Shooters Diary

This feature of our website is designed to help you guys find the pigeons on your own ground. If we know what they’re feeding on at any given time of the year, we know where to start looking for them. This part of the website will be updated on a regular basis and all the information will be based on our own reconnaissance here in Norfolk.
Please take into account that crop growth and pigeon activity may vary from region to region depending on local temperatures and rainfall.

January 2012

It’s more of the same for this month although we do have one day's pigeon shooting over some winter rape. A nice bag is shot by father & son sharing a hide. The birds are decoying well and a stiff breeze helps the day along. Two more walked-up days during Jan, both are a big hit with the guns. One of our novice guns shoots his first partridge followed just a minute or two later by his first pheasant. We can’t get the smile off his face for ages – well done Seb. We are having fun trying to pin down the ducks and geese on one of our flight ponds. Firstly they are using the pond in the evenings, then they switch to using it for a morning feed. We change our plan accordingly only to find that they’ve switched back to an evening feed on the pond - back to plan “A”. Just as well that I do the reccie properly as the evening flight produces a bag of 25 greylags and 12 mallard & widgeon and four very happy customers (see the photo in our gallery). A flood of emails and phone calls ensure that my diary is filling rapidly with people wanting to come pigeon shooting during Feb, March and April. There seems to be lots of pigeons around Norfolk this year so things are looking good for some big bags of woodies this spring.

December 2011

No one is interested in my pigeons, they all want game and duck again this month. We have some lovely 150 and 200 bird days this month and although the weather is not as cold as we would like it, the birds seem to be where they should be and we keep hitting the bag. We take a team of novice shooters on a walked-up day and they have a real blast. Loads of shots for around 6 pheasants but they all shoot something and all really enjoy their day. Most importantly we keep it 100% safe with a good safety briefing and good instruction throughout the day. They are already planning the same again for next year. A couple of outings on the duck pond this month but other than that it’s all been driven game.

November 2011

This month has been all about pheasant and partridge days with some lovely teams of guns, everyone has been safe and everyone has had fun. I’ve certainly made some new friends this game season and I’ve a feeling I’ll be seeing more of them before the season ends. The duck shooting is proving difficult as most of the flight ponds are still dry due to the lack of rain during spring and summer. We have one deep pond that still has just enough water and that produces a bag of 19 ducks and geese for a group of 4 guns one evening. The following week we have a morning flight not far from the Norfolk Broads and our team of 10 guns shoot a bag of 75 + mainly ducks but a few geese thrown in for good measure. If one or two of the guns had been a little more patient and let the birds come into range of their guns the bag could have been much bigger. All good fun and some great sport !

October 2011

The pigeon shooting is going really well with consistently good bags being achieved mainly on wheat stubbles. We’ve had to change the way we’re doing things and it’s really paying off. I’ve been setting my decoys using mainly dead birds in cradles with a landing/floater at the front of the patters and a rocking cradle with a dead bird or a flapper with a dead bird on the other side of the pattern. Mostly the birds are completely fooled and have been decoying right in with many of them touching down amongst the decoys for a few seconds. If you can get them decoying this well it works wonders for your averages. We’re really getting going with the game shooting this month with me attending 4 driven days already, I love this time of year as shooting becomes a real social event. Right at the end of the month the pigeons are starting to gather into winter flocks. There are noticeably more pigeons in my area thank the Lord, but they’ve found the acorns as I thought they eventually would. If the numbers of pigeons around Norfolk continues to increase at this rate, the farmers will be shouting for help on the rape fields this winter – lovely !!!

September 2011

This month the duck and partridge seasons start although very little chance of duck as almost all the flight ponds are as dry as a bone due to the lack of rain. Still loads of pigeon shooting going on and some quite respectable bags being shot on the wheat stubbles and autumn wheat drillings. Looks like a massive acorn crop this year and at some point the pigeons will switch their attention to the acorns but not just yet. The bean harvest is under way but apart from two guns having one really good session, the pigeons don’t show much interest in the bean stubbles at all this month. After using rotaries extensively for the last 6 or 7 years, I’ve decided to use flappers and floaters for a while. The birds are recognising the rotary movement as a danger sign around this area. They take one look as they come into the field and flare away like a rocket. Once the numbers of juveniles increase as the breading season draws to an end, we’ll use the whirlies again as the young birds who haven’t seen it before will come straight to it. But for now we’re giving it a rest. By the back end of this month the birds are suspicious of anything that looks remotely like a decoy, hardly surprising as we’ve chased them like crazy for the past four months. We have our first driven partridge day on 30th Sept. and what a hoot. The birds fly well, the guns who all work together have a great time with loads of banter. That’s how I like my game days, great fun had by all.

