Pigeon shooting is a type of live bird wing shooting competition. Traditionally, there are two types of competition: box birds and columbaire. In box birds, the pigeons are held in a mechanical device that releases them when the shooter calls out. In columbaire, the birds are hand thrown by a person when called upon. The pigeons are bred for speed. The most common species of pigeon used in regulated shooting contests being known as a Zurito (Columba Oenas). In the shooting competition, large sums of money are gambled and winners can have purses exceeding USD$50,000. As may be expected when this type of money is on the line, the equipment for the sport can be specialized and purpose built. Topics covered here will include the rules, venues, history (past & present), championships, gambling, guns, and animal rights activism.
Contents
- Venues Championships
- Early to Mid 20th Century
- Pigeon Shooting in Monte Carlo 1872 to 1960
- Current Locations
- Shotgun Characteristics
- Box Birds Shooting Type of Gun
- Columbaire Shooting Type of Gun
- Shot Size Used
- Barrel Lengths
- Types of Pigeons Used
- Box Birds
- Columbaire Shooting
- Gambling
- Animal Rights Activism Criticism of the Sport
- References
In the past, the sport was worldwide. It was for the leisure class and was held at resort locations such as Monaco and Havana. Popular magazines covered the sport—for example, Field & Stream and Sports Illustrated. But, over time, the sport has fallen out of widespread favor due to costs, alternative shooting sports such as trap, skeet, and sporting clays, and of course, animal rights activism over a blood sport.
In the past, events used to be publicly posted (San Antonio Express, February 11, 1965, Page 55):
A live pigeon shoot has been set for Nuevo Laredo Feb. 26, 27 and 28. The Dr. Salinas Puga Memorial Shoot will be sponsored by the Club de Tiro al Pichon de Nuevo Laredo. It will be a 15-bird, no elimination contest. Throwers will be Pepe Manauta, Calixto Mora and Raul Garza. The shoot will be limited to 150 contestants. Deadline for entries is Feb. 25. A total of $2,000 In Mexican gold coins will be distributed to winners in the men's, women's and junior divisions. Entry fees will be $80 for men, $60 for women, $50 for juniors and $40 for members of the club. Entries should be mailed to the club, Apdo. Postal No. 46, Nuevo Laredo, Tamps., Mexico.
The sport still exists in pockets around the world, but generally, it's not well advertised and it's only hosted in select locations and by invitation only. Usually, this is to avoid the protests inevitably attracted by the event.
This article is not to promote, glamorize, or denigrate the sport. It's meant as an overview to understand it within the context of marksmanship of the twentieth century, as a cultural spectacle, the people who participated in it, and to round out the story with the moral outrage it has provoked at large. The a further purpose of this piece is to flesh out and consolidate in one place a topic that's at best covered only in a few pages of a shotgun book, shooting chatrooms, gun auction catalogs, old interviews in random webpages, legislature sites, or in an old magazine story.
Venues & Championships
Tournaments and competition during beginning to mid twentieth century were worldwide. In the 1900 Paris Olympic, live pigeon shooting was one of the events. The prize for the winner was 20,000 French Francs (more than USD$82,000 in 2017), though the top four finishers agreed to split the prize money.
Early to Mid 20th Century
A brief list of some of the active venues in the 1950s:
Pigeon Shooting in Monte Carlo: 1872 to 1960
Pigeon shooting in Monaco dates back to 1872. The ring was located behind the casino and was in continuous use with live pigeons until 1960, when robotic devices went into use. Slowly, shooting faded out of fashion, and the shooting range was demolished in 1972. After the ring was demolished, a mosaic titled "From the Earth to the Sea" ("De la Terre a la Mer") was installed by Victor Vasarely.
The popularity of pigeon shooting at Monte Carlo included creation of new types of gun stocks; the "Monte Carlo" comb. As told by Layne Simpson:
The Monte Carlo style of shotgun stocks gets its name from the famous European country of Monaco, which is world-renowned for its live pigeon shooting. Competitors who often had a lot of money riding on each shot preferred the parallel comb of the original Monte Carlo design because vertical eye-to-barrel lineup remains the same regardless of whether the check is positioned forward or rearward on the stock.
Current Locations
Shotgun Characteristics
Traditionally, live pigeon shooting guns were heavier than a regular field gun (greater than 7 pounds). Characteristics of them were longer barrels (30 inch with ventilated ribs give better sight plane), tighter chokes (full/fuller), no safety, beavertail forend, single triggers, clipped fences, a third bite, 2 3/4 12 gauge shells (as opposed to the more common 2 1/2 inch shells). These extra features were in place to handle the higher pressure loads used for live pigeon competitions where the bird had to be dropped inside the ring. Today, these pigeon guns command a higher premium at auction:
Similarly, Purdey produced a lot of pigeon guns and they had a good reputation. They were desperately unfashionable 20 years ago because everyone wanted lightweight, shorter barreled and quick handling guns. Nowadays a 7½lbs classic Purdey pigeon gun with 2¾" chambers, 30" barrels and full and three quarter choke is a perfect high bird gun. Suddenly it sells at a 40 per cent premium over a standard Purdey as opposed to 40 per cent down on the same guns 20 years ago.
