Any serious pigeon hunters here - (feathery - not clays)

[wizrd]

A friend wants to break in a new ATA Firearms O/U on some pigeon hunting. If anyone does this here, - do you use decoys?, is 'baiting' with some cracked corn, or grain, a helpful thing? - I'm figuring rural farm feed lots, that have been harvested would be a good place to start. - Yea or nay on the decoys?, not sure of the 'baiting' legality - but here in NY state they aren't protected. I will check on the legality of baiting. - Edibility? - He's saying 'delicious'? - Any input from seasoned pigeon hunters appreciated. - Thanks in advance.

[eastbank]

several of us boys in high school used to go around farm to farm and shoot them(the farmers were glad to have them shot), the farmers called them rats with feathers. one of us would go in the barn and throw small rocks at them to get them to fly out of the barn, we had to shoot them on the fly as they left the barn. this was in the early sixties.

[FITASC]

Google George Digweed and pigeon shooting - he is in the UK, but you can get an idea on how he sets his blinds, decoys, motorized decoys, etc.

[NoSecondBest]

We did the exact same thing as eastbank did back about twenty years ago. I’m in New York and almost all farmers will let you go in and chase them out and shoot them. Ask enough farmers and you won’t run out of action.

[Scorch]

Back in the 80s when I was in college and had lots of time for running around doing stuff like this, I hunted pigeons quite frequently. Old horse barns, dairy farms, bridge overpasses, abandoned chimney provided ample shooting with bow, 22 rifles, and shotguns, and lots of pigeon meals. Pigeons are seed eaters, so they like horse barns. They like roosting in lattice rafters, so they like old barns and overpasses. If you take a shotgun out to a barn and open one end/close the other and bang on the barn to chase them out, you can pass shoot them as they come out. We used 22s to pick them off bridge supports, or bows in town. Its a lot of fun.

[Double K]

I used to shoot them years ago with a shotgun, nowdays I own a pest control company and trap them. Every once in while I'll shoot a few with my pellet rifle, probably 25-30 last year. I've trapped hundreds of them, mostly city pigeons which I don't eat, psychologically it's weird to eat something you trapped on top of a department store in a mall but perfectly normal to eat the same bird{probably} 10 miles away you shot off a barn roof.
I like pigeon, breasted and wrapped in bacon and grilled it tastes pretty much like any other red fleshed game bird.

[Marco Califo]

Pigeons are a pest and health hazard in many cities. The city of Los Angeles outlaws feeding them. Traps are set on roof-tops, and the captured pigeons find their way to dog trainers. They are sometimes available at my local dog training park, and they are used at the facility fields and ponds.
IMO clay birds sports are just as good for shooting, dog aspect aside.
Check your state's fish & game laws, and Federal laws. Seasons and method of take are specified. Wanton waste is illegal (do you plan to eat them?).

[eastbank]

we took the dead birds to a local hog farm and boy did those pigs gobble them up, today i,m not sure you could do that because of the lead shot. but in the early 60,s no one seemed to care, lead paint was legal then.

[reloader28]

When the weather is real crappy here they fly by in big flocks every few minutes. I just wait beside the shop and shoot as they fly by. Fun practice. I wont eat them though. I know where they feed

[buck460XVR]

As a kid, shooting pigeons was a sport we enjoyed when other hunting seasons were closed. Many was the farmer who would let us shoot pigeons on their farm, we just had to be careful not to shoot holes in the barn roof or the silo top. We generally would send one of us into the barn/silo to flush the birds and then shoot them once they cleared the buildings. Was a generally a once time quick shoot as unless there was young in nests inside it would take several hours for them to come back. Dusk was a good time because they would generally all be back to roost and once you flushed them, they would be in a hurry to get back to roost before dark. During the day was hit or miss whether there would be any in there or not. Under bridges. especially higher railraod over passes was good spot too. Since RR tracks are legal to shoot from(oh, I know the RR always said it was trespassing, but we never got prosecuted) as opposed to roadways, and those in autos on the roadway above us, never saw or heard us shoot, we didn't disturb or upset anyone. We could also set up blinds nearby or even under the bridge and wait for them to come back to their nests/roost. We would even take them home and eat them, while not a lot of meat on them, they were tasty and many times they were lunch cooked under the bridge over a fire while hanging from a stick. Also used to go in barns at night and catch them in their roost. Many barns had nesting boxes and those that didn't usually had a cable strung across for the hay cart. A chicken hook on the end of a ten foot pole when the barn was half full of hay worked well. Those birds were used for practice shooting or to train young hunting dogs. Later in life they worked well when used to train my young pointers using bird launchers.

[Pahoo]

IMO clay birds sports are just as good for shooting, dog aspect aside.

