How many cartridges should i take pigeon shooting.

[benelli]

How many cartridges do people normally take pigeon shooting.Im taking a 100 but i dont want to run out as its my first time shooting the pigeons.

[Cranfield]

I would suggest at least 100.

[henry d]

2 weeks ago you didn`t even know how lead worked for moving targets/birds.............. if I were you I`d leave the live shooting until you have cracked clays first.

[russ91]

i normaly take a brick (250)

[caspertguk]

If you only want to take home 20 birds and hit them every time then take 20. If you are the sort of person who misses a few then take 250 if you want to take home 20 birds. But seriously depends on how many you wanna shoot and how good a shot you are.

 

Probably take too many and see only one pidgeon (thats **** law)

[luckytrigger]

I would take at least 200. My best day on corvids (86) was only cut short by running out of carts. You never know when that red letter day is gonna be

[anser2]

If you are going with someone who is experianced ask them how many they think you might need. For what its worth I usualy take 100 with me and leave a couple of hundred in the car just incase it turns into a red letter day. Make sure they are out of sight though , I got my wrists slaped by the police a while ago because part of a box could be seen through the window. One little tip is if you knock a cloud of feathers out of a long bird your are probably behind it. If the lead is right and you hit them in the head you do not usually knock many feathers out.

 

I would forget about clay pratice , it works for some , but not others. Clays are so different from the real thing. But do get a good idea when birds are in or out of range. Try paceing out 25-35-45 yards put a stick at each mark and if you have one place a flying decoy to see what it looks like at various ranges. Or you could place a stick at 45 yards out from the hide and make sure you do not shoot at any birds beyond that.

[shooternick]

Everyones got to start somewhere HD

[farmer]

2 weeks ago you didn`t even know how lead worked for moving targets/birds.............. if I were you I`d leave the live shooting until you have cracked clays first.

I take it you were a natural from the start B) Try a bit of encouragement for these relative newcomers

 

 

I always have a cartridge bag full(100) and a slab in the truck just in case it turns out to be a special day

[farmer]

2 weeks ago you didn`t even know how lead worked for moving targets/birds.............. if I were you I`d leave the live shooting until you have cracked clays first.

Oh and some people can never crack clays:rolleyes: I tend to "DUST" mine if at all possible

Edited March 30, 2008 by farmer

[magman]

Do a recci first then make a decision

 

Have been known to take 500 but on other days only 250 , as you can always take em home

[farmer]

Which I quite often do

[garyb]

However many you take, a couple of things are for sure

 

You will either have too few, or too many by the end of the day - but that's pigeon shooting

 

I'd take 100-150 if I were you.

[Big_Sam]

Take 100. If you miss that many then you won't be dissapointed.

[Cushat]

I would forget about clay pratice , it works for some , but not others. Clays are so different from the real thing.

 

I can't believe I'm reading this

 

The best shots I know shoot both clays and game. Those game shots who claim they never shoot clays as they are nothing like game/pigeons etc are just making excuses for being poor shots! Yes, clays slow down rather than speed up, and no they don't jink like a startled pigeon but they do give you plenty of practise at smoothly mounting your gun, picking the target up and pulling through etc etc etc. If you want to be a decent shot then you've got to practise and there's no better way than on clays. You can spend days sitting in a pigeon hide for a few rushed shots, whereas you can pop down your local clay ground and shoot 100 cartridges in an hour or so and learn an awful lot.

 

And if you're just starting out, even more important to get the gun mount right and build up the confidence in yourself and your equipment before tackling anything live.

 

B)

[gixer1]

I think some people are a bit hard on new people on this forum, it would do some people good to remember not everyone has a clay shooting ground "just round the corner" and some people quite frankly don't have the money to bang away at clays all day.

 

if you take 100 carts and get one pigeon but are happy then so be it, the day i hit everything i shoot at is the day i'll stop shooting.

 

Regards,

 

Garry

[Big_Sam]

Ah yes, just pop down 146miles for a few clays.

 

Easy for you to say, some of us don't have a clay ground next door.

 

It is arguable that clays are pretty much useless for pigeons, unless you can design a clay that pauses in mid air then changes direction.

[Cushat]

Any shooting is better than no shooting as far as gun mount and familiarisation go. And that's a load of **** about clays being useless for pigeons. Even a round of skeet or a few crossers thrown from a manual trap in a farmers field will help teach and reinforce the basics of lead and swinging the gun.

 

Regardless of how a pigeon changes direction, it's what you do the moment before you pull the trigger that counts. With a long crossing clay you'll have loads of time to pick up the bird, pull through and bang! With a pigeon changing direction it's got to be a lot more instinctive, but you still have to give it lead. If you've shot a few clays and are a bit sharper on the gun mount and swing then you'll have more time on the jinking pigoen. Simple as.

 

I've no idea where benelli is based, but those of you in the remoter parts of Scotland are in the minority as most of the UK has reasonably easy access to clay shooting. But I'm sure you're be the first to point out that's a minor disadvantage amongst the many advantages of living up there

[Big_Sam]

Indeed whilst you drive miles to your shoot we walk out the door with shotgun in hand

[anser2]

Cushat , I must disagree with you about clays being good pratice. Shooting clays may help some people , but for others it can also destroy their natural shooting style to such an extent that they take months to recover when shooting live game and indeed for a new shooter they may never recover.

