Parkerised wood pigeons

[david ross]

:) Hi All
A good days shooting wood pigeons from a hide on clover over decoys
23 pigeons 2 crows plus a maggpie. With my mate Mick a real nice day out
and the old parker performed well:cool: as usual.

All the best Dave:bigbye:

[Stephen Hastie]

Weldone David looks like you had a good day for time of year,

Steve

[david ross]

Thanks Steve.
Nice to get a reply from a Brit member were do you live may be we could meet up some
day ?
All the best Dave.

[Dean Romig]

Good shooting David!

[Destry L. Hoffard]

I've shot wood pigeon in Dorset, really a lot of fun, wish we had them here in the States.

Destry

[david ross]

Destry.
Was the passenger pigeon like a wood pigeon in size ect ? When did it die out and why and how ? Was it just shooting and if so did the old parker guns help in it's demise?
I wish you did have wood pigeon thay are good fun to shoot and you get every shot in the book a real sporting bird.
Thanks Dave.

[Stephen Hastie]

Hi David I am down in deepest devon (Plymouth)

Stephen

[william faulk]

Are these wood pigeons good to eat like doves?

Bill

[Destry L. Hoffard]

It was mostly habitat loss more than shooting.

When the large hardwood timber tracts in the eastern US were cut they disappeared. They fed on mast for the most part, if there aren't any trees producing the nuts then millions of birds don't have anything to eat. They nested in colonies of millions, if the timber isn't there to nest in they don't nest. People want to say they were killed off, that's just not the case. There were too many, it wouldn't have been possible, habitat loss did them in.

They were smaller than the wood pigeon, but bigger than our mourning dove, though very similar in shape. I've seen some mounted examples over the years, even had a chance to buy one once.

I'm sure a lot of these old Parker hammer guns, particularly ones that were used for live pigeon shooting, have killed Passenger Pigeons.


Destry

[david ross]

Destry
Very interesting you learn some thing new ever day.
Thanks Dave.

[Destry L. Hoffard]

I'd love to get back over there someday and do a few days on the pigeons, we only had a morning of it and I was hooked. Did a bit in Northern Ireland once but the birds were scarce so we only had a few.

Destry

[david ross]

Yes Bill they are very tasty i suppose they taste like doves?
Thanks Dave.

[david ross]

Destry
If you do get over the pond look me up i'le try to get you a few pigeons.
All the best Dave.

[Francis Morin]

What are the two blue ribbons tied to the mesh blind for. Do you eat those suckers, or do you do what I do with the dead and dying barn pigeons- use them for training my Lab Khartoum to retrieve with a soft mouth? Then they get dumped in the farmer's manure spreader- sort of a 'recycling move' one might say. I have had barn pigeons come into my plastic crow decoys at times, and along with the mourning (and afternoon and even evening) doves, there is no more challenging airborne feathered target than the pigeon with a good stiff breeze a blowin'. How do your Brit buddies feel about you using a plebian old Parker, a shotgun your Sir Hugh Bertie Campbell once referred to as a "crudely made weapon suitable only for farmers and ploughmen"?? Not a Boss or a Purdey, ey wot?? But dead birds in the bag are how the score should be kept, and it is the man behind the shotgun that counts. The best barn pigeon shooter I have ever known used a beat-up Ithaca LeFever Nitro Special, I have shot with him many times and it wasn't unusual for him to kill 45 birds from 2 boxes of shells (50 over here in The Colonies). I'd love to try flighting wood pigeons from a blind over decoys, I am sure you get a great variety of shots in a day's outing-- Cheerio!!:bigbye::bigbye:

[Destry L. Hoffard]

Dave,

I appreciate the invite, you never know but I might actually take you up on it. My good friend I always shot with in the UK has slowed down a lot in the past few years so we've not made a trip in a long time.


Destry

[Stephen Hastie]

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

[Francis Morin]

[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..:nono::nono:

[david ross]

Hi Francis.
The two blue ribbons you see are in fact paint roller poles i use these to hold up the nets and as pigeons see only shades of grey thay don't see thay are blue if it works use it. I do eat them and cooked right thay are very nice and
yes you are right thay do make a very challenging shot. As for Sir Hugh Campbell he can stick his head up his arse :whistle: if he thinks a PARKER is a
crudely made gun me and my buddies are all working class guys so we don't
all have Purdeys or Boss guns i wish we did ? We buy the best we can afford
and enjoy them.They all like my vhe Parker and all think it's a very well made
gun Russ my main shooting buddie has asked me to leave it to him in my will
HA HA HA . When we shoot pigeons i think two cartridges per bird is good
average or less if you can sometimes three or four on a bad day. Over here
pigeon shooting used to be a poor mans sport not so now money is takeing
over.But it is still the best and most testing shooting going in my book. The
best bag i ever had was 364 picked up plus few lost with a buddie over rape
stubble in 1996 that was red letter day to remember the good old days:rotf:
If you ever get the chance at the old wood pigeons go for it.

