Just a quick write up on last Saturday’s activities when my wife and kids were away.
I decided to have a go at some pigeon decoying as I had bought some decoys a number of years ago and hadn’t used them. One of the farms that I shoot on had just finished harvesting a crop that looked like a cross between barley and oats. It was cut fairly green and was going to be used for Biomass but I had seen quite a few pigeons on it. Anyway set up the decoy pattern and retreated to the hide to load the gun up only to see the first pigeon land in the middle of the pattern before I was ready. Anyway I spent a great morning in the shade of an oak tree shooting pigeons with an assortment of cartridges on a nice sunny day. More misses then hits but the weather was great and I managed a modest bag. I will however be investing in a seat for the hide before I go out again.
After the morning pigeon shooting I put up two homemade high seats covering two fields where I have seen some fallow. They are easy enough to move so will see how it goes.
Later Saturday evening I set out for a stalk on an area where I had seen a nice six pointer during a stalk a few days earlier when I had been out stalking with my dog. The grass is long and the dog on the previous occasion was coughing and spluttering from the grass seeds and pollen so decided not to take her out this time. Got to the end of the field where I had seen the 6 point puck previously and there he was on one of the tracks at the end of the wheat field. He was near the corner of the field and turned back and headed back into the corner out of sight. I thought that given the time of day he was out for the evening so was likely to be heading along the edge of the field in my direction so I shortened the stix and got ready for a kneeling shot just in case he came around the bend. I was on a slightly raised part of the hedge line. Anyway he came along the hedge as I thought and as I was lining up the gun on the stix when the stix got caught in the long grass and made a bit of a noise which alerted the buck to my position. He couldn’t make out what he was looking at as I was kneeling in the grass. He turned and ran back in the direction that he came from but stopped to a shout after about 10 yards. He started moving again, so another shout stopped him again and gave me a nice clear neck shot. He dropped on the spot. It was a nice buck in good condition. Carried out a suspended gralloch and carried him back in my new Harkila roe sack. I had been using a Yule sack but had shot two young roe bucks on a previous outing and when I went to put them into the sack the black chord snapped, so I tried to re tie it and it snapped again. I didn’t fancy having any problems carrying anything out from this location as it was a bit of a hike so took the Harkila roe sack instead.
I decided to have a go at some pigeon decoying as I had bought some decoys a number of years ago and hadn’t used them. One of the farms that I shoot on had just finished harvesting a crop that looked like a cross between barley and oats. It was cut fairly green and was going to be used for Biomass but I had seen quite a few pigeons on it. Anyway set up the decoy pattern and retreated to the hide to load the gun up only to see the first pigeon land in the middle of the pattern before I was ready. Anyway I spent a great morning in the shade of an oak tree shooting pigeons with an assortment of cartridges on a nice sunny day. More misses then hits but the weather was great and I managed a modest bag. I will however be investing in a seat for the hide before I go out again.
After the morning pigeon shooting I put up two homemade high seats covering two fields where I have seen some fallow. They are easy enough to move so will see how it goes.
Later Saturday evening I set out for a stalk on an area where I had seen a nice six pointer during a stalk a few days earlier when I had been out stalking with my dog. The grass is long and the dog on the previous occasion was coughing and spluttering from the grass seeds and pollen so decided not to take her out this time. Got to the end of the field where I had seen the 6 point puck previously and there he was on one of the tracks at the end of the wheat field. He was near the corner of the field and turned back and headed back into the corner out of sight. I thought that given the time of day he was out for the evening so was likely to be heading along the edge of the field in my direction so I shortened the stix and got ready for a kneeling shot just in case he came around the bend. I was on a slightly raised part of the hedge line. Anyway he came along the hedge as I thought and as I was lining up the gun on the stix when the stix got caught in the long grass and made a bit of a noise which alerted the buck to my position. He couldn’t make out what he was looking at as I was kneeling in the grass. He turned and ran back in the direction that he came from but stopped to a shout after about 10 yards. He started moving again, so another shout stopped him again and gave me a nice clear neck shot. He dropped on the spot. It was a nice buck in good condition. Carried out a suspended gralloch and carried him back in my new Harkila roe sack. I had been using a Yule sack but had shot two young roe bucks on a previous outing and when I went to put them into the sack the black chord snapped, so I tried to re tie it and it snapped again. I didn’t fancy having any problems carrying anything out from this location as it was a bit of a hike so took the Harkila roe sack instead.
Last edited:
john
thanks for sharing 
