Dispelling the pigeon shooting gospel
By Matthew Dutton.
EVERYTHING that’s said and written about pigeon shooting gets a lot of attention. Whether it be in newspapers, magazines, DVDs or on social media, there are certain lines of advice that are given out as gospel and a suggestion is implied that if you don’t do these things you won’t have a good day’s shooting.
So what happens? It creates an image in the mind of the inexperienced and they spend their first year or so doing exactly what they have read and experience little or no success. Then they finally ask what they’re doing wrong (usually on social media, as that’s where all the experts live now) and receive nothing new, just more of the methods they have already tried.
I was lucky enough to have been well into my shooting life before social media arrived, so my eventual success was born through trial and error. That takes time though, and time is something people today haven’t got or are too impatient to wait for.
When it comes to pigeon shooting I pride myself on being rough and ready, and being able to make a good day out of doing things differently. There are always the ‘you musts’ or the ‘you have to haves’, they come from everywhere and from everyone. It can be so demoralising when the new starter does all they’re told, expects instant success and gets none. Then, the answers to his questions and responses to help are few.
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