Pigeon Shooting

Welcome to another Field and Moor Blog. This time we are bringing you information on some new products and highlighting some existing ones.

So what's new out there?
Jack Pyke have launched a new range of hide poles, made the same as your traditional ones except these have an additional spike and large foot plate making it easier to get into hard ground, also gives better stability on windy days. What an excellent idea, simple and effective. Still has the nylon hook end for attaching your netting and complete with carry bag.

Jack Pyke Hide Poles

Next we have the Hypa Flap pigeon decoy, this is possibly the most realistic flighting decoy on the market. Being used in the USA to great acclaim. This is best used on a Whirley / Pigeon Magnet as you get the realistic flighting of the bird coming into land when the bird come head on into the wind. When it as travelling away from the wind, the decoy gives the impression of it floating into the pattern, available in singles or as a pair. Link these with the FUD Decoys and this could be your "Red Letter Day" View the video below which shows them in action.

Hypa Flap Decoy with Full Optional Head

This next item has been out for a while and am still not sure why more pigeon shooters don't use it. Light weight, easy to carry and doesn't take up much room. It's only downside is you have to have a good hedge row in the back ground. I wonder if they will do a Summer version for shooting over stubble??

Jack Pyke Clearview Hide Net

Last but not least for the time being is the very popular and effective, must have Pigeon Decoy of them all the...FUD Pigeon Decoy. What more can i say that has not already been said? well they do work, i have used them and our local Shefford & District Pigeon Shooting Club tried them to great success, so what more can be said.

FUD Pigeon Decoys 

Well that's all for now and i will be sure to bring you more products soon. Don't forget all the above and more are available online from Field and Moor.

Look forward to hearing from you.

Phil

Field and Moor

Windy days in the Hide

Going shooting is always fun, however sometimes when the wind is blowing and the birds are flying well the one thing that gets very annoying is when your hide starts to fall in on you because of the wind.

The trouble with shooting in the winter is getting the hide fixed down well, the ground is wet so your hide poles will move with the weight of the nest and the wind blowing in. So what is the solutioin??

Here at Field and Moor we have made "Hide Guyropes" made from wooden 9" pegs, 1.5mtr green para cord and a aluminium guyline runner for better adjustments. They come in packs of 2 and will give the extra stability to your hide on a windy day.

2 x Hide Guyropes

 Hide Guyropes





Just another usefull addition to your pigeon / duck / geese hide kit.

Buy online here

Just a little extra something that you will find usefull on your outings.

Many thanks

Phil
Field and Moor

FUD Pigeon Decoys

Now with a break in the weather and most farmers getting the cutting done, this should be a good time to get out and onto the Pigeons.

Pigeon decoy shooting is propably the best form of shooting there is, Why? because it is generally free and the birds can be very testing, differing angles and speed and of course the dark art of getting the decoy's just right to coax the brids in.

So what can give us the edge, well there are several products on the market to help us, flock decoy's, whirley's, motion decoy's etc, but one all new decoy to hit the market is the FUD Folding Decoy and again here at Field and Moor we have the opportunity to test them out from a totally independant point of view.

So Thursday afternoon i arrange to meet up with Tony a good friend of mine and someone who has been shooting Pigeons for nearly 40 years and believe me what he doesn't know about decoy shooting isn't worth writing about.
I told him that we needed to try these New FUD Decoy's to see what happens which he was looking forward to trying. With a break in the weather we set off to a recently cut field of wheat as Tony had seen many birds flighting in over the past few days. He set up the hide and i placed the decoy pattern using just the FUD's to see how we got on.

Within in minutes the birds started to flight in, some straight in to the pattern and others came close enough to shoot, result. After 20 mins we went out at picked up the shot birds and added them to the pattern. We noticed some birds landing some 300yds away down the field so we put up the whirley which made all the difference and pulled the birds in from that distance away, wow what a sight.

FUD Pigeon Decoys




After about 4 hours we packed up with over 50 birds in the bag.

Phil with some of the birds shot, including 2 FUD's











So, the question is, Do FUD Decoys work???
Oh YES Without a doubt!!

If you have a view or comment please add below, all comments are welcome and good for discussion.

Look forward to hearing from you

Phil
Field and Moor

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

Leave a comment