Ferreter or Electronically Aided Rabbit Digger?

[the fezz 44]

i have a mrk 1 witch i carry with me i put the gill to ground without a coller , if i get a lay up then the other ferret is put down with coller on

iv been ferreting for years and very rear to get lay ups iv had none all season

[weekye 0]

anyone who goes ferriting without a locater is a FOOL

 

there's always one who trys to f--k up a decent thread,

i have never used locaters & probably never will just the way i am.

also i've never lost a ferret in my life and have been ferreting for

over twenty years the odd lie up here & there, dose'nt happen to

often when you've got decent ferret's, so if you don't have anything

decent to say, say nothing.

[micky 3,325]

dummys dont catch rabbits

[Guest Magwitch]

does the old way involve digging loads of holes to a hob liner? locator all the way for me then

[the fezz 44]

it seems to me that there are a few people ferreting these days that dont let the ferret do the job properly too keen to get the spade out, i would rather sit there for 30 mins or so, than give it 10 mins and then start to dig , just my opinion fezz

[peterferret 0]

great post DS,having just got back in to ferreting after a lay of for neary 30 years things have certainly changed,some for the good and in my opinion some for the bad. im 47 now and last ferreted in my teens when ferrets were hard to come by, no ferret rescue, ad mag,internet,etc,now adays everybodys got em they are a very popular pets,resulting in the hunting instinct being bred out of them.went to look at some ferrets at a rescue recently christ most of em you could of put a saddle on, if they got hold of a rabbit in a hole it would never get away resulting in a dig ,all ours could walk through net. incidently rescue wanted £35 each for em all spayed or castrated. we found a chap who sold us 2 worked 2 year old albino gills for a tenner each.feeding in my teens was bread and milk, with a raw egg now and again,never rabbit sold them or ate em, didnt want ferret to get the taste, the food these days is alot easier straight off the shelf in the pet shop. locaters have given some people not all the chance to ferret regular cause if ferret gets stuck they just dig him out. years ago if there would of been locaters about i doubt we would have been able to afford one, if we did get one stuck we would use collar and line with knots in every yard.and yes we will be buying a locater for next season just in case.

[Guest JRTman]

I thought I was the only dinosaur not using a locator,its reassuring to find theres still folk like me out there.It was mentioned earlier in the thread about poachers travelling light & not wanting to dig so as not to draw unwanted attention,I can relate to that,but each to their own.

[Hob&Jill 258]

great post DS,having just got back in to ferreting after a lay of for neary 30 years things have certainly changed,some for the good and in my opinion some for the bad. im 47 now and last ferreted in my teens when ferrets were hard to come by, no ferret rescue, ad mag,internet,etc,now adays everybodys got em they are a very popular pets,resulting in the hunting instinct being bred out of them.went to look at some ferrets at a rescue recently christ most of em you could of put a saddle on, if they got hold of a rabbit in a hole it would never get away resulting in a dig ,all ours could walk through net. incidently rescue wanted £35 each for em all spayed or castrated. we found a chap who sold us 2 worked 2 year old albino gills for a tenner each.feeding in my teens was bread and milk, with a raw egg now and again,never rabbit sold them or ate em, didnt want ferret to get the taste, the food these days is alot easier straight off the shelf in the pet shop. locaters have given some people not all the chance to ferret regular cause if ferret gets stuck they just dig him out. years ago if there would of been locaters about i doubt we would have been able to afford one, if we did get one stuck we would use collar and line with knots in every yard.and yes we will be buying a locater for next season just in case.

What do you feed yours now mate?

[JOHNBOY 18]

the naked option for me, never lost a ferret yet.

[BLACKBOB 9]

Having been old school and new school over the last 20yrs, i have to be honest to say that the way forward is by using locators,

Why?

15yrs ago id be out there with maybee half a dozen ferrets knowing full well that there was a possibility of not coming home with them all, and knowing the time and effort put into good ferrets, i absolutly hated leaving one behind.

My other pet hate was leaving dead rabbits aground, as im a believer that leaving a dead rabbit in a burrow, tends to empty sections of burrows, and many times ive been back to burrows where ive had bolts and knowing the ferrets have had a kill in and the next week nothing.

Also it stops needless digging and limits disturbance to the warren, and waiting about.

 

Today i go out with two ferrets, locator on each and no worries (except when one slips its coller)

i find good ferrets very hard to come by these days so tend to breed to good stock, the two hobs i got are the best ive ever had working wise, little bit big, very quick, very nasty, but dont leave much behind, only problem is they are killing machines and its not very often i go out without them killing aground, They come off after the kill, but return quite often to the same point, so as i dont like leaving the dead behind, i dig to it. No way would this happen without a locator.

 

So we move on with the times, and keep our good ferrets as do the terrier men with their terrier locators, it makes life a little easier (except for the digging) and helps us from loosing our cherrished animals.

 

 

 

Cheers Bob

[Guest Frank]

Having been old school and new school over the last 20yrs, i have to be honest to say that the way forward is by using locators,

Why?

