Whether stalking Antelope on the African plains, foxes in the fields of Southern England
or this
feral pigeons in a farmers barn in Staffordshire.
You have to approach your quarry carefully and with plenty of fore thought.
You can tell this is a perfect enviroment for feral pigeons,
there's a grain store, there's plenty of feed in here.
The rafters provide great places to roost
you can see by the floor there is plenty of scat,
these guys obviously live in here full time.
Just going to make our way around the barn; just nice and steady just using all of these
bags and machinery as cover.
Using these Zeiss range finding binos
Because it is a big shed, we do need to make sure that we're checking our ranges.
The rifles zeroed for fifteen yards and thirty five yards
it probably shoots about an inch high at twenty.
But any further than that 40, 50 yards shots there's a couple of inches difference and
we don't want to be causing any damage to the asbestos or to the wooden framework here.
So we're going to make our way around and see what we can find.
You see those two up there on the rafter; on the beam?
I'm going to take the one on the left, you're going to take the one on the right.
On three.
Ok.
Got it.
OK, you ready?
Yep
1...2...3
Is that 1, 2, 3 or 1, 2, 3.
On 3. 1,2 3.
This is a livestock feed protection exercise.
Well done mate.
Once we've planned our approach the shooting can begin.
There's two more up there, reload, I'll take the left, you take the right.
1...2
Good shot mate, well done!
OK, It's about 25 yards.
I've been lucky so far, these guys these pigeons haven't been shot for a while.
I'm lucky, the good thing is these air rifles, these Daystate Air Rangers are very quiet,
mines got a silencer on with a carbine barrel
and Keiths has just got a shrouded barrel.
So we've taken a few shots, we've missed a couple but they don't seem overly concerned
they're flying out, just flying around a couple of times and coming back in.
So if we just hold fire for a little bit, we should get a few more shots.
So, pretty good day so far, that's 8 in the bag so what we've got to do now, we've pretty
much shot this out
why don't we head back to Fonty's place and see what we can do in the sheds.
See if we can get some more up there.
Let's do it.
So we're in between barns and we've got 5 minutes just to run through the equipment
I've been using today.
Today is ranger day, both from my clothing and also my rifle.
This is a Daystate Air Ranger.
Now I've been using a Daystate Air Ranger 80 on my travels in Zimbabwe which is the
higher powered version.
This is a sub 12 foot pound standard version but in its tactical form
It's got a black duracoat stock, highly protected,
it's also got a carbine barrel with Airstream Mark 5 silencer.
It's in 177 calibre as I said, although I do shoot 25 and 22 FAC versions for larger
game
in and around buildings you really don't need the extra power.
Shot placement is more important, both in terms of dispatching the quarry and also not
causing unnecessary damage to buildings.
So on top of that I've got my Lightstream 4.5-14x44 as I mentioned, now this is a very
good quality scope
it retails for around 400 quid but the quality of optics is outstanding.
This is the same scope that I used on my hunter field target competition rig to great success.
So because of the quality of the lens it means you can go into and out of buildings
and where-as your eyes are transitioning with the light it still delivers a very good sight
picture.
So this is an excellent combination, it's done very well today.
Keith has been using the standard version of the Daystate Air Ranger which has a wooden
stock and a slightly longer shrouded barrel so you don't need the silencer and he's used
it to great effect too.
So on to my clothing, from the bottom we're in and around farmyards and we all now what
exists on the floor there
so I've got my wellies on, the are Lacrosse Alpha Burleigh Sport side tips.
So moving up, Ranger trousers and Ranger jacket.
Now the Ranger outfit from Rivers West is proabably there most vesatile range of clothing
there's plenty of storage options both chest and bellows pockets so you can carry all your
gear around with you
you don't need to use a rucksack.
Obvioulsy we've been hunting in and around barns and the car has been close by
so we didn't need to take much gear any way.
But even if you're on an extended stalk and you're some way away from your car you can
take your ammunition you can take your knife and tissues if your
Killer to make sure you can clean yourself up
so it's a fantasticly versatile jacket.
The most important thing we've been using today as you've seen on video
is these
these are the Zeiss Victory 10x45 Range Finding Binoculars.
Now, I'm very keen on safety and it's very important when you go into the barn you can
get a good sight and see exactly where the pigeons are.
Now you don't want to be putting your rifle scope up there and scanning the beams with
your rifle scope
because pointing a loaded weapon is obvioulsy not the safest way to do things,
and these binoculars are very good, they've got perfect temperature for low light conditions
and they're very crisp clear lenses.
Of course a little bit expensive but what it does it gives you the opportunity of not
only
spotting the game but range finding exactly how far away it is.
So it's worth the extra money if you can afford to stump up for these.
So, that's what we've been using, we're off to Fonty's now to see what we can find in
this afternoon stalk.
You need the farmer on your side and you need the farmer to know that you're on his side.
The reason we've called you in is because the pigeons there are destroying the crops
they're causing messes in the barns which slows the growth stages.
So you boys have come in to control the numbers so we're not going to have this damage in
future.
What sort of mess do they cause in the barns?
The sheds of course, muck and everything over the machinery which burns the paint and that
sort of thing
we're also guess it will keep them out of the crop stores which are food stores, they'll
get in through any available gap and there's defecating within the food stores which you
don't want.
Back at the shooting and the ferals are still providing plenty of challenges.
Another pigeon has just flown into the barn over here and Keith hasn't had a brilliant
day shooting.
It's not up to his usuall high standard.
So a little bit of an argument over who should take the shot as I like to make sure the bird
goes in the bag
but you know Killer is pretty keen, pretty confident he can get it so it's down to you
know Killer.
So Keith, what do you have to say?
Watch and learn.
There's actually 2 birds in here, so what we're going to do is on three
we're going to see how Bonnie trots.
Mr H 1, Mr Killer 0.
For the record, that was Ian's shooting.
Bring it on, come on, bring it on.
Come on.
So look at the mastery, man over beast.
Come on you.Here.Here. Bring it on. Good dog.
Are you having a few problems?
Yeah, I'm going to have to go in.
Be brave Killer.
As you can see Keith is a highly trained gun dog handler, he is still trying to get that
bird from that Soft Mouth Spaniel over there.
This is not unusual if you've experienced seeing Keith operate in the field, this is
pretty much par for the course.
You can faintly here the sound of Benny Hills theme tune in the background playing, it's
not going to get any better, we might get that bird back in one piece.
And he's been succesful.
That'll be my glove then.
Entusiastic lttle fellas.
As you can see perfect heart shot, just above the chest in the crop area.
When you're shooting pigeons inside it's always best to go for something which has got a
good size target area.
Obviously the best shot is a head or a neck shot, by the time you get through the feathers
the neck is actually very small, the head bobbing around all the time
you might not get a clean shot and you might hit the building.
Luckily for me, this thing as you saw, it dropped straight away, it died straght away
and I've got all these helpful retreivers to help me pick my birds.
So come on then guys.
So we've had a great day, we've knocked over 12, Mark's really happy, the Air Rangers have
performed perfectly. We're going to go back in a couple of weeks time and stay on top
of them.