rosspti
-
Content Count
153 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Gallery
Articles
Gun Dealer's and Fieldsports Shop's
Reloading Room
Blogs
Calendar
Store
Classifieds
Everything posted by rosspti
-
We saw 12 or so rises yesterday and shot 4. Shot a snipe too but saw several - a dozen maybe. North Cornwall.
-
Last weekend (12th) they were few and far between in a valley that sees a lot in the peak time. None shot. Tuesday 15th we saw half a dozen rises in another valley - which was about average for there. None shot. Yesterday (19th) I shot three and my friend shot one, we saw 5 or 6 altogether. Not huge numbers yet but definately starting to arrive more now. Just need some colder weather in the east of the country to push them down here a bit! It's just so damn warm here still for shooting. North Cornwall is still 15 degrees by day and 11 at night and its 10 days to December!!!!! So
-
Interesting to hear what's about - seems much the same everywhere yet. Keep posting!!!
-
deleted
-
Thought it would be good to have an update on woodcock numbers in different areas across the country as the season goes on. Woodcock Moon was November 10th. Just the odd one or two here in North Cornwall so far. What's about in your areas?
-
Go for a gun that you feel comfortable with and fits you well. The right gun is the one you pick up and just feel "yeah, I could really shoot with this!" Confidence in your kit is everything.... and some skill obviously! For me its a 12 bore Browning grade 3 which looked pretty new in the shop as it had recently been refitted and serviceed but after buying it I Iooked up the serial number and found out was made in 1985 which meant it was over 20 years old! Love it though and still looks pretty new. Cost was about £950. For cartridges, personally I love 32g 6s in Eley VIP - awesome!
-
We have a small circular pond, about 40 foot across, with a little round island about 8 foot across towards one end. In the past we have fed this with barley and had quite a few teal in on it. On a cold winter's evening after a day out roughshooting, two or three of us would come back to this pond and have about 20 to 30 minutes of exciting shooting just before last light, and perhaps shoot 6 or 8 teal as they flight in - in small packs of 10 or so at a time. They would only arrive just as it got almost too dark to see - but when we got to know the pond and the times the birds came in, you
-
I believe butchers also stock rabbits!
-
http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/ourwork/conservation/designatedareas/nnr/1006001.aspx Amazing what you can find with Google... Interesting paragraph in there too: Rabbit burrows are common, and soft sand can give way easily under foot. Mossy slopes can also be slippery, so sturdy footwear is recommended. Strong winds can cause trees or branches to fall, and blowing sand can get into the eyes. Please take special care when wind speeds gust in excess of force 7.
-
I used to have a hob ferret (called Watson) that would kill rabbits and then drag them out of the hedge - and did so on several occasions. More than once he brought a rabbit out of the hedge, came 5 or 10 yards across the field to me and left the rabbit by me and then ran back in to the hedge. Sometimes you just get a lucky one-off pet like that I suppose. The two monsters I have now have an occasional habbit of working as a pair to catch and kill rabbits, rip their heads off, and then leave them and go off after another. I have even gone out without nets or guns (just collar and
-
Thanks Stubby! Must have done something right as on a few occasions I had a bunch of rooks come it straight towards me. I stood up, took a right and left, then sat back down and blew a few calls only to have the remaining birds turn tail and come back in for a secod go! Probably young-uns but I don't think they would have bought it if the hide wasn't right. Also I was fairly close to a busy road so they may have been more used to noises in that area. One of the best things about shooting like is that there are always new surprises and lessons to be learned! No doubt the next time I
-
Just found a pic off the web - pretty much the same as the ones I have. http://www.thomasturners.co.uk/Products/Rough-Shooting-Supplies/Pigeon-Cradle.aspx The rook in my original pics shows one in use!
-
Had intended to have my first day ferreting this season yesterday (Saturday 28th August), but as the weather came good my partner in crime had to go combining - so I decided on decoying for a change. Not many woodies in my patch, but I love the challenge of decoying (and shooting) rooks so I set about decoying on a recently combined field of winter barley stubbles which had been dunged prior to ploughing. Reconnaisance revealed that this field was the current favourite for them and with combines in other areas this was the obvious quiet refuge for the rooks to head for. Built the hide
-
Do they call them Scatter Guns up your way?
