Here in Bedfordshire we are very fortunate to have a huge amount of crops attracting many hundreds if not thousands of the wiley woody. Having shot pigeons for nearly thirty years it is amazing how you never stop learning about this wonderful quarry, it is such excellent sport that it does not seem to pay justice to call them "Vermin"! I had the pleasure in meeting a local man Tony at a business meeting who, as i found out, has shot many thousands of pigoens during his time.
When he invited me out for a day decoying over stubble this was a real eye opener for me and made me realise just how little I knew about the finer art of decoying pigeons, when we arrived at the edge of the field we sat opened the coffe and just watched where the flight line was and the amount of pigeons floating about, which is something i would have done over the previous days! When we had decide where was a good spot to set up we moved off. I was amazed the amount of kit we unloaded from the back of his MK1 Defender 90, a true shoot vehicle, 6 hide nets and poles, a selection mix of approx 50 decoys, shell, full bodied, some on springs. Once we got all the kit out a he put out the decoy pattern and i set up the hide around the huge old Oak tree we had selected.
Using a mix of green and Beige nets, making sure we had enough room for two seats. By the time I had finished Tony was walking back having set the decoy pattern, incouding the well discussed "Whirly". I had never used one before so was excited to see how well it would work.
After only being sat down all ready to go for 5 minutes the pigeons started to come in, it was amazing to see the pattern working to sheer perfection. One particular sight will stay with me forever, I looked out over to the far right hand side of the field and watched a pigeon flighting high above the hedge row some 300 yards away. and watched it turn, i could not believe that he had seen the whirly and pattern from that distance, but sure enough he had. As i watched it come in, wings set, i felt quite bad at even the thought of shooting it, but thats what we where there for, having said that watching it fold up from a first barrel was some what pleasing.
the total bag for the day was approx 140 with only 212 shots between us. I learned alot from that day and many more afterwards and will answer that most discussed topic, "Should i use a Whirly, without hesitation or question the answer is a definate "YES" it is part of your decoying kit. not always can it be used and unfortunately the weather, time of year and lay of the land will determine if it works, but you must have one with you as it can be the different between a ok day and a "Red Letter day"
Me with just some of the pigeons from that day.Hope you enjoyed and hers to the next time, very soon i hope
Phil
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