Lamping?

[Guest Ditch_Shitter]

Simple enough? What time do ye go out? What conditions are most productive? What creatures do ye see when out?

 

What it is; I've been out only less than a dozen times with a lamp. Half of those excursions were long enough ago to be considered 'Historical'. I don't remember the finer details now. But, more recently, I've started going out either with a mate and his (rifle and) lamp. Now I have my own (rifle and lamp) but am completely at a loss as to what time to give it a try.

 

I know this is the lurker board. But you guys likely get out and about as much, or more, as the rifle guys. Ye'll also be that bit more 'across the board' in ye attitude.

 

Just wondering: Is there an optimum time to be out? Never mind " 23:00 Hrs ". That can mean differant things at differant times of the year. I mean 'Just after dark'. Or 'Middle of the night'. Or 'As dawn approaches'.

 

And what do ye see? Quarry and non quarry? Does anyone carry a lamp now, just for a look around?

 

Reason I ask is that I'm tending to find this area completely devoid of Anything! We have hares. I saw one this morning, at dawn ~ yet no sign of one last night. Badgers are everywhere ~ neighbouring farmers say they see them as they look over their cattle, even 'in the evenings'. I see their signs by daylight. Yet to run into one at night. Foxes, cats, mink, rats, you name it. It's all out there. Yet, in my limited number of excursions with the beam to hand? Nothing!

 

I'm trying to pin it down. Where does the local wildlife get to when I venture forth? Is it that I'm just looking at the wrong times? If not, there's got to be another problem. I'll work on that. But first off, let's sort out the time things move out there. And the conditions that get them moving.

 

You lads seem to see most of it, eventually. So what do ye think helps put ye in that right place at the right time? What's ye recipe for seeing the countryside crawl, please?

[Bosun11 537]

IMO its depends on geography, where you live, pure counryside or town edges. I think wildlife (though not in any numbers) will be out as soon as dusk approches but in coming out at this time will be on edge an easily spooked. If i'm out for a shine I personally like to be out around the midnight mark, traffic and people have quietened and wildlife has settled.

[Guest MOLLY]

I think its down to conditions rather than times Ditchy.

But then again you can go out in perfect conditions and see nowt, go out when its moonlit, no wind etc and catch more than normal. The only honest answer i can give you based on my limited experience is, its down to luck really

MOLL.

[Guest Ditch_Shitter]

Bosun 11; I live in the absolute dead centre of Nowhere, mate. Only thing that disturbs the wild life here abouts is a cow treading on it.

 

Moll; There's a clue in what ye say there; I suspected I'd picked up the idea was to use a black, windy night. Perhaps also the fact's against me right now that the grass is so up? Only I was out the night before last and saw just my mates two ponys and a ton of cowz. Yet, at dawn, I popped out the door for a look around and there was a bloody hare! Had my rifle in my hands, luckily. So I raised it and got her in my cross hairs Gave me a cracking view of her as she went about her business, before loping off up my field and away. Bless!

[Bosun11 537]

Your a lucky man Ditch.....15min drive for me to open land.

then I'd agree with Molly, conditions are all important but what do you see around you in the day? Signs of rabbit, fox, hares etc, are they there, do you look at night where you find in the day? I have found that certain fields, no matter how promising they look, just don't seem to attract nowt and the next can be good. Does anyone else lamp the area? Do you use a filter?

[Guest Ditch_Shitter]

Your a lucky man Ditch.....15min drive for me to open land.

 

 

I'm disgustingly lucky mate, and I know and appreciate every minute of it!

 

 

View From My Front Gate

 

 

But, no; No one else around here lamps anywhere near my ground. I don't use a filter because I don't know the craic with them and so don't have one. But my white beam shows me all I need to see ..... That the fields are completely devoid of wildlife!

 

It just seems weird. I see hares in broad daylight. Their paths are well known to me. Out with the lamp? Zilch! Badgers too - and I hardly think I could be over looking those buggers! Some fields here are like the Somme with their rootings. Yet I'm looking into those self same fields at 02:00 and seeing grass. So, I figure, if I can't come across the innumerable badgers round here, what chance have I of running into a less common fox?!

 

I'm seriously starting to wonder if the unthinkable isn't just the plain and simple truth: Could it be possible be that everything moves down into the rolling blankets of dreadful, thick mist we get, down in the boggy bottom of this basin? I wonder if the atmosphere created by that creates some attraction? Only my CluLite throws a beam as far as my eyes can see and I'm sweeping two or three fields down. At least as far as the mist hits. Absolutely f*ck all there but grass! And not even a Hare on that.

 

Come to think of it; One place I don't look is among the cattle ..... Could it be that Charlie's sneaking about shadowing those, I wonder?

 

This is bugging me. It's a mystery I'm determined to crack. Have to! Won't get a shot at a fox is I can't find the b*stards!

[Guest Frank]

Ditch, that looks like prime fox country mate.

