Pigeon Shooting Season

What a great summer we have had so far, plenty of sun and little rain, well down south anyway. All this has meant good crops for the farmers and on time cutting of barley, wheat, rape seed and of course peas all of which are excellent food for the whiley wood pigeon.

So now is the time to get your pigeon shooting kit out and checked over to make sure all is working well. What if you dont have all the required gear and you still want and good day out? What will you need?

Field and Moor suggest the following:

1) Gun, a bit obvious but certainly helps, 12g or 20g is ideal and dont forget your cartridges, 250 will be a good start with possibly another 250 back in the vehicle just in case. Afterall nothing worse than running out when your have a "Red Letter Day" and early days after cutting can certainly produce these.

2) Camo Nets, yes having more that one will add to the realistic look of your hide. Also take a look at the field of choice and make sure you have the correct colours in your netting. Take into account if you are shooting by a heage row or in the middle of a stubble field.

3) Hide Poles, well you need something to hold the net's in place. Make sure you have the extendable ones to give you the best cover.

4) Decoys, needed to bring the pigeons in. You have choices of, Flock & Standard Shell, Flock & Standard Full bodied, all of which can be supported on either fixed or spring pegs for added movement and realism. The all new and very popular FUD Decoys are becoming all the rage, very realistic, easy to carry due to there light weight.

5) The Essential Pigeon Magnet/Whirley. An excellent piece of kit to add to your armoury for those days when you need that bit extra. Situated just outside your chosen decoy pattern the whirley will pull birds in from as far as 500 yards away (my personal experience)

6) A Small Chair, for no other reason than for your personal comfort, afterall better than sitting on the floor.

7) A Good Strong Kit Bag, to carry all your gear to minimise the walking to and from the vehicle.

8) Camo Clothing, Hat, Face mask, Camo shirt unless your concealment is good could mean the difference between a ok day and an excellent day and good summer boots.

9) Dont forget lunch and drinks, it can be a long and hot day hopefully.

If you are likely to have a good day, try prior to going out to find a game dealer to take the pigeons of your hands, while you may only get 20p - 50p each for them it will contribute to cartridge cost and the birds going to a good cause.

So now you have all you kit ready and a place to shoot you can enjoy one of the best shooting sports for little or no extra cost. Have had the pleasure of shooting pheasants, partridge, wildfowl and on a grouse more, whilst all very exciting but costly, a day's pigeon shooting is exceptional and you will be hard pushed to find anything better.

One further point, whilst it is not a legal requirement, just give your local police controll room a call and let them know where and when you will be, just incase someone reports you, then all being well you will be covered. 2 minutes on the phone could save hours talking to the police at the field or even worse "Down at the Station" and putting an end to your day.

Enjoy your day or days out.

Please feel free to comment or ask any questions.

Phil

Pigeon Days

With pigoen shooting, some say the best type of shotgun shooting you can have and mainly we at Field and Moor agree, however I am yet to have a day shooting on the excellent Grouse Moor, we all live in hope!!. Whilst having a good day out on a driven shoot is a fabulous time, especially if you spend most of the season beating, having a good day out shooting over early rape and other newly planted fields is one of the best forms of sport with a shotgun.

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.

 

Low cost Pigeon Whirly 

FUD Folding Decoy

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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