roost shooting

[mossy835]

well its not like is used to be years ago, 3 of us out in the wood today only had 12.

[TIGHTCHOKE]

Yes all gone now, the good old BASC Saturdays throughout February were always good fun and well frequented.

[marsh man]

You are right mossy, there was a time where it sounded like a large clay shoot going on all afternoon around this way , things have certainly changed , new building sites close to woodland and  many other reasons why those days seem to have vanished into thin air , some years were better than others but even a quite year people would stick it out for the whole six weeks then , now it is down to four weeks and if they don't get much shooting the first week then that might be the last time you see them , cold , wet and other weather conditions can and do make a difference to the numbers that turn out , then even though for the time being it is perfectly legal you still get members ask if they can still shoot Pigeons without being on a crop , we have to accept , the times they are a changing .  MM 

[TIGHTCHOKE]

Could it be a simple as that now BASC don't like to be seen encouraging some types of shooting like they used to organise?

[marsh man]

5 hours ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

Could it be a simple as that now BASC don't like to be seen encouraging some types of shooting like they used to organise?

Could well be T C but I think there are a few more reasons than the above , roost shooting is very often a perk attached to how you got your perm in the first place , either helping out on shoot days , or by looking after the landowners crops , they say what you have never had then you never missed it and this could be true with a lot of the younger and newer members ,if you have never had the thrill of good roost shooting then you won't know what you are missing ,  I don't think leaving a trade card stating you are B A S C insured and you don't want paying to shoot the vermin will bring you in a lot of roost shooting , also you don't seem to get the Pigeons well spread out like you used to , now you could have a lot or next to nothing with very little in between , some of that could be down to plenty of woods with nobody in them , even though I went for the four weeks I found the first three weeks were far to cold for me to stand in a very cold wood for two to three hours and no doubt so did many others who are pushing on a bit and with no disturbance the Pigeons are then going to stay put for the rest of the afternoon and this could easily happen in several small woods , the list can go on and on and if most of the excuses might be Bull shxx there might be just one that isn't and that one reason might make a huge difference .    MM

[adzyvilla]

I feel your pain mossy. It used to be the thing I looked forward to most the whole year and I turned out for brushing no matter what to make sure I got my place. Now If I stand in a wood on a February Saturday afternoon I can't kick the nagging feeling that there's something better I could be doing with my time. I see more woodpigeons walking my dogs through the housing estate these days.

But I will keep going as long as I can, even if I'm the only one out. You have to hope things might get better.

Edited February 23 by adzyvilla

[marsh man]

25 minutes ago, adzyvilla said:

I feel your pain mossy. It used to be the thing I looked forward to most the whole year and I turned out for brushing no matter what to make sure I got my place. Now If I stand in a wood on a February Saturday afternoon I can't kick the nagging feeling that there's something better I could be doing with my time. I see more woodpigeons walking my dogs through the housing estate these days.

But I will keep going as long as I can, even if I'm the only one out. You have to hope things might get better.

I know exactly where your coming from , when you look back when it was good nothing would get in the way of your afternoons roost shooting , you didn't feel the cold and I have had some lovely afternoons when the wood have been full of snow and found it magical when the Pigeons come straight in when it was snowing hard , you knew you were going to get shooting and you stuck it out to near darkness .

Nowadays you can read the situation a lot quicker , if you got to your wood by early afternoon and very little got out then the signs are not promising , then you listen to the amount of shooting going on , the amount of Pigeons going backwards and forwards and so on .

I am still as keen as mustard and for the last four Friday afternoons I have gone out and walked all the way around my allocated permit place and it do cover a big area in case I fancy some decoying , sadly the beet was taking up early so nothing on the beet tops , no rape this year so again nothing , another problem is a 1000 acre's of lake and woodland is down now to rewilding with no roost shooting going on , so come Saturday I already have good idea what to expect and even though I have got the time I don't like wasting it in a cold wood doing nothing and just standing about in the cold MM

[stockybasher]

2 hours ago, marsh man said:

I know exactly where your coming from , when you look back when it was good nothing would get in the way of your afternoons roost shooting , you didn't feel the cold and I have had some lovely afternoons when the wood have been full of snow and found it magical when the Pigeons come straight in when it was snowing hard , you knew you were going to get shooting and you stuck it out to near darkness .

