where to set up, rape fields?

[younge shooter]

One oil seed rape field surrounded by woods and trees. one side open to a road. Flight line is in the bottom corner away from road where shall i set up, in the forest line hedge line or in the openeing under a tree? please help with what ever you can, much appreciated.

[Cranfield]

You don't mention how large the field is, or which way the wind is blowing.

 

I would set up so I was not firing towards the road and the birds had room to see my decoys and land facing the wind.

Don't place your hide so your vision or gun swing is obscured.

Hides under trees can be restricted places to shoot from, I would favour the hedgerow, making sure I had good back cover to avoid being silhouetted.

[Tommo]

To be honest you might struggle to shoot more than a couple,

 

Reason l say this is if the field is quite small (lets say less than 30 acres your first shot will rattle around the whole field then disperse into the wood - you'll get everything moving - unfortunately probably away from you. If the wind is in the right direction (say rushing towards the open end of the field) the report of the shot might not be so bad (provided that you are shooting at an angle into or with the wind) allowing the sound to travel away and therefore having no bounce in the sound - so you might be in with some luck - as you shots will scare everything up - but might only send them around to then come back -

 

I used to shoot a very simular situation, trouble is thou - pigeons tend not to feed close to the woods unless it is something they cannot resist i.e. freshly drilled beans/winter barley/flailed maize.

 

Thing to do is to do your recon - watch them what where they tend to settle, to close to this might not allow them near the field to come in to deeks, to far away and you'll watch them feed on the other side of the field.

 

Cranfield is right about setting up under trees, l had the scare of my life one day sat under an old Oak, bow came down 4ft away form me and my dad - wouldn't of killed us but ruined an afternoon that was hotting up! Hedges are best - but as Cran says - don't go near the roads, and give yourself plenty of back stop cover so as you cant see you through the net.

 

Tom

[Welsh Stinger]

Knowledge is the key to any shooting ,hunting , fishing and everything you do through out your life . You can read as many books and watch as many videos as you like but whether you can put the information you have gathered into practice is another story and what suites one may not suit another and at the end of the day its all down to you .

Get to your field early enough to spend time working out the flight lines , there will be more than one so get to know the area . If you set up near one flight line you can bet they will use another so don't be afraid to move positions ( and I don't mean move every five minutes ,you have got to give things a chance to settle back down ). The only way to gain experience is to get out there and learn buy your mistakes .

When you have gained experience you will be able to look at a field and sum things up as to where to set up and believe me you will be able to get those birds to come into you weather they intended to or not. You have got to make your decoy pattern first and foremost visible to low flying as well as high birds and you have to put enough out to make that passing bird think he's missing some thing. I don't believe you can put to many decoys out but that's just me but saying that I have had just as good days starting with 5 as I have had with 25 and that's one of the beauties of pigeon shooting " there are no hard and fast rules " and every time out is different.

I'm sorry I am ranting on here , you must be all thinking " who the hell is this guy " , pigeon shooting has been a long time passion of mine . When I am in town or driving around every time I see a pigeon , crow or jackdaw I find myself subconsciously lining them up for a shot .

I had better go to bed . good shooting and good night.