jonboy1 Posted June 1, 2009 Report Share Posted June 1, 2009 (edited) I met my good mate martin, aka 'Hillbillylad' at about 8am yesterday morning and we drove to a farm on one of my permissions.We left his van there and set off in my truck to a very large pea field about a mile away, excited at the prospect of seeing hundreds of pigeons stuffing their faces. The farmer had very kindly given me permission to drive on the field using the tractor lanes so we could get to the otherwise impossible to reach areas (unless we had a mule and a couple of ghillies). After carefully making our way to the very back of the field, we sat there stunned. Not a pigeon to be seen anywhere on the field,gutted was an understatement. Martin suggested we head off to another farm and see what was on the linseed,but i knew this field well and was convinced the birds would come, there was a very good flightline running from one corner to the other, so i said to give it while and just watch. As if by magic the pigeons appeared on the flightline, flew straight across the peas and into a neighbouring field of spring rape that i do not have permission on, loads of them in groups of 4 and 5. Being fairly new to the game, martin was understandably disappointed and surprised that i got out of the truck and started to unload the gear, he gave me a puzzled look and i told him to 'have faith'. As we approached the hedgerow separating the two fields the sky went dark with the amount of birds that lifted off the rape, the wind was behind us with our backs to rape and the flightline was directly in front, perfect! The two hides were set up about 60yards apart , i put a rotary out slightly to right of mine at about 15 yards with two dead birds on it and set up 20 flock shell deeks in a large 'U'shape behind it. Martin did the same. After about ten minutes the first birds decoyed straight into my pattern , bang!!bang! A nice left and right. Martin picked them up and put them on his rotary (because he forgot to bring any from the freezer!) The day continued like that and the pattern was built up using cradles, angels and a couple of floaters. Some birds decoyed perfectly and others presented some really challenging shots as they continued on to the rape field. We packed up at about 1pm because i'd promised my little boy that i'd take him out in the afternoon with his kite. I ended up with a respectable 80 birds and although martin did not do so well he was well pleased to get his biggest bag so far of 22, which i thought was really good considering he's only been out about 8 times now. I could have stayed and had a red letter day,but i really did'nt mind going, a good day was had by all, the weather was lovely, my little boy was happy i came home early and there was plenty of birds for the freezer! Cheers jon Edited June 1, 2009 by jonboy1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cosd Posted June 1, 2009 Report Share Posted June 1, 2009 Nice one Johnyboy, sounds like you had a great day. It's good to get a report of a decent day, it seems really quiet everywhere. What height was the rape? Was it laid at all? I'm still to see a day that big yet, biggest I've been to is about 30 between two of us. But my friends shoot has winter rape on it this year as well as barley, so hoping to have a big bag one day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonboy1 Posted June 1, 2009 Author Report Share Posted June 1, 2009 :blink: cheers Cosd, it's the best day i've had since shooting on laid barley last year and rape stubbles. The spring rape was bout 2 1/2 feet high but they were loving it, i'm pretty sure that will all change when the the pea pods start to appear! You'll go out one day and everything will just fall into place and you'll have a massive bag, good luck, all the best jon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turk101 Posted June 1, 2009 Report Share Posted June 1, 2009 Well done Jonboy1, It's good when it comes together! :blink: Did you not lose any birds? The peas where i shoot are quite high now, it's inevitable that we lose birds in them now! there are hardly any well eaten parts either (which means we must have done a fairly good job ) even when we go for a stroll around the edges we end up losing loads, but a dead bird is a dead bird i suppose well done again turk101 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonboy1 Posted June 1, 2009 Author Report Share Posted June 1, 2009 Cheers for your comments turk and yes, inevitabley we did lose some birds. At times i had six or seven dead ones in the field before having a chance to pick up, as you know trying to keep track of where they fall is quite hard even when using distant trees as markers. The trouble is, tramping around in the peas looking for downed birds, does more damage to the crop than the pigeons would. I picked up just over sixty birds so it was'nt to bad and like you say a dead bird is a dead bird, and i'm pretty sure old charlie would have sniffed out the ones we could'nt find,all the best,. jon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Si-Bore Posted June 1, 2009 Report Share Posted June 1, 2009 Good shooting and a good day mate. It's nice when you can discipline yourself to call it a day and finish on a positive knowing you have to be somewhere else. Also you have left birds for next time. :blink: Excellent work, Si Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonboy1 Posted June 1, 2009 Author Report Share Posted June 1, 2009 Good shooting and a good day mate. It's nice when you can discipline yourself to call it a day and finish on a positive knowing you have to be somewhere else. Also you have left birds for next time. Excellent work, Si :yes:Cheers si and yes it was good to pack up when i'd had a good shoot and still have half the day left! It certainly made a change from shooting against the clock and dragging it out till the last minute trying to make a decent bag :yp: all the best,Jon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
proTOM1 Posted June 1, 2009 Report Share Posted June 1, 2009 Well done great shooting by you both glad you had a good day ! Did you shoot many young birds ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonboy1 Posted June 1, 2009 Author Report Share Posted June 1, 2009 Well done great shooting by you both glad you had a good day ! Did you shoot many young birds ? :yp: Cheers proTOM1 and surprisingly enough the only young bird i shot was the third one,i know it was the third one because i used it as angel. I did expect a few more young ones but the rest were all mature,all the best jon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamie1 Posted June 6, 2009 Report Share Posted June 6, 2009 nice sounds like a great day out from both of you i hope you enjoyed it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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