Get ready for roost shooting season! Pigeon Shooting UK

As I write this I am looking at my kit laid out on the living room floor, ready for an outing with the night vision scope hunting rabbits and hares tonight. And I feel a pang of disappointment that I'm not getting ready to go out pigeon shooting.

I'm missing my pigeon shooting very much; there's not been much about for the last few months on my Derbyshire permission and the daily change in weather hasn't helped. I'm either having a one bang wonder, sending 100+ pigeons off to another field never to return; or I'm out with my air rifle and HikMicro Lite scope trying to bag one of just 3 pigeons in a field that refuse to come closer than 150 yards!

I won't give up though. Even a 'bad' day on the pigeons can potentially result in a couple of pigeons bagged for the freezer, plus I get to enjoy a few hours out in nature. In the meantime I can focus on driven shooting, deer stalking, wild rabbits, hares and Wildfowling. But still - now that the leaves have started disappearing from the trees, I definitely can't wait to get out roosting!

Thinking back - I can't believe it's been over 2 years since I filmed my first ever episode for Fieldsports TV on pigeon shooting. After a very wet and unsuccessful afternoon decoying on a Winter bird food strip on a local farm, we headed into the woods behind us to wait for the evening's flight of pigeons coming home to roost and saw much more action! I'll be hoping to see more of that action in the coming months...

I mentioned in one of my pigeon shooting blog posts about the big difference between decoying and roosting when it comes to the amount of kit used. This is another reason I'm looking forward to roost shooting season. As someone who suffers from arthritis, carrying a lot of kit can make life very difficult. When it comes to roost shooting all I need are my gun, cartridges and the dog. But if you've never done roost shooting before then beware - you might get a stiff neck from staring up at the sky non stop for 2 hours!

If you're heading out on the pigeons any time soon I wish you the best of luck and a good breeze. If you're looking for inspiration for quick pigeon recipes you can check the recipes section of my blog - or why not check out the awesome recipes by Eat Wild and Eat Game UK.

Now - back to preparing my kit for some night time hunting...! In the meantime you can watch the Fieldsports Channel film of my first ever hare cull experience here.

Happy Shooting!