 

To give you an example , after 20 years of live shooting , a number of years ago I could not get on with a new gun and took shooting lessons at first with my new gun and later with the old one. I got pretty good on clays smoking maybe 80-90% of them. But my live shooting went down the pan with an average of 2-1 dropping to 10-1. After 5 months of this I stopped clay shooting and my average returned to normal after a couple of months . I have never shot another clay since.

 

A friend of mine is a top shot who in the past has been in the top 3 of the UK clay championships several times and yet show him a goose and he goes to pieces , indeed a few years ago it took him 70 shots to kill 6 geese in a gale and snow ( I had 9 shots to pick my 6 ) and yet a few days before he had 99 out of 100 clays. If you watch a lot of the top shots they know how a clay is going to fly and know if they place the shot a certain distance infront or above\below they will kill the clay. Try that of live birds and you will come unstuck as no two birds are likely to be going the same speed or angle.

 

 

This is why I would never advise a new gun to shoot clays before a new gun has had a chance to sort out his shooting style. Then if he finds he can smoke clays too then good luck to him.

[Traztaz]

Sorry guys I am with cushat on this one,do we have any buissines shooting at live animals as our starting point?I whole heartedly belive that a good grounding in shooting,how to handle a gun, how to mount a gun, how to swing through, where to place shot and most importantly how to be safe with a gun should be learned on the clay ground.Remember the right to hunt is the right to decide between life and death for anathor creature, do not take it lightly or you will play straight into the hands of the tree hugging brigade!!

 

Go and learn before shooting and more than likely wounding countless animals.

 

This is my opinion, not having a bash at new users in the slightest, and belive ALL new shots should be encouraged, every new shot is a supporter of field sports , rather than an I DON'T CARE , or AN ANTI.

[anser2]

Traztaz , you miss my point for some people shooting clays makes their live shooting worse not better. If it works for you fine , but clay shooting does not work for everyone. I am from a generation where most of us never shot a clay until we had shot live birds . Indeed none of my many wildfowling friends shot clays before live birds , back in the 1970s.

[henry d]

.........unless you can design a clay that pauses in mid air then changes direction.

 

 

ZZ then ?

[Traztaz]

Traztaz , you miss my point for some people shooting clays makes their live shooting worse not better. If it works for you fine , but clay shooting does not work for everyone. I am from a generation where most of us never shot a clay until we had shot live birds . Indeed none of my many wildfowling friends shot clays before live birds , back in the 1970s.

 

 

Anser, no fight wanted with you but this is not the 70's, if we are not carefull we will loose our sport/right to shoot/right to own weapons, if we do not approach shooting with a very clinical view point.If we are seen to be a bunch of untrained who cares just do it people ....................WE HAVE MAJOR PROBLEMS ON THE HORIZON.

 

I take it you are and allways have been a shot , the 70's bit tells me that, you arn't as old as my grandfather or father was, and both of them would kick a real fuss about the gun laws now, but I understand your point of view, the thing is its UK , an anti gun culture, because of the youth on the streets and what they do , and if we as responsible licence holdrs don't get it right and portray ourselfs correctly will be seen as the same as them, IE gun toting dont cares!

[anser2]

You seem to be sugesting that all new guns should be proficiant at clays before they shoot live game. But for some like me clay shooting ruins my aim for live game so for me to shoot clays defeats the the whole purpose , so whats the point. Its more important to develope your skills at clean live kills . For the people who have problems with real live shooting , then perhaps go and take clay shooting lessons and see if it helps their style of shooting.

 

If you develope a style of clay shooting first it may well be very difficult for a new gun to adapt to the different skill of live bird shooting. Of course some may find it easy , but others not so easy. The whole point of my thread is we are all different in our style and adaption of shooting skills and what suits one gun may not suit another.

 

My style of live shooting is to pick my bird ( and stay with it even if a more simple target presents itself ) while it is still several hundred yards away , estimate its speed , hight , direction and most important to propable reaction on seeing me ( swinging left or right or climbing ) give the right lead and shoot. By the time I have worked that out the clay will have sailed over my head and probably hit the ground.

 

On one flight last season I had skien after skien of pink feet beating up to me in storm winds with driving rain. To get under the birds I had to try and hide in a place where the cover was very poor. I had to crouch very low and let the geese get right over head. As soon as i started to move for the shot the geese saw me and instantly rose sharply , swerved sideways and sliped backwards on the wind. No amount of clay shooting can prepare you for such a target. The result was 6 geese in the bag for 11 shots.

 

A few weeks ago I was under a pigeon flight line into a gale across a hedge. To stand and shoot was

impossible as the birds flared back across the hedge as soon as they saw you. The only answer was to kneel and shoot under the hedge through a hole , pick the bird wait until it was straight on to me and take almost taking rifle type shots. Result 30 birds for 2 boxes of shells. Again shooting from your knees at most clay grounds would be frowned on to say the least.