Get some stinky bait, into a hole, with some chiken wire across, so the fox is their for a while, trying to get at it. Bait it for a few days, then strike one night with the lamp, you will be suprised how many foxes you will get using this method.

 

Frank.

[Guest MOLLY]

Have you tried wearing glasses Ditchy?

MOLL.

[Guest Ditch_Shitter]

Actually, Frank, I'm off into town presently and it's in my little black book to visit the builders merchants and pick up a bit of pipe and some end caps! I'm gonna make me a " Stink Pipe "!

 

I now see they can be used as Drags? I'll give that a go too then. Only, first off, I figure to hang it low out of a tree, see? So many f*cking (invisible!) badgers round here that anything I buried would be ripped back up again the minute my back's turned. I wouldn't see the crafty gray buggers, of course! But they'd be on it. Charlie wouldn't get a look in.

 

So, maybe I should try hanging up a stinky bait and then get off wind of it and just stand guard over it? Flick the lamp on now and then and see what I see then? That sounds like a goer to me.

 

Ooh! Just remembered! I have a sack of absolutely f*cking putrid Gammon's out there! (Oh, don't ask! ) Well; What ever may be left of them, now the flies have been through! But the sack still seems to have plenty of bulk to it. Must be something in there? I'll get my full face respirator and gloves on later and have a peek :sick: Anything in there must be minging like f*ck! Perfect!

 

Great inspiration!

[Bosun11 537]

I'm disgustingly lucky mate, and I know and appreciate every minute of it!

 

Sweet Jesus you are!!!

 

Though far from the 'be all and end all' I find that I personally see much more using a filter, eyes really do shine, i know some people hate 'em but each to there own.

You mention sweeping down 2 or 3 fields, my advice would be to keep the lamp to just one field at a time and make sure your in it before flicking on the beam, move in darkness an don't over illuminate.

Cow fields can be a haven for game, some critters seem to prefer roaming about with bovines, though spooked cattle are a real hazard when lamping.

Had some nice permission up scotch a few years back, looks similar to your view, I found there that stuff moved down to lower pasture land at night an hares especially packed them fields! Though i'm no expert of land of this nature.

All quarry round my neck of the woods is on fecking vallium!!

[Guest Ditch_Shitter]

I found there that stuff moved down to lower pasture land at night an hares especially packed them fields!

 

I think we're whittling this down quite nicely then. That's got to be the answer! See; Because of the nature of the ground here, I always aim to find downward shots. Thus what I do is walk up to the road ~ checking the upland fields around me as I go (and come back) and then walk along the road, looking down into the fields below over the tops of the hedges. I have a CluLite 'ShootaLite' and focus it to spot, so it throws a f*ck of a distance and these are small fields anyway. But there's still simply nothing on them. Even I can see that ~ without glasses, Mollers!

 

I'm off into town presently. That means I'll have a Guinness or two. On top of that, I'm a bit shagged right now. That all adds up to me leaving the rifle in the cabinet tonight then What I will try to get done though is prepare my vile pipe and find a suitable place to hang it. And I have just the place in mind too! Tree down by the 'Styx'. I'll recce the area in good light. Check out the back drops and work out a good place to approach from and position myself.

 

I'm looking foreward to this! Getting more optomistic now

 

Cheers, all!

[Guest JohnGalway]

What's the name of that book, if you can get your hands on it, foxing with lamp and rifle. Gives good pointers, wish I had read it starting out.

 

Time, subjective thing. I get ready before dark and am on the move before it's properly dark. Foxy is out and about all day and night, mostly at night as all know. Dark and windy is good, too windy is no good for your rifle though. On those kinds of night however you can pretty much walk (even run) up to a fox that doesn't know what the story with lamps is. Use the wind, either by starting well away from your house and working your way back into the wind or at the least have it going across you.

 

I don't go out before dawn cos I like my bed too much but I have been out until dawn

 

Reckon around dusk and the two hours after it are the best if you really want to nail a time down.

 

On really stormy nights, best for shotgun really, you'll find foxy curled up in a nice sheltered spot. They don't like moving even when you spot them they'll sit pretty and watch you, most of them. The educated lads, don't matter if you've a truck load of chickens they'll be off as soon as they see the light.

 

I'm just waiting for someone to mention callers

[Guest MOLLY]

Callers

 

MOLL.

[Guest JohnGalway]

What creatures do ye see when out?

 

Forgot this bit.

 

Hares, otters, rabbits, cats, foxes, greycrows, cuckoos, lots of snipe (noisy SOB's), the odd magpie, badgers, then the usual farm animals.

 

Callers

 

MOLL.

 

Well done, you win a prize

[Dawn B 212]

It might be the smell of your feet DS!! I mean the look of them terrifies us lot, the smell must sweep the land! Give them a good soak, put some nice smellies on them, clean socks, then wait till dark, bet Charlie is waiting!!

Dawn.