Pigeon stories
For the sheer joy of shooting, nothing beats an outing for pigeons.
We were crouching behind the hide with eyes eagerly scanning the earlymorning sky. In front of us one of the decoys’ wings were rotating slowly in the breeze. From our right we could hear the sound of wings – two red-eyed doves ( grootringduif) were fast approaching. They turned slightly into the wind over the decoys, losing altitude. Jaco and I stood up at the same time, lifted our guns, and fired. One of the doves fell to the earth in a puff of feathers. We had both aimed at the same bird...
Johan, Jaco, Wouter and I were hiding on the edge of a recently harvested maize field. We had erected a simple hide by stringing hessian between two poles. The edges were anchored to the ground with tent pegs. Jaco and I were sitting behind the hessian while Johan and Wouter were standing in the shade of two thorn trees to our right. The hide was not particularly well camouflaged but the colour of the hessian was similar to the winter grass next to the field. It was more to hide our silhouettes and prevent the
pigeons from seeing movement when we moved and mounted our guns.
We had placed nine shell decoys and two with rotating wing in a large U-shape, facing the wind, about 20m from the hide. The wind causes the decoys’ “wings” to spin which will hopefully attract the attention of high flying birds.
INCOMING
The maize field was next to a game camp and the doves flew from this natural area into the field. The birds were mostly redeyed doves but occasionally large flocks of rock pigeons ( kransduiwe) would also appear. Like a squadron of Second World War bombers, the rock pigeons would come charging in. Their agility and turn of speed was a pleasure to watch and made them very difficult to shoot. Pigeon shooting, in my opinion, is the most challenging type of wingshooting in the world and despite my best efforts I would miss regularly.
We had chosen our site well and the flight line produced many shooting opportunities. The birds came from our front »
» and back and often crossed in front of us. Approaching us, a group of rock pigeons flew right over us; I blocked the last bird out with the barrel of my gun and pulled the trigger. The bird’s momentum carried it past the blind and it hit the earth behind us with a thud. The sounds of shots regularly filled the air... I watched Wouter connecting with a pigeon that crossed from left to right in front of him.
All of us, except Jaco, who stuck to his faithful Brno sideby-side, were using over-andunder guns. I used my Franchi Feeling Steel and Johan his Beretta Silver Pigeon. Wouter had his ATA SP Woodcock, a beautiful light and fast gun that floats to the shoulder and seems to follow the pigeons as if it has a life of its own. But at only 2.8kg the recoil from the ATA was noticeable. I fired a number of shots with it but then happily returned to my heavier Franchi. I think the Woodcock is perfect for carrying all day when in pursuit of spurfowl, but for high volume shooting this lightweight 12ga is a challenge to handle.
WHERE TO START
Whilst sitting in the hide I thought about pigeon shooting. I am sure that most South African wingshooters started their bird hunting by shooting pigeons and doves over crops. My first wingshooting experience was when Jaco invited me to a pigeon shoot on his uncle’s farm. After many shots and a bruised shoulder, one laughing dove ( rooiborsduif) was all I could show for my efforts. I got hooked on wingshooting after the success on that single bird. For the sheer joy of shooting, nothing beats the experience of going after fast flying pigeons. I have hunted them over mealies, sorghum and sunflowers. With large tracts of farmland in South Africa we are blessed with excellent pigeon shooting opportunities. Many farms are close to large cities, making it possible for many people to enjoy a quick morning or afternoon session of pigeon shooting.
Relying solely on the natural flight paths of the birds is good but decoying brings another element to pigeon shooting that is a lot of fun. I bought my decoys over the internet from Decoying South Africa. The shell decoys arrived within a few days at my local post office and these, painted in rock pigeon colours, really work well. On this shoot (as on previous occasions) I was surprised to see some birds actually landing among the decoys.
When using decoys, please take note of where you put them, especially when securing them on top of sorghum or other plants. I have lost some after they had come loose and dropped to the ground – in a sorghum field all the plants look the same. A decoy I have never had the pleasure of using, is the so-called pigeon magnet. It works with a battery, has “flapping wings” and apparently works better than the other types of decoys.
Gun safety is a vitally important aspect of pigeon shooting. To fool the good eyes of pigeons, many hunters wear camouflage clothing. This is a good idea but please bear in mind that a well camouflaged person might also be less visible to the human eye. Therefore it is important for every shooter in the party to know exactly where the others are positioned.
Shooters should also not change position without letting everybody else know about it. And please remember your eye and ear protection. Ammunition loaded with No 6 or even No 5 pellets are probably best for pigeon shooting – especially when the tough rock pigeons are on the menu. However, due to availability and cost many South Africans use No 7s.
A GOOD FINISH
As I watched, Jaco dropped another bird. Our decoy pattern was by now supplemented with the birds we had shot. Lunch was approaching, our ammo supply was running low and our shoulders were becoming tender. Despite it only being late morning we had already collected our bag limit of birds. We thus decided to call it a day.
It was our last shoot of the season – when the next season starts we will be back. Trying to minimize the damage caused to crops by pigeons not only helps farmers but is also great fun and those fast flying birds present challenges that will improve your shotgun skills... if you go after them regularly.