Nowadays you can read the situation a lot quicker , if you got to your wood by early afternoon and very little got out then the signs are not promising , then you listen to the amount of shooting going on , the amount of Pigeons going backwards and forwards and so on .

I am still as keen as mustard and for the last four Friday afternoons I have gone out and walked all the way around my allocated permit place and it do cover a big area in case I fancy some decoying , sadly the beet was taking up early so nothing on the beet tops , no rape this year so again nothing , another problem is a 1000 acre's of lake and woodland is down now to rewilding with no roost shooting going on , so come Saturday I already have good idea what to expect and even though I have got the time I don't like wasting it in a cold wood doing nothing and just standing about in the cold MM

Yes it is difficult these days during the early spring time ie NOW.

On local ground I shoot, we have small woodlands in blocks, and there are lots of "bangers" out on rape etc.  Means that birds don't flight in until very late (= near dark ).  Birds grouping in 20 - 50 batches have a look around and if not happy, they fly the next 2-3 miles to the local town.

Consequence is fewer birds damaging fields, but feeding sometimes until late, when it is often too dark to shoot. 

However, it should get better for "us" next month, with longer days and more crop planting  !!

[marsh man]

4 minutes ago, stockybasher said:

Yes it is difficult these days during the early spring time ie NOW.

On local ground I shoot, we have small woodlands in blocks, and there are lots of "bangers" out on rape etc.  Means that birds don't flight in until very late (= near dark ).  Birds grouping in 20 - 50 batches have a look around and if not happy, they fly the next 2-3 miles to the local town.

Consequence is fewer birds damaging fields, but feeding sometimes until late, when it is often too dark to shoot. 

However, it should get better for "us" next month, with longer days and more crop planting  !!

I agree with the days getting longer next month as they are already pulling out nicely , as for crop planting , well that is another one of those days to look forward that never seem to happen now , I look after all the Pea fields on our place , with them being near and handy and with having been retired now for nearly 18 years you would think it's a gift from heaven , only I don't think , I cannot remember when I last shot a Pigeon on the Pea drilling , they give me a map where all the Peas are going and often inform me when the seed go in , not sure if it was last year or the year before when the tractor driver rang me up to say two fields had just been drilled , I had a ride out the next day and pulled up at the gate leading onto the field , as expected nothing on it , got out and walked onto the field and could not find a single pea seed , I kicked some soil off the top and went down to five or six inches and still couldn't find one , I thought at first he had told me the wrong field , no he had told me the right one but the drill they use is one of the latest ones out and they use it to contract on other farms , a brilliant bit of kit that blow the seed in and is governed by computer , anyway it is normally between four and six weeks after drilling when I first start getting a few pigeons and the grain crops are the same , simply no Pigeons on our drillings .   MM

[Wilts#Dave]

10 hours ago, marsh man said:

I agree with the days getting longer next month as they are already pulling out nicely , as for crop planting , well that is another one of those days to look forward that never seem to happen now , I look after all the Pea fields on our place , with them being near and handy and with having been retired now for nearly 18 years you would think it's a gift from heaven , only I don't think , I cannot remember when I last shot a Pigeon on the Pea drilling , they give me a map where all the Peas are going and often inform me when the seed go in , not sure if it was last year or the year before when the tractor driver rang me up to say two fields had just been drilled , I had a ride out the next day and pulled up at the gate leading onto the field , as expected nothing on it , got out and walked onto the field and could not find a single pea seed , I kicked some soil off the top and went down to five or six inches and still couldn't find one , I thought at first he had told me the wrong field , no he had told me the right one but the drill they use is one of the latest ones out and they use it to contract on other farms , a brilliant bit of kit that blow the seed in and is governed by computer , anyway it is normally between four and six weeks after drilling when I first start getting a few pigeons and the grain crops are the same , simply no Pigeons on our drillings .   MM

My Dad has said the same, he’s been retired for over 10 years now and says how things have changed so much over the years when it comes to where/when we shoot our pigeons. Drillings as you say used to offer some guaranteed shooting but not so much now, as you say due to the modern drills being so much more efficient and burying all the seed. The same goes for the combines in many instances leaving less grain behind. 
We still shoot good numbers and bigger bags if anything, but much more condensed to 6 months of the year with very few through the winter/early spring.
I remember as a young lad some 20/25 years ago shooting lots more on winter rape and drillings but this just doesn’t happen where we are nowadays which is a shame! 
All largely down to area though as I still see some with good numbers on winter rape and bumper bags on drillings, but not as nationwide as it once was. 

