arjimlad Posted December 16, 2007 Report Share Posted December 16, 2007 What a delight it is to shoot pigeons again at last, however humbly ! The farm upon which I have permission to shoot, is a dairy/beef farm. It is upon the urban fringes of Bristol and consequently very little of it is of interest to the shotgunner. The majority of my shooting has therefore been after rabbits with the .22RF and air rifle. Every winter, the cows are taken off a certain three fields where the shotgun is entirely acceptable . I am not allowed to shoot on fields which have cows in, which I deem to be quite sensible. The farmer has only just freed these three fields from their bovine occupants, and it was my pleasure to have a couple of hours on them this afternoon. There are no crops to attract the pigeons, so I am reliant upon flight lines and ivy bushes to provide my sport. The birds flew very well, testing as always. Nothing for 10 minutes and then three or four to choose from. I had two kills in quick succession. With my semi-auto I was completely on song after the first half-a-dozen shots. I had 16 shots all told, killed 6 pigeons plus a squirrel, and picked 4 of the pigeons. The two which I did not pick landed beyond the boundaries of my permission, in one instance the other side of a busy railway embankment. The squirrel is kindly donating his tail, for which he has no further use, to some fly-fishermen of my acquaintance. The fox I saw at a distance will have an easy meal or two at my expense. I gave up using some >10 yr old Three Crowns cartridges as they were simply not hitting hard enough, using my more recent no. 5 Eley VIP to good effect. I bought these primarily for the rabbits, but they do a nice job on pigeons. If I had stuck with those there would have been a further two birds in the bag. I'll use the old Three Crowns on some clays sometime. It was sheer bliss for me to take these couple of hours away from home, to stroll these hedges once more and see what changes nature had wrought since April when I last visited. Waiting by the ivied trees for the pigeons was extremely exciting. The rabbit buries are still as active as before, and I saw a number of very healthy looking rabbits, so I anticipate good lamping in the nights to come. I was grateful for my wife's enduring our otherwise fractious 7 & 4 year olds for the afternoon, on her own, but delighted to find on my return, that they had together baked 36 mince pies in complete harmony. Our thirteenth wedding anniversary is tomorrow. The four pigeons are in the freezer - my gun & cartridges safely locked away, and after a glass of whisky (and a fresh mince pie or two) my happiness complete. I look forward to a few more forays like this before the cows return to the fields for the summer. And I may have the prospect of some "proper" pigeon shooting over crops locally, before long.. Merry Christmas to all of you, and good shooting in 2008 ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tel Time Posted December 16, 2007 Report Share Posted December 16, 2007 having just had a day out shooting i can fully appreciate your sentiments, standing quietly in the tree line, watching the birds fly in, cold crisp air filling my lungs, and then home to a cooked meal, my lovely wife, cleaning the shotgun with the kids ahhh... life is good hello and merry Christmas to all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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