Dusted off the gear, just need to get out now

[stevethefish 80]

Well it's time for me to start pigeon shooting now the ferreting is almost done. I have cleaned up a few farms of the bunnies and seen loads of pigeons on the maize so will be starting this week. I am planning on shooting with a mate, but need to do a bit of spotting this week. I called in on one of my farms and as I was being driven around by the farmer saw hundreds of birds coming into a maize strip. Guess I will keep an eye on them this week and see how it goes. Trouble is having the time, I am doing a fishing article for Improve Your Course Fishing magazine Monday, Hospital Tuesday to have a Blackthorn Spike removed (6 months of suffering). Wednesday ferreting on the above mentioned, Thursday preparing a bait order to be shipped to France then Friday shooting. It looks as if it may be a bit of a pot luck and rely on my instincts from previous years. Not the best way for decoying I know but hey that's life, just hope I get chance to shoot a few before they plough the maize in.

I will put a report on and hopefully a few pics of LOADS of birds, (a bit ambitious) fingers crossed.

[Tis1979 2]

Sounds like a busy week, good luck with it.

[stevethefish 80]

Well managed to get out today (friday) but the problem was thick fog, that thick I couldn't see my deeks. I set up thinking it would clear quickly like the day before but no way, it had other plans. With me being down in a small dip, (not many around these parts it's all flat) it held much longer that I thought. I had been watching this chopped maize for a couple of days so had my heart set on shooting it. Well the hours passed by and I got the odd shot at shadows coming out of the fog, it must have only been about 20 foot thick and sunny as hell above. The birds just didn't want to drop into it though but would you if you couldn't see where you were going.

About 2 and a half hours passed by, I had shot 5 birds out of 25 shots, wasting ammo at ghosts that were almost invisible. Things had to change and then all of a sudden they did, the sun broke through and I could see my deeks. All of a sudden it was like world war 3, my barrels were red hot and I could not get the ammo in fast enough. They must have been waiting for the fog to clear to get on this maize, it was brill, I was relieved to say the least.

The biggest problem with this spot was the cover to the rear of where I was shooting, a small plantation but thick with brambles and dense blackthorn, nightmare!!!

I was trying not to shoot birds coming over me as I knew they would fall in the abyss and be lost for good, but it's hard not to shoot a sitter and I took a few as you do. I had my clicker to count the birds that dropped behind me, this gives me a tally at the end of the day, I know that you can't count unpicked birds but it works for me.

The birds were coming in like lumps of lead, dropping straight from 300 metres high, wings folded flat to their bodies, a dream, if only it was like this all the time. Unfortunately I had lost half the day due to the fog but it was making up for it now, birds in singles and two's just how I like it, easy shooting. The massive flocks seemed to have vanished and the birds were splitting up, a sign of the weather warming and breeding close on.

The best part about it was it was my first outing since my operation and it went sweet, oh how I have missed the shooting. Well I decided to call it a day so I could get the birds up to the keeper ready for the game dealer, it helps towards the cost of the shells, only 25-30p each but it's the enjoyment more than anything. At the final tally it was apparent my shooting was very good when I counted the birds and the empties, that first box was a disaster but the rest were 3 to 2 ratio, this was probably due to the singles and pairs instead of flocks.

I did manage a few black rats with wings too but my tally was 76 with 5 blacks and 19 in the rough (charlie food)

All in all not too bad for about 3 hours if you don't count the foggy bit.