Sporting Gun

Essential kit and props for pigeons

Peter Theobald guides you through the essential kit and key props he uses for a successful day on the woodies

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Iwas recently asked what I considered to be the absolute minimum of kit needed for a successful day’s pigeon shooting. I surprised myself when I whittled it down to a gun, cartridges and a rotary.

When I started to take pigeon shooting seriously, in the early 1970s, there were no such things as electronic whirlies and flappers. In those days, no company specialise­d in pigeon shooting equipment, so my gear either came from ex-Army surplus stores or was home-made. There were few opportunit­ies to make the huge bags we take for granted these days; a shoot resulting in more than 100 birds was worthy of red letters in the diary. Therefore we rarely needed to take more than 100 shells out to the hide, my cartridge bag being an Army ammunition pouch that held exactly four boxes.

If I expected a bigger day, I might have put another four boxes into my decoy bag. This was a postman’s delivery sack procured from a friend whose wife was a postman. It was perfect for my purpose; large and extremely tough, with reinforced stitching and a wide carrying strap. Do postmen still walk their rounds using this type of bag?

It carried everything I needed for a day’s decoying. This consisted of 20 HH inflatable decoys, which flattened to next to nothing, a machete for cutting branches to make a hide – I couldn’t afford camouflage nets – 20 hazel sticks for setting up shot birds, four string carriers to hold the bag at the end of the day and those spare cartridges. Thus kitted out,

I could easily walk to my destinatio­n, shoot 100 pigeons and transport everything back to the truck in one journey. Indeed, on one memorable occasion I shot 110 birds on pea stubble, slung everything over my shoulders but found I did not have the strength to stand up. Unloading the birds and dragging them to a nearby tree, I managed to pull myself to my feet. I could not perform this feat today as the weight would be too much for me – it was around 130lb or 60kg – but the point is I had a brilliant day using a minimal amount of equipment. I don’t think that I would have shot more, even with all the modern gizmos. Fast forward and my list of kit has expanded in time with my waistline. That said, most of the equipment has been added

“Modern gear has made us lazy, but we kid ourselves into thinking that this stuff is essential”

 ??  ?? Peter is not so worried about his hide blending in, though it is a good idea to have one appropriat­e colour
Peter is not so worried about his hide blending in, though it is a good idea to have one appropriat­e colour
 ??  ?? Pigeon shooting in the 1970s was a different affair
Pigeon shooting in the 1970s was a different affair

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