Magnet or not!!!

[pigeon controller]

I've been out with DB chasing up the farmer's requests for the pigeons manly on the rape but on setting up we have found them to be decoy shy. this gives you some great distace shooting but also is frustrating as we did not understand why they would not decoy? so we took the magnet out of the patern and things did improve. So are magnet shy? I decide to walk the hedges, now the farmer told us it had not been shot!! I found three well used hides all with fresh cartridge cases in them( scuffy Bs) so they have been shot at. We ended the day with 51

 

 

 

Went out with DB and tried the rape again three hundred birds one shot all gone we managed ten in the following hour so we rang around and one farmer told us that they were on his clover and it was blue all over. So quick pack up and fifty mile drive and yes there were about 150 to 200 on his clover we set up with the ten fresh birds and the magnet. they would not come near we packed the magnet away and they kept coming in tens and fifteens but we ended the day with 94.

 

 

 

I had a contact call with a farmer saturday night can I come and shoot the rape so I went out this morning and travelled light gun, Hide, 3 poles,cartridges, flask and two fresh birds. walked across three fields to the rape and set up. With the strong east wind I set up in the hedge and put the two decoys 40 yards out in the field on bike spokes as props. Every bird that came to the field went over my decoys and was shot at. I ended the day when the snow showers started with 39 pigeons and 2 crows. I always remember an old traning instructer saying to me KISS( Keep It Simple Stupid) All I did today was to place birds when they were shot on props as if they were feeding ,no gadgets just birds.

The question is are we setting up to how we always shoot or using fieldcraft and looking at the field and watching what the birds are doing. Are we using too many magnets and spooking the birds before they get to the killing area??

 

Pigeon Controller

 

 

[shootnfish]

i have found the same thing happening that i think they have been spooking away when using a magnet when i have bought it in the pigeons have have come in i still take it but leave it on my truck . when you think about it how many times have you seen pigeons constatly flying round and round in a constant circle. although other people still swear by them. its not working the places where i shoot. but bouncers seem to make a difference.

[MerseaDavid]

There was one farm that I used to shoot and when ever I tried using the magnet the birds would not come within 300 yards of me, yet when I took it in the birds came in nicely.

I went round a couple of the farms next to this one and everyone I saw out shooting was using a magnet.

I think some people are relying on the magnet too much and the birds are getting used to them.

 

But the main farm I shoot the magnet works perfectly.

[deny essex]

I would agree that they could be used to the magnets, i start without a magnet now just a normal dec pattern and see how things go, some days they work some not. Maybe as they are flocked up the word gets around them about spinning birds are dodgy to go near, on saying that i have watched thousands of birds pass my pattern by magnet or not.

Theory! majority of us shoot from hedgerows , birds constantly shoot over decs and magnet, the mind and instinct of the flock to avoid spinning birds.

The one time i set up in the middle of a rape field this year was my best bag and with a magnet, on saturday last i set up by a hedgerow and watched so many birds fly by with little result, yet a club member on a field less than a quarter mile away set up in the middle of a field and outstripped my bag 10 fold, summer last useing a magnet prodominantly the majority of birds shot useing it were sqwabs, young inexperienced birds. Are they getting so used to a magnet that at times its having the opposite effect to what we are after, and the regularity of being shot at near hedgerows. this saturday im going for the centre field again and we will see what happens .

[The Beater]

I think its been said on here before a magnet can turn average shooters bag from 20/30 up to 50/60 +. Its helped those shooters who just turn up on rape on saturday & shoot it, But they may not know where the flight lines are or be shooting under it, this is where the magnet comes in pulling birds 750yrds off the flight lines to the decoys.

 

I dont have a magnet & have shot good bags for over 15yrs with decoys & floaters, but there is never more than 200 odd acre of rape by me. You lads who have 1000s of acres have it tougher with more choice. I have shot a dozen times with a mate that has one and it has pulled in birds well & scared them off to. Just bought a flapper this season and think its great at pulling them in.

 

Think you just need to way up on the day how the birds are coming in and ajust to suit using good field craft.

[Plumbob]

For me its the weight to success ratio, im constantly trying to cut down the amount of stuff I have to carry and latley have been having mixed results with the magnet. Its the standard two arm with a severn amp hour battery and the weight is killing my back, im sure in the past I've seen a ultra light single arm used with a hypa flap, may consider changing to this and would be interested to see if the results were any different.

[Salopian]

You do know that magnets are pole sensitive, don't you?

Magnets have two poles North & South, if you put like poles together they will repel, opposite poles attract.

I would leave the magnets alone if I was you.