News Shooting

My flapper doesn’t always work when pigeon shooting!

I use an electric flapper for pigeon shooting, and also a pigeon magnet most of the time, yet there are days when they don’t seem to work so well.

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I read an old book recently that recommended lobbing a dead pigeon out of the hide to get a passing bird?s attention.

Do you think such a ploy might still work where the other two have failed?

PIGEON SHOOTING
Peter Theobald
This was a trick the late Archie Coats used to attract the attention of passing pigeons to his pattern, but that was in the days before battery powered gadgets, and shooting pressure was far less.

Whilst there are undoubtedly more pigeons about than ever before, they are also more streetwise, being exposed to said gadgets on almost a daily basis, in some areas.

You have to remember that practically all decoyers use these machines, and if a pigeon has had a nasty fright when responding to one, it is likely to retain that memory, even if only for a couple of days.

Going back to basic fieldcraft, and this is what we are talking about, can sometimes be the answer, but in my experience, gadget-shy pigeons often only respond to real pigeons dropping in to feed, something we cannot replicate perfectly.

My solution is to look for situations where I am certain birds have not been harassed by anyone for at least a couple of days.