Wild Pigeon

[landtracdeerhunter]

Seem to develop a huge number in the area. Is their a season on them? Who has hunted them and how sucessful were u. Have eaten scubb, farm raised, pretty good.

[Skillet]

I shot a bunch in our barn when I was a kid. We BBQ'd them. They were good. I got my butt reamed for shooting holes in the roof.

[fasteddie]

When I was a kid , the son of a restaurant owner would take 3 of us to barns on various Wadsworth's properties in Geneseo . We would climb up and grab the young pigeons and put them in a burlap bag . The guy's dad served them as Squab .

[Pygmy]

They are excellent..I have killed and eaten hundreds of them..

Rock doves..Barn pigeons..Domestic pigeons..Whatever you want to call them.

The squabs that are taken from the nest and have never flown, are very tender and can be cooked many ways and considered a delicacy.

The great majority that I have eaten were flighted adults, and they are excellent, but CAN be somewhat tough.. Due to this they are best cooked in the crockpot, braised, or other moist, slow methods..The flavor reminds me of wild duck or of thier kissin' cousin, mourning dove. Every time I eat them I wonder why I don't hunt them more often..They are fun to hunt and are strong flyers.. They can be as tough to hit as mourning doves or ducks.. Some of my most enjoyable wingshooting days have been while shooting pigeons..

[Lawdwaz]

We shoot all we can when dove hunting in PA but they are FAST learners! They'll get wise to you pretty quick. As far as table fare (to me) not as good as dove but not bad. I really enjoy the dove breast.

As far as seasons go in NY, I have no idea!

[Lawdwaz]

Here you go..........

(as my son says, GOOGLE is your friend)

From the DEC web site:

In New York State, nearly all species of wildlife are protected. Most species, including endangered species, songbirds, hawks and owls are fully protected and may not be taken. The few unprotected species include porcupine, red squirrel, woodchuck, English sparrow, starling, rock pigeon, and monk parakeet. Unprotected species may be taken at any time without limit. A hunting license is required to hunt unprotected wildlife with a bow or firearm.

Hope that helps.

[landtracdeerhunter]

Thanks for the replies. I shot a few, as a kid once in structure. Got windowed on the rebound. Had the fix window as punishment with mad money. Anyone ever try a bow?

Edited July 23, 2012 by landtracdeerhunter

[Lawdwaz]

Here's a few in the foreground of this pic that didn't make sundown.........

Almost lost my dog to some kind of water crap that day. $800 to the vet and she was as good as new!!

Edited July 23, 2012 by Lawdwaz

[BillJohnson]

they eat very well if taken care of, like all other meat

we shoot them in NY around barns, flush them first obviously, and we also decoy them in fields. best hunt was 486 in the bag and even breasting them it was a looooonnnngggg night cleaning birds.

you can usually end up with crows( in season) and starlings for a nice mixed bag too.

vermont protected pigeons by accident by revising the title to read " all other wild bird species are protected"....they had no idea until the pigeon shooters started calling and screaming...most wardens (wardens over in VT not Rangers) turn a blind eye to the pigeon shooting since its always been done in VT until this mix up.

shooting fine shot, 8s and 9s works well in spots you expect starlings, in areas where I expect long shots ( high silos) and nothing but crows and pigeons we shoot 7.5s

most places that did away with silos for bunkers or bags have low enough birds that I can use my 28 and get some good trigger time on my grouse gun.

welcome to the pigeon ranks!! its a sickness

[Elmo]

Bill,

How's crow? I never thought of eating them since they tend to feed on carcass some times. Wouldn't there be concerns about diseases?

[ants]

when i was a kid we use to shoot barn pigeons all the time .... they were real good eating. We did'nt shoot them out of the barn (maybe a few) but hunted them like Dove's. used my buddy's old .410 bolt action shot gun

[Pygmy]

Bill,

How's crow? I never thought of eating them since they tend to feed on carcass some times. Wouldn't there be concerns about diseases?

Elmo, Ol' Buddy... I have eaten crow LOTS of times....

However, it was always FIGURATIVLY, rather than LITERALLY....<<Big Pygmy GRIN>>

The crow hunting forums give recipes...If you wear disposable gloves while cleaning and cook the meat thoroughly, I suspect that chances of any disease would be minimal..

I have never eaten crow for the same reason I have never eaten possum.. I have seen the stuff that THEY eat...

[BillJohnson]

If you had ever watched the show "monk" you will understand what I am like when it comes to cooking, that and my wife is a professionally trained chef, the question of quality meat is primary in our house.

I've always examined all game's livers for disease, granted you can't "see" some things like dangerous levels of cadmium in NY Deer liver ( dont eat anylivers from deer over yearling age ) and by the shape and color of the liver and other organs I can more or less tell if the animal is healthy or not.

plus how was it behaving when we shot it? a bird walking around on the ground unable to fly is likely sick, birds are very susceptible to illness, they also get infections very fast, so any that are unwell wont be flying for long. Like rabid bats, the really sick ones are on the ground.

young crows, (mass. has a season on now, nice newly fledged crow meat!) are excellent eating, and I am not a dark meat fan but I will eat crow...there I said it, someone was dying to. LOL.

breasted and overnight in a marinade, they are excellent on the grill or oven. I have mixed pheasant breasts and crow together and only one at the dinner noticed the difference.

like most things, what they are eating effects the flavor, but when you gut them you will immediately know what they are eating, ones stuffed with seeds, grains, etc keep and the ones with garbage and meat scraps in them leave for turtle bait.

