Parkerised wood pigeons

[quote=Stephen Hastie;38827]Bill wood Pigeons are very good to eat there some good recipes for them in most game cookery books. one of my favorites is Pigeon Pate yum yum.

Steve[-- My now late pigeon shootin' pal with the well-worn LeFever Nitro Special grew up in the "Dust Bowl Dirty Thirties" near Terre Haute IN- on a large farm, loaded with "airborne poopsters". His Mother would cook the tender ones she called "squabs" and her test was to straddle the back of the deceased poopster with her hand and squeeze the rib cage, if they sprung back, it was a young and possibly tender birdie- if not, it was an old-timer and was dumped down the old "two-holer" and later dusted with unslaked lime-or fed to the barn cats. With a 12 foot capacity chest freezer in the cellar full of pheasant, ducks, Canadas and venison- eating the pigeons that fall to my 12 bores, not a really pressing issue, for the nonce anyway..

[MarketHunter]

I've had the wood pigeon baked in a pie and it was excellent.

The morning I spent on them in Dorset wasn't a big day but fun none the less, I think we killed about 30 between the three of us.

The Northern Ireland strain is larger than the ones down in England. I'd heard that but didn't quite believe it, once I killed my first I got to be a believer. It was considerably larger than the ones we'd shot in Dorset.

I'm envious of the magpie, never had a chance to shoot one on my trips over there. Did get to shoot a few carrion and hooded crows, always nice to write another species down on the life list.


Destry


P.S. to C Grade: I wanted to shoot pigeons when I was in Argentina but they didn't have any concentrations on their leases. Going again for my birthday in June, hopefully we'll get into a few on that trip. I did managed to kill a few out duck shooting but a real shoot on them down there would be interesting.

[david ross]

Destry.
Yes we do shoot carrion crows and magpies plus jays.
Crows are real pest on sheep farms so i allways try to shoot them when i can.
Thanks Dave.

[MarketHunter]

Here's a couple of me on my wood pigeon shoot:



With a BH grade Parker even!



My friend Jerry's dog bringing one in, out of my only double that day I believe.

[david ross]

Destry.
Nince to see you in the flesh. I hope you had good day on the rape crop as it can be a
very hard crop to keep the pigeons comeing for regular shooting . It used to be good when there was one or two fields in your farm and no more in the area.Now there is a
lot of rape grown every where so the birds have more choise. You can still get good bags
but not as good as i used to be in the good old days.
All the best Dave.

[Boxbirder]

A regular Major Archie Coats there.

[MarketHunter]

There was a lot more flesh to see in those days, I'm down about 65 pounds as of the last time I stepped on the scale.

I took a ton of pictures on that trip, it was probably the best I had, but something happened to my film and very few of them actually came out. So it's just mostly my memories, plenty enough for me thankfully.

In two weeks I flighted pinkfoot geese and ducks outside Aberdeen, decoyed greylag geese in Perthshire, did driven pheasants in the Dorset Hills, driven woodcock near Oakhampton, driven ducks again in Dorset, the wood pigeon shoot in Dorset, decoyed ducks on Poole Harbor, plus another goose flight on feral canadas in Dorset.

To say I was well traveled and well gunned would put it mildly. My English friends really know how to show a visiting shooter a good time. I'd go again in a minute but my main shooting friend over there has really slowed down the past couple of years. I need to give him a call actually, we've not spoken in ages.


Destry

[charlie cleveland]

destrey that was some hunt..i hope you get to return to that place soon... that piegon gun did not look like the usal 10 ga i see you carrying...look like it had short barrels... charlie

[MarketHunter]

It was a good one, as good a time as I ever had with a gun. I doubt I ever get to do anything like it again, the stars were aligned perfectly for all that to happen.

The gun is my old super beater BH I bought from Muderlak years ago. It's a 12 gauge, 28 inch barrels, choked cyl and light imp cyl, barrels have been cut from 30 inch. I took it over there as an all around gun for the game shooting.

I used an 8 gauge on the geese, everything else was 12 gauge work. I had a 10 bore along but the English loaded shells that were available to me were so hot they made it jump open when I fired it. I never saw a 10 gauge shell act that way except the old 3 1/2 inch 1 7/8 ounce bismuth factory loads, those are super super hot and will wreck a gun as well.


Destry

[charlie cleveland]

i hope them stars get alighned for me like they did for you some day... yep i believe your hunt was what they call the hunt of a life time.... may be your hunt back to argentia will be as good...will you carry the mag 10 with you down there... charlie