[marsh man]

1 hour ago, Wilts#Dave said:

My Dad has said the same, he’s been retired for over 10 years now and says how things have changed so much over the years when it comes to where/when we shoot our pigeons. Drillings as you say used to offer some guaranteed shooting but not so much now, as you say due to the modern drills being so much more efficient and burying all the seed. The same goes for the combines in many instances leaving less grain behind. 
We still shoot good numbers and bigger bags if anything, but much more condensed to 6 months of the year with very few through the winter/early spring.
I remember as a young lad some 20/25 years ago shooting lots more on winter rape and drillings but this just doesn’t happen where we are nowadays which is a shame! 
All largely down to area though as I still see some with good numbers on winter rape and bumper bags on drillings, but not as nationwide as it once was. 

I dare say we have to adapt to what Pigeons are doing today and not look back to how things were , farming have seen as much, if not more changes than most industries , one of the farms near mine where I first started my Pigeon shooting is now mostly a housing and a industrial estate , the farmer who is long gone and his two boys now just contract the marshland and the uplands out and they maintain the three farms 20 odd miles away they bought with the proceeds from the housing and industrial land there dad sold , very wealthy people , anyhow , when they grew Peas they were the nearest to Birds Eye at Yarmouth so they would be the first drilled , this could be as early as late February but normally around the second week in March , when the drill went on the field the Pigeons seemed to know what laid ahead , as soon as the drill got going the first Pigeons were picking up the loose ones and you would often see plenty on the field before the drill was off , you had to be quick as they would clear the field up in a matter of days , shooting was good on the early Peas and then it tailed off a bit until they started to come above ground , the shooting started again and carried on in smaller numbers when they came in flower , then in pod and continued with very good shooting a few days after they were cut on the Pea stubble , this would be around the last week of June through to the first week into July , this was ideal as you could move straight onto the laid Barley and around the third week of July the combines would make a start , so it was never ending until the stubbles were pulled up and by then the Wildfowl and game seasons had started , Happy days .    MM

[Wilts#Dave]

It’s nice to look back sometimes.
I shoot much bigger bags on average now than we did back then but go out less often.
There are lots of reasons I can think of for this, but obviously all we can all do is make the most of the here and now.  
If I can manage to provide my children with half the pleasure I’ve had from pigeon shooting in the future I’ll be happy! 

[yickdaz]

On 24/02/2025 at 08:37, Wilts#Dave said:

My Dad has said the same, he’s been retired for over 10 years now and says how things have changed so much over the years when it comes to where/when we shoot our pigeons. Drillings as you say used to offer some guaranteed shooting but not so much now, as you say due to the modern drills being so much more efficient and burying all the seed. The same goes for the combines in many instances leaving less grain behind. 
We still shoot good numbers and bigger bags if anything, but much more condensed to 6 months of the year with very few through the winter/early spring.
I remember as a young lad some 20/25 years ago shooting lots more on winter rape and drillings but this just doesn’t happen where we are nowadays which is a shame! 
All largely down to area though as I still see some with good numbers on winter rape and bumper bags on drillings, but not as nationwide as it once was. 

Your not alone we don't get anywhere near the bags we used to  on drilling one farmer put beans in every year and it was literally guaranteed shooting you could bet your house on it, we lost the shooting on there he retired and horse paddocks nd stables sprouted up on the land so that was that,  also barley drilling used to give chances  still get the odd bag here and there but it's hit and miss rather than a given these days 

[kitchrat]

Round here we have 2 excuses:

a) "I'm going to watch the rugby" - apparently "it's not the same" if you come in after a roost shoot, feet up and open a can of beer to watch the recording. (Sounds just fine to me!)

b) "It's not windy enough"

I'm lucky enough to have access to Pigeon Central Roosting, 20-acre wood, ankle deep in pigeon **** in December,with 155 acres of rape nearby. They come off the rape in multiple flocks, fly over (high) circle back round (lower)and you shoot one. They leave, if other chaps are out in nearby woods you get a few more chances as they bounce around. As February goes on, less and less help is to hand, the pigeons are less set on my wood  and know where they can get a good, safe night's sleep within a few wingbeats. They don't circle back unless there are birds already in the trees. My last 2 Saturdays have been 3 birds from 4 shots and 1 bird from 1 shot. Still see loads, just passing by at 300ft, going elsewhere.