Here i come i'm coming in, no i'm not........

[Sprinter]

Had an extremely frustrating day today saw lots of pigeon but couldn't quite get them to fully commit over the deeks.

 

I was on a field of beans and there were about 2 dozen feeding when i got there. Two other fields were covered by guns as well. Got set up nice and easily just needed to throw the net up behind a fallen tree branch and i was in business. My back to the wind perfect and deeks out in a nice horseshoe out in front of me, closest 20 yards furthest 40 yards and about 20 yards wide at the open end - 3 real and 7 plastic full body. I put one real one at the head of the pattern and the other two at the end of each leg. Unfortunately my magnet was lent out so i didn't have it. This gave me a nice kill zone of about 20 sq yards, do you think the ******* would fly over it? no they wouldn't :blink:

 

They were basically doing very slow fly-byes, showing a lot of interest but never committing to the pattern all very shall i shant it hmm mabye, no perhaps not style. After an hour of this i got cheesed off and went and gave the deeks a shuffle around turned it into more of a flatter U shape and moved the dead 'uns more central. Result, another hour of fly-byes and then one dead rook which was pegged at the side of the deeks. Another half an hour of fly-byes and another rook was added.

 

One of the other guys gave up and brought me two dead 'uns he had from the day before and i pegged them out in the pattern and brought a couple of plastics in. Almost immediately another fly-by but he misjudged it and came a bit too close. Scratch one, pegged out and brought a plastic back in. I then had another hour of fly-byes and out of frustration went out and pretty much chucked the deeks around any old how.

 

I then had 6 in the next hour straight in no problem before it died completely. If I had gone random from the start i could've/ should've had 20 odd - Grrrrr!!

 

First time i have had so many pigeon not commit to a horseshoe pattern

[CARBINE]

O well at least you were out when some of us were working. I do the random thing with the deeks

and find it better. :blink:

Edited February 27, 2008 by CARBINE

[Cranfield]

They obviously were not that desperate to feed on your field, if there was a lot of shooting in the area that could have made them spooky.

The way they were acting also sounds like "calm day" pigeon behaviour and might have had nothing to do with your pattern.

 

There wasn't a breath of wind in Kent today and I had a couple of hours roost shooting and the birds were coming over the wood very high and then dropping straight down into their chosen roost tree.

I spent most of the time stalking them.

At least I got 6 with 7 shots, so that wasn't too bad.

I would not normally have gone as the conditions were not good, but I have no roost shooting of my own at the moment and I had a kind invitation that was too good to turn down. :blink:

[lozrob]

i always go with a random pattern , with dead ones only , no plastics at all.

as long as the birds can land at the head of the pattern i find this ok.

the guns in the other fields probably did make them very spooky.

my area is shot a lot . and the pigeons will NOT come to plastic decoys, even flocked.

good luck.

[Sprinter]

What a difference a day makes, bit of a change today. Started off with a similar horseshoe pattern to yesterday (habit) and the flipping things were trying to get in the hide with me

 

That's the end of the fun until Saturday, work tomorrow

[anser2]

I know this sounds kinda daft , but its surprising the number of times my local pigeon have behaved the same as others have experianced in this forum on the same day. Yesterday my local birds acted the same as yours Sprinter ( see post be flexable , in tips and tricks ). There have been a number of other times when my birds have failed to respond and others have had the same trouble and visa versa I have had good bags the same day as others on here. Are there some conditions such as weather that are affecting pigeons across large areas of the country to act in the same manner.

 

I cant beleve this is realy true , but I would be interested in what others on here think.

Edited February 28, 2008 by anser2

[Cranfield]

They are supposed to be affected by high and/or low pressure, but I tend to find that the wind is a governing factor.

No wind makes for cautious wary birds and the stronger the wind, the less time they have to think about things.

[Jim Sarakun]

Behaving the same in Cambridge too. No interest shown in my luverly pattern and they were sitting in the trees most of the day.

 

So not wanting to be totally disappointed, about mid morning I went round all the tree lines, took two hours it did, and as there was no, or very little wind, I hung my crow banger jobbies in the trees. Well when they started popping and banging, it was like Apocalypse Now and my, did it echo around them thar fields, trouble is, they went and sat in the wheat in the field up the road a bit. Shot one the whole day, well half a day actually cos I'd had enough by lunch time.

 

Now that field up the road a bit, is one of my permissions for the HMR, so I'm thinking, do exactly the same tomorrow, bangers I mean, and sit in that field with the HMR, cos then they can land where they like, and I wont need deeks. Looks like rain though, so it will probably be a whole different ball game, all best laid plans go to waste and all. At least I can sit in the dry Landy and have a brew till it blows over.