All the Best Dave. :bigbye:

[Francis Morin]

A man after me own black Mick heart-- I like what our late writer and alpha male Ernest Hemingway did what that phrase- when he was a correspondent in the Spanish Civil War 1936-1940 (aka- a dress rehearsal for Goering's Luftwaffe and the dreaded Stukas) he wired home for more funds, and when the terse reply came back- asking him, the great "Don Ernesto" Hemingway for a detailed accounting- he then replied back "Upstick-Asswise" as apparently his spare with words writing style and the price of a Western Union reply dictated brevity--

I shoot pretty much well-worn lower grade 12 bores, all with double triggers, most have ejectors- ejectors are nice for rapid reloading on a driven bird shoot, but if you reload, and want the empties, then you need to remember to catch them in your hand as you unbreech your gun. My working Parker is a 12 GHE with 28" barrels choked Imp. Cyl. right hand tube and a tight Mod. left hand tube- perhaps your 1/4 and 3/4 chokes, and it is my "go to" pheasant gun--it patterns evenly with any 2 & 3/4" or RST 2 & 1/2" length shell, any shot size- WK stamp on the barrels, No 2 frame size. I also shoot 12 LC Smiths.

I have the new book about Hemingway's guns, he was an avid shotgunner, great live bird (box birds and columbaire) competitor- but very practical and even a bit frugal in his purchase- he almost always bought used guns from A&F or friends in Europe, won a Browning O/U, believe the only two guns he bought new were the same two I would choose if I could only have one Center Fire rifle and one shotgun to cover everything I wanted to kill- his 1903 Springfield G&H custom 30-06 and a 12 gauge Winchester M12 pump 30" full he bought new in 1928 after the success of his WW1 novel "A Farewell To Arms"-- He often said- "A gun is to shoot" and he most certainly proved that in his days afield, here and in Africa and elsewhere.

Your Gough Thomas, a man with I believe an engineering background, once described the American shotgun invention - the pump action repeater-- and being suited to the natural motions of a shooter from recoil and recovery. I have always wanted to shoot one of my 7 Winchester M12's against a Brit with his matched pair of ejector double guns- he can have his four shells and the flunky to reload the emptied gun, I'll take the 3 shot plug out of my "pet" 12 and load it with 4 rounds, one in the chamber and three "in the pipe" and we'll see what's afoot.

2 shells per bird- incoming, flaring, wind factors, is Damn fine shooting. Our late shotgunning Force majeur- T. Nash Bucking ham once wrote, in his great article "The Dove"--quote: "Any day you can cleanly kill a limit of 15 mourning doves in flight with a carton of hulls (read 25 shells), Mister, you have done yourself proud, and you can walk out of the dove field with your head held high"-- He also wrote in that same great article, quote: "When you've blotted out a high incomer and watch him crumple from the shot, hard hit and well centered, you've had about all of the thrills shotgunning can offer a man"--:bigbye::bigbye::bigbye:

[David Dwyer]

I have shot wood pigeon down in Argentina and a lot more fun that doves. In a good spot on a creek by a roost you can shoot the Wood Pigeon leaving the roost and the ducks coming into the creek. Makes for a right sporting morning.
Follow that with an afternoon shooting Perdiz over dogs and that is as good s it gets for me.
David

[Destry L. Hoffard]

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]

Thanks for the reply Fancis.
I don't know much abount Ernest Hemingway but he sounds interesting may get the new
book Hemingways guns.
PS i only shoot 1 for 2 on a good day most days it's more.

[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.

[david ross]

I do and have drank cold beer some times to much ?

[Destry L. Hoffard]

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

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b398/MarketHunter/UKWoodpigeons.jpg

With a BH grade Parker even!

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b398/MarketHunter/UKDogPigeon.jpg

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

[Mark Parela]

A regular Major Archie Coats there.

[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.

[Destry L. Hoffard]

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

[Destry L. Hoffard]

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

[Destry L. Hoffard]

Argentina is a good trip, I've been down there before. Lots of shooting, good food, and good times. But it's not a wildfowling trip to the UK by a long shot, that's really an experience.

No 10 gauge ammo in Argentina, just 12 and 20 gauge, you couldn't carry enough with you on the plane to warrant the trouble of taking the 10 gauge along either. I'm actually thinking of taking all humpback autoloaders, a 12 gauge straight grip A5, and a 20 gauge pistol grip Model 11. I don't own the 20 gauge as of yet but I've got my eye on a nice one I might buy in the next week or so.


Destry