It’s 08.30 hrs of a Saturday morning in early April, and members of West Rand Wing Shooters Club (among them YT and son Harvey) gather at Koedoe Park in Rant-en-Dal, Krugersdorp, before setting out for a day of dove and pigeon shooting.

First, the attendance book is signed and letters of permission to hunt on the day’s property are handed out and filled in. Meanwhile, the dogs and their owners do some socialising. Usually Vice Chairman John Pollard then addresses shooters, citing the safety rules and rules of conduct on the farm to be shot over. But today John is absent and it is Chairman Neels Langenhoven himself, who is laying down the Law:

Only break-action guns are welcome. Pump actions are frowned upon, but are tolerated, when special precautions are taken. Semi-autos are forbidden, as they cannot be carried in any manner, which allows everyone to see that they are safe.

The basic rule of conduct on the farm is: carry out everything you brought in. I.e. no littering. Bottles and caps, cans, wrapping paper, plastic bags, etc are collected and taken away. We even pick up litter left by others! Empty shot shells are collected. Most shooters do this anyway, as they need the hulls for reloading, and those who don’t reload give their empties to those who do.

Downed birds are collected and taken away. No cleaning of birds is allowed on the property, and most land owners forbid the handing out of birds to their staff. They don’t want feathers and offal all over their properties, as this would attract vermin.

That’s not a Nazi salute the Chairman is giving at right, but a demonstration of the 45° minimum angle, at which shotguns may be fired. This is to prevent hunters from shooting each other! Small bird shot, fired at a 45° or steeper angle returns to earth in a gentle patter, with insufficient force to do damage.

Alcohol is forbidden during the shoot, but a beer or two during the lunch braai is tolerated.

This adherence to rules of good conduct explains why most land owners are happy to allow a club, such as WRWS, access to their lands. Getting permission as an individual, or a small group of a few people, is much more difficult. That really only works, when the farmer knows you personally.

After Neels has delivered his lecture, we climb into our cars and set off in convoy, Chairman leading, heading out to the farm, which is in the Randfontein area today, about half an hour’s easy drive away. The rear is brought up by a ‘sweeper car’: a vehicle driven by a member, who knows the location of the day’s destination and collects any stragglers, who have been cut off by traffic lights or four-way stops.

Shooting venues are mainly to the West of Krugersdorp, in the Randfontein – Carletonville area, but can be much further afield, such as in the Magaliesburg, Rustenburg, Ventersdorp, and even Marikana or Parys area, depending on the season. There is usually one waterfowl shoot during the year, held at a venue in the Freestate over a weekend in June.

There are thousands of Red-eyed Doves and Rock Pigeons in these areas, but relatively few Cape Turtle Doves and Laughing Doves. However, all of these are ‘declared pests’. And the best shooting is to be had when the sunflowers are ripening, and doves and pigeons gather in the fields in their thousands. They are a farmer’s nightmare!

Doves and pigeons breed all year round, though there is a peak in September to October, and again around April. This varies with the weather patterns, of course. They occur in unbelievable numbers in farming areas, and do an enormous amount of damage to sunflower and grain crops. Many farmers estimate that they lose up to 1/3rd of their crop to the birds! One official estimate, made a year ago (JH van Niekerk, Ostrich magazine, Vol 80, April 2009) came up with a loss figure of only 8,4%, but put the value at around 197 Mill. Rand per year! No wonder, then, that these birds are classed as ‘vermin’, and can be shot all year round.

On a recent shoot, someone opened the crop of a Rocky and counted over 670 sunflower seeds! Now these were the small-seed variety, grown mostly for use in bird seed, and weigh in at around 1.2 grains each. One grain equals about 0,0648 grams, so that pigeon had more than 50 grams of seeds in its crop. The Red-eyed Dove is smaller, and I estimate that it will eat perhaps half as much as a Rocky, but let’s round that off to 300 seeds. Rockies and Red-eyes occur in the areas we shoot over in about equal proportions, with numbers of the other species of dove pillaging the fields being negligible. An average per bird would, therefore, come out at 485 seeds. Let’s say 450, to be conservative. This translates to 35 grams per bird per feed -  perhaps. A thousand birds will, therefore, remove about 35 kg of sunflower seed in a sitting!

