Pigeons in Idaho?
 

I received an email this morning soliciting a pigeon shoot in Idaho.
Description sounded like Argentina - shoot all day long? I have never heard any reference to these hunts here or elsewhere.
Has anyone had any experience with a shoot like this? Seems like it could be big fun for a day or two -
I see a few outfitters on the web but always like to hear references.
Thanks in advance. :corn:

I know nothing of the hunts you speak of but I have had conversation with some of our members concerning the numbers of pigeons in Idaho and I have been shocked at their reports of high numbers and volume shooting. This sounds like it could be fun.

Well I've never been to Idaho and I love to shoot so it sounds like a ROAD TRIP to me. Keep me posted if you find anything concrete. Sounds like the perfect venue for a couple of long legged smallbore 20's, 28's.:)

Google Soar No More Pigeon hunting in Idaho. That will explain it all.

Looks rather intresting ! I’d be more inclined to drive out then I could take an assortment of pigeon killers !

The snake river canyon around Twin Falls has always had pigeons. Today there are large feed lots and dairies in the area as well that attract them and they are considered a pest. I think the outfitters are hunting off of these operations.

Here is vintage video of some old pigeon shooters in the Snake river canyon at Twin Falls Idaho. The whole video is great but Look at about the 3:00 minute mark. Not much has changed in this area since then.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDs3lg5ZoCs

PML

The video said that Gary had his eye on some pigeon pie. Looks to me like retrieving those birds out of that Canyon could be a real chore. Fun shooting I would imagine.

I don’t think they even considered retrieving the downed birds.





.

How could Gary make pigeon pie without retrieving some of the downed birds? That is unless pigeon pie refers to something else and I am missing the meaning of pigeon pie which is entirely possible, probable.

Looks like fun and something to do in the off season. Feral pigeons are good eating birds.

That's where I've shot em too!

Patrick, how is "Long Range"? OK, I hope.

Eating Feral pigeons? Ugh. I've shoveled out too many pigeon coops when I was training Springers

The best eating feral pigeons in the pigeon family are the squabs.:eek: Remind me to tell you of some of my squab stories next time we are together.:)

As a kid I can remember seeing old wooden squab boxes at Montpelier in Orange VA . At the tim,e the estate was owned by Marion DuPont Scott . The boxes were left over from years earlier but my grandfather told me the train would come from somewhere in the northeast I think and drop off 10 or 12 boxes filled with squab packed in ice and to the main house they would go .

OK - We are booked for an early August shoot near Twin Falls - Going with a small group of 4 to test this out.
Planning on bringing my 28 gauge VH 30" 0 frame and my 20 GH 32" 0 frame
Two days of eradication!
Report and pics to follow!

I am envious and I cannot wait to hear how this goes. Sounds like tremendous fun. Best of luck. Nice choice in guns BTW ...

If it were me, I'd take my 34" 12 gauge and some #6 shot.

Good choices Mark. What a blast that should be.

I was thinking six or seven 10’s a couple 16’s and my loan 20 :cool:

I’ve hunted pigeons in Argentina and Uruguay numerous times and, for the most part, we used 20ga guns with #5 shot. The shell of choice this year were Activ’s. I’m sure most of you will remember the all plastic shells that had an internal zinc head. They used to be made in West Virginia but the machinery and tooling is now located in Argentina. These slick shotshells function very well in autos and pumps. The spotted/picazuro pigeons below the equator are larger then our USA feral/barn pigeon by about 1/3, with wingspans of 26-7 inches. It will be interesting to see if this Idaho operation can continuously find huntable pigeon populations. They don’t take much pressure and good locations, usually feed lots, in South America are carefully rotated and rested for several weeks between hunts.

I am sad to report our shoot has been cancelled. The guide reached out to us citing lack of birds. He recommended we no attempt this year.
Maybe next.....

That stinks. I'm certain expectations were high. Mine would have been.

I’ll give the guide a thumbs up for not trying to take you out on a sub standard hunt! I suspected that this type of pigeon hunting might not be sustainable in the States. I’ve seen how difficult it can be in South America where the agricultural areas are vast and pigeon population very high. They just don’t take much pressure and will just up and leave the area.