I'll let you in on the biggest factor in my being so sure of my shots at this permission. This barn is about 30 yards away from the farm house. The husband and wife, both in their 70's have been there each time, out in the garden and on the farm yard, taking care of the cows and sheep in the barn, etc. Not that they're watching me, but they know when I take a shot. The last thing I want is to be shooting and missing. I've shot exactly 11 pigeons in 11 shots with only one miss.....that one just got feathers!
Now that's not so say that I'm careless with my shooting at the other farms where I just do my thing without anyone around. It's just different at this place. This permission was gained by word-of-mouth.....they have about 100 pigeons that they want gone, but when I first visited, the farmer told me that he was going to let a falconer trap some pigeons and then wanted me to come after that and get them all from inside the barn at night. He told me I could shoot a few outside if I wanted to, but not too many. So I shot two and then packed up.
I stopped there a few days later when I was in the area at the other two farms only a few miles from him, and asked him how the falconer was getting along with the trapping. He said that the guy has trapped a few. At the time there were about 50 pigeons sitting on the roof, and he told me I was welcome to shoot the ones outside if I wanted to. I thanked him and shot 7 in a short time span before they all flew off. Instead of waiting for them to come back like I normally do at the other farms, I just packed up and left. The third time there I was in the area again so I decided to stop by. He invited me to shoot more of them and that was the visit I got the double.
We have lousy weather this whole week, so it's unlikely I'll be there again until Sunday maybe. I'm sure he'll let me shoot some more. I'm waiting for the day he calls me to come at night at take them out. That should be some good shooting with the Streamline and ATN X-Sight!!
