UkPigeonRacing

Coincidentally I had the opportunity today to buy some great grandchildren of Vandenabeele winners that I’m mulling over to establish my new loft. Ideally I wanted some long distance birds but these were described as ‘all rounders’. Is that correct ?

The Gaby can and do win all distances

The NFC Tarbes winner thus year has a lot of Gaby in it


All depends what distance you wanted to race

Me, if i were setting up a distance orientated loft I’d go for a ‘distance pigeon’

MIL wrote: ↑Thu Aug 15, 2024 7:06 am The Gaby can and do win all distances

The NFC Tarbes winner thus year has a lot of Gaby in it


All depends what distance you wanted to race

Me, if i were setting up a distance orientated loft I’d go for a ‘distance pigeon’

Sure, that’s been the train of thought in the back of my mind since I’ve been planning restarting in the sport. It was something of a coincidence having that convo yesterday and coming here to check out the latest threads and seeing the same line referenced.

One of the things I’m trying to get my head around is what constitutes a ‘distance’ line these days as the strains that were winning a lot back in the 70’s have naturally fallen away and there seems more of a trend towards sprint and middle distance?

To me Pete, "Distance" starts at 500 miles (on the day) and then beyond

There's no end of different "families" you can choose from now

One of the best and most proven in the UK are these Marshall pigeons that Ian Stafford has

The likes of "The Machine", "Big Smithy", "Mukin Fagic" etc - all vastly proven racers at almost 600 mls - all proven breeders

They aren't as expensive to buy now as they once were

That's just fashion that's all - they remain a hell of a pigeon

I think if I flew 500-700
I would look at 2/3 strains
The Marshall pigeons look excellent my mate Mark Bulleds family and something like Gaby that can still do it. It also give you fun on the races leading to the target races
Mark has distance pigeons but he has told me he had slight variations in his family that he gets from 450-500 in certain maybe faster days then his other family that will fly all day and go again at 1100/1200

Yes, I know what you mean Neil

Within the M & D Evans pigeons there are lines that are that bit "harder"

The Logan x Ebony lines have shone when asked to fly all day

The Benetton line for instance is more comfortable shorter than that

Our friend George Downey had very good lines of the Gabys.

The Gaby's that came into the UK with M & D Evans were certainly a great pigeon

History has shown almost 30 years later they are still winning

I receive reports every week of my Gaby's winning in all different parts of the UK

They're just fundamentally a good pigeon - and when worked correctly a bloody good pigeon



I had them DIRECT from Jester, Carrie, Shadow, Benetton, Maclaren, Golden Boy, Rolls Royce, Band of Gold, Saffron, Devon, Ebony, Logan, Westkapelle etc etc


In many cases these direct children were put to the sword and raced on the road

the cock from the pair i bought as ybs 13 years ago still have the cock not filling eggs now free to a good home give all ybs from him away

MIL wrote: ↑Thu Aug 15, 2024 7:53 am To me Pete, "Distance" starts at 500 miles (on the day) and then beyond

There's no end of different "families" you can choose from now

One of the best and most proven in the UK are these Marshall pigeons that Ian Stafford has

The likes of "The Machine", "Big Smithy", "Mukin Fagic" etc - all vastly proven racers at almost 600 mls - all proven breeders

They aren't as expensive to buy now as they once were

That's just fashion that's all - they remain a hell of a pigeon

Thank you that’s good info.

Forgive my naivety but what does “aren’t as expensive” mean these days? I’m out of touch and trying to get an idea of how much it’s going to cost to start the basis of a good distance family? I’m getting on a bit now and can’t afford 20years of trial and error if you follow me. I know buying quality is only part of it, but I’m hoping to at least restart knowing I’m in with a chance