plastic owl decoy up-date.

[paulk73 151]

well i went out this morning, full of hope and coffee. i took my new owl decoy, and 2 magpies. first of all i thought id better go see if i could bag a bunny to open up, and place the magpies round if the owl wasnt doing the buisness.

i got to the farm just as the sun was coming up. had a quick look around, i saw 2 rabbits on the railway banking, but they also saw me and scarpered.

i set off to the intended permission that is being plagued by crows and squirrels. on arriving, and entering the permission i turned the corner to see 4 0r 5 squirrels tearing through the branches, they didnt stop.

i set about making a make shift hide , which didnt take long because there was an overhanging evergreen bush, that was trailing right down to the ground. i then set the owl up on an old stump in good view of any passing crows, but quite close to a tree, i got tucked in, and waited. and waited. i stayed for about an hour and a half, and nothing. i could hear the crows calling, but they wouldnt come near.

i decided to go for a bit of breccie and rethink things.

after a full english, and a pot of coffee, i set back up again. same as before, but i put down the 2 magpie decoys, in the hope that the magpies would draw others in or even give the crows a bit more confidence.

i waited til about 2.30, still not a fecking sausage. nothing had even been down for a look.

at this point i was getting a bit fed up, and thought about throwing the towel in. then i thought about another farm that holds rabbits, so off i set, plan c. got to the farm, had a look about, eventually saw a rabbit down the dip about yrds away. i needed this rabbit for plan c to work. so i got down as low as i could in the wet grass and crawled the 40 or so yrds. i peeped over the crest to see the rabbit still there. i pulled out the bi-pod legs as quietly as i could, adjusted myself to a comfortable shooting possition, judged it to be around 40 yrds. fortunatley there was no wind to compensate for, just the holdover, then i let the pellet go, it landed right behind the eye. it went over.

 

so it was off back to the crow permission to put plan c into effect.

on arriving at the permission again, i saw a squirrel on the wall but there wasnt a safe shot on, because if i missed the pellet would have left the permission. i walked to where i had previously set up, and i could hear a crow cawing. i made my way through the small wood, towards the orchard, where the crow was. i could see it sat at the top of an old willow tree. i crawled a bit closer towards the fence, rested the hw 100 on the post. was about to pull the trigger, when the crow shifted. it hopped up a branch, and gave me a better shot. i squeezed gently, and the crow toppled through the branches. i retreived the crow, and looked where the pellet entered. perfect. right behind the eye

 

 

i set the crow up, next to the deeks and opened the rabbit up spilling the goodies for all to see. i got back in my hide, and waited again. the next thing that turned up was a squirrel. non the wiser as to my where-abouts. i slowly raised the rifle to my shoulder, gave half a mildot hold under and squeezed. down he came.

 

i stated where i was and waited a little while longer, another squirrel came through the branches, again i raised the rifle, took aim and missed.

 

well it was starting to get a bit dark by now so i went to pick tufty up. and i heard a noise behind me, on the floor of the wood. i turned to see a big cock pheasant, scrating around in the leaf litter about 25 yrds away. i got down on 1 knee, and let the pellet go. BINGO.

 

 

not the day i was expecting, but a nice mixed bag, never the less. will have to persevere with the owl and the deeks lol.

thanks for reading.

[pipa 299]

very nice mixed bag there mate, i find it very hard to get anywhere near crows, or magpies

chris

[19powell90 89]

Lovely mixed bag and great read

 

Scott

[Baghdadnights 150]

Keep baiting an area up with squirrels or rabbits split open with guts on show for a week or two so they corvids get used to feeding without disturbance then try again in the hide you need to stay perfectly still inside it slightest movement and they'll spot you this method worked for me

Atb

Kev

[paulk73 151]

cheers pal, will give it a bash. ahem ...... nice erm pic pal

[Acuspell 329]

Good read and good shooting. Adapting is the name of the game.

[roughcoat 8]

Good read and a nice day out time to pull the boot's on and get off the lard arse I'm sitting on ,mind you take me a month to see that much where I shoot. Keep it up

[ftm 3,357]

my kind of read that mate well done for perservering but i also tried the owl decoy to no avail what i did find really good was a ferret on a harness left to eat the remains of a rabbit give it a go and see if it works for you once again well done

[markha 99]

Nice write up and a handy bit of shooting. Crow doesnt taste the best the rest is nice though

[paulk73 151]

cheers for the replies guys.

[poacher95 1]

FTM......you f*****g tosser FERRETS DO NOT LIKE BEING OUT IN THE OPEN MAKES THEM FEEL UNSAFE YOU c**t.

[nangell 50]

i find the owl/hawke decoy a waste of time at this time of year especially on land that's shot regular ,

found it to work around nesting time ,

i also find that baiting an area works best ,

[stealthy1 3,964]

Gordon Ramsy would have a field day with that bag

[falcongit 242]

great shooting and great bag to, nice 1

 

symon

[gurtwurz 792]

Well you may not have had the day you were expecting, but it looks like you had a cracker all the same, nice shooting mate

 

Excellent write up and pictures too,really enjoyed that

 

Cheers, wurz