doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Pigeon hunting with a 410

Agree with Richard, John and Gil.

I would add that the elephant in the room is this: if they were true homing pigeons they would not be loitering around a feedlot with ferals. They are the ones which didn't go home the last time they were released. Like an escaped prisoner. Most likely their owner had already written them off as lost.

I wondered about that as well. Is it possible that the owner lived next door and that is just where they watered?
I don’t know a lot about homers except that some very dedicated folks have them.

My dad used to race pigeons back in the early 60’s. Occasionally he would not have a pigeon that would not come home. We have used homers for dog training most of these birds are planted about 30 miles from home. Only on rare occasions as I recall did they not make it home.
We have shot a few thousand feral pigeons at dairy’s over the years and only shot one that was banded. I actually felt kind of bad I had killed it but it’s not something you have any control over. After having shot so many pigeons why did I even give a second thought to this pigeon? It was probably due to a childhood memory of my dad checking his pigeon coupe for a number of days hoping his pigeon might have returned.
It clearly was not a sense of, I shot something unique like a hunter does when taking a duck banded for research.