The following are excerpts from an interview with Rudy Etchen regarding what guns he uses for the different pigeon shoots and why.
Box Birds Shooting Type of Gun
Q: What's your favorite box-bird gun?
RUDY ETCHEN: I usually shoot a Purdey which I had made specifically for box-bird shooting. It's a specialty gun, just as special for its purpose as is the race car built for the Indy 500. It isn't something you're going to do much other shooting with.
Q: What are the chokes on your Purdey?
RUDY ETCHEN: Full and fuller. The right barrel shoots a 76-percent pattern with No. 8 shot at 40 yards, and the left barrel shoots 92 percent. It's extremely tight. That's an advantage mentally. I know that if I miss the bird with the first barrel, which every shooter frequently does, the capability is built into that second barrel to kill the bird. It's up to me to point it correctly.
I think that the man who shoots a choke which is too loose, at clay targets or live birds, doesn't build any confidence with it. You've got to know that the gun is capable of doing the job it was intended to do.
Q: Did you experiment with different shells - brands, loadings and shot size - to get those tight patterns in the Purdey?
RUDY ETCHEN: I took the American shells that I knew I'd be shooting to London when Harry Lawrence at Purdey's made the gun for me in 1965, so the chokes were cut specifically for the shotshells I use. The chokes in most European guns are cut using European shells which we never see over here.
Columbaire Shooting Type of Gun
Q: Compare box-bird and columbaire shooting.
RUDY ETCHEN: About the only similarity is that you're shooting at pigeons in both. As much difference as between skeet and trap, two different games.
The columbaires are good, and they get to know the weaknesses and strong points of all good live-bird shooters. They take great pride in making the best shooters miss. It's a good game, and I shoot it, too.
Q: Not with the same gun.
RUDY ETCHEN: No. Instead of the tightly choked 30-inch Purdey, I shoot a Parker with 28-inch barrel bored improved cylinder and full. Again, it's a specialty gun. I try to get off the first shot as quickly as possible. It's a definite advantage to have two chokes at columbaire shooting, because your first shot is 20 to 30 yards and the second maybe 50 or more.
Shot Size Used
Q: Do you shoot No. 8 shot at live birds all the time?
RUDY ETCHEN: Most of the time, but it depends upon the bird. If the birds are well feathered I usually shoot 7 ½s in the second barrel. If it happens to be a shoot in South America where it's hot, and the birds are lightly feathered, I shoot 8s in both barrels. Another time when I'll use 7 ½s in the second barrel is in a severe crosswind, since they'll buck the wind better. Always 8s in the first barrel because - again, pattern density is the key to success.
In Europe nickel and copper shot are available, and that's a distinct advantage in the second barrel because it's very hard - particularly nickel shot. When I shot the live-bird championship of the world in Mexico City, I shot an Italian lead No. 8 shot in the right barrel and No. 8 nickel shot in the second barrel. They tend to hold the pattern together a little tighter at long distances. They're also excellent for international trap.
Barrel Lengths
Q: How about barrel lengths on live-bird guns?
RUDY ETCHEN: On box birds nothing less than 30 inches - some of the European guns come with 29 ½ -inch barrels - because with less you just don't have enough sighting plane. That's for doubles and O/Us, of course, since with pumps and autoloaders you can get an equivalent sighting plane with a 26-inch barrel. In columbaire I don't think you want anything longer than 28-inches - many people shoot 26 inches or 26 ½ inches, again in the doubles. And to repeat, I know of no shooting game where it's of greater advantage to have two chokes than in thrown birds.
Types of Pigeons Used
In Europe, a special breed of rock pigeon is used called a Zurito (Columba Oenas) (see Stock dove). They are small, gray, and exceptionally fast.
Box Birds
For a typical ring to FITASC rules the shooters stand 24 to 31 meters from the birds depending on the shooter's handicap. The 5 traps are spaced 5 meters apart in an arc. The fence is 16 meters from the traps. The shape of the ring is not circular bearing in mind the arc of the 5 traps & the defined distance to the fence. There were five small traps that held the birds and only one at a time were let go. The bird had to fall inside the 1 meter fence for a dead bird. The trap boys replenish every third shooter.
Columbaire Shooting
The Columbaire ring is twice the size of the traditional pigeon ring and is surrounded by a low fence. A 30-foot square is marked on the ground on the centerline of the ring, and four poles 10 feet tall mark in the corners with a white rope strung between them. The shooter stands behind one side of the box and the spins and throws, discus style, from the other side. By plucking select feathers and throwing the pigeon out into the ring in front of them, like a baseball pitcher, the Columbaire attempts to deny the shooter a clean shot. The white rope marking the square is to protect the Columbaire, as any bird lower than this marker is a "no bird."