The greatest danger from animals is what parasites are on them, on rats and turkeys this is often ticks, rabbits and fisher, etc fleas can be a problem. The Black Plague was blamed on rats but it was the fleas that carried the plague, they simply rode the rats. On birds you can minimize risk by breasting the birds in the field and putting into a soft sided cooler with a freezer block or those fake ice cubes. Bag the rest of the carcass in a garbage bag treated with Flea Dust and dispose of when home. ALWAYS wear gloves when cleaning game and be aware of cross contamination in the kitchen.

[Lawdwaz]

they eat very well if taken care of, like all other meat

we shoot them in NY around barns, flush them first obviously, and we also decoy them in fields. best hunt was 486 in the bag and even breasting them it was a looooonnnngggg night cleaning birds.

you can usually end up with crows( in season) and starlings for a nice mixed bag too.

vermont protected pigeons by accident by revising the title to read " all other wild bird species are protected"....they had no idea until the pigeon shooters started calling and screaming...most wardens (wardens over in VT not Rangers) turn a blind eye to the pigeon shooting since its always been done in VT until this mix up.

shooting fine shot, 8s and 9s works well in spots you expect starlings, in areas where I expect long shots ( high silos) and nothing but crows and pigeons we shoot 7.5s

most places that did away with silos for bunkers or bags have low enough birds that I can use my 28 and get some good trigger time on my grouse gun.

welcome to the pigeon ranks!! its a sickness

486? HOLY COW!

Man, you guys are good!

[BillJohnson]

I don't know about "good" these days I hit about 50% on average for the year.

The younger man that introduced me to this site is a guide and I have hunted with them many times but find it frustrating as they will have 6 or 8 birds falling while I am still trying to locate the birds and get in motion!

Yesterday I went fishing then stopped and shot pigeons and starlings for four hours, in the bag at the end of the day I had 127 pigeons and stopped counting the starlings.

I did not eat them as the barnyard was filthy and thick with manure which all the birds landed in when shot.

I did take some starlings home where the feathers will be used for tying flies. I was using my very fancy Spanish 410 double and would have done much better had I been carrying my 28 or 20.

I did catch a 7 pound largemouth though it was on my heavy pike rod so did not give me much of a fight. overall a good day.

[Elmo]

Took the airgun out this pass Saturday to a WMA looking for pigeons and starlings but couldn't find any. I guess they're only around where people are.

[BillJohnson]

agriculture is where they gather in large numbers.

If you have a field that you can hunt in you can decoy the pigeons with rolled up socks or painted soda bottles. scatter some grain around, shelled corn works well, then set up your decoys as you would a field spread for ducks.

The guide near me uses childs toys to make some of his decoys spin in the manner that male pigeons spin to display to the females.

it is very effective.

well, coffee is gone and so am I. have a great day! Bill

[Pygmy]

agriculture is where they gather in large numbers.

If you have a field that you can hunt in you can decoy the pigeons with rolled up socks or painted soda bottles. scatter some grain around, shelled corn works well, then set up your decoys as you would a field spread for ducks.

The guide near me uses childs toys to make some of his decoys spin in the manner that male pigeons spin to display to the females.

it is very effective.

well, coffee is gone and so am I. have a great day! Bill

Sounds like fun, Bill..

In past years when I used to do field decoy setups for crows, we used to get pigeons in quite often.. One nice thing..You don't need as elaborate blind as you need for waterfowl or crows.

As long as you stay motionless, they decoy in pretty well..

[Cabin Fever]

Eating crows and pigeons...... I think I'll go barf now.....

[shawnhu]

To the OP, rock doves are unprotected, and can be hunted all year round. If you have a spot for them, I'd love to join you with my airguns if allowed. Good luck, and shoot straight!

[landtracdeerhunter]

Never thought hunting pigeon was such a popular sport. Thanks for all the replies. Took the 20 ga. out a few evenings. Almost forgot to replace the turkey choke . They hovered over the wheat field, but were very shy come in gun range, like they knew. Had a lot of morning doves kooing at me. Seem to have a flood of black birds. Think their still eating army worms. Hum, wonder how they taste? Using pheasant load. Maybe we'll get a crack at'em another. Was great to get a gun in hand since turkey.

Edited July 30, 2012 by landtracdeerhunter

[mike rossi]

Take a look at this, not the rock pigeons here, but interesting...

[mike rossi]

Bill,

How's crow? I never thought of eating them since they tend to feed on carcass some times. Wouldn't there be concerns about diseases?

Not anymore concern with diseases like avian flu then other birds - but any predator or scavenger, including fish, is likely to have levels of pcbs and heavy metals in the fat/flesh so high you shouldnt eat them often. Any animal or fish high on the food chain including us, gets this, called bio accumuation or bio magnification.

There has even been caution about our rock pigeon, though not a predator or flesh scavenger, sometimes has high lead, think the idea was way back from the lead paint days, not sure... With the ban and removal of lead paint, probably not much of an issue these days...

Real reason rock pigeons arent popular as food probably cause unlike other birds that clean thier nests, pigeons reuse nests & dont clean them - after a while the nests look like clay bowls - but its not clay, get it? Possibly more of an aesthetic or social issue then a health issue...

Dont forget any bird can be made into jerky if its too gamey or tough for your taste.

Edited July 31, 2012 by mike rossi