Northern Ireland Shooting

[babbyc1000]

just thought id post a few pics showing what ive been up to lately, the last 2 months or so its been mainly pigeons and crows, theres too much for them to eat now its harvest time, so ill be leaving them alone for a while
 

 
pigeon hide set out - to the right of the pick the barley was still being harvested!
 

 
a couple of hours spent just after the barley seed was spread
 

 
two hours last weekend when the barley was cut
 

 
reason ill be buying a .223 in the next few months!!
 
 

 
few decoys (and a shot bird), also a buzzardin the tree behind them
 
and finally, a new place i have to shoot, theres a river at the bottom of the trees, where (hopefully) we';; be getting a few grey squirrels this winter (saw one last saturday)
 

[Alboy]

Looks great to me, it would be a hoot to share some of that shooting. We work crows in the off season but have never done that well in one day.

[gitano]

Took me a second to spot the fox. The crows look to be of two different sizes. Are they two separate species?
 
Looking forward to the the squirrel pictures.
 
Paul

[Brithunter]

Ahhh Gitano,

    Yes they are there are Carrion Crows which are the smaller of the two the larger are Rooks. never having been to Northern ireland I don't know if they have Hoodies (Hooded Crows) I know they have them in Scotland and the North of England.

[buckshot roberts]

looks nice, what is the make of the over-under........Ron

[babbyc1000]

alboy if you ever make it over here ill take you out after some of them. the o/u is a lanber 12ga, it belongs to my friend - the mossbergs are mine, sincei started using them my shot/kill ratio has improved alot! :)
 
yes bh we have hooded crows too (grey backs), have carrion crows/rooks/jack daws, etc, though for simplicity we just call them all crows (and admittedly i can never remember which is which, i just keep it simple - if its black it gets blasted)
 
the 3rd pic (with the stubble in it) was one of our best days for a while, and would have been better if the farmer and co had not arrived at 10am and stayed for 4 hours lifting the cut barley to put in the silage for cattle feed!
 
that day two of us accounted for 38 crows and 8 pigeons, both are great sport- crows are very intelligent and difficult to decoy, whereas pigeons are tough and fast! i made a very nice pot of pigeon broth (vegetable soup with potatoes, grains and diced pigeon breast) out of those pigeons - even katya liked it, and she was very dubious about eating pigeon!
 
edit - meant to say gitano weve onyl started shooting squirrels recently, shot two in one day, never realised how tough they are - one took 3 12ga blasts (32g no 6) at 20 yards, then survived another at a range of 5 yards, before i finished it off with another shot at about 12"

[Fieldmor77]

Great little Hide you have there, reminds me of years ago, my late Father in law used to grow Pecan nuts, and the crows loved them.
I think the most i could bag in one day would have been less than ten, you did well, looks like you would'nt have had much downtime between shots.

[drinksgin (deceased)]

Just where are your squirrels ordering their kevlar vests from?
The gray squirrels here are easy prey for #6's at 40-50 yds, a .22 short at 50 yds or a 5mm air rifle at 25-30 yds.
?D

[babbyc1000]

wish i knew mate! the squirrels over here do seem tough, im only starting to shoot them but on another site i belong to everyone else is of the impression that you need at least 32g of no 4 for them, and if its a 22 air rifle, etc, you must get a head shot - even then they sometimes require a second shot to finish them - http://forums.pigeonwatch.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=14942&st=0&start=0
 
itll be another month or so before i really get stuck into them (maybe with the 10/22 as well) so ill let you know how i get on

[gitano]

We shoot pigeons and crows "over here" too. I enjoy both, but don't pursue either very much. That's mostly because there are very few pigeons in Alaska except urban ones, and the crows are not this far north. WhenI lived in Juneau, I used to hunt them with some regularity.
 
As for squirrel 'toughness', those Brit ones do indeed seem to be 'tough'. I've taken LOTS with a .22 pellet gun, and certainly the preferred shot was the head, but I didn't hesitate to shoot them in the body if that was the only shot offered. I have used shotguns on them, but not too much. Mostly when I was a kid, and the only firearm available to me was an old Mossburg bolt action .410. On occassion, I did have to shoot them more than once. The 10/22 would be my choice now, for sure. HOWEVER, one must keep in mind that pointing a rifle, even if it is a .22 RF, UP IN THE AIR to shoot squirrels, is more dangerous than pointing a shotgun up in the air to shoot squirrels. Although honestly, I've never heard of an "accident" associated with that activity.
 
Paul

[drinksgin (deceased)]

I was noticing in the pictures that there seemed to be a house in every direction, would make me watch the backdrop very carefully if shooting a rifle at more than a few degrees elevation.

[babbyc1000]

yes youre right, theres lots of houses about, which is why its mostly shotguns used and not rifles.
 
sorry i should have been more specific, if you look at the last picture the ground slopes down towards the ground at the treeline/river, the firing point for the 10/22 would be at the first fence (at the end of the cut field) shooting down towards the river, ive seen squirrels on the ground down there plus the fence will be good to lean on :)

[davidlt89]

we have more crows than you can shake a stick at, but just cannot bring myself to acutally "go out" for them. I would not dream of eating one and killing for the sake of killing just does not ring my bell. I can find no use for them. BUT, looks like you guys are having a blast, great pictures, keep'em coming!!!! like to see that fox in one of them:biggthumpup: . God Bless.

[babbyc1000]

we dont eat them david, but the probelm is theyre a big pest - they keep entering the cattle barns and eating the meal, one farm i shoot at was losing at least £100 worth of meal a month to crows before we started shooting them; also theyre a bit of a health hazard, by roosting in the barns they leave droppings everywhere, and crows arent the cleanest of animals. but on top of all that, if youve ever seen a 3 day old lamb with its eyes pecked out by crows, youd gladly blast everyone of them you see! :undecided:

[davidlt89]

one farm i shoot at was losing at least £100 worth of meal a month to crows

good enough reason for me!