A steady mooch about......

[johnny boy68 11,726]

Some may have read Ideation's account of yesterday in the fereting section......heres my account of our "mooch"

Hope you enjoy............

 

Well yesterday being Sunday the gang of myself,Jai and Young Tom got together for our weekly ferreting/mooching session.Myself and my 2 dogs Gem and Luna were picked up around 7am by Jai minus his whippet Finn who's in sick bay.....again.We loaded the car up and took the short 20 minute journey to our destination,our first port of call was a new permission we recentley aquirred.It was a nice fresh morning though still really warm for December,Jai has 2 of his ferrets with him I'd decided to leave mine at home as Tom would be bringing his 2 young uns with him.

 

We head down the first field and almost immediatley a bunny rises from the field with Gem and Luna in pursuit the bunny just gets to the temporary safety of a warren in the hedge,a quick scan of the surrroundings and decide to ferret it and let it bolt for the lurchers.We position the dogs either side of the hedge line just as Young Tom turns up he holds Luna on the slip as she keeps trying to follow me and the old girl round my side of the hedge,in goes the ferret a few seconds later the bumping is heard in the hedge and out pops the rabbit and after Luna gives chase decides its safer back in the hedge.The rabbit is only down a matter of seconds before bumping into the fert again the bunny exits in the middle of the hedge and Gem piles in just missing the bunny this time the old bitch stays inside the hedge,a minute or so passes and out pops the rabbit again almost into Gem's mouth but just evades her hindered strike only to go back to ground straight into the fert who clamps the rabbit and as a little wrestle before fert and rabbit are retrieved from hedge.Didn't really go to plan :oops: but 5 minutes of action none the less.

 

We move on along the hedge which is showing plenty of signs of rabbits though none to ground or above for that matter,we reach our boundry line and decide to try the adjacent hedge-line which as a deep drainage ditch running alongside it and a line of evenly spaced trees runnning along the middle of the field.Not much is happening until we get 3/4's up the field then we hit a pocket of rabbits that are taking refuge in the small bits of cover at the foot of the trees.After a couple of close courses and misses :oops: the rabbits all head to a 10 or so hole warren which the dogs are marking,so we net up and within a few minutes Tom's young ferret(that I gave him this spring) as evicted 3 into the waiting nets.We then decide to leave the rest of the permission for a bit of lamping as most of the rabbits we put up escaped over the boundry into warrens on another land-owners ground,we make our way to the car and head to another permission 5/10 minutes down the road.

 

We arrive and decide on a spot that until recentley was maize which has now been cut so we could attack the little gully that runs along the bottom of the field,we get to the gully to be met with what can only be described as "summer cover" .Almost straightaway the young bitch puts a rabbit up which again goes over the boundry off our ground to safety(about an acre which is the only ground around that permo that we can't hunt!).......its frustrating but can't be helped.We proceed down the gully where Gem gives a strong mark,the young bitch isn't marking this one :?: we clear the holes which is a bit of a mission due to the cover and net up and Tom entered his young Sandy jill that Jai bred, and she flew down into the darkness, she is only about 7 months but has bolted a few already. There was a bit of bumping and then silence, and the finally a last bump and the rabbit tried to break out Toms side of the fence,he was on it quick,and despite haveing a little nip off the over excited ferret,he was proud as punch,his ferret,his net and he even killed it,gutted it and legged it himself.

 

Nets up and onwards,we quickly got another mark further a long the ditch,nets on and ferret in,and soon she had the bunnys moving. The first bolted well, but the second was stopped in the hole by the jill.I can hear the tell tale noise of rabbit and ferret in battle and stick my arm down to the shoulder and retrieve rabbit with jill attached.

