murraywatt

if you want to make a sectional one and move it as and where its needed, the ladder types are the best, but id put skirts of rabbit wire inside on either side of the entry part, just means less chance of escappees espetially with jackies, although the sides tend to snap with snow weighing down the wire if permanent. for a permanent cage id make a flat roof with a square of rylock as entry its cheap and easy to fix if it gets broke, plus not so many escapes and plenty catches.

the S&Bs a great scope, im saving my pocket money for one just now, however aska bout the hungarian 8x56 - its exactly the same components as the german one the only diffrence is its assembled in hungary, and its about 200 quid cheaper

as said above best thing to do would be to make your own, cheaper, and a bit more satisfying when u catch, however the Larsen mate things available from game and country are really effective, i use stoats as bait in mine for hoodys and magpies, as for the law breaking, read the open general license, and related laws regarding larsen traps in your part of the country, just so iv anyone asks questions you can proove your not some numpty but know what your doing. depending on the laws in your area you may have to register your cage witht he local WCO, and display the number and telepho

thanks Sean will give that a try at the weekend, as for heating the barrel surely gently heating it not till its glowing or anything daft like that, just till oil starts oozing out between the choke and the barrel wont do any harm considering the big time clay shooters and skeet boys that fire hundreds of shots in a short space of time and the barrel ends up that hot you cant touch it, surely the metal must have some "heat resistance" to it? any opinions?

help wanted, i have a choke seized into the barrel of my semi auto, i have tried soaking it in petrol, WD40, nitro solvent and some also suggested coca cola all soaked for two or three days and not even a nudge, i have tried heating the barrel gently with a blow torch to see if expanding the barrel will work but to me surely the choke would expand with the barrel? anyway any help or suggestions would be appreciated, if nothing else works itl have to be a trip to the gunsmith i think

cut the bottom and top off some old plastic drums but leave a lip of about 6 inches, fix it up with a ball cock ( stops it over flowing) and collect it up to some alkathene, pretty much the same idea as bell drinkers just cheaper

on the place i am, were keeping on top of foxes - (cubs) keeping traps running for young stoats moving out, and fixing up butts repairing or replacing them, as well as sorting tracks the guns need to travel on, and cleaning out the larder and gamecart, if you go to a grouse place youl be run off your feet

get 10x50s and dont buy a cheap shitty make, save and get somthing good from steiner, swarovski etc you want binos that are going to give you the biggest field of view possible at the longest range, but still be able to carry them im saving for a pair of steiner night hunters look them up on ebay they look old fashioned but theyre prob the best you would want for the hill, and they have wide lenses that mean theyre amazin at grey dark when cheaper binos are worthless

chances are theyve just been and flown too hard into the side of the pen, if it was a stoat there would be more than one dead more likely all of them with the necks bitten down through the jugular. keep an eye out if they have been through bad weather recently and they are all packing into the corners when the grounds all shitty thats when disease usually pops up if possible move the pen when the ground gets messed up, if not then through the year when theres nothing in, put hydrated lime down 3 or 4 times a year to kill of disease in the soil hope this helps

hedgehog seen it before, immature buzzard by this stage would be able to know what it was doing

lineing out beaters on a shoot day piss wet! got talking to her for the first time and thts us been together a year nw

skin so soft works well, or Deet but watch what that stuff does i know someone who got a bit on the rubber armour on their binos and it ate right thru it

personaly iv got a small hill beat but help out the lowground keepers aswell personally i prefer the hill but i dont mind partridges either although we are all in the same boat at the end of the day same job diffrent situations i enjoy the job because i like to see the the rewards after a year of slogging my guts out but its the same for a lowground lad aswell

its hoodys/carrions or ravens probs shoot a lot of carrions on the rabbits this time of year if your thinking of doing anything, shooting larsen etc just incase u didny know ravens are protected

id be wary of setting fenns until you know its not an otter, although all the times iv had them killing its been similar to a fox heads off and bodys burried, if you find out for definate its mink try rail traps, (logs over the ditch and anything that flows into the pond with a trap on it covered with wire netting to cover the trap and limit non target speies getting in