One would think so but unless you actually shoot them out of hay-loft of an old barn. You will encounter a new challenge. Doves come close but pigeons moves, are amazing. Timing is important as you don't want to hit the barn.....

Be Safe !!!

[Marco Califo]

I have never seen a clays range with a "pigeon barn". Duck tower, 5-stand, Trap, Skeet, Sporting Clays, offer a lot of shooting practice.
Tumbling pigeons are bred to tumble or roll when they hear gunfire or even clapping.
But for shooting challenge, green wing teal out of the rising sun, pass shooting 8' above the surface, flying into your face, are most difficult.

[Carl the Floor Walker]

It is a big Sport for Airgunners as well as Rat hunting. Forget a shotgun, way too easy, here is how you do it. And you will love the music as well.

Dance to the Sugar Plum

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

[Jim Watson]

My early days at TVA, they would organize an occasional pigeon shoot to clear them out of the large factory and storage buildings. One guy brought a pellet gun so he could shoot them inside our pilot plant.

[Brian Pfleuger]

I killed many pigeons in NY, in my youth on my grandfathers farm. I've never known anyone who "hunted" them as an actual activity nor anyone who ate them so I'd have to leave that to others.

However, they are completely unprotected species in NY and NY has no "Wanton Waste" law. (See discussion of possibly establishing such in the Department of Conservation management plan PDF, pg 76).

As such, you may hunt/kill them by any means, at any time of day or night with any weapon that is legal to possess and without regard to bag or possession limits or even recovery. Baiting is legal, as it is only restricted for protected species.

You'll pretty much only find pigeons (in any numbers)on active farms , whether it be in barns or moving between recently cut corn fields. This being the case, baiting is probably a moot point, as there will be plenty of "bait" and if there's not it will take them a long time to find yours.

[Pahoo]

I killed many pigeons in NY, in my youth on my grandfathers farm. I've never known anyone who "hunted" them as an actual activity nor anyone who ate them so I'd have to leave that to others.

Routine Shoot;
We mainly had two farm lofts we hunted. Both ere owned buy the same family and located about a mile away. We would hunt one and they would fly to the second one. Then wait a copula of weeks and hunt the second one. We did this a few times during the summer. The barn cats and hogs ate them????

Eating;
Never ate any shot ones but have eaten "Squab". Many Midwest cities "had" clusters grain silos, for storage. Most are gone now but we use to look for the nests and time the hatching. Before they got big enough to fly, we would take them and sell them to a lady that paid us a quarter each. She cooked some for us, one time and they were good. I know they are still sold in some restaurants but I won't go looking for them. .....

Be Safe !!!

[Marco Califo]

I was eating lunch in Los Angeles' Chinatown, with a woman who grew up in Shanghai, Red China. We worked at the same bank and I am adventerous with ethnic cuisine. I had seen a recipe for squab in a Chinese cookbook. She was intrigued, and ordered it (off the menu, not on). There was a lot of back and forth in Chinese between her and the waiter. There were questions and concerns. I took about an hour for them to bring our food, which when we got it, it was not minced squab in ramkins. It was two roasted fowl on a platter, about adult pigeon size. Neither of us could swallow it. My friend was embarrassed. I thought it was hilarious; and finished my bowl of rice. On the way back to the office we drove under telephone wires with feathered pigeons perched above us like they were setting up a poop ambush.

[Scorch]

Check your state's fish & game laws, and Federal laws. Seasons and method of take are specified. Wanton waste is illegal (do you plan to eat them?)

Rock dove (park pigeons, racing pigeons, show pigeons, whatever you want to call them) are classified by US F&WS as an invasive species. I have never seen or heard of a state F&G classifying them as anything else. Could be wrong, but I have never seen it. Some states require hunting licenses to shoot anything, including pest species. But wanton waste applies to game species, so probably not an issue.

I have had little old ladies call F&G on me for shooting pigeons, claiming I was shooting bandtailed pigeons. The warden showed up, I showed him what we were shooting, he shook his head and drove off. Probably more paperwork than it was worth. Also had a gal call F&G on us for shooting starlings (she told the F&G people we were shooting blackbirds). Very few invasive species are regulated with game laws, unless the F&G dept needs the income from tags (like wild pigs in CA).

[FITASC]

At my old club in central FL we had a 5-stand. Some folks from Tampa would come up our way and release their homing pigeons not too far north of our club and those things would fly right over our firing line on the 5-stand. Man, the temptation was REALLY hard to pass up...................

[langenc]

Fellpws I knew in late 50s would 'harvest' a couple on the way to work and prepare them for cooking. They were working at the glass plant at the time (building tradesmen). Place em near the glass oven and by noon lunch was ready.

They ate just about everything that crawled, flew or swam.

[V-fib]

i remember going to Eastern Market in Detroit as a boy in the 60"s. there were venders with bags of pigeons for sale. they looked like they were smoked.