February is a great month to get on top of wood pigeons. The birds are mature and every
one you knock down counts as it prevents their future offspring from damaging crops later
in the year. Team Wild's 'Killer' and 'Wildy' are in the middle of one of the busiest pigeon
shooting months of their year.
Today they are on a farm in Staffordshire and they are out to protect Farmer Fonty's
precious rape crop from this winged menace.
We've been watching this field for a couple of days now and there's been quite a lot of
wood pigeons coming in and feeding on it. So we're going to give it a go this morning
and see if we can get some down with the decoys.
The first job is setting out the pattern, drawing those pigeons in like moths to a flame.
Wildy looks after the real birds on the 'whirly'.
In proper 'Blue Peter' fashion we always carry a few in the freezer so I fetched them out
of the freezer last night to put them on the magnet so we're not waiting for anything to
come in and have a shot. So when we are set up and ready to rock, we are ready to rock,
not waiting for anything to do the magnets or the dead bird cradles that we've got here.
So I'm just going to whack these ones on now before I put the plastic ones out.
They'll see the other pigeons going around on the magnets and on the dead bird cradles
and they think 'dinner time, look at them boys over there' and then they come.
So it's just to bring movement into the pattern, which will hopefully get them all round here. The
ones that are crossing over on the flight lines and bring them in to where we want to
shoot them.
Killer is in charge of the plastic ones.
We've got some flock coated decoys here. Pigeons, just shell decoys but they've got a flock
coating on them it stops the sun shining and any bright light shining back off them.
It takes a bit of glare off them and makes them a bit more realistic. So I'm going to put
these out in a horseshoe pattern, the idea being we'll bring the birds straight in, straight
down the middle of us straight to the shooting zone.
I'm putting these birds up today onto like a spring-loaded peg. Just adds a bit of movement
and the idea is you want to get as much movement into your decoy pattern as well.
That's why we have the whirlys, the flappers and these.
Decoys into the wind, so they are facing into the wind so that any wind catches the bird
and just gives it that slight bit of movement and makes it more attractive to the passing pigeons.
This is not a kit light sport, the boys have a pile of equipment to take into the field
and once there everything has its place. However, this new lightweight hide can save you lugging
around a few extra pounds with its special telescopic legs.
So it's just a case of unlatching these at the back, sliding the hide up,
clicking the latches back down again, putting them all up together at the same time, making sure
you don't pull them out of the ground and there you have one half of a pigeon hide.
Decoys should face more or less into the wind and the hide must be a masterpiece of camouflage.
It's a good thing the boys are top to toe in Realtree.
So, Keith does have problems dressing himself?
All the time, that's why we usually find we have to take Carol everywhere with us.
It's true.
Once everything is in it's place and the countryside has settled back down the pigeons start pouring
in.
There's little food at this time of year, the birds go for anything that looks promising
and these decoys are full of promise, of course its not all hard graft and the banter between
the lads is as regular as the shots.
I've just been up to have a look for that one that Steve 'shot' we found a patch of
feathers up there where it stopped got its breath back, had a bit of a laugh and then
carried on but no body so it's a no kill.
Well that's pigeon shooting eh! It's better than being at work innit. Definitely
Having two people in a hide is sociable but it has its safety issues too of which Killer
and Wildy are keenly aware.
Safety's on.
There are some good shots and some excellent shots which of course the camera misses
This camera is being a bit ropy today, it's missed a couple of shots of yours.
Yeah well, it's good like that because I like Nick, he's a nice man but you know what I mean
Professional -- we use the word loosely around here.
At least Bracken is on hand to prove that all the birds really did hit the deck
We take Bracken everywhere with us she very reliable, very steady in the hide one of the
best springer's I've ever known, in fact she even drives Keith home from the pub every
now and again she's that clever.
There are moments to keep a gun safe and there are moments when a gun needs to be dangerous.
Such as when a pigeon is coming into the pattern and in those dangerous moments it's good to
know you've got the right gun.
Today we've been shooting this Armsan A612 semi-auto shotgun imported into the UK by
Viking Arms. Cracking bit of kit, comes up well, no recoil and for a budget price shotgun
it really is good. We've both shot it today, we've both shot fairly well with the gun,
got a decent bag, very impressed with it.
So, what did Team Wild think of the shooting today?
We've had a great day, we've shot 32 pigeons, we've still got 2 to pick that went of into
an Ash tree, we watched them. We're hoping they'll be dead under there, we'll go fetch
them in a bit. Like I say, we've had a great day shooting, both had good fun and we're
just going to go around now and make sure we've picked up all the cartridges, all the
bags, everything, make it nice and tidy and leave the ground as we found it.
For more about the Armsan A612 shotgun the lads are using visit www.vikingarms.com.
Team Wild TV will be back with a vengeance next Wednesday visit www.teamwild.tv