Some serious ferreting at last!

[Brimmer 220]

Hi guys, got the 8 o clock billet last night off the old chap over the blower, was hoping to maybee get a day off this weekend, but alas no, the old dood signed me up for Sat and Sun, no rest for the wicked!

He discussed his half arsed ideas as usual to me, whilst on the phone i checked the forecast as we spoke,, strong winds on Sat but dry, and slight wind on Sun (tmoz) but damp.

He wanted to work both dogs as they were raring to go, fair play makes sense, but he wanted to work them on the westerly facing slopes today in the strong westerly wind.

Tried to steer him away from that idea, it can be a pain standing up sometimes, setting nets is a nightmare, and hearing the knocker box near impossible.

I tried to steer his thought towards dropping on some lowland instead for today in the strong wind, he'd planned on doing it on Sunday anyhow, but could not be talked round.

 

7am this morning, the truck was parked outside my house with the radio blaring with talk sport on as usual, the old feller is deaf, but his radio is buggered in the truck, the volume wont turn down, sure the neighbours love that!

 

As we loaded up, he spotted the longnet sneaked in amongst the kit, (we rareley use one apart from on the lowland.)

" might be a good idea that " he said,

looks like he had changed his mind about the venue for the day, the wind was really howling, so a trip out on the lowland it was.

 

It always was going to be a trip out on the lowland today really, i'd got the kit and ferrets for doing it, even if he tried to go up to the highland slopes, i was going to put him off on the way up there.

 

Plan was to hit a big warren on the ground, we had done the rest of the ground around a month ago, but left this for another day.

 

Last year Andy 410 off here and myself stumbled across it on a clean up day, to be honest we were undergunned on the day, it was the first time i'd been on this land, and did not know it was there, we did ok on it, Andy's quickset was a little to short to surround the warren, and we lost around 4 bunnies out of the gap, plus the rabbits were surface skipping away from his little jills.

 

Today I had a clue how to approach the warren, the 100 yrd longnet round the outside, and purse nets covering a lot of the holes, not all of them though. I set this up whilst the old feller walked the dogs around some of the meadows to settle them down.

 

By the time i'd got sorted and the old feller arrived, he'd got a couple of rabbits in the bag running the dogs in the meadows. Time to start the ferreting.

 

I,d brought 4 ferrets especially for this warren, Two medium albino hobs, Spike near 6 yrs and Billy Bobs Brother near 5 yrs, a large polecat hob Bear near 4 yrs, all these were just backup, in case b*****d, a strong 4 yr old albino jill could not shift them, she was the main line of attack, see if she could move them and resort to the heavy mob to clean up the strugglers.

 

here's a few pics of the set up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

b*****d was put in, under the tree roots, not a single noise for 10 mins. Bad start.

Located she was still, a 2 minute dig and the first was out.

 

Dont let the fact this is a jill fool you into thinking she is a bolting type ferret, that type of ferret is handy to a lot of folk, but its not my type of ferret, i want one that will kill, if wont kill its not doing the job properly and wont be around me for long, all my ferrets are killers, personally i think if they dont stick with a rabbit with the intent on killing it, then some rabbits will just take the piss, refusing to bolt or running around, leaving plenty of warrens still with occupants.

 

This continued over the space of 2 hrs, one by one she locked horns, either they bolted, or they were dug too, or grabbed in the entrance to a tube that the dog pointed to.

 

couple of the digs.

 

 

 

Nothing tricky at all really, got a little ambitous trying to get my hand alongside b*****d, and got this for my troubles!

 

 

She was on fire, one at a time singlehanded she showed them who was boss until she got to rabbit number 16, at this point she was tired, i put Bear in to help her, and they had it stopped within 2 mins. That was the total for the warren, 16 rabbits. Not 1 loss, very clinical.

 

 

As picked up the longnet, i wished i had not done something, i had it in my head that if i clovehitched the top and bottom lines onto the poles, then the longenet would be more secure, it was until i tried pulling the poles!

 

 

What a knobhead wont do that again, it took me ages to get the knots out!

 

Anyhow after dinner we set to on a few small warrens, worked the other ferrets, Spike at near 6 yrs old still showed his metal, needed digging to on a couple of occasions, and showed the same determination that set him out to be a good un in his first year.

 

Dogs with there limited work probably improved with having to become ferreting dogs for the day.

 

At 2.30 pm we had done everything on the land we have there, so we packed up with 24 big rabbits.

 

 

Tommorrow its the slopes, see how things go there.

 

Forgot to say, whilst gutting 5 of the does were cherried up, not long left now guys.

Edited January 7, 2012 by Brimmer

[terryd 8,690]

I enjoyed that report good stuff.

Did you have much hassle picking the long net up not exactly clean ground ?

[Brimmer 220]

Yep full of twigs and nettle stalks, my right shoulder was aching by the time i'd pulled them all out and gathered it!

[johnny boy68 11,726]

Great write up mate and pics, keep at them.

[the loner 11]

nice 1

[mattydski 560]

Good read Brim....

Good news when a plan comes together... Ive bought a couple of 25 yard quicksets for my armoury this year for a new style of working on some of the medium size warrens...

Need to get out and try them, but one of my dogs is banged up......

Still time yet though

 

Good to see tha auld 'yin still at it to!!

[breeze 1,320]

Good write up Brimmer . . . I can remember the pictures from when you and Andy did that warren last time, How many did you get that day altho you missed 4 ?

 

That B#####d jill sound's an interesting animal mate

[nighteyes 275]

nice write up and pics good day there

[reddawn 2,173]

thats how a days ferreting should go, i get days like that now an again wish they was all like that

 

well done brim, keep at em

[whin 463]

prefer bolting them to good dogs and the odd dig the quiter you are the more bolts , sound slike adays diging rabbs rather than bolting rabbs , dont mind digging stragglers but prefer a bit sport on top

[netrigger 568]

Nice write up and pictures Brimmer I enjoyed that. And I also noticed the Clove Hitches on the Poles They are as You said a Bugger to get off!!. Hopefully the wind blows itself out for the Slopes Today...

Regards..

[Tyla 3,179]

Nice job, its always really interesting to read your posts Brimmer. We have pretty much opposite ferreting styles and i like to see something different. I like a bolting jill and im not upset if they leave the occasional stubborn one behind, I use longnets almost exclusively and purse nets very seldom. The reasoning is that alot of the buries we do go off the mk3 locator so a ferret that kills and waits with every one is a liability. We also have very big buries with very few rabbits in so spending a longtime netting up isnt so productive. Its all about the ground!

 

Good read too. ATB

[andy s410c 61]

Nice one B,looks familiar that set :yes: that dog still barking along there!!Keep at them mate

[stroller 341]

Well written mate and a good day had by all

[Brimmer 220]

Good write up Brimmer . . . I can remember the pictures from when you and Andy did that warren last time, How many did you get that day altho you missed 4 ?

 

That B#####d jill sound's an interesting animal mate

 

Hi Breeze, i think me and Andy had maybee 12 out of it, lucky we lost a few, think thats why there were a few this time, Andy can probs remember more than me, his little poley jills worked there knuts off!