Jarvis

To respond to your illiterate comment, we do have a use for them. At no stage in my post have I said birds are going to waste on my shoot, I was merely asking the situation around the country and if people are having to diversify...

The rats we need to sort out are by streams/ ditches and ponds. All nice and in the open though so stand back and let the terriers have some fun! Our cover crops were shocking this year as well, I think we went nearly 2 months without any rain.

Sounds like a good day was had still. We had a good beaters day with a bag of 68 which could have been more but quite a few older chaps only shoot on beaters day so a lot got past them, but the main thing is they enjoyed it! We finished the season on 45% which I was happy with. Had a walk up day with a couple of mates on the 1st and shot 33 pheasant a rat and 5 squirrels, was a real good laugh. I think I prefer walked up days to big formal shoot days. Now we’re onto roost shooting and getting stuck into a bit of ratting!

A farmer I know does the same thing but with a bell on the end of the string into his bedroom. He shot 60 in two years just doing that!

Four vixens and two dogs so far. So that’s a good few less cubs to be worrying about!

I’ve lost count the amount of times I go up to the shoot I keeper to look for a deer and plans soon change because I end up seeing a fox and the freezer ends up staying empty for another day!

If it was like the old days and you got money for the skins the amount of foxes here I could quit the day job!

They bloody are all big! Had these two last night up there. The top one is a vixen and it was much bigger built than the dog.

I love it out at night on the foxes, and doing it in the day is a no go as the land is completely surrounded by a forest which is open to the public so the last thing I want to be doing is having people blasting away in the day and get townie do gooders walking their dogs sticking their oar in thinking they know the law!

That was only 3 fields as well, the one I was parked in and the two I could see into with the thermal! Lots more to cover yet!! I lI’ve seeing foxes about, its a great sight, (as long as they aren’t at the shoot I do where I want them all taken care of) but where I live the numbers that are here is crazy! They need getting on top of.

Had my first night out at last after waiting about 5 months to get the ground cleared where I live to control the fox numbers for my mate who rents the land to graze his sheep and he lost a lot of lambs last year. To say it’s crawling with foxes is an understatement! I pulled up and straight away there was a fox wandering up behind me. Boom after 2 minutes first fox down! Put rabbit distress on the caller and had two running in. the first was eighty yards, the second was 200, both dropped on the spot. Turned the caller off. Gave it 10 minutes and I saw another two in the distance. Turned

Had a nice job in a large garden on Saturday. Three separate warrens, one on a steep back, the others in a sparse hedge so nice and easy to put the long nets round and let the ferrets and dog do all the running around! Started at 7:30 we were finished and tidied away by 12:00 and accounted for 11 heathy rabbits. Only one 2ft dig and all the rest bolted lovely. A very enjoyable morning and even nicer when your getting paid!

It’s all down to preference and what you like mate, everyone is different. My mate has a tikka he loves it and it’s very accurate but I don’t like the feel of them. My .243 is a browning X bolt under £1000 band new with a S&B 8x56 on the top, very accurate and I love it. I shoot muntjac and roe, If I was shooting bigger deer species on a regular basis I would go for a bigger calibre. As BH says the .243 is a great all rounder and I use it for day time foxing and for blasting magpies and crowd but if shooting bigger deer I think I would get a .308 Have fun gun shopping!!

Best thing to do is don’t rush and just because you think they have masters something don’t stop doing it. Keep constantly going over the basics... my cocker is 3 now and she is still definitely learning.

I’ve got mine in an orchard so it’s nice and easy. Also once you’ve mastered heel, sit, stay, recall etc a good way I found with my cocker to get her steady and used to birds was dogging in. It’s easy for me because I keeper a shoot but if you know a keeper see if you can help him out to get him steady to see birds regular but keeping him steady and close to you. The worst thing for a young dog is to try work and train them and not have birds or scent to flush / see and they will end up getting fustrated.