Shooting Times & Country – 17 July 2019

Pigeon control

18 • SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE

“Badnews,pal,”announcedMatt
whenI gotbacktothehide.“We’ve
prettymuchrunoutofcartridges.
We’lljusthavetobereallyselective for
therestoftheafternoon.”
ForsometimenowI havebeen
usingTeaguehalf-chokesinboth
barrelswhetherI’mshootingclays,
ducksorpigeons.I wasstrugglingto
connectwithbirdsthatI wastryingto
shootclosetothehidebutdropping
almosteverythingover 30 yards.
Matt,whoshootspigeonsasmuchas
oncea weekandwasconnectingwith
manymorebirdsthanme,always
shootswithopenchokes.

Emergencycartridges
Anhourlaterand 50 orsomore
pigeonsinthebag,weswallowedour
pride,gaveToma ringandadmitted
we’drunoutofcartridges.After
laughinguproariously,heagreedto
drivedownanddropoffanotherslab.
Ashepulledup,thepigeonswere
stilldroppingin.It neverfailsto
amazemethatonsomanyoutings
youcan’tgetthebirdstocometoyou,
nomatterhowwellthoughtyour
patternorexpensiveyourmagnet.
Buteveryonceina whileit seems
there’salmostnothing you can do
todissuadethem.
Bythetime3pmrolledround,the
birds started to behave tentatively.

Theywouldflutterdown,circlea few

timesthenfly offtowardsthefield

whereTomandRobwereshooting.

After 10 minutesofthis,Matt

suggestedtheresimplywasn’tany

moreroomforthebirdstolandand

thatweshould make a bit of space

forthem.

Gatheringuplargehandfulsto

take back to the hide, we created a

U-shapedlandingstripinthemiddle

ofthepattern,thenheadedbackto

thehide.Theplanworked;within

minutestheystartedto fl ood back.

Plumposition

Inthedistancewecouldhearthe

soundofRobandTomsteadily

buildinga bag.I likedtothinkTom

hadgenerouslyputMattandmeinthe

plumpositionbecausethat’sjustthe

sortofpersonheis,butthenagainit

wasperhapsmorelikelythatthebirds

didn’t behave quite as he expected.

“Weprobablywon’thavea day

on pigeons like this for years”

Anastonishingbagof

pigeons,unlikelytobe

seen again for a while