LEARN THE ART AND YOU’LL ENJOY IT MORE

Tom Payne, Shooting Times’s pigeon shooting expert, is based in Hertfordshire and says half the fun is outwitting this amazing bird

I AM A PASSIONATE pigeon shooter and have been since the age of eight, when I shot my first one. I spent many of my weekends with my father’s friend Chris Mills learning the basics, and since shooting my first bag at

13 I have never looked back.

Pigeon shooting is an art; it is a skill that takes years of learning. There are so many aspects to it: reconnaissance, fieldcraft, decoying ability — and then comes the shooting itself. It might sound simple, but it is not. Understanding the woodpigeon, the different crops, the different times of year, the favoured weather for each time of year, the pigeons’ different feeding habits and how they behave over each crop, and being able to read the birds’ behaviour on different permissions and in different counties, takes so much time and focus to get right if you want to shoot good bags.

Pigeon shooting is an endless learning curve and just when you think you have mastered it, I can guarantee you are probably nowhere near. But that is half the fun and the challenge of pigeon shooting. After all, why would you want to stop learning about such an amazing wild bird?

I shoot thousands of pigeons a year but there are still times when the bird gets the better of me and I’m left to analyse whether I have misread the situation or got my timing wrong.

Some would say pigeon shooting can be frustrating when the bird gets the better of you, but I prefer to think “Where did I go wrong? Where has the bird beaten me?” and I go back to the drawing board and work out how to get it right.

There are no guarantees with any form of pigeon shooting. Expecting to go out and shoot red-letter days and treating pigeon shooting like it is a formal day’s shooting is not how it works. The good guides are aware of this and will in many cases have clients who can shoot on the day they want them to shoot.

But when you have poor pigeon guides operating in an area, putting lots of Guns in hides who are not up to the challenge of shooting woodpigeons and who are encouraged to shoot at birds that they are highly unlikely to kill, all that happens is that the local pigeon population becomes highly alert and well-educated to possible danger.

I understand that for many shooters getting the chance to shoot pigeons is rare and the only way to experience it may be by going through a guide. If that is the case make sure you pick one of the good ones — word-of-mouth recommendation, proven experience and somebody who charges per bird or per shot rather than a one-off fee for the whole day are what I would look for. You will enjoy your day so much more and most importantly learn so much more.

However, it takes years to learn the art of pigeon shooting and no matter how many guides you go with or how many books and articles you read, this will only give you a basic grounding. The only real way to do it is to get out there, find permissions and start to study the bird.

Concentrate on reconnaissance and fieldcraft and have a go at it yourself. It is a real sense of achievement when you start to get it right, but don’t be disappointed when it goes wrong.

“Pigeon shooting is an art; it is a skill that takes years of learning as it has so many aspects”