Lancs Lad Posted December 29, 2007 Report Share Posted December 29, 2007 WOW................ What a result................. I wont say anymore, but needless to say, the ring of incompitence is no longer mine................. He he he he he he he he he he...............Unfortunately, the field with 1000 pigeons on it didnt mount up to much......... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
webber Posted December 29, 2007 Report Share Posted December 29, 2007 Lancs I have just returned home, and am too tired and hungry to banter words at the moment, but dont be too quick to cast your crown aside just yet. For the record, I shot all but one pigeon that I pointed my gun at, so 2 out of 3, for 3 shots aint bad old boy. True my apprentice Mike failed to connect, and needed to get his eye in, but given that we had a maximum of 12 opportunities, I dont think that the performance was too bad. You can not shoot what is not there. Never forget John Battley's wise words of never try to decoy a field on which the pigeon are not feeding, as you will not succeed. We tried because our guide led us to believe that the birds would return, which they did, but in numbers so sparse that I could have bagged more in my back garden with the 9mm. I accept that the pigeon are wild and go where they wish, I will write a more complete report when my eyes cease stinging, and my blood pressure returns for a semmblense of normal. webber Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McF Posted December 30, 2007 Report Share Posted December 30, 2007 Lancs lad You have obviously jump the gun, i suggest you read the post (rape field) there are a number of posts there with a similar story to the one webber is about to post and the majority are from the surrounding area we were shooting yesterday. Now i know you are desperate to dump the ring of incompetance after your fox escapade but i think in defence of Webber its going to be round your neck for while yet. ''You cant shoot whats not there.'' However i was quite happy with my performance, although if i had reached 20 i would of been happier. Mcf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
webber Posted December 30, 2007 Report Share Posted December 30, 2007 This is my second attempt at posting this report, unfortunately my laptop, just went blank as I was almost finished, so here goes. Thanks to Lancslad, this report is going to be like one of those crime thrillers where they show you the ending and then start at the beginning. The Prelude McF and myself have shot woodies together for many years, on various permissions that we managed to acquire. Unfortunately over the last couple of years we have lost most of it due to changes in planting policy and ownership. It had never crossed our minds to actually pay for pigeon shooting before, but when Will Beasley made his special offer to PW members it seemed too good to miss; read on and you decide for yourself. It had been a long time since McF and I had shot woodies in numbers, Wills offer seemed fair, so I did some research, and put the feelers out. Team Norgas was to comprise of myself, woody basher extraordinaire, McF, decoy master and all round good shot, and Mike. Mike is a beater on our shoot whom I have been teaching to shoot. This was to be his first attempt at pigeon or indeed any live quarry. We therefore decided that it would be best if he joined me in a hide. Lancslad kindly volunteered (was press ganged) the loan of some of his equipment, which consisted of a rather snazzy kit bag, a high tech net, a bucket on which to sit, containing some sillosock decoys, and 4 telescopic poles. When Lancslad handed over his gear at our Boxing day shoot, he had a gleam in his eye which said, I wish I was coming with you, and he would have, had he not been been playing mummies and daddies several months ago, resulting in Mrs. Lancslad expecting another Lancskid anytime now. McF came down to my works on Thursday to give me a lift to fit the roof box to the Range Rover, it needed drilling to fit. We then emptied out the boot of unnecessary gear,and lowered 2/3 of the back seat. This left room for Mike to make a nest, more on that later. The Journey On Friday morning I went into work to check up on things and to fuel up with discount Autogas. I returned home, packed my bag, had an early lunch and started to load the car. Mike arrived, we loaded his gear and set off to collect McF. We left McFs a little before 1 pm and headed towards the M6 via back roads. We joined the M6, travelled around one mile, and then joined a que, which only cleared just after Knutsford after 1 1/2 hours to do a journey which should have taken 20 minutes. So here we are half way time wise into a journey that autoroute reckons should take 3 hours, and we are still in Cheshire. Apart from a stretch on the M6 Toll Road which was quite clear, the remainder of the journey can only be described as horrendous, terrible congestion and attrosious weather. We arrived at Will Beasleys at 5:45, following a minor redirection from a local and some excellent final approach directions from Wills dad Phil. Mike awoke from his slumbers just in time to shake Wills hand, who lost no time in escorting us to our B&B which was all of 200 yards away. The B&B can only be described as excellent, first class everything, run by really genuine people. We plonked our bags down had a quick wash, then met up in the dining room for a cuppa. There are two pubs in the village, neither of which were recommended by our hosts. The Greyhound is virtually across the road, but only offers Thai food, not to our liking. The other pub apparently boasts a new chef every week or so. We therefore headed for the Bull and Butcher in a nearby village, where the food was described as excellent. The three of us entered the pub at around 6:45 and doubled the number of customers. We all enjoyed a most excellent mixed grill. First Mistake As we parked up at the B&B it was around 8 pm, and a little too early to got to bed, so we headed across the road for another pint. McF and Mike both had bitter, but from different pumps. Up