Final Campeonato de Espana de Palomas a Brazo
Rules in Spanish
Level of Difficulty
Rudy Etchen on the difficulty of thrown birds:
Q: The rumor goes around that a shooter can "buy" a particular columbaire to throw you an easy bird, or to throw a competitor a very difficult bird. Does this happen?
RUDY ETCHEN: There's a lot of conversation about it, but in all the years I've shot thrown birds around the world I've never seen that happen. I've never seen it proved. I've seen shooters miss a bird they didn't think they should get, but they forget that the columbaire remembers him. I know many of the columbaires, and I think they're completely honest people.
Q: Most of them seem to have great pride in their ability?
RUDY ETCHEN: You bet! I recall one who had never had 20 straight birds killed over him by a shooter and I was about to do it. I'm sure the last few birds he threw for me were absolutely as difficult as he could make them, but I did manage to get the 20.
Gambling
Calcutta
Taking action on the shooters
Animal Rights Activism & Criticism of the Sport
The question for us to ask, as a civilized society: Do we need to be gratuitously killing animals for pleasure, that we are not going to eat, when it serves no need other reason than ego? Societies, and the values associated with them, change over time. What used to be considered normal, may now be considered out of mainstream—and vice versa. (For example, gladiatorial games were accepted in Rome, slavery, common use of the death penalty until recently, bull fighting, bear baiting, dog fighting, fox hunting, etc...) In the historical context, the values of the times in the late 19th through mid 20th century allowed for live bird sporting competitions. Over time attitudes changed. Hunters and sportsmen became some of the leading activists in conservationism and animal rights.
Some of the leaders of this movement were the champions of the ring themselves. For example, Robert Barnett Aitken (Pigeon Shooting Champion in Montecarlo 1956 - Prix de Larvotto and Prix Gaston Rambaud- among many others) was an early benefactor of the Ducks Unlimited, the International Crane Foundation, the National Audubon Society and the Wildlife Conservation Society. Aitken was among the wealthy trophy hunters who created the World Wildlife Fund to encourage developing nations to fund their conservation programs through hunting revenues, rather than banning trophy hunting as both India and Kenya did soon after winning independence from Britain. The Bronx Zoo seabird colony is named for Aitken.
As one would expect, emotions run high. People refer to the shooters as the "let's just go kill some shit!" crowd and explaining they are the lowest forms of humanity:
October 19, 2008 — For too long, pigeon shooters have enjoyed their killing contests in relative obscurity. Supported by the National Rife Association and the Ku Klux Klan, pigeon shooters are among the lowest form of human.
Shooters gloat over killing for fun.
DUman08: they are fun I am hosting one at the end of July.
str8shot1000: Sounds pretty cool!
kaleb_allison: This sounds like fun, but it also sounds to rich for my blood. When you say pull out $1k is that just for one shoot? And what does a shoot consist of?
John Goodwin, director of animal cruelty policy with The Humane Society of the United States said:
"Here we have pigeons that are rounded up by various means, kept in little coups... they're placed in a box, the box is opened, and as the bird is flying out, he or she is shot just so they can have a contest and so spectators can gamble on which shooter will be the most successful," said Goodwin, comparing the sport to cockfighting.
Legal wrangling:
The shooting events at Wing Pointe in Perry Township have attracted protesters in the past. The Humane Society said the shoots violate state law, but the judge said not so.
"I'm disappointed of course, but since we've been trying this for 26 years, we're used to disappointment," said Johnna Seeton. "The sad part is the pigeons keep getting wounded. They keep getting tortured, to no avail."
As early as the first quarter of the 20th century, editorial pieces were decrying the sport. The English periodical "The Spectator" noted in 1928 with moral outrage:
Put a dozen " duffers " where , you see those men at Monte Carlo facing the traps, and not one pigeon in ten will be so much, as feathered, It has been calculated that on an average not more than about fifteen out of every hundred pigeons trapped escape. The remaining eighty-five (or more) are either shot dead, or, being wounded, are at once retrieved and killed. It is because the spectators stand looking on in cold blood, and see all that is happening with nothing to excite them in the least, that the whole thing looks so cruel. In game shooting, they will tell you, there is much less cruelty, for, in game shooting, the birds " have at least a chance of escape—a much better chance." Of escape from instant or almost instant death—yes. But not of escape from being wounded and getting away wounded. And surely in wounding lies greater cruelty than in killing outright.
In the USA, live pigeons shooting remains legal several states. In Pennsylvania, a 2014 bill for banning pigeon shooting was opposed by the National Rifle Association. Legislators were apparently convinced and let the bill expire. In 2015, Pennsylvania Senator Patrick M. Browne re-introduced Senate Bill 715 to amend Title 18 (Crimes and Offenses) to further provide for the offense of animal cruelty.