Pigeon Decoying

Hi all,

I am very interested in pigeon decoying and my uncle gave me a few decoys for christmas, i might have a little patch of gone over cabbages to shoot over and they seem very interested in that at the moment. Would any of you more experienced shooters care to give me any useful advice? It would be much appreciated,

Thanks Dan
 
Hiya Mate,

I aint an expert but I have done a bit myself.

1. Watch the crops over a period of days and try to establish if the birds are flying over on a set flight line. If they are lay your decoys on or close to it.
2. Lay your decoys on a large "u" shape facing into the wind.
3.The decoys should be about 20-25yds from your hide.
4. If you have a rotary/pigeon magnet locate that about 10 meters from your decoys up wind.
5. Make a hide from poles and camo netting with a hedge or tree covering your back.
6. Make sure your hide is located so that you have at least 400yds of safe area in all the directions your going to be shooting to avoid any accidents.
7. I use a 12 gauge shotgun with size 6-7 shot and 1/4 and 1/2 chokes.
8. Shoot the pigeons and enjoy.
 
Hello Dan,

Much as Robbo says except if they are on 'greens' place your deeks in random groups of 4 about a meter apart. The U shape and L shape pattern works well on drillings and when they are on stubbles.
Another pattern to try is two lines of about 10-20 deeks about 10 yards apart to funnel the birds into the 'landing strip' in the middle.
If you have a rotary be careful where you put it out if at all in the pattern, sometimes its better to put two plastic bags on the rotary and set it up as a scarer in another part of the field to make them come to you.
At this time of year I find its usually a case of one shot and the lots gone!

Have fun
 
When you start getting pigeons coming in, wait until they have committed themselves to landing before getting up to shoot. When i say committed, i mean watch them coming in through the net and when they start to put their landing gear down ready to land, that is when you need to pop up over the hide and shoot, at this point they are concentrating on landing. The first thing they will do when landed is look around to check to see if the coast is clear.

wadas
 
Hi Dan,
What part of Devon are you in.
The comments above are correct, especially the one about crop, Ive had several big days in Devon over Christmas shooting over rape in the snow.
Also the more of you out the better, if you can liase with other guys with local permissions and shot on the same day this normally keeps the pigeons moving around nicely.
Rupe
 
+1 with tedsalad.
Try going out each saturday during feb as most will be out roost shooting from 1pm onwards keeping the woodchucks moving
 
Hi Dan,
What part of Devon are you in.
The comments above are correct, especially the one about crop, Ive had several big days in Devon over Christmas shooting over rape in the snow.
Also the more of you out the better, if you can liase with other guys with local permissions and shot on the same day this normally keeps the pigeons moving around nicely.
Rupe

We are right in the middle of devon thanks for the tips everyone

Dan
 
Pick a windy day, it keeps the birds moving and out of the trees. Pick a spot, if you have no luck after 30 minutes or so move else where. Good Luck
 
I am probably repating other posts but here goes
Get a set of bins and watch the field in either the morning or afternoon and watch for pigeons, what your after is a flighting line the path they use for places to feed and there roosting spots, you will see birds in 1,2,3,or more sporadically fling along
if there feedin on your cabbage where in the field are they feeding, decoy where they want to go not where you want them, they are there for a reason.
set up your decoys in any way you like my best results have been in mixed sized groups, i aint never seen pigeons feeding in a horseshoe facing the wind
getyour self some floaters buy some 6mm round steel bar (1.80 for 4 meters at steel distrbutors) and attach pigeons at various heights around your groups, now you must face these into the wind as pigeons land into an oncoming wind to help slow them!
set up a nice hide and fire away let the first few come in and enjoy!
 
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