Lamping?

[martin 332]

One thing I've found is that on a night that is moonlit,but,has a fair bit of cloud,and is windy to the point that the clouds a shooting across the sky,giving you moonlight every few seconds does seem to give Charlie a false sense of security(that's my findings anyway).

I've shot plenty of foxes under all types of conditions though,but,as John said,if they are educated to the lamp then you will have trouble,and,you need to use your best calling techniques to get a result.

Good luck D.S. and keep us informed as to how you get on mate.......Martin.

[Guest freestate hunter cfc]

ditchshitter for a start its the wrong time of year to be hunting and second if it dosnt fly dont shoot it if your going to lamp get a lurcher.

[Guest Ditch_Shitter]

Yes. Thanks for that. Only, ye see; I'm a Pest Controller. So, 'for a start', you tell me what time of the year pests stop pestering my clients and I'll stay at home and starve.

 

Lurchers? I've had my share. I have enough Dogs here now though and I couldn't fit a lurcher in the gun cabinet.

 

Now, if ye'll excuse me; It's dark as hell out there and I'm off to have a look around the low bog

[Guest Ditch_Shitter]

Well, f*ck That for a game of soldiers! Just trapsed through acres of knee high juncus in absolute blackness. No discernable wind. And actually hot as hell ~ at least I was, because I'd put one or two layers too much on, remembering the chill of only the other night.

 

No mist. Could see for ever, with the lamp. Only trouble being that what ever might have been there to be seen would've been under the juncus. Hasn't dampened my spirits though. Just my back and chest. I'll start from the other end next time, wind permitting, and shall then just back track out. Save myself two vile ditches and reams of cow wire. Best of all, it'd save me miles of stumbling about in worthless bog

 

It's getting better though; On the way back, passing the higher fields around here, I saw a hare. Interesting thing is, she was off the moment the lamp hit her. I suspect though that's because she's been followed down these tracks by headlights before. She needn't have worried about me, of course. Not on my list

[ru_and_dill 0]

Well, f*ck That for a game of soldiers! Just trapsed through acres of knee high juncus in absolute blackness. No discernable wind.

 

Ditch, at the risk of giving my grannie a bit of a lesson in egg-sucking, the "no discernible wind" bit is a bit of a give-away. It's not just a question of whisking the scent away, it's about background noise and cover for the enemy's ears. Whoever it was said that scudding clouds and on-and-off moonlight seem to give Charlie a false sense of security is definitely right, and just the same is true for bunnies (although whether that's because the wind covers the sound of you moving, or because Benjamin doesn't like wind in his ears and therefore keeps them down and so can't hear you, I've never really worked out )

 

If I have to decide whether to go out for a wander with dogs or the gun, I look at the clouds first (moonlight is my enemy, and wind is my friend), then the treetops, and last of all the leaves on the floor. If there's no evidence of movement, it's up the wooden stairs to Bedfordshire for me.

 

And of course there's a lot to be said for the old lore that if you've seen them in the afternoon, you won't see them in the evening - perhaps they know something about an iminent change in the weather that we don't...

 

Having said all that, of course, no-one has ever actually briefed the quarry on all this theory: sometimes they just do their own thing! But then that's why we love 'em

 

Good luck,

 

R&D

[juckler123 707]

Best times after dark till an hour before dawn.

Best weather plenty of wind less moon the better

and Ditch if its not blowing a gale make sure your making no noise trousers rubbing etc and as you already stated, make sure you dont blow scent on to em.

[Phil Lloyd 10,738]

You auld NIGHTHUNTER,...

Well,.be sure to enjoy yourself,...make it fun...

Edited May 23, 2007 by CHALKWARREN

[whin 463]

the land i lamp is mostly the land ive walked for decades and poached always know the enemy and well the qaurries habits all the best weather etc were theyll lie in a wind a lifetime of expierence helps

[J Darcy 5,871]

Ditchy , just get out and do it.....it shouldnt be hard with a lamp and rifle really. Anytime after dark will have various critters out in the fields...and thats where i would be looking, rather than the rough ground. If there is any fields that is!! lol.

[Guest Ditch_Shitter]

'Morning', all. Just had nine hours total darkness and I'm probably thinking more clearly right now than for a while. Had time to digest a lot.

 

Obviously, it's a 'simple' amalgamation of just about everything evryone's been saying above. Laughable thing is, in my short burst of nocturnal activity so far I've probably encountered just about every no no in the book! But I can be a damn quick learner and I've gained a hellovva lot from the experiances.

 

Looking out my window as I write, I'm gazing down onto Just the right fields. Lower lying. Open and exposed. Yet with ditches and bits of hedge affording that bit of cover and security for both hunter and hunted. Not knee deep in juncus and viewable from hundreds of yards. So on and so forth. And I'm drawing up my plans against them!

 

As has been said; No point in me 'crashing' through that juncus. If there was anything in amongst it, it'd long since have slipped into a ditch and away as soon as I rustled in over the creaking gate. The higher meadows, where I saw the hare, need cattle over them yet - or the hay harvester. Of course, it's too early for that yet, but then this isn't the season one really should be out. But I can't avoid that issue and so must work with what I have.

 

Anyway, trying my best to bring everything I've learned and been told together, I've decided to hang a Stink Tube from a solitary Horse Chestnut, down on those lower fields. The overall positioning couldn't be better. Perhaps someone built this cottage here and planted that tree there for the express purpose of allowing this situation to occur? If I ever get up to taking 180 yard or so shots, I could liturally lean on my front gate and fire. As it is, I'll walk to the end of my track, to my top gate, and make the shot from there. That'd save me a hundred yards. Purpose provided looking post down there. Clear field of view. Perfect back drop. Anything after the Tube will be on open ground with short turf beneath it's feet. As long as my zero's correct? 'Candy from a baby' comes to mind!

