OUT WITH ALL GUNS BLASEING

[rossy08 33]

HI LADS

 

went out on a permission couple of weeks ago with a mate got down there for around 2 30am zeroed the guns via lamp light,

 

set out to do a spot of lamping and saw very very little, very stange i thought for this bit of land, normaly alive.

 

but we carried on untill my lamp with its new batters decided to die after about an houer, gutted. oh well get the head down in the van for a few houers and be up for first light. frickin frezzing,

 

was starting to thing shooting on halloween was a bad idea.

 

up at first light 5 mins in an a bunni in the usual spot took him down clean, nice off to a good start now,

 

the next few houers proved to be a point#s walk around again very very quiet for this land.got back to point a and there was another sat around 15 meters away. let me mate take the shot and he just missed, bless him still not quiet used to the new gun an the mill dots, or so we thought. looking through my scope somthing dident look right so promply feed it some lead. walked down and was mixidy up to the eyeballs.

 

now the reson for lack of bunnies is becoming aparent. was all we got that day, but got pleanty of time in on the target.

 

now a few weeks later four of us go down, with a daystate air wolf,aa s410, rapit 7 and a logun s16s and two over and under shotties,

 

down there first light split up and head out, meet up a few houers later and not one of us had even let a shot off, saw a few but they were off like rocket with no chance of a shot.

 

all in all go's to show the power of mixie, this land used to be teeming with life now theres next to nothing.

 

not good for us but id shure bet the farmers happy.

 

atb

 

Andy

[pianoman 3,587]

Hiya Andy

Great write-up mate , I enjoy reading about lamping forays as I've not got much experience of this aspect of the sport. And There's been Mixy on my permissions this season and the numbers of rabbits I've actually seen, let alone been able shoot this year has been very low in number. and they were mostly mixy-infected. This is indeed the power of mixy as you put it. Sadly for us, it's both such a bloody cruel but a very effective rabbit killer en masse.

 

Oh well, maybe next year will give us chance of greater sport.

 

Cheer mate

Simon

[zini 1,939]

Hi Andy buddy,

 

Nice write up pal as usual.

 

I wouldnt worry too much pal about the land and ill tell you why.

 

About 17 months ago when I first got to Catterick I had a very big permission which was full of mixiy rabbits everywhere.

 

I owned a Logan Sweet 16 Evo then in .177 and a .177 HW95KT before I got my Storm then R10 and HW100KT.

 

Between the different rifles and with the help of Gary, Darryl, Chris and Joey (Reggaeman and Garfield) we managed to shoot all the poorly rabbits, and there were lots of them.

 

Once all the poorly ones were gone we started to get really good bags of healthy rabbits, sometimes getting 13 or 14 in a few hours shooting easily from a motor vehicle and never really having to worry about stalking as there were so many to be had.

 

This was pest control and sanctioned by my boss and the game keeper Barny who wanted the rabbits massively culled. There were absolutely hundreds and hundreds of them and on a good night you could drive up the roads and see between 30 and 50 easily just cross in the head lights.

 

After about 9 to 10 months of trying to get these rabbit numbers down and me shooting almost every day all of a sudden we only started to see the odd one and our bags went down to maybe 3 to 5 a session.

 

We made up for this by stalking squizzers and corvids and accounting for many over a 11 months period.

 

On a couple of nights I went out with Gary and we hardly saw a rabbit. This was a shock for me and I though that maybe we had over done the culling and destroyed too many.

 

I got some other permissions only 5 minutes from my big one and we started shooting them to rest the big permission.

 

The problem was that sometimes the new permissions were dead too for some strange reason.

 

After maybe a 2 week break from the big permission me and Gary went shooting my new permission but there wasnt any out so we just decided to have a quick drive around the old permission again to see if there were any bunnies about.

 

We were shocked to see tonnes out again and we had another great bag.

 

I just think that some days a area that is booming with bunnies can seem dead, maybe the weather or something in nature that we dont understand, but come the next day and its teaming again.

 

Dont worry buddy nature will run her course, the mixy rabbits will die and the immune ones will breed and flourish .

 

Si

Edited November 16, 2010 by zini

[zini 1,939]

Some old photo from us on my old permission and my good mates and son.

 

Gary probably has all the good ones with the rabbits as i lost a lot when my PC broke.

 

Si

[Phantom 631]

Nice write up Andy

 

I'm hoping with the little rest my permissions have had there may be some when I go out next.

Not seen much for weeks now.

Going out after midnight tonight and if the mist and fog stays clear will be out for a while

 

Phantom

[BASE JUMPER 18]

yes mate lets talk about those batteries dyeing at about 3.30am in the bloody morning and a very uncomfortable mornings kip in the van lol

[festa 206]

them pics bring back some memories si we had some fun then one of the best bits was that car valet service lol .....

what lamp you using andy my deben battery normally last about 4 hours but wor kid found a cracking deal on new batteries for our lamps 7 quid for a new deben tracer battery ... so now we get a good night shooting

 

atb gary

[gurtwurz 792]

hi andy,

just another thought on the bunny subject, i've noticed that all my permissions have quietened down over the last few visits i've made to em(not that i've had time to do much mind) and i'm wondering if the change in weather and the recent cold snap might've had summat to do with it as theres not too much mixy about down my way this year?

give it a couple of weeks and maybe you'll have some sport again, once the bunnies have hardened up to the coming winter months?

 

or i could be totally wrong!!

 

all the best, wurz

[rossy08 33]

hi lads thanks for the replies.

 

the land had been rested for a couple of monthes, but like some of you say may just have been the times that we went that it was quiet.due to weather,bunnies night off,mixie, maybe just one of them things.

festa

the lamps an x verminator gun lamp and to be honest iv been a little unimpressed with it so far.looking into a new one at the moment.

 

will see what happens the next few times down there.

 

atb

 

Andy

[markha 99]

It seems that mixi' is spreading it about then?

Same story up here in Wales, loads of rabbits over the summer then in early october we noticed the bunnies had mixi' and there werent that many about.

Went out lamping a few weeks back and only had 2 rabbits each, both had mixi; its certainly wiped them out very quickly. Hopefully there will be some immune ones left to keep the pot full for next year.

[rossy08 33]

It seems that mixi' is spreading it about then?

Same story up here in Wales, loads of rabbits over the summer then in early october we noticed the bunnies had mixi' and there werent that many about.

Went out lamping a few weeks back and only had 2 rabbits each, both had mixi; its certainly wiped them out very quickly. Hopefully there will be some immune ones left to keep the pot full for next year.

 

i do hope so mate. seams strange as the first one i shot was big fat and very healthy. then in the very same spot was this mangey half dead mixi'ed up thing. the first one must have had a very good emunne system.

 

just a shame it couldent deal with the lead.lol

 

Andy

[Sweeney-Todd 208]

Hiya Rossy.

 

 

Good post mate.

Hope you find more of the fat healthy one's

 

 

 

ATB.

 

 

 

Bill.