 

After a bit more of a mooch a long the edge,we got another mark,this time the young bitch is marking :?: and soon the nets were down,and the ferret was on her way into the darkness.There was a good bit of banging and the silence. . . .and nothing.After a good while,we started scanning with the disco carrot and just as we were trying to decide where to dig,two rabbits bolted pretty much at once by Jai who's them both in a flash and he emerges from the cover with a rabbit in each hand,quite impressive I thought.With there being 2 rabbits in this warren made me wonder is this why the young bitch was marking this one but not the holes only occupied by lone rabbits :?:

 

At this point we were on nine and the day was nearing its end. . . .but you can't stop at nine can you? On the way back to the car we dropped into our favourite gully,which has been good to us over the last couple of seasons and can usually be relied upon to cough a couple of bunnies.We climbed down the sides and the dogs were working away well,scenting through the cover.As the gully narrowed and started becoming a stream,we got our final mark of the day on a set strung around a holly tree and an old stump,which incidentley the young pup was marking aswell(she marks on warrens that hold more than one but not on ones that hold a single bunny,more scent I suppose :?: ).In went the fert and after a short time number ten hit the net and was snapped up by Gem.The ferret was nowhere to be seen though,so out came the beeper and after a bit of movement and messing about we got a mark at 2 foot opened up to find rabbit still alive but with a few battle scars,back filled and decided to call it a day on 11 rabbits.Not a huge amount but numbers aren't as important to me as they were in my younger days I much prefer being in good company and if you get some good sport its a welcome bonus.

 

Home then for a nice cuppa and dinner...........just to add Young Tom really got stuck in today and is turning into quite the ferreter,long may it continue,

Sorry if I went on......I get carried away.

Incidentley I think Young Tom as too much time on his hands I told him to take his hands out of his pockets when he proceeded to do this

[shaunpauls7 131]

Cracking pics bud, I am out tomorrow.Netting up in those tight woods are a nightmare.

atb shaun

[fast dogs 51]

spot on the pics mate

[rocky1 942]

goodstuff john

[patterdale666 1,620]

Good read and pics well done

[trigger2 3,170]

good write up that johnny boy68. its good to see someone taking the time to show youngsters the ropes.

[trigger2 3,170]

jai dont have a great deal of luck with finn he spends some time in the sick bay.

[johnny boy68 11,726]

jai dont have a great deal of luck with finn he spends some time in the sick bay.

Aye I know mate.......its the dogs drive,he'll run through a brick wall at times.Finn seems to be one of them whips that get ripped open but like I said its probably down to his drive rather than thin skin.

[johnny boy68 11,726]

Cracking pics bud, I am out tomorrow.Netting up in those tight woods are a nightmare.

atb shaun

Cheers mate.....hope you have a good day.

spot on the pics mate

goodstuff john

Cheers Gaz.

Good read and pics well done

good write up that johnny boy68. its good to see someone taking the time to show youngsters the ropes.

Cheers trig he's really getting into it now especially has his ferts are being worked now.

[trigger2 3,170]

jai dont have a great deal of luck with finn he spends some time in the sick bay.

Aye I know mate.......its the dogs drive,he'll run through a brick wall at times.Finn seems to be one of them whips that get ripped open but like I said its probably down to his drive rather than thin skin.

i know mate, hes just one of those dogs.

[jezza 126]

good write up johnny boy!

[jo54 255]

cracking pics buddy

[lloydus 29]

Good write up Johnny. Hopefully we can arrange an outing soon.

 

Lloyd

[Ideation 8,216]

jai dont have a great deal of luck with finn he spends some time in the sick bay.

 

Too true mate. As Johnnyboy sais, it has a lot to do with his drive. I suppose it's typical of a pure sight hound, but once he gets his hunting head on and is picking up air or ground scents, he goes a little bit deaf, and once he has actually sighted his prey and has it on the run, nothing will stop him, and anything that gets in his way, he will just try to plough through. He's a good 'hunting' dog and can work off on his own independantly quite happily, and if there is game anywhere near, or even not so near, he will track it down and get it moving. He's a smart enough dog, but sometimes his balls over power his brain. On the plus side, he will get stuck into anything you throw at him, and hit any cover he faces if there is something in there.

 

I also think that the land i work him on and how i work him, is probably far from ideal. He rarely sees a flat, green field, and spends most of his time hunting in woodland, thick covers, gullys, ditches, mountainsides etc, busting cover.

 

To works well for me, the trade is that i need to take him down the vets every 3 or so months to get him sewn up.

[dogs and quarry 40]

beltin' read, and pics. well done mate