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With an afternoon of down time last Friday, I headed some 90 minutes South West from Johannesburg, into the Free State to a stock farm for some fast action wingshooting.

Birds - rock pigeon, collared dove and Cape Laughing dove as well as swarms of ferral pigeon - flight into the farm 365 days a year, dawn to dusk, to fill their crops on the high protein cattle fodder.

It is a pretty bleak and open spot, with most of the cover having been cut down for fire/cooking wood by the locals from the nearby informal township.

The wind was howling when I arrived at 2 pm and the birds were racing!

Shooting my Browning 325 Sporter (which I purchased new back in 1995 and which has seen thousands of cartridges through it without a single fault!) and 32 g Mirage loads, I managed to lay down some 50 odd birds over 2 hours (with another 15 odd dropped over the barbed stock fence which would be picked up later by the farm hands). I was careful selecting my shots and not rushing and managed a ratio of under 3 to 1, which given the howling wind was not too bad if I say so myself. It was amazing to swing onto a bird 50 ft out, lead it by 20 ft, connect with it and watch it hit the ground 50 ft behind me ! That's how strong the wind was ! It was more like duck weather than dove / pigeon weather!

A young guy named Simon, from the nearby township that has grown up in the area helped pick up the birds in return for some of the bag, a soft drink and a small cash tip.

Ferrals and rockies made up the bulk of the bag with a few collared and laughing doves. One of the ferrals was ringed - with a ring number dating from 2008, putting it at seven years old! I will send in details of the ring number to SANPO - the South African National Pigeon Organisation - for their records and as a courtesy gesture.

I checked some of the birds gizzards; I am always amazed at how much they can put away.

Having shot 150 cartridges and with thunder and lightening starting to brew a few miles to the North, I decided it was time to pack up and return back to Joburg.

An enjoyable / testing short wingshooting outing with a pretty decent bag given the wind and the speed of the birds!

I hope you enjoy the (simple) pictures.





































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That has to be a lot of fun. Friends have told me stories that rival Argentina. On my bucket list.

Looks like great fun. Congrats on a good shoot!

The two toughest birds I have ever shot in my 60 plus years of hunting are some downwind white winged doves running with the HIGH wind from an approaching thunder storm which must have been traveling well over 90 mph. It was impossible to wait until they were in normal range to shoot them, if you did, you couldn't swing fast enough to catch them.

The second was some downwind, in a pretty stiff breeze but not like the one in Mexico, rockies in South Africa coming in mostly high and FAST. Just like the doves they were too fast to wait for a close shot. At the time, I considered myself to be an excellent wing shot. I'm sure I didn't average one for 3 shots, maybe 1 for 5 or 6. Incredibly tough shooting. Great fun. I'd love to do it again, but my shooting has gone to hell and if I killed one under the same conditions, it would likely be because the bird had a very unlucky day.

Both of these made canvasbacks seem easy.

One time when we were having dinner, I asked my friend, Rudy Etchen, one of the finer wingshots who ever lived (now deceased, RIP), what were the toughest birds he had ever shot? He had shot birds of all kinds all over the world (not sure about South Africa tho). At any rate, he paused and said, "Without doubt, the wood pigeons of England, wary, fast, and highly maneuverable."

This from a man who could and regularly did kill 5 quail on a covey rise with his 870.

Looks like a smashing good time!

LOT OF FUN ,BUT WHEN YOU VISIT MY FARMS YOU WILL DESTROY YOUR SHOTGUNS .......

If anyone would like to try their hand at Irish wood pigeon feel free to contact me.

Nice! I don't know what I am more jealous of, the fine wingshooting you had or that fancy Landy you drove there in!

Well done.

Who was the outfitter you used and where??? Free State?

The two birds I keep coming straight back to when it comes to pure sporting prowess is the driven Red grouse and the South African Rockies.

To be honest I might even say the rockies have a slight edge on the grouse on a still day, but the grouse win it for the sheer privilege of being there to shoot them and if the wind blows....

South Africa is still my number one destination for wing shooting anywhere in the world.

Rgds,
K

I've shot pigeons at that EXACT same spot a couple of times. They fly extremely well when there's a bit of a breeze, especially in the afternoons.

I have since found an equally good spot that's a lot closer to home, but it remains one of the nicest ways to spend a day that I can think of.