Pigeons

[Mark Ouellette]

Today in close to 90 degree heat thee gallant souls gathered to ambush a flock of unwanted pigeons. Our intrepid wing shots had waited months for an opportunity such as this. The chicken coops were empty for a change of fowl and the owner said, “Come on over and kill those darn pigeons!”

The rule for hunting fowl is to set up where they want to be. That wasn’t possible today for the pigeons wanted to land in a freshly planted cornfield. So the three shooters which included me set up their lifelike decoys and a flying contraption behind the empty coops and waited. Hiding behind small spruce trees and camo nets a half dozen birds buzzed the decoys. Bam, bam, bam but nothing fell. How could a Fox XE upgrade named “Blondie”, a Parker C Grade, and a Lefever 10 gauge not down birds? The fault lay on the shooters and not their guns!

The day proved productive but only marginally so. Total birds was 4. Total shots fired was more than 4!!!

Mark with the AH Fox Blondie and a pair of pigeons and Kurt and his C Grade 12 gauge and a pair.
http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p307/Chesador/Pigeons%202012May20/Pigeons_20MAY12_11.jpg

Joe and his Lefever D Grade 10 gauge.
http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p307/Chesador/Pigeons%202012May20/Pigeons-R_20MAY12_01.jpg

My faithful Chesador named Radar.
http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p307/Chesador/Pigeons%202012May20/Pigeons-R_20MAY12_02.jpg

The field of decoys.
http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p307/Chesador/Pigeons%202012May20/Pigeons-R_20MAY12_05.jpg

[scott kittredge]

love shooting pigeons!, what a nice set up. a few years ago Bob F, and i shot pigeons in jan, 15deg. out with 35 to 40 mph winds. :shock:boy did we have :) fun scott

[Brian Stucker]

Mark, That looks great. I'm in. Cabella's probably has one of those contraptions.

Now I have something to do while waiting for dove season. You guys must've had a good time shooting; I really hate to ask this....do you eat them? Brian

[Mark Ouellette]

Brian,

Forget Cabelas, this is serious specialized equipment!

http://www.soarnomore.com

http://www.sillosocks.com

Mark

[Ed Blake]

90 degrees in Michigan, and it's only May!?

I want to hear more about that decoy rig. I've been looking for something like that.

[Mark Ouellette]

Ed,

Please see the links listed above. The decoys were from Soar No More and the rotary machine and flying decoys were from Sillosocks decoys.

Note, Soar No More recommends a spinning teal decoy for motion.

Respectfully,
Mark

[Destry L. Hoffard]

I've shot pigeons over a spinner in England, they do come into them but you never seen to get the feet down shots you do when you just use decoys. They always seem to just swoops them and that makes the shooting a lot tougher. Sounds like you boys had fun anyway.


Destry

[Daryl Corona]

I use the same set-up for doves. Homemade silhouette pigeon decoys and Robo-dove spinners. They are deadly. Most of the farms I hunt have an abundance of pigeons and the doves are drawn to the set-up as well. Hitting a crossing dove is challenging on its own but when they come cork-screwing into the dekes it is a whole new ballgame.

[Brent Francis]

Your post reminds me of when my cousin and I used to thin out the pigeons from my uncles hog barn. We would go in at night with pellet guns and flashlights. It didnt take long for the hogs to figure out that this was a good thing, When we finished there wasnt a pigeon or even a feather to be found. It was a great sport until the Vet told my uncle that injesting all the feathers was keeping weight off his hogs.

[Grantham Forester]

There was a good article about shooting barn pigeons, out in Idaho- about 4 months ago I recall. These fellows were set up on diary farms, they used decoys- but I think they were off-season goose hunters using pigeons for practice. They were shown using Binelli semi-autoloaders, I am guessing with the 3-shot magazine plugs removed.

[chris dawe]

Shooting pigeon's ? I get the nuisence part , but do you fella's eat them ?.... if so ,how cooked ? .
Just curious ,the only thing I've ever used them for was tightening up the pup's.

Plus we don't have the amount's up here that would cause an issue.

[Destry L. Hoffard]

We tried to eat a couple we killed when I was a kid. They were tough as bullwhip leather. I think there's a good reason people think so highly of the squabs, they've got to be a lot more tender.


Destry

[charlie cleveland]

guess theres no use me trying to eat some piegons since you boys done tried it...aint got false teeth yet but if them things are tuffer than bull whoop leather id soon be wearing some... charlie

[todd allen]

Pigeons are excellent table fare, when properly prepared. They are essentially just large doves. If your results are tough, or liver tasting, they are over-cooked.
Try filleting the breast meat, and stir frying in garlic butter sauce. Cook fast, high heat, serve slightly rare. (pink inside)
Tender and tasty!

[Mark Ouellette]

Gentlemen,

One should not eat pigeons that eat from a field of crap. We shot pigeons near chicken coops.

Pigeons that feed on grain would be excellant eating.

[Destry L. Hoffard]

I've shot geese that had been doing the same thing, picking corn out of the cow piles. We gave those away.....

Destry

[charlie cleveland]

yep my grandpa said he quit eating possums when he saw that one coming outa of a dead cows belly one night while hunting...charlie

[Dean Romig]

Poppycock!! In Vermont the turkeys we shoot in springtime have spent the winter hanging around the manure piles at the dairy farms pickin' corn kernels out of the slurry.

Roy tells us he has a 'herd of turkeys' of around 140 birds that spend the months of deep winter right at his barns.

There is absolutely no difference in flavor and I ain't dead yet... (operative word, "yet")

[Daryl Corona]

I routinely kill doves over spread manure. 40+ years of ingestion, no problems and I'll bet you if tested, they are have less harmfull bacteria than most of the restaurant food you consume. But most of all they are deeelicious.

[Mark Ouellette]

Dean and Daryl,

So that explains it! :)

Mark

[Destry L. Hoffard]

The best one I ever saw was in Scotland. We were shooting some snipe in the sand hills along the shore where there were cattle pastured on the salt hay. We were walking past cow patties pretty regularly and every one looked like somebody had attacked it with a pencil, just poked full of little round holes. I finally asked the gamekeeper what made those and he said "Oh the snipe drill them, there's a little worm that gets in there they like.". I always wondered why snipe tasted so earthy......


Destry

[Eric Grims]

Anyone eating commercial raised warehoused chickens should not have to worry about barn yard pigeons.
If they are real large pigeons I soak them in some buttermilk prior to roasting.