[Oldnamvet]

Years ago my father and I would shoot pidgeons as a warm up for bird hunting season. I had a lot of relatives who farmed and all had lots of pidgeons in their barns, pooping all over the place. Dad and I would take turns (or get my cousins to do it) and climb up to chase the pidgeons out of the barn. One person outside with a shotgun would bang away as they went and as they came back trying to re-enter the barn. We also picked them all up and had many meals of baked pidgeon breast. My mom never would touch them so we ate them on the evenings she worked late.
Anybody out there who currently hunts them??

[Smokey Joe]

My #1 son and his grandpa especially appreciated barn pigeons--Son called them "flying meals." We'd shoot them as they fled from the barn, then Son & Grandpa would remove the breasts--the delighted barn cats made short work of the rest!--and Grandma would bake them for all hands.

They are the same bird as city pigeons, except that city pigeons are exposed to a far filthier environment. On the farm, they eat the same grain as the cows. Farmers generally hate them, as they poop all over everything in the hayloft.

When Grampa died and Gramma moved to town, we lost that source of both training and meat.

[30-06 lover]

I shoot them. I think they taste A LOT like dove. I shoot them before dove, duck, and pheasant seasons. One year I killed seven ducks in 16 rounds due to the great practice those birds gave me prior to the season. That isn't awesome, but it is my personal shooting best on live birds.
-Mike

[redneck2]

shoot a BB gun from the ground to get them out of the barn. Saves a lot of climbing. AA's, maybe light modified or modified choke

[dfaugh]

Rotten, nasty, *&%$^*&*, flying rats.

They get into my barn occasionally, and make a horrible mess. I just use .22 hollowpoints, they drop like stones when you centerpunch 'em (I've found they're actually pretty tough to kill, pellet gun, or CB caps don't assure a quick kill). Not worth the effort to clean 'em for eating (IMHO), I just throw 'em outside and let "Barn Cat" have a feast.