Now I don’t know how long it takes a dove to digest those seeds, and hence, whether they feed every day. But this is irrelevant, as the number of birds in a given field on a given day hardly varies. For the day described here, we estimated (and this can only be a tentative figure) that there were at least 2000 birds feeding in our field in the morning, and somewhat more in the afternoon. Those birds would, then, have flown out about 140 kg of seed on that day alone! That’s about a ton in 7 days! Compare that with the normal yield for sunflower seed of between 1 and 2 tons per hectare!

It must be remembered also, that in feeding directly off the seed heads, the birds knock down and waste a lot of the seed. Sometimes they scatter as much as they eat! In addition, they do not only feed on the ripe, dry seed, but start in on the crop just as soon as the seeds are forming. So they are busy in the fields for two months or more.

When we arrive at the field to be shot over, we space ourselves out around the field, experienced types making a beeline for their favourite positions, where they know that birds cross in large numbers. Spacing out is done partly for safety reasons, but also to cover as much of the perimeter of the field as possible, to keep the birds flying. Of course, many of those birds are old campaigners, and cross the firing line at 30.000 feet, then put down flaps and landing gear, for a short-field touch-down in the middle of the field. Others, perhaps hungrier, come in just above the deck, at only 100 feet or so, and the fun begins. Also the excuses!

My first shot is a clean miss (as usual) and I tell myself to “Lead, lead and then lead some more. And don’t stop your swing. And look at the bird, bozo, not at the sights!” Shot #2 connects properly and I think I have got the mathematics nailed down now. Oh yeah? The next three shots do nothing but punch holes in the atmosphere - they don't even knock down a single feather! Then another hit, but it is the bird behind the one I aimed at. Etc, etc. At the end of the day, I have five birds, plus two more down but lost in the sunflowers. I do not have a dog. Don’t dare to get one, as my shooting would embarrass the poor thing too much. And incidentally, I have 16 empty shells. Didn’t stand in a good spot, or it would have been more. On other days I have had 25 or 30 empties, but no more birds. Must get some training with traps! Son Harvey has done considerably better today, and is into two figures, with about one bird for every two shots.

Chairman Neels and grandson Corné count 75 birds between them at the end of the day! As a general rule, the youngsters are better wing shots than us oldies: their reflexes are better. And wing shooting is all about reflexes. Another Dead-Eye Dick is John Pollard’s son Jason, but he is not present, today. Watching those boys shoot is a real pleasure, and I have stood more than once watching one or the other of them, while birds were flying over my head, unheeded! Still, their elders are still streets ahead of anything I can do, and Neels or John will shoot 10 birds for every one I manage!

That's Corné on the right, with his first half hour's birds. Mostly rockies.

Doves and pigeons have two principal feeding times: early morning ( which we miss, as we don’t like to get up at 04.00 hours) and mid-late afternoon. However, this varies with locality and conditions, and on most days some birds will be flying to and from the fields for much of the day.

Most people use #7 shot for dove/pigeon shooting, but #6 is also popular, especially with shooters, who don’t do their own reloading: it is not unusual to fire off 100 to 150 rounds on a good day, and factory shells in #6 are cheaper than #7!


Around 12.30 or so, we gather at the chairman’s bakkie, where a braai is held. Everyone brings his own meat and refreshments, but charcoal and grille are provided by the club. (Ash and embers are buried afterwards.) This is, of course, a general bull session, and while the hunters tell tall tales, the dogs mill about, socialise or growl at each other, and sign every available tussock of grass in a 100m circle. Real fights do not occur, as the dogs all know each other from previous outings.

After lunch, the hunters from further afield (there are members who hail from the East Rand and even Pretoria) tend to drift away homeward, but us die-hards hang on until 3 or 4 pm, when the shooting usually gets fast and furious. We leave only in time to get home before dark.

Shooting doves and pigeons, one contributes a little towards preserving the farmer’s sunflower harvest, not only by shooting some birds, but also by keeping them flying, thus preventing them from feeding. Though I suppose they come back on Sunday and make up for lost time! And even a duffer with a scattergun (as I am) has a wonderful day out. So by about 16.30, Harvey and I are on our way home, tired but  happy. Of course, once we get home the cleaning starts: first the guns, then the birds. Thank God I only have five! Neels tells me he and Corné were at it until 2 am Sunday morning, and Corné fell asleep in the middle of cleaning a bird!

Of course, cleaning the birds is a lot of work for relatively little meat. But doves and pigeons make tasty fare, whether in a soup, pie or grilled/broiled. Many shooters also make biltong from the breasts! Anyhow, if you don’t like to eat them, give them to someone who does – saves you the cleaning!

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