Time well spent
Peter Theobald says that experience has taught him that intelligence gathering will enhance your chances of success with pigeon
Since I was a young lad growing up on the family farm in Essex, I have been fixated with the pursuit of woodpigeon. They were few and far between on our farm in those days but it did not stop me from trying to get a shot at them with my clapped-out air rifle. I soon learned that it was extremely difficult to get close as they always seemed to be on high alert — bearing in mind I needed to be within 15 yards to be reasonably sure of a kill.
It was soon obvious that waiting for them to come to me carried a better chance of success than trying to stalk a bird that had already landed. For this to work I needed to know where to wait. At 11 years old the mysteries of decoying were still in the future, so I watched pigeon coming and going round the farm to see if they favoured certain fields and the trees they frequented. I did not realise it at the time, but I was learning that to be a successful pigeon shooter you need to spend more time watching them than you do shooting them.
Knowledge
Fast forward 57 years and I am still spending a lot of time watching woodies going about their business, plotting their next outing. The desire to outwit them burns as strongly as ever in me. Watching pigeon does not necessarily guarantee any kind of success otherwise nobody would ever experience a blank day. The art is interpreting what your eyes are telling you and then using your local knowledge to gauge whether you are likely to make a decent bag. This is where it gets complicated for the average decoyer, because there are so many factors to take into account.
• First, how many birds are using the field, assuming you have identified one with pigeon feeding? This is only established by looking at the field at a time of day when you would expect most birds to be feeding. That time varies with the time of year and often what crop is growing.
• Secondly, are there any similar crops, not necessarily on the same farm, which the pigeon may decamp to once you start to ‘bash them up’. It is probably the most common complaint you will hear from decoyers after a poor day: “I had a couple of shots and they didn’t come back.”
• Thirdly, is the weather going to be favourable on the day you have chosen to shoot? If you need a decent wind to enhance your chances, don’t be surprised if it goes wrong because you chose to go when it was
flat calm. We don’t bother to try our luck on winter rape unless the wind is blowing at a minimum of 15mph.
Some say wind direction is critical but we have had some of our biggest bags on days when the wind has blown in the ‘wrong’ direction. If all other criteria have been favourable, wind direction, rather than strength, will not spoil a good day.
Variables
Where Paul and I have an advantage over weekend shooters is that we can generally arrange things to be able to shoot on any day of the week but, even so, our reconnaissance has to be up to date. We rarely shoot unless we have checked the field on the day before we intend to shoot, as so many things can go wrong at the last moment.
This could be another decoyer shooting the field or the farmer deciding to put out a gas banger — why do so many farmers deploy a banger then phone me to complain about pigeon? In the case of drillings, the birds may have cleared the seed or another field may have been planted nearby, instantly drawing the birds away. That is why drillings are the hardest crop on which to predict a good bag. With stubbles, you can often arrive to shoot the field that was heaving with pigeon two days ago only to find the farmer ploughed it up yesterday.
Once we arrive to shoot a particular field we are 95% certain of success, all the legwork having been done in the preceding days. That is not to say we never make mistakes but pigeon are remarkably consistent in their habits. This becomes obvious if you take the time to watch what they are doing.
Once they take a liking for a particular crop, have been allowed to settle for a few days and all other circumstances remain unchanged, you can be fairly confident they will turn up when you do. Get this right and you should not need to concern yourself with what shape pattern you use; just ensure you place your hide where all those hours of watching has shown you is the best spot.
“The art is interpreting what your eyes are telling you”