) and 9 times out of 10 land in the trees/wood next to the field and then play follow the leader dropping down onto the field.

Big fields can be some of the most difficult to shoot, you can walk these birds of the field where they are feeding and they all get up and fly down the far end of the field, they land in the surrounding trees sit there forever and then start dropping onto the field again, it can be bloody frustrating sometimes.

As I said, you are most likely doing nothing wrong but I would say that if you go out 10 times and you get 1 good day and shoot a good number you are doing well this time of year.

Keep doing what you are doing, you will get that 1 day in 10 hopefully.

[ditchman]

On 19/01/2025 at 18:15, RLangford said:

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.

Read the "pinned" section on "setting a decoy pattern" by Beardo....(its a couple up from your topic)

its a good start

[marsh man]

You can get endless advice on decoy patterns , hide position , wind directions , using dead birds ect, and the list will just go on and on and on , at the end of the day all the advice in the world might not be a scrape of good on the day YOU go , the best advice I would give is to go as often as you can and try different setups on the day you go , all the usual top tips like using dead birds if you have got any , also show the decoys slightly above ground level by putting your decoys on cradles might increase your chances , it might help if you are shooting a big field is to ask the land owner if he would be willing to put a some small bales of straw in the middle of the field or where you think they should go , if he agree then just put a flag or something where you would like them dropped off , just keep plodding away and you will get it right one day , that will only last for that one day as the next time you go you might find you will need an entirely different set up than the previous time you went , in other words there is not one single set up that will suit all situations , if there were then the humble Wood Pigeon would now be nigh on extinct .  GOOD LUCK    MM