August 2011

As we get into high summer the combines are working on the wheat fields and the big round bales that are left on the fields of stubble give us the opportunity to get out from the hedge rows and build our hides exactly where we want them. Push two bales together and put some hide netting across and you can shoot right out in the middle of the field if that’s where the pigeons are working. Right through the summer we are booked solid and as one group leaves us, we’re doing reccie looking for pigeons for the next group who will arrive within a day or two. That means very little R&R again this summer. We’ve had Swedes, Danes, Finns, a German and even some English. All lovely people and they all went away with a big smile on their face. Good accommodation, good food and some damn fine pigeon shooting, what more could you wish for. No really huge bags have been shot but we keep finding good sport for the clients and they are consistently shooting 30 – 50 bird bags. On one day two Danes shot 120 + from two hides.

July 2011

We would normally be shooting pigeons in laid patches of wheat and barley this month but no such luck this year. The spring drought stopped the corn from growing tall and we’ve had hardly any rain through early summer to knock the corn down. We have had to rely on the rape fields and make the most of the pigeons feeding in the tram-lines and around the edges of the barley and wheat. We have made the most of a failed crop of wheat that the farmer ploughed at Aylsham, the emptying of septic tanks on this field along with the wheat laying around just pulled the pigeons in big numbers. This resulted in some 50 + bags and kept my clients happy. By mid July one of my farmers swaths his rape (cut and left in rows to dry). He harvests the rape this way every year and it always brings in big, big numbers of pigeons to feed amongst the rows of crop. This year there were noticeably less birds than in previous years, a reflection of the reduced numbers around this area. However the hundreds of acres of rape this man grows provided some great shooting with plenty of 40, 50 & 60 bags and we gave him A1 crop protection as always. As we reach the end of July the combines are on the fields in big numbers and we are fully booked with everyone wanting to shoot on the stubbles.

June 2011

Still not many woodies along the east side of the UK and this makes doing lots of reccie very important. Some times I’m doing two days reccie for one days pigeon shooting. The most important thing is timing, it’s pointless doing loads of miles looking for pigeons if it’s not feeding time for the birds. This time of year the days are long and the birds will do an early morning feed then sit in the trees for the rest of the morning. They get moving again around midday so no point it wasting loads of fuel looking for pigeons in the morning. You’ve got to be there when the birds are moving around and feeding. I’ve been telling my clients that it’s pointless rushing up to my place early in the morning, because the pigeons won’t be around and you’ll be phoning me every 30 minutes saying there’s no birds here. Have a nice breakfast, take your time, lets go and set up at 11.30am so we are ready when the birds come to the field to feed. That way we can shoot a good bag of woodies without dying of boredom during the morning. The very cold winter followed by a very dry spring meant that some of the rape crop failed and had to be re drilled during early spring time. This gave the pigeons some spring rape to hit. That gave us the opportunity to give some good crop protection and shoot some respectable bags. The really big bags of 100 + just aren’t possible as we don’t have enough pigeons in the east of England right now to produce those kind of numbers. However, we have been shooting regular bags of 50/60 birds which is a great days sport and damn good crop protection for the farmers.

