doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Pigeon shooting/hunting?

Our pesky pigeon is an imported "San Marco". They like an urban environment. "Strolling, strolling through the park, poisoning pigeons after dark." In the country side they are barn pests but not much of an agricultural pest. Great sport and very good fliers. David

I am enjoying the advice and pictures very much! Has anyone shot them in winter? Thanks again!

Kurt

Russ and I have had some very good times pigeon hunting the dairy farm near my home. They can be very challenging targets, especially once the shooting starts. I just told him this fall I'd like to get some decoys and take it a little more serious.

I agree about #6s for pass shooting. Russ killed one at what had to be 60yrds with #5 bismuth one time, stone dead. An expensive pigeon but lots of fun to watch!

If doves were the only gamebirds I were allowed to hunt, I would consider myself blessed and not the least bit cheated. I've spent many happy hours chasing those little grey balls of fluffy feathers, taking many limits in the process with myriad makes and varieties of double guns produced by America's finest makers. Many thanks to Eugene for sharing those photos and great pointers on how the English Wood Pigeon is hunted; sure would be nice to have an opportunity to chase those grand birds some day!
Over the years I've managed to shoot a few pigeons myself, usually over the same grain fields where I was shooting doves; but I've not shot one in several years now as a result of an interesting experience. Some years ago I shared my neighborhood with a real nice guy who was as deeply into pigeon racing as I was into American double guns; he kept and trained dozens of fancy pigeons. While visiting one day, with great pride this guy showed me his finest birds; all of which had won races and ribbons; and were worth hundreds of dollars, and he explained how the guys into pigeon racing banded and ID'd their birds. Sometime afterwards, I moved two counties west and was dove shooting one slow September afternoon, having long forgotten this neighbor and his racing pigeons, when a lone pigeon came zipping by. It's always open season on pigeons in GA; so I immediately think "big dove!" and down he comes. My lab brings me the bird, and you guessed it; it was somebody's high-dollar racer! I've not shot another pigeon since, and I've always hoped that unfortunate pigeon wasn't someone's most prized champion and worth hundreds or even thousands of dollars!

Interesting story topgun. Many years ago, I had virtually exactly the same experience. I still remember the place with tall trees and a clearing in the center. Also, during a dove hunt. Really made me feel sick. Even the recall of it makes me feel bad. It is awfully easy to kill things with a gun. Best, Jake

Wintertime shooting is problematic.

The birds form large flocks, anything up to six or seven hundred strong. Whilst this sounds good it isn't...because they all react as one bird. A couple of shots at them and often enough that's it for the day. Your fieldcraft needs to be on top line and you need a bit of luck to get a decent bag.

A lot of areas where the woodies are feeding form part of driven pheasant or partridge shoots; owners and 'keepers would much rather not have someone disturbing the ground.

Probably the best fun shooting is flighting them into their roost woods. At the end of January the flocks are breaking up and the game shooting has finished, so for a couple of months I'm out and about in the early evenings. I'll take the camera with me this time, though it's a difficult subject; let's see.

I visit each wood no more than once a fortnight to avoid scaring them away. You don't get big numbers; ten would be a really nice score, but they come in high and swinging on the wind, curling and dropping. It's great dog work too, Fido needs to be a good marker (as much by sound as anything) and not frightened to get into heavy blackberry thickets.

One point I omitted from my first post...the European Woodpigeon is about the biggest of all pigeons at around 10-12 ounces. Quite a bit bigger than a US type dove.

Oh yes, racing pigeons have a characteristic flight, much different from a woodies'. In turn the woodpigeon has very distinctive white wing bars; you can see them in the pics I posted. So there isn't much excuse for the one I plugged a few years back!

regards
Eug

Eugene, if those photos were taken yesterday then global warming has really taken hold in your part of the world. I rarely go pigeon shooting now, but when I do I always enjoy it. Probably the most accessible sporting bird in the British Isles. I used to have a Beretta semi auto for the exact same purpose as you until I decided that using one gun all the time should improve my shooting. The folly of this was exposed by dropping my H&H into the Humber mud…. Oh the shame.

They roost on the aluminum stranded wires because the wire is warm from the current going through them.

What Topgun has said is true. Homing pigeons are usually on a mission, and that is to get home, so they are usually flying close to top speed. Barn pigeons usually are in groups and generally flying around in circles around a silo or such.

It is interesting to watch homing pigeons when they are let loose on either a training flight or a race. Most clubs have someone who will take the birds greater distances than you would drive to train them and release them and they will go to their respective lofts. Races on the other hand might have thousands of birds from a lot of clubs especially a 500 mile race. There are birds there that have been specifically bred and with special gold bands placed on them when young, and if these birds come in first, or second there is a lot of money won. The racing band is a piece of plastic with numbers on it and when the bird returns to it's loft and goes into the trap, the owner retrieves the band and puts it in a clock that records the time. Then clock is taken to the club when it is opened and the reading verified and the shortest time wins. They have all kinds of races, young bird, old bird, etc.
Like I said it is interesting to watch the birds released, all at once, they all group up, maybe a thousand birds, they circle 3 times only to get their direction and then head for home, flying up to 50+ miles an hour. On a long hot day race, it is possible some birds might stop for water, but not likely. Also there is a chance that birds could hit wires, get lost, confused, especially young birds.
A note if you ever find a homing pigeon that is lost, most times if you can corner it, you can catch it. Where I used to work before retiring, next to the Delaware River, birds use rivers for direction. I used to see a few homers and caught a few, took them home and nourtured them back and let them go home. Before doing so, take off plastic racing band, this way the owner knows that something happened to the bird and he won't kill it. If you let the bird go with the band on it, he will just think the bird went off and followed other racers, and then the bird is no good to him.

Tried my hand "shooting at" wild pigeons while attending colledge in San Luis Obispo, Ca. about 40 years ago. As I recall we sat about halfway up the side of a canyon and waited for them to fly down it. There were plenty of them but if you blinked they were gone. They were the most difficult bird that I have ever shot at. Didn't hurt the population at all and came away very humble.