As you may know, I have an old Butler grain bin on our property that lots of pigeons use to roost/nest in. Yesterday I drove in 4 fence posts and used some old pallets to set up a blind in the bottom of a ditch about 22 yards from the front and 25-26 yards to the top. After sunset, near dark the pigeons come home to roost. They circle a few times, set their wings and swoop in. Some of them dive right into the 3' diameter access hole while others hover and land on the edge before jumping in. Last night my 4 year old and I sat in the blind until dark (7:45 to 8:30) and shot 5 pigeons off the top.
Tonight WadeS and I were spraying weeds when we decided to go pigeon shooting. We drove across the road to our neighbor's place and he happily gave us permission to blast away. We spent about 3-4 minutes shooting in the barn before they all escaped through holes in the roof. They must have had some evacuation drill practiced because they were gone quickly. We ended up getting 7 in those few minutes. We then went outside and shot at some more birds. One was sitting on a power line about 75? yards away. We both shot a few times and missed. On my third shot I aimed 3 mil-dots high and hit the wire it was sitting on. Next shot 3 1/2 mil-dots high and WHACK! Down it went. Another bird landed on the same line about 5 yards further and Wade shot my 850 2X, hitting it on the second shot, about 4 mil-dots high. A few minutes later a starling landed on top of the barn about 38 yards away. Pfffttttt-WHACK. It just folded and rolled off the first part of the roof, gaining speed all the way. We were hoping it would slide off the lower roof but it didn't. Maybe another critter will get a free meal.
We then went back over to the blind as it was getting close to dusk. Wade and I had thrown some weeds over it and it was great camo. We ended up getting 6 more. Totals: 13 pigeons, 1 starling and 2 other birds. Not bad for 1 1/2 hours shooting. The first pic is of the bin from inside the blind (before weeds added). The second pic is looking at the blind from on top of the bin with WadeS in the blind. The third pic is of the pigeons. We used a split frame shot so it may look odd.
Doug
