Shooting Times & Country Magazine
How to stay one step ahead of the woodies
Tireless reconnaissance pays dividends for Tom Payne as he helps his Spanish pigeon shooting party beat the birds to the stubbles in Devon
Idon’t tend to take many people out in a pigeon hide with me and I certainly don’t make a habit of guiding. I can’t bear to watch pigeons being missed and wising up to the people shooting below them. Although I prefer not to educate the birds on my ground, I don’t mind taking people out on their own ground and teaching them the basics of pigeon shooting. I feel this is important because it keeps the traditions and skill of pigeon shooting alive and well.
Some guides do a brilliant job and are effective at managing their ground and the pigeon population. These guides know who they are and are well respected, ably assisted by top Shots to control pigeon numbers on their permissions very effectively. But there are some who don’t quite get the job right.
Rick Bond, the former gunroom manager of William Powell and Westley Richards, has returned to his family farm in Devon and is always keen for a shot. Devon isn’t renowned for its pigeon problem, but only last week he gave me a call and asked if a visiting mutual friend from
Spain could come. It was a last-minute offer as this was a flying visit.
Diego, an accomplished big game Shot, has hunted all over the world. He has fantastic big game hunting on his estate in Spain and a very wellknown partridge shoot.
Vast experience
Diego is a true shooting man with vast experience gained from a lifetime shooting, hunting, hosting, managing and keepering. If he were English, the terms we would use would be a true countryman.
Diego’s wife and two daughters — also very enthusiastic Shots
— would be joining me for a couple of days. It’s always a privilege to try to pass on knowledge to keen, like-minded people. It’s amazing what you learn as well — the fieldcraft they use, the different styles and the problems they have to deal with. They have the same problems we do, with government bodies and organisations that clearly have no idea about the importance of proper countryside management for the benefit of conservation and food production.
We were just coming into the second really hot spell, which was lucky because had it been any hotter,
I would have stopped shooting. If
you can’t get the birds off the field and to a chiller without them going bad in the heat, then it’s not worth shooting. You don’t buy a steak from the butcher only to leave it in a field in 30°C heat for an afternoon, so I certainly won’t do it with woodies. When controlling and managing numbers in a bid to protect a food source, it should not be forgotten that pigeons are also a very valuable food source in their own right and should not be wasted.
Low fuel
We all met at a petrol station near to the farm we were going to shoot. In my wisdom, I decided not to fill up the night before, knowing we were meeting at this location. As I arrived, I could see cones on the forecourt and a tanker filling the pumps. Not ideal. Land Rovers and low fuel are not good bedfellows, so I knew I was going to have to wait. Time was on our side on the pigeon front, but a petrol station is hardly a shoot lodge or coffee shop where you can chat about the day ahead while the tanker driver slowly fills in his paperwork. Eventually, we were off and heading to the fields.
Often when you take people shooting, you get to the fields and see their disappointment as a handful of pigeons jump up. It’s quite funny.
“It’s a privilege to pass knowledge to like-minded people”
I’m pleased at this time of year when I know I’ve beaten the birds to the field, trusting my reconnaissance.
I know others who are left with their head in their hands, disappointed not to see hundreds. Diego, however, was fully aware we had got there before them and was very relaxed. We decided to shoot only one hide and the family would take it in turns. Diego wasn’t worried
“It’s easy to get overexcited, miss birds and then become frustrated. It’s a vicious cycle”
about shooting. It was a chance for his daughters to have a go and experience an outing on the pigeons.
As I set them up and retired to a sensible distance, Diego and I discussed the pigeon shooting in Spain. I was desperate to know whether the past three years had been a bit like the old days. He said that it had improved and that the cork oaks, a real draw for migratory birds, produced some good outings.
This confirmed my thoughts. With the huge reduction in rape production in this country prior to this year, the migratory birds were heavier in number. However, Diego said that this year has been poor, coinciding with the UK growing a lot of rape again due to the price being so high. Flea beetle and the insecticide became a distant memory when the price went up all of a sudden.
We were soon interrupted by two shots. The girls were away and running. I hadn’t put a magnet out and started them with plastics, mainly because of the heat but also because plastics were easier to shift if they wanted to move them and play around. I said I would put a magnet out as soon as there were two freshly shot dead birds. This helped them to focus.
Back at the Land Rover, Rick and I were discussing his new-found love of silage for breakfast and were enjoying a quick cuddle with one of his cows. We watched as one bird after another trickled across the field. They were cutting through what had become a perfect wind for this time of year and we could see them clearly approaching the hide, but you had to be on your toes if you were shooting. Sometimes I take it for granted how difficult the shooting can be.
An oak tree behind the hide was a real draw. Birds that didn’t decoy or offer a shot often pulled up at the last minute and headed to the tree — just like those partridges that stay low and suddenly decide to go for it. They were coping well and we could see puffs of feathers indicating kills. We would also see the odd high bird fold and fall to the ground. Every now and then, the two sisters would head out to pick-up a few and then scurry back to the hide.
There was plenty of shooting and activity, but when it’s busy it takes quite a lot of practice to stay calm and focused. It’s easy to get overexcited, miss birds and then become frustrated. It’s a bit of a vicious cycle, but they were building a good bag.
Hitting the stubble
One of the tractor drivers had pulled in to top the rape stubble, so I knew we didn’t have long left, but it was drawing towards the end of play. Diego jumped in and started killing birds nicely over a small patch, much to his daughters’ frustration. I had the feeling they had seen plenty of
Dad shooting and rolled their eyes as one bird after another hit the stubble. A long left to right just having one last glance was the final bird of the day.
I could see that a cold cerveza was on everyone’s mind. It’s amazing how quickly a team of friends can pick-up and pack up at the thought of a couple of cold pints in the sun. It was brilliant to sit in the pub garden and talk about the day. There was plenty of laughter and some great stories from Diego. Rick was showing selfies he’d taken with his silage clamp and his cows, and said he couldn’t wait to get back to the farm after a great day. Diego and I, on the other hand, simply wanted to get back out on the pigeons.