15yrs ago id be out there with maybee half a dozen ferrets knowing full well that there was a possibility of not coming home with them all, and knowing the time and effort put into good ferrets, i absolutly hated leaving one behind.

My other pet hate was leaving dead rabbits aground, as im a believer that leaving a dead rabbit in a burrow, tends to empty sections of burrows, and many times ive been back to burrows where ive had bolts and knowing the ferrets have had a kill in and the next week nothing.

Also it stops needless digging and limits disturbance to the warren, and waiting about.

 

Today i go out with two ferrets, locator on each and no worries (except when one slips its coller)

i find good ferrets very hard to come by these days so tend to breed to good stock, the two hobs i got are the best ive ever had working wise, little bit big, very quick, very nasty, but dont leave much behind, only problem is they are killing machines and its not very often i go out without them killing aground, They come off after the kill, but return quite often to the same point, so as i dont like leaving the dead behind, i dig to it. No way would this happen without a locator.

 

So we move on with the times, and keep our good ferrets as do the terrier men with their terrier locators, it makes life a little easier (except for the digging) and helps us from loosing our cherrished animals.

 

 

 

Cheers Bob

 

WELL SAID

 

Frank.

Edited February 18, 2007 by Frank

[maty j 6]

well theres not much choice there ditch. i havnt been ferreting long so jmo but i allways use a locator but to me digging is a last resort and on most of the days local we dont have to dig much luckily, most of the time. im allways looking out for the ferret, listening for underground movement and any alarm calls of birds that perhaps may be the ferret slipped out of a unnetted hole. however i think locators are pritty usefull, ill give ye an example. i went up to a estate with a few other fellas now the saeson finished to do a bit of ferreting. were doing great all day, bit rushed as there was lots to cover and not enough time and thort they reached for the spade too easily but i could see why.

we came to a spot that looked like we would have a quick bolt but after 10 mins of nothing the locator was got out. we searched the area on max depth but nothing. we searched furhter apart but still nothing. there was warrens quite close so i supose it was possible for the furt to sneak out but didnt hear anything out the ordinary. i wasnt there now so going on what i was told. in the end after a while of waiting another colared up ferret was put in and they got a mark and dug. turns out the rabbit just sat tight not far off the mouth of the hole while the ferret ate its leg!!! i was told the locator didnt have any batteries in!! but i may just be a piss take and the batts were just dead as they were from poundland!

 

anyway think ye see were im getting at without that we could of lost the ferret and the place that we were we wouldnt of been to popular. out of interest do you use a liner ferret ditch or what do you do if ye get a lie up. wait it out? could be a long wait if your ferrets fallowed a rabbit down a steep hole and it cant get back out of, or the rabbits blocking the ferrets way out like said above, when they could bolt but wont?

[bullsmilk 2]

i think we owe our ferts more respect than to send them down un-collerd ide never do it again.....plus what good is a dead bunny you cant get too down a warren to anyone.

also lets not forget in the good old days they used to feed bread and milk.....file the ferrets teeth......put muzzles on the ferrets.......we dont do that any more either thank good

[Guest Ditch_Shitter]

Maty J: Having never once even begun to attempt an excavation of the huge, deep and ancient chalk bury's of my native and 'beloved' south of england, I honestly have no idea what goes on beneath the ground. Thus I've never whitnessed one of these legendary 'Steep drops' and all the other perils people - presumably those who have crawled down the holes for a look? I don't know - speak of. Things sure to entrap any unfortunate ferret sent therein.

 

All I know is, having worked what must surely be some of the most trecherous underground systems, for decades, I've never once lost a ferret. Not my fault!

 

 

Millet; I do say, above, I would have asked for age groups. Only that occurred after I'd set this rather off the cuff Poll. It wouldn't let me amend it.

 

However if, as I've just done, ye run ye eye over all the above posts and posters, I suspect ye'll agree that with so much talk of 'twenty and thirty years experiance', the vast majority of respondants, on both sides of the fence, are far from school kids.

[tote 854]

I believe we are selling our ferrets short big time if we send them into a burie without

a collar on.Don't get me wrong I ferreted without them years ago when I didn't own one,

but never again.

What is the difference between a ferret without a collar and one with a collar when they are

both below ground? If you need to you can allways tell where the collared ferret is,this does not

mean that you have to dig to it,it just means that you have the option.

 

As for the lads that say if my ferret lays up it's only for 20minutes,well what happens when

the ferret is stuck in a stop end with 3 or 4 big rabbits blocking her way out?

 

You might not believe this but the most rabbits i've pulled out of a stop end was 9,after

I got the ferret out I kept trenching forwards and ended with the 9 .

 

A mate of mine once got his uncollared jill back after 3 days stuck in a burie,

I could have dug down to her in less than 15 minutes if she had had a collar on.

 

Like I said above just because a ferret has a collar on it doesn't mean you have to dig

down to it,for me it's more for peace of mind.