Decoying driving me mad!!!

[joeshaw08]

I've just had a new permission next door to my house, it is a field of about 100 acers of oil seed rape. Pigeons have been all over it, whenever i walk past it there are hundreds of the damn things on it, and when i'm shooting there are loads about. I just can't get them to decoy! I have a wirly on the go with Silo's, i've tried dead birds on it, i've had it on fast, had it on slow, not had it up at all, used shells, used bouncers, had my back to the wind, facing the wind, bought gloves and a face mask, have a great hide...THEY'RE JUST NOT ******* INTERESTED!

 

The last three outings i have managed a total of 8. It's frustrating because I know they are about. Can anyone give me any tips?

 

Btw I have my shells in a U-shape all facing the wind with the wirly to the side of it, i've tried having it far away and closer in, both are useless!

 

Cheers, Joe

[night owl]

flag the field and get rid of the decoys some times decoys are a bad thing well thats from my experiance

if the pidgeons are feeding on the field they will come in only problem you will have is getting them into your gun range so this is where the flags will come in get you self under the flight line and flag the rest of the field

[Andy W]

Dont know if you have seen this but some tips here http://www.ukshootwarehouse.co.uk

 

Go to "others" on the left hand side index then "decoy patterns"

[magman]

Are there any more rape fields in the area ?

 

Are you there before daylight?

Edited December 29, 2008 by magman

[mossy835]

in the past iv had the same thing,its a job two get them in if they dont want two come in two the decoys,its as if they know whats coming.

[joeshaw08]

This is the only rape field i can shoot at the moment but I think I think there is yeah.

 

Yeah im getting set up when it's still dark and thats the only action I get, quite a few come in then but by 9 o'clock it all dries up.

[henry d]

It isn`t you or your set up !

 

Have a look around the neighbourhood, and by that I mean an area of around 64 square miles as that is the local area of "your" birds. Make a note of the rape/kale/neep/beet fields and any areas that have large keepered shoots, as these areas have food and that is what they are lacking at this time of year and when the shoots finish at the end of January, unless they are rich they will not be topping up their feeders so the food supply for woodpigeon will be even less and rape etc. will be hammered.

 

Basically you need to be either getting together with other pigeon shooters and shooting the fields on a specific day to keep them moving and any fields that cannot be covered should be flagged/bangered off.

 

Best of luck.

[magman]

This is the only rape field i can shoot at the moment but I think I think there is yeah.

 

When your finished go take a look at the other fields and thats where the birds will be as henry says you could do with a few guns out in the same area

[joeshaw08]

I like the idea of flagging other areas of the field off. What's the best way of going about this?

 

The other fields have got bangers on which SHOULD be helping.

[MerseaDavid]

If I was you I would not use the magnet because I have found that too many people use them at the moment and pigeons are getting used to them.

 

Try finding a tree they like sitting in or flying over and put some lofted decoys in the tree as high as you can get them and then put around 10 or more dead birds out on the field but dont put them in a u shape just spread them out abit because that is how pigeons tend to feed.

 

I have found that this works very well on all my farms.

 

I also dont like to shoot the field until around 9:30 - 10 am because I like to let the birds feed on the field for a while rather than hitting them early so they then move on to another field or farm.

[MerseaDavid]

Another thing is, we always walk the birds off the field first rather than just setting up and and shooting straight away because this will also put birds off because there will be large numbers close by that will be put off by the shots.

 

I hope this works for you and good luck.

[caeser]

I'm afraid that it's just winter shooting on rape. It is frustrating, one day they may just come in to the decoys. The rest of the days they don't want to know. Who knows why ? If you ever found out for sure, you could make a lot of money.

My most recent outing in a large field of rape was dead for the first four hours or so. Plenty of pigeons flying directly overhead too high, ignoring the decoys, landing on the other side of the field.

I had placed the decoys where the pigeon were feeding when I arrived at the field, also right under a good flight line.

Then in the late afternoon, for what reason I just don't know, they took a fancy to the decoys for about an hour, coming in nicely. About 20 pigeon later, they didn't want to know again.

Thats winter rape for you.

All you can do is keep trying

[night owl]

ok not to affend any one here but may be i have read this rong but this guy has no problem with getting the birds on to his field through out the day the problem he has is getting the birds into range

when you flag a field you want some poles of around 1 1/2 meters long now you can eather atach flags to the end but what i find works best is pink ballons tied to the top they move around and realy work well

now depending on the size of the field and the location of the flight line you want to place the flags in the areas of the feeding areas , other end of the field etc basicaly you want to scare off the pidgeons towards your area theres no easy way to explain how to do this properly as theres a bit of a art to it ,this also works well when theres other fields in the area which the pidgeons are feeding on as well

[Harnser]

I know exactly what you are going through . The best thing you can do to get among the pigeons is to leave them alone for about a week and let them get used to the field ,unfortunately this wont sit very well with your farmer friend ,so you have to have a go when you see the birds on the field ,This makes them skitty and you shoot only a few . But believe it or not you are doing the job of pest control . We must all remember that we as pigeon shooters are there to either shoot the pigeons or at least scare them off .

Harnser .

[mikee]

Another thing is, we always walk the birds off the field first rather than just setting up and and shooting straight away because this will also put birds off because there will be large numbers close by that will be put off by the shots.

 

I hope this works for you and good luck.

 

 

I'm going out tomorrow morning and will give this a try, ive just read Archie Coats's book "Pigeon Shooting" and re refers to this throughout the book, pushing them up wind is recommended. It cant hurt to try something new although there is to be little or no wind

 

mikee

[Topgunners]

I like the idea of flagging other areas of the field off. What's the best way of going about this?