May 2011

Now I normally don’t bother with woodies during May, but this year summer has come very early. During April, the pigeons thought it was May and were nesting and feeding on new leaves & buds. When we got to May, the birds thought it was June and started to get on the move again – it’s what you call getting caught with your pants down. I had to cancel lots of bookings during April due to lack of pigeons and during May when I normally wouldn’t book pigeon shooting, there were plenty of birds getting into several fields of spring rape, but no clients to shoot them. Only one answer, I had to go out and shoot the buggers myself – it’s a filthy job but some body has got to do it. This kept the farmers sweet and gave my dogs a bit of exercise, it also gave me some badly needed practice shooting woodies from a hide. As we go into June there are still lots of birds concentrated into small pockets around the spring rape and now starting to get into the fields of linseed. We are making the most of it and shooting some very respectable bags of 60+ birds. The birds are feeding on a variety of goodies ranging from spring rape, leaves, especially cherry tree leaves, and even whole cherries are in some pigeon crops. Keep an eye on the barley and wheat fields as the cereal crops will be ready a full month earlier this year.

April 2011

This month starts well but the weather gets hotter and by mid-month the birds think it’s May and have started nesting and feeding on the new leaves and buds that are opening. My back garden is full of pigeons but they are not moving around the open farm land for food. There is an abundance of food right next to where they’ve built their nest. It’s time to stop shooting till they start to feed on the ground again. That will be June and that’s when I will be looking for them again. I have spoken to many pigeon shooters and pigeon guides this month to try to establish exactly where the pigeons have gone. They have left the Eastern Counties completely during this spring. Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridge & Herts. have seen a large decline in pigeon numbers. I’ve heard several theories including the hard winter killing off many of the young and weak birds. I’m told that major pea production has started again in Lincolnshire and pigeons have gone their in large numbers. All of these theories could be a factor in why the birds are so thin on the ground in my area. Do you know where they’ve gone? If you have a theory, let me know.

March 2011

The month starts very badly but by half way through the month pigeons seem to be drifting back to Norfolk. This is helped by the Spring Barley & Beans being drilled very early due to the dry weather. Although we still have nothing like the normal quantity of pigeons here in Norfolk we are working twice as hard to pin down the small numbers that are around the county. The wind has been blowing hard which is making life a little easier for us and on one windy day we pick up 187 birds shot from three hides, not a world record but given the way we’ve struggled over the last two months it brought a smile to my face. Last Feb & March we shot well in excess of 2,000 pigeons. This year, well I’m too embarrassed to say!

February 2011

Another game season over and now we are after the pigeons in a big way. But as often happens in Feb. the pigeons all disappear. I usually put this down to roost shooting in the pigeons roost woods around the area, let’s face it if we blow up the roost woods every Saturday afternoon, we can’t expect the pigeons to stick around for too long. The usual pattern is this, the beaters reward for all their hard work through the game season is permission to shoot the woods on a Saturday afternoon. The first Saturday is always the best because after that first day, the pigeons have got wise to the fact that someone with a gun is waiting for them when they go to roost. The pigeons leave the area, the beater gives up after the second Saturday and the pigeons start to drift back around the middle of the month. However, this year they didn’t come back! This resulted in a really bad February with number of birds shot significantly down on previous years. The fact that the maize strips had been totally stripped by hungry rooks and pigeons during the heavy snow in Dec. & Jan. didn’t help at all. The few birds that were in the area were feeding on rape and sugar beat tops.

January 2011 Happy New Year.

As we get into January the snow starts to clear and the flight ponds are slowly thawing out. We get back into the pigeon shooting a little more this month and people are wanting to book pigeon days for Feb/March Darren and his dad Murray shoot a lovely bag of 60 birds from one hide on sugar beat tops. Well done lads.

As the snow recedes they start the sugar beat harvest again and the pigeons who are all very under weight and under nourished hit the fields to fill up on sugar beat and the energy it gives them. That and rape will provide the main diet for the pigeons this month. The game cover strips will prove very popular too if there’s any corn left on the cobs.

We can get back onto the flight ponds and we’re shooting some great bags, one group of 4 guns shoot a whopping 40 plus bag including teal, mallard, graylag, Canada and Egyptian geese. That’s followed by two guns shooting around 15 birds, mainly mallard and at the time of typing this; we’ve still got a few more evening flights to go before the season ends. Sadly the end of the game season is upon us, but don’t worry lads, we’ve still got the pigeons.

COME TO NORFOLK AND HAVE SOME FUN !

Good shooting and if you can't get on the fields during the game season...give me a call.