-
Good point about Shotguns and also general machinery. I have shot hundreds of rabbits bolted to the shotgun, as have many people. I have also driven round a field in daylight and shot 200+ rabbits in a session. From my experience rabbits will keep bolting to the shot gun and it doesn't seem to put them off too much. Whereas if you're netting rabbits and make to much noise then they are far less likely to bolt well. I have a feeling that rabbits do not associate bangs or vehicle noises with predators, and so they are not put off bolting by these noises. Whereas the sound of a people sn
-
Hi Seany, I would definately not do too much vegetation clearance on a ferreting day, unless you can guarantee silence. Obviously odd loose sticks and leaves can be quietly lifted aside from entrances to holes on the day, but if you need to cut bushes, scrub out the way then best to do it at least a week or so in advance. And obviously check with the landowner, etc. before you put blade to anything - you just never know. Some livestock fields can have "dodgy" fencing and some farmers rely on scrub as a barrier to stock. You don't want to upset the landowner by making gaps for livest
-
Talking of "Old Methods" an old chap I met, who's father was a 'keeper, was telling me about old fashioned ways of getting rid of rats.... (not for the faint hearted.... One was to catch a rat and whilst giving it water to keep it alive, you must not feed it. Keep it to the point of starvation, near death, etc. then root out a rat's nest and find some babies which you then put in with the starving rat. The starving rat will then eat the babies, and it will then be a cannibal rat. Releasing your monster cannibal rat into a rat infested area will, apparently, soon clear out all the rats.
-
"The youths proved wholly insensitive to the beauty of irony." I think he meant "the lads spotted that I was a prick from a mile away and didn't really want to engage in conversation"
-
anyone know where to get something like this?
rosspti replied to kobi2k4's topic in Ferrets & Ferreting
Maybe someone like Lakeland Lazer in Kirkby Stephen, Cumbria. They may help or give you someone else to try? http://www.lakelandlaser.co.uk/ -
I've never really been ratting properly, but we have all seen videos where they use a chainsaw engine to smoke out the rats and flush them to terriers. I have often wondered whether this could be used to flush bunnies to nets / dogs. Obviously I don't think this would be the ideal method as if too many bolt at once then you risk loosing them by not being able to get to the nets in time. However, it might be useful in certain situations and in the summer as it avoids the problems of having to dig. What I think might be a problem with this would be that rabbit warrens are bigger than r
-
Mine get a variety. That does include biscuits (Alpha) - but they are more than happy to eat them so I don't feel bad about it. When it comes to meat I much prefer to give whole carcasses as they get the natural balance of things. Obviously meat is more natural than biscuits, but just feeding diced rabbit may not be ideal as there's no "crunch" to keep their teeth healthy. Also the warm climate down here means flies would be a real problem if feeding meat in the summer months. So mine get just biscuits in June, July, August & September (as a general rule). Then the other 8 mont
-
My ferrets like eating birds a lot, but they only get ones that are shot legally! Of course if your cat happens to kill something it shouldn't then I suppose you could give that to the ferret. Probably best to avoid feeding anything you just find dead though as it could have been poisened or be rotten in which case your fezzers might get ill. If you do feed birds I would say feed them whole as the feathers skin and bones provide good roughage. My ferrets will eat a whole cock pheasant and only leave the big wing feathers - all the rest, including feet, beak, bones and skull all get munc
-
I think its definately best to avoid tinned cat or dog food as I understand that ferrets just can't properly process them. Yes they will survive on them - but its not good for them in the long term. Almost as bad as bread and milk! I feed rabbit / pheasant (any any other small game) as much possible in the months when flies aren't around, otherwise it has to be ferret biscuits. Avoid feeding just the meat though - give them whole carcasses so that they get the fur and bones and working at the carcasses will keep em amused too! For biscuits I like to use Alpha. I give my two full gro
-
Well, b*gg*r me (as my father would say)... Look what I found: http://www.shootingtimes.co.uk/features/119827/A_perfectly_legal_hunt.html
-
I had a day with a pack of Rabbit Hounds when I was at Uni in Devon. A visiting pack came and met in the area at a local pub, and our Uni "Rural Affairs" club went along. The pack came from Ross-on-Why I think, on the Welsh Borders? They were definately called something like "...... Griffon Vendeens". They had, maybe, 17 1/2 couple hounds as well as a few bulldogs and a greyhound or two. You want areas with plenty of low scrub gorse, willow, heathers, where rabbits can be flushed out and hunted by the hounds, any sprinters can be coursed by the greyhounds, and the bulldogs just seem
