An evening's prey!

[secretagentmole 1,701]

I was determined to feast upon pigeon again, for too long I have been concentrating on the tufty tails, now it is time to wreak havoc upon the avian community. In short I did not half fancy a pigeon pie and salad. So down to the permission and with a cunning plan, get into the trees and wait! So down a couple of hours before sun down thinking, they have had a gut full, they will want to sleep, thinking about humans and Christmas. I waited, 20 minutes and one flew into the trees, I decided to try and find it, could I? Could I heck as like! Bleeding birch trees. the pigeons blend into the blasted leaves!

 

Flutter! Directly, and I mean directly, above me is a Norfolk wheat laden pie filling, I lift the rifle and can see just fluff, I have to wind the mag down to the bottom, adjust parallax, lift up, it still has not noticed. I hereby read it the last rites, ie "stay still you pie filling pigeon", pull the trigger on the HW, and get a blasted pigeon on the head, I did say it was directly above me!

 

Well after I finished swearing the rest of the flock had flocked off, so out of the woods and time for some bunnies! I see one, at one of the known 30 metre markers, aim and hit the fence, BOINNGGG!!!! Rabbit legs it, like Insane Bolt at the 200 metres, oh bog, then I noticed another I had not seen, bolts what I know is 30 metres, total distance 60m, wind speed zero, level line of sight, gun at optimum known magnification (verified at x8 on recent shooting trials, bottom mark, elevate, steady, aim, slug in just behind the damned eye, rabbit roll over, kick, and dead!!! Proud as fork!

 

Back into the woods, rest, have a couple of rounds of Worms on the phone, use sheep to get a couple and flutter, 10 metres away and 10 metres up, another pie filler landed. Clear aim, no need to adjust, head shot, fire, clump, second pie filler.

 

The light was now fading fast I could see a rabbit in the paddock, but by the time I had got the IR on, lifted the gun up, it had ambled further into the encroaching night, so I said stuff it, rough plucked the pigeons and waited for my lift home....

 

Edited August 22, 2012 by secretagentmole

[Elliott 436]

Nice outing Mike, you sure do well with the pigeons :nod:

[davyt63 1,845]

hi Mike

enjoyed that read nice shooting and pics

 

watch out for those worms !!!

[secretagentmole 1,701]

Since Mary gave up her rifles I inherited a Harris fixed head 9-13 bipod, tonight she went out, bought a new Harris 9-13 tilt, gave it to me and uttered the words "Gimme my bipod back!" Only too happy to oblige, now I have a wobbly head Harris, you can tell the difference I tell you!

[pianoman 3,587]

Great read and pics Mike. Well done!

 

Don't you just love it when your long awaited rabbit finally appears..you compose yourself and your rifle...scope gently into aim....range as perfect as it gets...CRACK-KERPOWWWW straight off the barbed wire fencing -Oh fiddle!!!

 

I'm afraid I come out with something stronger than "Stay still you pie-filling pidgeon"!

 

regards.

 

Simon

[pianoman 3,587]

Has Mary given up shooting Mike?

[milegajo 595]

I've had pigeon lust for ages, the foliage keeps them out of my grasp. Gunna go and prey to the east now, morning seems best around here.

[secretagentmole 1,701]

Simon, Mary gave up shooting to look after her mother, the prognosis on her was she was going to need a lot of help over a long period of time and rather than have two expensive lumps of metal sitting there, Mary sold her guns. Unfortunately her mother was cooking Sunday lunch one week, on the Friday of that week she was dead. It was a shock and a great loss to us all, mary's mother was one of the old school and a great person. mary has since replaced one of her guns with the ubiquitous Air Arms S200, a new one.

 

Mike, it is easier in the evening, as you have them flying in to roost, you follow them in and watch where they land, going in the morning means the little grey meals take off as soon as they see or hear you. This time of year with the harvests going on they tend to come in fully loaded and are not in too much of a hurry to take off again!

[milegajo 595]

3 hours later without a shot, I have to agree.

 

No rabbits either. Nadda zip.

 

So sad :-(

[paulus 26]

this time of year with the sun still high in the early afternoon sky, pigeons will sit and sun themselves before their afternoon meal so a good sitty tree is the place to be

[milegajo 595]

May need to invest in some deeks. Loft em up with a crow decoy. Might help.

[zini 1,939]

Cracking write up Mike .

 

The 100 looks lovely too, Im with envy.

 

Si.

[secretagentmole 1,701]

Thanks Simon, Otto is a pleasure to use, if it goes wrong it is down to the idiot holding the stock, not the rifle (I sometimes forgot to slide the magazine latch switch forward, so the magazine did not rotate when I reloaded). Still using the good old Crosman Premier Ultras, they seem to suit the gun and as the hunting proved are excellent at long range or straight up close range!

[milegajo 595]

Just noticed the beautiful lack of leaves in those pics.

[silentshot1 206]

Nice write up! I love seared pigeon with bacon, onion mushroom and sweetcorn, served in a large Yorkshire pudding. Delicious!

 

Out tomorrow with the R-10 and decoys. Weather may be a bit showery but hey, I'll take that over a sunny day from the window of my office today!