Hints and Tips

One of our visitors was using shot birds in craddles as decoys, he had brought the dead birds with him from his freezer. As i helped him clear-up, to my surprise, i realised that the breasts were missing from the dead birds. He explained, he removes the breast fillets and freezes them for future use. He then uses what's left of the bird as a decoy !
What a great idea.............Do'nt waste anything will you. He probably uses the breast feathers down his boots to keep his feet warm.

A lovely lad from Yorkshire named John told me that if you want to shoot rook's, put a dead rook on one arm of your magnet and a plastic
bird of prey on the other. He says that any passing rook will bomb the magnet. Lets hope he doesn't score a direct hit. Those magnets cost a fortune (nearly said a bomb).

Darren from Colchester says, try using your magnet as a scarer to get the birds to the part of the field that you're shooting. Cut up one of those high vis. jackets into strippes. Put some of the strippes onto the arms of the whirly and turn the bugger on. Put it on the far end of the field that you're shooting, or a neighbouring field to redirect the birds to where you're shooting.
What a wacky idea............Darren, what is it about Balfore Beatty that the birds don't like ?

Back to the rook's again, I'm told that if you've got a stuffed fox and you put it in a field, the rook's will mob it, giving you the chance of shooting them. Who finds these things out and what the hell are they doing with a stuffed fox in the first place.
Now one of those fox wraps like your nan used to wear would be cool.

While shooting over standing barley two summers ago with my nephew Pigeon-Stu, we were discussing the problem of making our decoys visable to passing birds in the tall crop.
Suddenly, I had an idea. I proceeded to attach shell decoys to one metre long bamboo canes, you just need some canes and masking tape and Bob's your uncle.
Stu thought this hilerious and fell about, but soon shut-up when the birds started to notice the decoys above the standing crop and came to investigate, presenting us with some nice shooting.
I now use the canes when shooting over any tall crops or game cover strips.
You can also use dead birds on the canes, simply lean the canes at an angle and let the birds wings hang loose. Or, using masking tape again, attach dead birds in cradles to the canes.
WHAT A GREAT IDEA BOB !!!

When setting out your decoy pattern on spring drillings, leave more space between your decoys than you would on say rape, or most other crops that you shoot over.
If you get the opportunity, watch the birds feeding on a freshly drilled field. You will notice that the birds are well spread out as they cover a large area very quickly looking for spilt seed laying on the ground.
Keep your decoys generally head into wind, but turn them at left and right angles to simulate birds searching the surface for food . The birds will clear all the loose seed in just a few days, so if the birds are there, get a move on or you'll miss the opportunity.