Back Out On The Pigeons

[chrismdd 787]

Well the ferreting season is almost at an end and the rivers have just closed for a few months (though wild brown trout season starts Friday) so it was time to dust off the S410 and get it ready for the season ahead. Too much rabbit, pheasant and duck in the freezer so fancied some woodies for my game pies.

 

Mate from Devon joined me today with his HW100. Originally we were going to go yesterday but the weather has been so unpredictable so waited until storm Katie passed through last night. Had spent the previous day driving around and looking for pigeons, there were a fair few around the place but not many in one place feeding heavily. I had already missed a load that had been feeding on a fodder field a few weeks back due to too many other commitments.

 

So this morning we drove out and found a recently cultivated field that had a few pigeons on it:

 

 

Set up the fishing brolly, camo nets and bar system which is now 100% perfected over the last twelve months:

 

 

Decoys out, got ourselves comfortable and zeroed the rifles:

 

 

 

Wasn't long before they started coming in (in fact two came in and landed whilst I was outside the set-up putting the front net on!). Our shooting was spot on through the day and very few were missed. We did need to hit them quickly as soon as they were landing as they didn't stop long.

 

Ended the day with thirteen (another two were lost into thick hedges):

 

 

Chris.

[moxy 617]

[terryd 8,941]

well that was productive

[mark williams 7,568]

Well done lads

 

 

atb

 

 

p.s. - which calibers were used Chris and which kill zones did you aim for ?

Heart/ lung i presume by the photograph, bloodied beaks ?

 

I`m asking as i do a lot of wood pigeon shooting myself, - thank`s.

[chrismdd 787]

Well done lads

 

 

atb

 

 

p.s. - which calibers were used Chris and which kill zones did you aim for ?

Heart/ lung i presume by the photograph, bloodied beaks ?

 

I`m asking as i do a lot of wood pigeon shooting myself, - thank`s.

 

Hi Mark,

 

Both rifles are .177. I was using AA Express in my S410 whilst my mate used Exact heavies in his HW100. Last year I was always trying for headshots and my success rate was pretty poor as too much time was spent trying to aim for such a small target that was bobbing around which inevitably led to many pigeons flying off before the trigger was pulled. Now all my shots are heart/lung as this works well with the quick snap shooting needed and they nearly all drop instantly. Today we had three flyers (two of which fell into the thick hedges), the other flew straight at us landed in the tree above us and instantly dropped stone dead right on top of the brolly!

 

Chris

[mark williams 7,568]

Yes same here Chris.

I have been using .177 fields (8.4 g) through both my 100 kt and T-Rex to great effect, "however" one of the lads on here talked me into trying out the Falcon Accuracy Plus .22 13.3 g through my 100 ks.

He swears by the AA Express in .177 by the way .

That .22 combination was knocking those pigeons clean over, ( instant lights out),using heart/ lung shots at 31 yards.

In fact, as the session grew, so did my confidence, with the Falcon`s and the last two pigeons taken were "full on" heart/lung shot. They just toppled backwards, instant despatch.

 

 

 

( not a sniff of a flyer) .

 

 

 

 

atb

[stealthy1 3,964]

13, unlucky for some, but not you and your mate.

[The one 8,585]

Nice going mate getting out and bagging quite a few

[steg 609]

Nice read Chris..

And cracking set up!

 

How does that timber work (i.e getting in out) Does it slide up and down on the brolly storm poles?

[chrismdd 787]

Nice read Chris..

And cracking set up!

 

How does that timber work (i.e getting in out) Does it slide up and down on the brolly storm poles?

 

I tried out a few things over the last year. Originally we used shooting sticks but they were too frustrating when moving the gun around the hide. Then I tried a padded bar system supported on three rod rests that worked well for both of us to share the brolly (Daiwa mission shelter). Now everything was getting a bit cumbersome to lug around, then I had a little eureka moment and did away with the rests and padded bar and instead just got a suitable piece of wood drilled two holes for the mission shelter's storm poles to fit through and then adjusted and supported on car hose clips (just don't forget the screwdriver). Only extra I'm going to include next time is some small screw-in hooks on the wood to hold the netting in the right position.

 

Chris

[steg 609]

Nice one!

 

Got an old redundant Kevin Nash oval brolly down the shed doing nothing..

 

Food for thought now ive seen your set up.. like it.

 

Atb

[Lloyd57 98]

Nice shooting lads.

Lloyd

[Durham John 693]

Looks a cracking hide Chris,

And only really on mk 3 so a very quickly modified idea.

[David.evans 5,323]

I went out the week end , and had a bad day , the hide is basically the same as yours

I put out 12 flocked decoys , facing the wind , in a horse shoe formation , and sat there for 6 hours , plenty of birds flying over and coming into land , but took off again befor landing , I was well fec off . And I'm not sure where I went wrong !

But il. Try again the weekend , it was the first time I've done this and I suppose a learning curve

Atb

Dave

[big napper 3,635]

Nice one mate, great hide setup & great shooting