lamping

[FERRETBOY 680]

i would like to know when lamping with lurchers first started was it the 1960s or 70s or even earlier and what was the amount of rabbits taken in one night or even in one season by one or more lurchers in these early days. was it alot easier then or was it the same as it is today.did most lampers then use home made lamping kits (headlight and motor bike battery even car battery or were there proffesional outfits similar to todays kits.what was the main lurcher used back then or was the dogs used as varied as they are today .it would be very interesting to hear from guys who were lamping from when it all started and from guys who started later how you think lamping and the lurcher has changed for better or worse.

there is a lot of experianced lampers /hunters out there so please put youre writing caps on and intrigue us all .

 

 

good hunting

 

 

rew

[juckler123 707]

First time i went lamping was 1971 with a mini car battery and an old lucas lamp there wasnt many at it then but the barnsley lads had been doing it for at least a few years before that and probably in a few more places but it was the barnsley crew that brought it to our attention it wasnt much different than today lots more game about though and it was easier to make a living with the dogs twenty rabbits a night ment fifteen quid a night compared to an average weekly wage of about forty to sixty quid working and you can see why it caught on the game still educated as quick to the lamp as they do today but you could poach everywhere as folks werent looking for lampers especially so on some of the big estates when they had done looking after their birds we would run all year round going on grass when the crops where up i never saw a pro lamping kit till the eighties and have always used a home made setup although now the 12 volt bike batterys are a lot more managable halfords did a square spotlight in about 75 but they were only good for rabbits a lot of folks used car spotlights lucas rangers were popular then along came the cibie oscar and everyone used them i still do the dogs have changed a bit there were lots of staghounds used then the most popular were threequater breds the yorkshire lads used whippet grews salukis had just started to cone into there own in the coursing and when crossed to greyhounds produced some fine strains of lamping dogs there wasnt many collie greyhounds about but they became more popular with plummer and folks reading his books imo the lurcher has changed due in part to the showing racing side of things a dog was only bred worker to worker thirty years ago and the weak went to the wall there seems to be a lot of wastage about as people jumped on the bandwagon to make money twenty quid was the going price for a lamping dog doing the buisness and pups were ten or fifteen quid apiece look what they fetch now saying that i went back to a village near mansfield the other day where every one of the lads in the village had a lurcher and worked em twenty years ago and i saw one of my old muckers and he told me there were no running dogs their at all now so maybe the lurcher craze is past i hardly ever see anybody out when im lamping yet twenty year ago it used to be like blackpool illuminations in some areas all the best rew Juckler

[midnight walker 8]

like juckler i started lamping in the 70s also used a car battery with a lamp we got off an old car basic but done the job for rabbits and the odd hare carried the battery in a rucky when you done a nights lamping you felt it thank god for progress back then we just took what we needed for the pot

[skycat 6,173]

Mt dad used to go out with a neighbouring farmer back in the late 50s. The farmer had a CAR BATTERY strapped to his back, and a converted headlight as a lamp!! No pics to prove it, but its true: one night the battery leaked and burned right through his clothes and skin: me dad said you could just see his back bone. But he wouldn't go to hospital, and it healed ok, though for weeks afterwards every time we saw him he was rubbing his back up and down against a gatepost or whatever, saying it itched like hell. That's how I know the story, cos I saw him doing it, and asked my dad why. They used a greyhound called Bingo, a blue one, that the farm collie nearly killed one day: fow a couple of weeks after that the greyhound had a dirty bit of rag tied round its middle to stop its guts falling through the hole the collie had made ragging it on its stomach. The gryehound survived, and when I saw the wound it was only the size of a fifty pence piece, and healing well. They made them tough in those days!

Shows how old I am too, though I was only a tiny kid at the time.

[TOMO 26,071]

WHICH VILLAGE WAS THAT NEAR MANSFIELD JUKLER . I COME FROM THAT AREA

[juckler123 707]

Rainworth mate i still dont live far away your first names not Mick is it?

[TOMO 26,071]

i know rainworth mate , but dont know any lads there. no my names not mick.

 

used to live to the north of mansfield . at new houghton wich is near shirebrook.

 

moved away though a few years back , now live on the edge of the vale of belvoir

[Ray Mears 272]

f**k knows but i would like to thank the man that started it

[doxhope 2]

Yip early seventies for me too, and guess what, a car battery too...But after a very short while I dumped it in a ditch on Lord Ridleys land, probably still there

[juckler123 707]

i know rainworth mate , but dont know any lads there. no my names not mick.

 

used to live to the north of mansfield . at new houghton wich is near shirebrook.

 

moved away though a few years back , now live on the edge of the vale of belvoir

 

Plenty of game where you are then TOMO done a bit out there a few years back round croxton and stamford warm as feck got caught by soldiers one night playing at being sas they said the estate was letting em train by catching the lampers cant fault you moving that way

[Ossie 11]

congrats juckler, that's gotta be the longest passage i've ever seen without a full stop!

my great grandad on my mums' side used to lamp on his farm in the 30's, using a car... he'd just drive it onto one of his fields, whack the headlights on & chuck the dog out! he bred racing & coursing greyhounds & used them for lamping. my dad lamped in the mid-70's with lurchers, dunno what crosses he used, he had loads of different dogs. he used to do up vespas & lambrettas, made his lamping kit up from spare bits he had lying around. he spent more time in the pub than he did lamping though. he'd tell me mum he was taking the dog out... get home at about 6am... mum figured out what he was doing when they went to the pub one night, and the dog got straight under a table, and went to sleep!

Edited January 24, 2007 by Ossie

[Born Hunter 17,762]

Rainworth mate i still dont live far away your first names not Mick is it?

 

do you know the greyhound trainer at rainworth?

[juckler123 707]

With the fencing buisness?

 

congrats juckler, that's gotta be the longest passage i've ever seen without a full stop!

 

Whats one of them

[Born Hunter 17,762]

With the fencing buisness?

 

no, the bloke im on about rents his kennels but i think he rents them off of some other racing kennels next door. Im not really sure.

 

just wondered becuase i used to work at his kennels on a saturday, small world, lol

[TOMO 26,071]

IM A BIT CLOSER TO BINGHAM MATE THAN WHERE YOU DESCRIBED.

 

I KNOW THE GREYHOUND MAN AT CALVERTON HIS NAME IS MICK. USED TO DO THE MOLES ON HIS GALLOP