North we make it easy for visitors to decide what they want as the pump heads say best bitter etc; apparently we were supposed to know what London Pride was. We sat at a table next to a sparsely stoked wood burning fire. McF took two gulps and declared the ale ****, and left the rest. Mike drank all of his, declaring that he had drunk worse, but could not recall when. We were in bed for 9 pm, team Norgas really know how to enjoy themselves. I awoke around 3 am to the sounds of an absolute hooley with heavy rain, oh well it will be heavy under foot, but hopefully the rain will keep off. Then in the back ground I could hear Mike praying to the great white god in the bath room. He must have the loony poppers religion thing really bad I thought, as he had to go and prey several times during the night. We met in the dining room at 7 am for breakfast of cereal, toast and full English. Not surprisingly Mikes early morning religious activities had left him the worse for wear. He passed on cereal, but did manage one piece of dry toast and the end off one sausage. Just what you need to set you up for a day at the woodies with the countries top guides. Our post mortem, so to speak was that, as we had all ate exactly the same; I had not had any beer at all, McF had left most of his pint, but only Mike had supt the lot. We were warned, but failed to heed it; may those who might follow us take note and beware. We left the B&B and arrived at Wills for 8 am, Our guns awaited outside the porch. We were greeted by Phil, who asked us how many dead birds we had brought, as we stood no chance without dead birds. He then opened a barn door and told us to help our selves to as many as we wanted; Mike, the apprentice therefore filled a kit bag. There was around 7 guns in total, we headed off in two convoys one headed up by Will, and our our convoy headed up by Phill. We set off through scenic Oxfordshire, Phill located one gun, who seemed to know where he was going, and then shortly after located McF on a field of rape with a spinney full of pigeon. Phill declared that my Range Rover was no good for off road so we set off for another tour of country lanes. then transferred our gear into Phills Suzuki, and walked behind his vehicle to an excellent field of rape, again backed by a spinney, which lifted with pigeon when Phill let off a couple of shots. Unfortunately there were two horses in an adjacent field which were spooked by the shots, clearly, despite the fact that the field was being battered by pigeon, we were not going to be able to shoot this field. So about turn and back to the car. Phill then left us to locate another gun. Mistake Number 2 He soon returned and we followed him to a field of winter wheat which backed onto a field of rape, which lifted with pigeon. Phill explained that the rape field was not his to shoot, but to set out the decoys thus, and the pigeon will either return here or there, either way you will be able to shoot them. Phill declared that it was 10 oclock and time for breakfast, wished us good shooting and left us to it. I instructed Mike as to where to place the decoys, and then set to building the hide. I used Lancslads poles for the back and my own net; with my own poles and his net for the front, this high tech net looked rather good and had to be worth a try. I set up my flapper, and then discovered, oh dear no whirly machine, oh sphericals, no matter get in and get ready. I had a quick chat with Mike as to the does and donts, and then telephoned McF to congratulate him on managing to escape with 2 whirleys. He advised us that the the time was 11 am and that he had shot 10, and that he did not have 2 whirleys, our was in the top box on the Rangie. Mike the apprentice was by now feeling somewhat recovered from his early morning religious activities, and was therefore dispatched to procure the whirly. Whilst Mike was away I had a shot at one pigeon, but failed to connect. We set up the whirley and settled in to await the action, once again I gave Mike some pep talk, but as silence drew in I remembered John Battley's words of never attempt to decoy a field on which the pigeon are not feeding as you will not succeed. Those words will ring true in my mind for ever. Further telephone calls to McF around once per hour revealed a worsening situation. In his first hour he dropped 10, in his second hour he dropped 6, and in the remaining hours only a further 2, making a total of 18. Sadly the birds failed to return to the rape in any numbers; we fired more scare shots, about once every 15 minutes or so, than we did at pigeon. We had a maximum of 12 opportunities. I let Mike take most of them as he needed the experience, sadly he failed to connect. I took a total of 3 shots and dropped 2. We packed up at precisely 3:30. I walked back to the road to collect the Rangie, whilst Mike commenced collecting the decoys. Quite how you define **** at off road in Oxfordshire I am not certain, but I am happy to report that the Rangie both arrived at our hide and transported us off the field in style and luxury. We collected McF as the daylight started to fail quickly. He was knackered, he had carried all of his kit some distance. He now knows how I used to feel when I was 40. The weather had been kind to us, despite foul weather overnight, the rain forecast for the day failed to arrive. The wind was excellent for pigeon shooting, only the pigeon failed to comply. We navigated the country lanes in darkness, found the A41 and headed for the M40 and North. We refuelled with autogas on the motorway services, why these places dont display the fact that they have Autogas beats me. The run home was smooth despite some poor driving conditions at times. As per the autoroute prediction the journey took 3 hours. We dropped McF and his gear off, then Mike, only to be greeted by his neighbour, who is our gamekeeper, who naturally enquired as to our success. Whilst he was very polite, like Lancslad he could hardly contain his chuckles. I arrived home at 8 pm to be greeted by Mrs. webber and the words that you just want to hear at this time of year " the boiler is broke" **** happens, but why is it always me? Happy New Year. Oh, I can hear you all asking how much did it cost, well for the 3 of us, including fuel, food, B&B and shooting, not counting cartridges, but we hardly shot any; £240; so I will do the maths for you, we shot 20 birds, so that's £12 per bird. Would I go again? The trip failed to meet our expectations, the pigeon are wild, and will do what pigeon do. I trained as an engineer and was taught to never say never, as if it can it probably will. Certainly, had we paid the usual price the anger would have possibly be uncontrollable; but we didnt pay full price. I wont be rushing back anytime soon, but would probably give it another go should another similar offer be made. Oh, as for Mike he emerged from his nest as McF opened the rear tailgate and removed his kit bag, sorry Mikes pillow. He declared that he had had the best kip of all time. Well mate if you think that I am booting it up and down the motorways of Britain so that you can get a decent kip you can think again. webber Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lancs Lad Posted December 30, 2007 Author Report Share Posted December 30, 2007 Ring Ring...........Ring Ring.............. RIng RIng... RING RING RING RING RING Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cranfield Posted December 30, 2007 Report Share Posted December 30, 2007 A good read webber, even though it wasn't the red letter trip you hoped for. Pigeons on the rape at the moment are very unpredictable, most of ours are in the woods. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
webber Posted December 30, 2007 Report Share Posted December 30, 2007 Cranners I would have been happy with double figures. I do feel that had we been able to shoot the first field of rape without spooking the horses, we would have had a good day. Quite why Phil placed us where he did defeats me, as in my book we broke one of the cardinal rules of pigeon decoying. I bowed to his superior knowledge, and experience, but paid the price on this occasion. webber Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anser2 Posted December 30, 2007 Report Share Posted December 30, 2007 Quote "Never forget John Battley's wise words of never try to decoy a field on which the pigeon are not feeding, as you will not succeed. " I am not sure I agree with that statement. I have had many moderate bags ( 20-40 ) setting up close to a flightline to distant feeding fields , with decoys on a ploughed field. The birds may not try and land in the decoys , but the decoys draw them onto a line overhead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kdubya Posted December 31, 2007 Report Share Posted December 31, 2007 Quote "Never forget John Battley's wise words of never try to decoy a field on which the pigeon are not feeding, as you will not succeed. " I am not sure I agree with that statement. I have had many moderate bags ( 20-40 ) setting up close to a flightline to distant feeding fields , with decoys on a ploughed field. The birds may not try and land in the decoys , but the decoys draw them onto a line overhead. I totally disagree with it, last autumn, hawkeye and myself watched wave after wave of pigeon heading for a field of fallen/ very poor wheat, we did not have permission on that field,( we do now?) however I thought it may be worth setting up with two magnets close together, to see if we could draw a few in for a fly by, it worked a treat 70 birds dropped! no deeks other than the magnets, just as said two magnets out 5 yards apart 15 yards in front and to the right of us , birds turned off from ( not all by any means) the flightline which was a good 150 yards away and steamed straight into the middle of the two magnets, have since tried this trick again with good results, one of my best days being myself just stood under a tree, no hide etc just a magnet pulling birds from a flightline. cheers KW Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McF Posted December 31, 2007 Report Share Posted December 31, 2007 I think the problem was the birds vacated the area after a couple of hours of being constantly shot at, there was 7 guns out there in a radius of about a mile, and i could hear more shooting in the not to far distance. On the way to the fields we shot over there was a lot of other rape fields, all these were obviously not going to have guns on them, and with so many guns in one area the pigeons didnt need to fly to far to find a quiter area to feed. Thats my theory any way. Mcf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
webber Posted January 4, 2008 Report Share Posted January 4, 2008 Just a thought about the statistics that I posted. My figures only included £100 for fuel, which was the expenditure incurred. However had my car not been running on autogas the fuel cost would have been double that. Therefore the figures could easily have been £340 for 20 birds, so that's £17 per bird, which is in the region of pheasant prices. One sarcastic member of our syndicate enquired if we had taken any photographs. My answer was equally sarcastic. I stated that we had sufficient time to sketch and water colour, but due to the cold weather we were still waiting for the paint to dry! webber Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lancs Lad Posted January 4, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2008 Ahh well.....................could have been worse............... Some how.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
webber Posted January 4, 2008 Report Share Posted January 4, 2008 Ahh well.....................could have been worse............... Some how.... Yep you are of course correct Lancs; but for your current predicament, you would have been with us. When is Lancskid2 due? webber Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McF Posted January 4, 2008 Report Share Posted January 4, 2008 Shame you didnt come lancsey you would of kept the price per bird down, sharing the cost of fuel mcf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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