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SHOOTING IN ORKNEY / TEXAS RAG DECOYS


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Has anyone on here been shooting to orkney???? i know the season has just finished ,well inland anyway but we are already lookin towards next season and we are thinkin about heading up to orkney so if anyone has been there your opinions are appreciated........Also has anyone used Texas rag decoys ??? we normally use a few full body deeks and shells but were thinkin about trying these.....are they any good ...i saw them on ebay and was considering getting some... cheers Davy

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From what I hear, there's an awful lot of them around - about 1400 on 1 farm last week according to the news.

 

I'm based in the next stop north - bought 10 at the start of the season, and another 10 mid way through after the wind shredded them.

They've been working fairly well; had geese dropping in on them, and at the very least, coming over for a look - close enough to put them in the bag!

 

I was advised to stitch along the bottom of them to increase their longevity - just remember to put the machine away when you get handed the curtain material!!

 

Jim

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I have just sold my 50 of these i used them twice and they where not for me i think they make to much noise when the wind is blowing through them and it just puts the geese of when there about to come in to the deek's so i never used them again.

 

If you had a pick of shell's to these i would advice yuo to take them every time i know the rags take up less space etc etc but shell's work lot's better

 

This is only my thought on these decoys

 

Regards

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Hi all,i am looking to buy some decoys for next season aswell,so can anyone say were is the best priced place to get some?and what type would be best shell/ full bodied ect??

Good luck everyone for the last two days of the season :victory:

 

cheers lindsay

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I bought some full body GHG canada's from trent valley sporting for £10 each, they also had lessers. Anyway with a short amount of time with a few tins of plasticote and I got some great greylags, I'll try to find some piccies, also take a look at the foam fold-overs which come as pinks and greys, they are very light and more like shells. They are used by quite a number of the guides as well. You can get them from a number of places including RiversideOutdoor.

 

Re Orkney, there have been other posts about this, the Icelandic greylags have been increasingly shortstopping on Orkney for the last few years, this season particularly so. It has been discussed at the National Goose managemnet group, both in terms of the damage to small farm units they have caused but also because it has resulted in a great deal of travelling shooters heading up there. Good for the economy but not for the geese. There is some concern about shooting pressures so please stick to the recommended Bag (Recommended by BASC, Scot Exec goose management group) limits for migratory greys if you do go there which is two geese per gun per flight (4/day).

 

T

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From what I hear, there's an awful lot of them around - about 1400 on 1 farm last week according to the news.

 

I'm based in the next stop north - bought 10 at the start of the season, and another 10 mid way through after the wind shredded them.

They've been working fairly well; had geese dropping in on them, and at the very least, coming over for a look - close enough to put them in the bag!

 

I was advised to stitch along the bottom of them to increase their longevity - just remember to put the machine away when you get handed the curtain material!!

 

Jim

Cheers Jim......i will keep this in mind...was it the same ones i was talkin about that you bought??? ...i aint lookin to buy loads anyway i had thought about gettin 20 to go with what we already have that would give us a half decent spread ....cheers Davy

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I bought some full body GHG canada's from trent valley sporting for £10 each, they also had lessers. Anyway with a short amount of time with a few tins of plasticote and I got some great greylags, I'll try to find some piccies, also take a look at the foam fold-overs which come as pinks and greys, they are very light and more like shells. They are used by quite a number of the guides as well. You can get them from a number of places including RiversideOutdoor.

 

Re Orkney, there have been other posts about this, the Icelandic greylags have been increasingly shortstopping on Orkney for the last few years, this season particularly so. It has been discussed at the National Goose managemnet group, both in terms of the damage to small farm units they have caused but also because it has resulted in a great deal of travelling shooters heading up there. Good for the economy but not for the geese. There is some concern about shooting pressures so please stick to the recommended Bag (Recommended by BASC, Scot Exec goose management group) limits for migratory greys if you do go there which is two geese per gun per flight (4/day).

 

T

Cheers tom the foam fold overs you are talkin about ...am sure i saw them last year at scone palace ...they did look the business but bein on a tight budget (got made redundant last year) i thought about these Texas rags ...just really to bulk up the numbers of deeks we already have....

 

There will be hopefully 4 of us goin up in october for three or four days max .....not just to shoot geese but generally a bit of rough shooting too ....My brother in law and my nephew have been goin fishin up there for the past 5-6 yrs and it was my nephew who is pushing for us to go ...he has made a good few friends up that way who said it would be o.k to shoot on there land since the place is moving with geese...so hopefully things work out and we will get up there....seemingly a few foreign shooters have bought up a fair bit of land in that neck of the woods and had been slaughtering the geese ...Do you know anythin about this??? Cheers Davy

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seemingly a few foreign shooters have bought up a fair bit of land in that neck of the woods and had been slaughtering the geese ...Do you know anythin about this??? Cheers Davy

 

Heard a few stories of increased shooting pressures and excessive bags, while not illegal it can lead to legislation that punishes all of us in the long run. The problem is the short-stopping, normally they keep on the move or come down to the mainland and use refuges, there are not many refuges in orkney and the birds arn't moving on.

 

I have also heard that feedback from guides and the tourism industry is that more people booked in Orkney for goose shooting these last few seasons following the goosip about the large numbers.

 

I know it is difficult to think beyond the ones and two's we each take, but they all add up when you take the kills on that same population made in Iceland and Norway.

Edited by tom1cameron
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  • 1 month later...

:no: Dont use the Texans they make too much noise in the wind and will scare the geese off.

As for the Orkney Islands yes we have shot there and the boss has an estate up there(travel from Aberdeen)We kill a lot in late November and I stay on after the boss has come down home.Last November we shot 1452 AND 864 duck all with full/half bodied decoys ( we get ours from Cabelas in USA ). Some good sport up there but it is all private and expensive as you can imagine also large areas are for conservation so the islanders do not take kindly to shots. HOPE THIS ANSWERS YOUR QUESTION. If not PM me. ;)

Edited by warm barrels
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:no: Dont use the Texans they make too much noise in the wind and will scare the geese off.

As for the Orkney Islands yes we have shot there and the boss has an estate up there(travel from Aberdeen)We kill a lot in late November and I stay on after the boss has come down home.Last November we shot 1452 AND 864 duck all with full/half bodied decoys ( we get ours from Cabelas in USA ). Some good sport up there but it is all private and expensive as you can imagine also large areas are for conservation so the islanders do not take kindly to shots. HOPE THIS ANSWERS YOUR QUESTION. If not PM me. ;)

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...
Warmbarrells has PM'd me to say that was a typo and he meant to say 400, still 0.5% of the entire icelandic greylags, assuming that is what they were.

 

Nott nearly as grotesque though.

 

Still I wonder what one party does with 400 geese?

 

 

The total was 400 geese mixed graylag, canada, and some pinkfoot. The Duck quoted is correct according to the book

SORRY for the typing error and to clarify the geese were all used by the shots/relatives/locals etc. As they were shot due to dammaged caused to crops. I am no expert on the fact that 400 is 0.5% of the total Icelandic greylag population but some of those shot are local resident population.And they are seen in their hundreds in (skiens) up there.Anyway sorry for the mistake. Incidentally an Italian Organisation came with the authority of the Island Council and the Scottish Executive to make a cull and they seemed to not make any impact on the numbers by all accounts.

Edited by warm barrels
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