Sorry, but I must disagree with you. The animal rights and gun control advocates will not stop their campaign to outlaw guns and hunting simply because pigeon shooting competition is outlawed.
Wake up! the AR will not stop until all hunting is banned, and the GC will not stop until all private gun ownership is banned.
Stopping hunting is just one step towards banning private ownership of firearms. Remember, when we lose our 2nd amendment rights, we have just lost all our other rights under the constitution.
I have tried every form of shotgun geme there is and consider live pigeons (columbaire or box bird) to be the highest level of competition.

Can't be that big a deal cuz i ain't even heard of it before

I am saying that if the meat is eaten, then what is the harm. Plus every one against hunting will not see it the way a hunter will, and they will go to any length to stop hunting and getting rid of guns all together.

if we cant shoot 'live' pigeons can we shoot dead ones

I agree with FHjustrightofgangus. Pigeon populations have to be controlled somehow and its not like we can have a season on them when most of them live in populated towns or cities. If we can't shoot them maybe we should box em' up and ship them to the activists' houses and let them figure it out.

Oh my God! You people are crazy!
Have you no collective sense of decency? A bunch of rich folks get together, release live pigeons out of boxes, shoot them, and bet on the outcome. (And if you think they eat them afterward, you're nuts). Yet you guy are all lining up to say, "yeah, that's okay, no problem there."
I can't believe how many of you are letting the AR people form your opinion on this. Does every decision we make have to be in reaction to AR? Forget those people; we should be able to recognize for ourselves that this is carnage and in no way sporting.
"Pigion populations have to be controlled"??!!!!
Give me a break. That's one sorry argument. Nobody is doing this to control pigeon populations. You know, the population of unregistered pets is also out of control; maybe we should put them all in a box, let them out one by one, and shoot them for kicks.
Man, if you guys can't see that live pigeon shoots are WRONG, WRONG, WRONG, you need to do a little soul searching for the sense of decency that might be buried in there somewhere. And stop being afraid that the AR folks might find out you have a soft side.

Chuck--and to the rest of you who use it--that argument is a bunch of BS. It suggest that we shouldn't do anything that might possibly give the antis momentum. Well, that hasn't stopped us from doing the right thing regarding remote control hunting over the internet. The antis were (and are) vehemently against that, too. Yet sportsmen--than goodness--are overwhelmingly against it, and it's being banned everywhere.
And for any of you who would retort--"Well, that's not really hunting," I say: Neither is popping pigeons flying out of boxes. Anyone should be able to see that.

Brain, My apologies. You are right, I got mixed up with who the message below yours was from. I guess Larry and Paul think that it should be stopped or reguated out of existence.

Larry, One thing is that the lefties are never appeased. It is an incremnetal battle to stop hunting. Just go to their sites and read! They are in it for the long haul taking a small victory at a time. They stop this then field trials are next because the pheasants are released just before the hunt, then hunting with archery equipment because its not humane enough and so on until nothing is left.

Ray

At one time this was an accepted way of practicing and raising money. It can't be any more. Our society today cannot handle the image of this and we have to move past the attitude that shooting birds out of box is sporting. It's not.

The common and well deserved description of the modern hunter is "Bullies with guns". If any of you want to shoot something why don't you enlist and volunteer for Iraq? The pigeons there can shoot back. What no volunteers? Ah, I see, you have your jobs and families to take care of!
I can hardly think of anything more cowardly than shooting a captured pigeon released from a box right under the shooter's nose. You call yourselves men? How would you like it if someone put you in a box, out in a field, and told you to run before they shoot you? And to make certain they keep you blindfolded until just before you are released.
If you want to deal with problems, try tackling health care, social security, education and poverty to name a few. Yes these can not be dealt with by shooting something small and helpless, but I am sure some of you might find a way to do that.

The last time I was in a pigeon ring was 1965, so maybe I'm a bit out of date, but I see nothing wrong with live bird shooting. If they don't like live bird shooting, maybe they also don't like upland grouse shooting in the UK. Or chukar shooting in the west. The real answer is that they just don't like guns, shooters, or anything else that smacks remotely of testosterone and manliness. I'm waiting for them to figure out a way to go aftere NASCAR racing, then the fur will really fly!

Oh you all know most of these birds aren't eaten. If they were that would be a quite diufferent story but they arent. Shooting birds for target practice juyst makes hunters look bad. And the AR's use these things to convince the public that all hunting should be banned. If you want to protect your right to hunt then get rid of these slob hunters.