two barrels and two for the pot

[Gimli 0]

A odd morning's shooting today. I thought it was going to be quite sunny and warm but clouded over as I drove up to my permission and was dull, muggy and total windless when I got there.

 

I parked the Suzuki and scanned the fields for pigeons or rabbits. There wasn't much around but I saw half a dozen woodies on the edge of a field of rape, feeding on some late growing stuff and clover. So I set up the hide within shooting distance and put out twleve flocked decoys on the ground and three sillosocks on bouncers.

 

The feeding birds had disappeared but I was reasonably hopeful and waited. Not a reathe of wind and not a bird in site. After a while and after spotting a few pigeons two fields away I decided tio wander over in that direction and stir them up, in the hopes they'd then spy my decoys and move across. I fired four shots at some birds just on the edge of the gun's range in the hopes of getting them flying. They moved off into trees overlooking the field my hide was in. Continued to walk the fields to let them settle near my decoys.

 

Settled back in the hide for an hour but nothing moving, the pigeons stuck in the trees. Decided to pack up the hide and move to my other permission where I'm sure of getting rabbits.

 

As i started taking down the hide, the watching woddies decided to fly over my decoys and then over my head. Luckily my Beretta was to hand and I got a good view of two pigeons flying away from the field over some scrub and brambles. Hit one with the first shot and it dropped stone dead through a silver birch tree. As it went down it looked as though the second pigeon was following it into the tree as I saw a flash of grey and the branches swayed. Fired the second barrel and something fell dead from the tree.

 

I then fought through the brambles getting thorns in everything imaginable, including through my hat and into the back of my head. Found the first pigeon and then just beyond it, not another pigeon but a very porky squirrel.

 

So I put them in the car, packed up the decoys and hide and off to the other farm. Walking along the northern bounday where a ape field is next to an abandoned orchard and a football pithc, saw several rabbits on the edge of the field, knocvked a medium sized one down with the first barrel, moved on and amazingly a much bigger rabbit (the biggest out of the 40 I've shot this year) was still sitting further down feeding on the dge of the filed. Hit that one at 40 yards with the second barrel.

 

Picked them up and started back to the car, when I saw another one emerge from some brambles and got that at 35 yards.

 

So after wasting four cartridges, a got three rabbits, a pigeon and a squirrel with the next five.

[victor 10]

better luck next time i guess,

nice mixed bag

Edited June 14, 2008 by victor