Another 2 days decoying

[Ferret Master]

Hi,

 

We have had another productive weekend on the pigeon.

 

Me and Stillsy went out for some rabbits Friday night on the land that we decoyed over on Tuesday and were suprised to see a couple of hundred birds piling into the rape stubble and on the wires! Plans were soon made to be up there for 11am the following morning for another session decoying them...

 

We arrived Saturday morning and after making sure the old farm spaniel was locked away (she thinks there is a shoot day going on and leaves the farm) we set up our hide in the same place as before. See link HERE

 

We had some slow but steady shooting throughout the day. There were not quite as many birds about but the ones that were about decoyed better and we both shot better as well. I was having a break from my semi auto 12 bore and swapped back to the 20 bore and was hitting birds with more regularity. I did however break it out for one shot near the end and dropped a nice bird that was flaring away from the pattern.

 

We finished with 37 pigeon. 32 woodies and 5 ferals. 2 of the woodies shown in the pic we already had as one was taken with the air rifle the night before and the other out of the freezer.

 

 

I then went back to Stillsy's house and after prepping all of the birds he sorted out a bit of food.

 

Sunday morning came and we picked Stillsy up for a round of clays. We saw PUSC's Dad and sister and was told that he was out stalking. About an hour later I was handed a phone with PUSC on the other end of it and I told him to make his way down to the clays as we would be going pigeon shooting that afternoon and he should tag along. After the clays were finished we all jumped into my Dad's car and headed to Stillsy's house. We picked up some more decoying gear and headed out to a different farm.

 

Upon arrival it didn't look too promising with only a few small flocks feeding on the rape and barely stubble. We decided to set up on the rape stubble but the birds weren't exactly throwing themselves at the decoys. I decided to go for a walk with my semi down to a stand of trees where there were a few birds flitting about. I had a couple of shots but didn't manage to connect with anything, however at least I got the birds moving for the other lads and they bagged 6 (I think?) in my absence. After my return we decided to move onto the field of barley stubble behind us as the contractors who had been baling had left and there were a few birds dropping in. This particular move was eventful resulting in the conclusion that UK Shoot Warehouse plastic bags are not designed for decoying, and that carrying the arms of the magnet tucked into your bag might look like a good idea but in actual fact being a human pigeon magnet is not particularly pleasant... according to Stillsy anyway.

 

 

We set up our hide around the base of a telegraph pole so we could shoot at 360 degree angles. The magnet was put out the front away from the wires and the decoys spread out in small groups all around the hide. We hadn't been set up long before the birds started dropping in. Me and Stillsy dropped a few but PUSC was struggling to get to terms with the perfectly decoyed bird. I suspect he was doing what I did before and overleading them. I still can't believe how little lead a decoyed bird needs. B) As time went on the birds were still interested in the pattern, unfortunately PUSC had to leave and his Dad after driving over 2 fields to the hide picked him up took a pic of the bag so far. Me and Stillsy shot on until gone half 7 and by the time we had picked up the dead birds and collected the deeks and hide in, it was dark by the time we left the field.

 

 

We then headed back to his house to prep the birds before I was collected by Dad who announced on arrival that my roast dinner was in the microwave ready to be warmed up. We accidently added a rabbit to the bag on the way home which suicidally hopped into the verge of the road before jumping out again into our back wheel. I finished it off with a small audience watching and gave it to the ferrets when I got home.

 

I sat down to eat my tea and glanced at the clock... 10pm! I had been out shooting for over 12 hours just that day alone... Ideal.

 

So that's the end of a good weekend with plenty of mick taking and banter, hopefully we will all get out again soon.

 

FM

 

P.S We have calculated our last 3 outings resulted in 105 birds. B)

[garyb]

Enjoyed reading that Olly

 

Well done chaps

[PUSC]

we had 9 in the first place when olly went for a wander of which 4 were mine and i must of been over leading like mad as the only one i hit after we moved position was when i got the gun stuck in the hide net

[Ferret Master]

Forgot to mention I missed an absolute sitter while standing in the field. My excuse is that I had 2 1ft long candy licuourice type ropes hanging out of my mouth that Alex's Dad Savi had kindly supplied us with to keep us going. That brought me back down to the ground firmly after my long crossing shot beforehand.

 

FM

[Spaniel]

Thats the best way to spend a day...well done

if you keep this up you will be eating pigeon for breakfast

 

Cheers

[Stillsy]

an enojoyable day! made even better with the PUSCS comedy shooting! haha! I will add to this alex had the first bird of the day and the best bird by far, a high flying left to right, i saw and said just before pusc shot, " there's one way up there, there just not interested though" bang and just folded in the air, paced it out to be a good 66 paces!

Cheers lads! Stillsy