Everything in moderation
Geoff Garrod heads out on a long-awaited day in his hide to deal with a troublesome flock, Mossberg Hushpower in hand
It has been a long couple of months away from pigeon shooting and I am sure many of you would have felt the same. I had been recovering from a knee operation for six of the lockdown weeks but was ready again to get out into a hide. Government advice allows me to undertake crop protection and the estate I work also lifted its self-imposed shooting ban. I checked with BASC, the National Gamekeepers’ Organisation and my contacts in the police to confirm it was OK for me to head out again. Thankfully, they gave me the go-ahead and to be accompanied by photographer Richard, following social distancing measures, of course.
Recce
I had been watching a large flock of pigeon on oilseed rape for a couple of weeks and was itching to get among them. The flock had been feeding well and was very settled, despite our efforts with a gas gun to move it on. We also had to stop using the banger because though it was on the far side of the field, it wasn’t fair to keep it going so close to nearby houses; and the pigeon were ignoring it while they fed on the houses side of the field anyway. It was a delicate situation that called for a sympathetic approach. There is a large ash that the pigeon were using as a sit tree near the houses and it was the obvious place to set the decoys and position the hide.
I didn’t fancy receiving complaints from locals or a visit from the police, so my trusty 12-bore Browning was out of the question. Taking the light breeze from the direction of the houses into account, this was definitely a job for my .410 Mossberg Hushpower.
The Hushpower is a great gun to have in your cabinet for times like these. I shoot Eley Extra Long 18g cartridges with No 6 shot through it and it’s pretty tightly choked. To be candid, I have no idea what the choke is but I do know that if you are on target it can be a very effective and stealthy gun. The report of each shot is greatly reduced compared with a 12-bore; it sounds more like a clap than a gun firing,
so most people wouldn’t know you were shooting unless they got very close to the hide. The moderator seems to disperse the sound better too, which is often too obvious when you fire at a flock of pigeon. With a moderator, the birds either seem to not
“It sounds more like a clap than a gun firing”
hear the shot or can’t work out where the noise came from. Their reactions are markedly different compared with my 12bore and it increases your chances of getting a left-and-right or even a treble.
Cut your cloth
Shooting 18g rather than 32g clearly makes a difference and it’s only sensible to adjust your expectations as to the range you take birds on. The rape had been either damaged by the birds or had failed from the very start for a 15m strip along the field edge. It made judging range easy and I set my decoys out on the bare patch in front of the ash tree. I’ve always been in favour of bringing the birds in as close as possible to ensure good, clean kills, and this was even more important while shooting the .410. Anything in the pattern would be no more than 15m away. I wanted to keep all of my shots to no more than 25m at most. If I didn’t kill them it would be because I had missed and not because of the calibre.
There was a light breeze from behind, which helped suppress the noise even more, so I was able to manufacture a few hours’ decoying in a tricky spot thanks to a moderated gun. As it happened, most of my shooting ended up being birds heading
to the ash tree I was under and very few birds actually decoyed, but I had a cracking few hours of sport and crop protection.
There are plenty of choices of calibres for moderated guns. There are 12-bores, 20-bores and .410s. I would recommend choosing a calibre to suit your shooting ability. There is also a cost difference: .410 cartridges are more expensive than 20-bore, and 20-bore are more expensive than 12bore. That may also sway your choice or you may just have a favoured calibre. I chose the .410 because I use it all the time for my keepering work; it’s rarely left in the cabinet and is great for despatching vermin, as well as doing the job of stopping pigeon.
It is worth considering having a moderated gun in your armoury, though it is not a gun that I would use regularly for decoying and it certainly would not be as effective as my Browning 12-bore. However, when you have a difficult situation regarding sound levels and there is a possibility of disturbing or annoying the public, perhaps it is better to have a gun like this rather than passing on opportunities in awkward locations.
The day ended with a bag of 37 birds. I breasted them and made chicken and pigeon kebabs for the barbecue — all thanks to the Mossberg.