Rakes of shots and hot barrels

[Meece 1,957]

Yesterday  I came home in the middle of the day and noticed a hilux parked  in a field along the road. When I parked up at home I immediately  noticed shots. I took the spaniel for a walk around the orchards for about an hour and there sounded like four different shooters. Three sounded like autos. The shooting was non stop and sounded like a team of guns at a driven shoot. I was so interested that after I got home I decided to get the old pushbike out and go and be nosey. I parked up by a footpath on the road edge of one of the fields and glasses the fields. I soon noticed two rotaries and the gun positions. I was surprised at the amount of pigeons that were in the air over the field considering that since I  had been home and on the walk with the dog they must have fìired off at least five hundred shots. There was the odd pigeon that comitted to the decoys but the majority came over fairly high to be saluted by the full magazine from every gun within a hundred yards. Now whether this was hopefull inexperience, wishfull thinking or some new master plan I don't know. After about half an hour observation I  mounted the pushbike and came home. The shooting soon dwindled down either through lack of ammunition or birds. I expect that they were a bit cold, fired near a thousand cartridges and had a few birds in the bag. ( I did sèe two birds shot)  So a good day was had by all, probably. especially the cartridge manufacturer.

[j j m 6,479]

that's some carts to go through

[Meece 1,957]

Years ago if you went out and fired a pocketfull or a box that would have been plenty. But it seems more commonplace for some shooters to blast off at birds which are way out of range or even in the same field, in the hope of shifting birds off of their Intended line in the hope of getting the bird into shooting range. It seems to be more about shooting than shooting something with a purpose and valid reason.  I  don't know if this is inexperience or wishfull thinking  or they have some misguided strategy.  I remember sèeing a bloke on a shòoting range blast off nearly a metal can of 7.62 off Downrange. When he came off the firing point I  asked him how he was grouping ?  He replied that he didn't know !  So basically he fired off a LOT of ammo just to say "I've been shooting".  A bit pointless but he was happy. The way those blokes were shooting at the pigeons, and what I saw I'd be surprised If they shot 30 to 40 birds between them. if they had waited for the birds to come into the pattern they would have shot a lot more than randomly blasting three cartridges off at birds 70 yards away and then his mate to do the same thing at the same birds with the same result. What surprised me was the amount of pigeons that kept flying over the field considering the barrage of shots that was put up at them.

Edited November 12, 2018 by Meece

[The one 8,395]

I lost a nice wee 150 permission that was good for a nice wee mixed bag if you don't over do it , Ever summer the local pigeon guide came to the farm  and offered to buy the shooting  not because there was a lot of pigeons using it but because he didn't have it and it was his area , the farmer semi retired and his nephew took over running it , the guy got his wish hes paying for it and probably to get a return but a deer hide up  there where 4 deer on the whole farm the old farmer said take the odd one if you can use it dont kill them for the sake of it , and it worked well for years for me . Now trying to get a return for is money hes wiped out the deer and any pigeons that fly over the land get saluted whatever the height by his customers  some days its like the alamo im glad im away from there 

[Meece 1,957]

Perhaps these blokes were paying. I hadnt thought of that. Ive never seen shooters on these fields before and the amount of them. The way that they were shooting wasn't  normal. At times it sounded like a full on pheasant drive. Ok when you've got birds coming in to the pattern your going to shoot at them but to let loose 3 shots per gun at birds way out of range aint normal.