 

The other fields have got bangers on which SHOULD be helping.

 

 

You are not alone on this either.

 

We have been out all holiday and I have seen 600+ flocks down on certain areas of a field of rape and we have set up at opposite ends of the field or even across the road hoping to bounce them about. After a couple of shots off they go somewhere else. In one 5 square mile area there are 15 or so fields and most with flags and rope bangers and gas guns on.

 

Birds dropping in like bricks and after we set up off they go again. Frustrating I know but this is Rape shooting as it is at the moment.

TOO MUCH about at the minute for them to flit on and off. Maybe after the very hard frosts we are forecast then we should get some decent sport.

 

Just gotta keep on trying.

 

 

Dave K

[MerseaDavid]

I'm going out tomorrow morning and will give this a try, ive just read Archie Coats's book "Pigeon Shooting" and re refers to this throughout the book, pushing them up wind is recommended. It cant hurt to try something new although there is to be little or no wind

 

mikee

 

Hope it works for you mate.

 

I also read it in his book and watched him on one of his videos (shooting times and Holland & Hollands pigeon shooting) where he was shooting with John Batley and john walked the birds off the field and they slowly came back through the day.

 

I know a few people use this method and they say it works but then some times it does not but it is worth a go.

[mikee]

You are not alone on this either.

 

We have been out all holiday and I have seen 600+ flocks down on certain areas of a field of rape and we have set up at opposite ends of the field or even across the road hoping to bounce them about. After a couple of shots off they go somewhere else. In one 5 square mile area there are 15 or so fields and most with flags and rope bangers and gas guns on.

 

Birds dropping in like bricks and after we set up off they go again. Frustrating I know but this is Rape shooting as it is at the moment.

TOO MUCH about at the minute for them to flit on and off. Maybe after the very hard frosts we are forecast then we should get some decent sport.

 

Just gotta keep on trying.

 

 

Dave K

 

 

i know what you mean the farm i'm shooting tomorrow has 27 fields of rape and the surrounding area is full of the stuff as well, the birds have been hitting this field very hard for about a week now there were 1000+ yesterday when i looked am and pm, i was hoping to push the big lot of and hope they came back in smaller groups, fingers crossed

 

mikee

[AndyBaz]

Hi I'm down in Banbury and shoot in Brackley but havn't seen much about here, so it might be frustrating but be greatful as they will come in at some point just stick to a basic reliable format and tweak here and there and I am sure they will come.

[greybeard]

Hi

 

It's a sod isn't it.

Watched a field build with birds over the last 7 days. 400+ birds feeding in the same part of the field all week. Went out today and set up for 7.45. One bird down at first light and that was it. They came over high. Skirted around. Set wings like they were about to come in but veered off out of range. Changed the deeks, took them in, layed more out. Bagged the field.

I got the full run around by the lady in gey.

I had to give them best by 2pm.

I have been shooting pigeon for many years and I still havn't worked out the right action for such a day. Whatever you try doesn't work. I'm sure it won't be the last either.

[MerseaDavid]

I must admit, I dont like to shoot the field until 9am at the earliest because I like to give pigeons chance to feed first so they are more likely to come back better later in the day.

 

I tried shooting at first light and I found that because the birds could not get into feed they just went to another field and I only saw one more bird that day.

 

Yet I shot the field a couple of days later and started at 9:30 and I ended up having quite a good day (53) and since then I have not shot the fields until 9am.

[Highlander]

Sounds to me like you've been wearing the wrong aftershave It's not obligatory to wear an unwanted Christmas gift.

 

On the other hand it could just be that this is the worse time of year for decoying Woody. Soon, very soon they'll get easier. Keep watch.

[wabbitbosher]

I know exactly what you are going through . The best thing you can do to get among the pigeons is to leave them alone for about a week and let them get used to the field ,unfortunately this wont sit very well with your farmer friend ,so you have to have a go when you see the birds on the field ,This makes them skitty and you shoot only a few . But believe it or not you are doing the job of pest control . We must all remember that we as pigeon shooters are there to either shoot the pigeons or at least scare them off .

Harnser .

 

 

You are not alone on this either.

 

We have been out all holiday and I have seen 600+ flocks down on certain areas of a field of rape and we have set up at opposite ends of the field or even across the road hoping to bounce them about. After a couple of shots off they go somewhere else. In one 5 square mile area there are 15 or so fields and most with flags and rope bangers and gas guns on.

 

Birds dropping in like bricks and after we set up off they go again. Frustrating I know but this is Rape shooting as it is at the moment.

TOO MUCH about at the minute for them to flit on and off. Maybe after the very hard frosts we are forecast then we should get some decent sport.

 

Just gotta keep on trying.

 

 

Dave K

 

I recon these are the most honest and up to date answers i've ever seen !!

 

From two Class Pigeon shooters

 

Spot on

 

Harnser Dave K

 

WB

[joeshaw08]

Weird, it's been the same story all week, went out this morning and nothing again so I packed up. Then I went out at about 2pm and I couldnt reload fast enough, the magnet was pulling them in really well and they kept coming in for an hour or so, even when I was out of the hide they were dropping in!

 

I'm stumped.

[Catamong]

Well.......how many did you shoot, what was your kills to cartridge ratio..??

 

I've known of many cases where a newbie would struggle to kill 10 pigeons from a particular spot, but if you'd have put an experienced shot there he would have shot 100, perhaps you need to brush up on your marksmanship..??

 

Cat.