 

Thinking on ..... I know things and places around here. I think I'll also first use that Tube as a Drag. I'll invite all and sundry for miles around to come join the party at my tree.

 

Once again my mind drifts back over the decades to a man I knew only as " Clem ". A Brick Layer for whom I Laboured. " Ditch, " he once said to me. " In this life ye'll find there's always a Hard way and an Easy way of doing anything. Always look for the Easy way! "

 

I salute ye wisdom once more, Clem, where ever ye are. Tramping and stumbling through pitch blackness, juncus under foot? Or walking up a metalled road and taking a leasurely shot off a perfect support at a target expected to be there and staying there? We think we have the idea now!

 

Thanks, Lads

[Guest JohnGalway]

If I ever get up to taking 180 yard or so shots, I could liturally lean on my front gate and fire.

 

Have you got more ammo yet ditch?

 

Zero her up and shoot some groups, never seen a hornet grouping.

[Guest Frank]

If I ever get up to taking 180 yard or so shots, I could liturally lean on my front gate and fire.

 

Have you got more ammo yet ditch?

 

Zero her up and shoot some groups, never seen a hornet grouping.

 

Yes, would love to see some groups with the Hornet Ditch aswell.

 

Frank.

[Guest Ditch_Shitter]

Have you got more ammo yet ditch?

 

 

No. But I could f*cking well do with some!

 

 

 

Yes, would love to see some groups with the Hornet Ditch aswell.

 

 

So would I, Frank!

 

 

 

Listen, lads; I've just been out there and took (I'm sure it was) two good shots at the last crow on that damn nest. Now, this nest is a Range Finder stated fifty yards from my gate. Diagonaly, of course. I fired low and I fired at it. Nothing happened. I.e. No twigs out of the nest. Figured I'm going high so gave up.

 

Then I set my target out on my field (Secure back drop and I was firing slightly downwards) and the empties in my pocket tell me I fired four rounds at it from around the fifty yard mark. It felt like a hundred!

 

In between seemingly ~ or definately, when I checked ~ not touching the target, I tried deliberately firing quite wide. (Honestly, I've just checked my pockets for more empties as I write this. I can't believe that nightmare lasted only four bloody shots!) Well, the result is I seem to have been straying well to the right. A good four inches or so, in fact.

 

Having said that, my shots that hit the paper were absolutely perfectly out on windage. The six inch elevation I put down to me. Truth to tell, I was trying to get across to the target, having tried to Bore Sight the thing and reckoned I was far to the Left!

 

So; The rifle's now in the cabinet and will bloody well stay there. The crow's still on the nest and will, no doubt, fly off any day. I'll hunt it and it's parents down later. But I'm Hoping for a visitor this week. Someone who'll take no shit from this scope and will, I'm sure, soon sort it out for me without having to expend the last twenty five rounds I have in the cottage.

 

In conclusion then? I'm back to square one. I need to zero the damn thing all over again. Only this time, if I can't get it done for me, I'll bring in other help: My Work Mate. A bag. A chair. Deano's Range Finder. I'll do all I can to take personal error out of the equation and get this thing puting rounds where I point them.

 

Then, and only then, will I be aiming it at live quarry. And then is also when I'll set up with a fresh target and bring ye some groupings. Not too many though; It's cost me about seventy f*cking Euro in rounds to get this far! And I've actually got no where!

[OldTrapCollector 377]

I need to zero the damn thing all over again. Only this time, if I can't get it done for me, I'll bring in other help: My Work Mate. A bag. A chair. Deano's Range Finder. I'll do all I can to take personal error out of the equation and get this thing puting rounds where I point them.

 

Ditch,

 

If you bench rest it to get a zero it will produce different groups than when you fire it naturally - it is all to do with harmonics.

 

You need to take well aimed shots to group and zero, not any one else as everyone's aim and eye is different, and they need to be taken in a stable natural hold not bench rested or you will have to do it yet again (unless you want to take the workmate out shooting with you?)

 

OTC

[Guest Ditch_Shitter]

Actually, Old (Yeah. I've decided to just call ye that. " OTC ", while having the same number of letters, still sounds too long in my head. Knowing ye real name, I'd as soon use that - but forum ettiquette ..... So I'll just cut ye Handle to " Old " ) Anyway; I was rather talking there mate out of frustration and fear, to be perfectly honest with ye. I'd just come in from firing and ..... well ... Let me explain:

 

I don't know if ye read where I said how I'd been getting it zero'd on saturday when, at the last few rounds in my pocket, everything went to rat shit? Only it was then that I discovered the moderator had come loose. What's more, it had a microscopic ding in the exit hole. Dean checked the baffles for me there and then - I happened to still have the rod in my pocket - and pronounced them fine.

 

Mm. Thinking about it though, that was saturday. I then continued zeroing on Sunday and was definately managing to narrow down my groupage. Still f*cking terrible. But it did seem to be responding to my ham fisted efforts with the scope turrets.

 

Then I shot the crow. Then I missed the other one, two or three times. Now, this evening, I had hell on earth even touching a fourteen inch square target at c. 50 yards!

 

Now again, granted, it does seem to have responded to my turret twistings. But f*ck! It was ridiculously hard work - or seemed like it. So, truth to tell, I was getting rather terrified that that tiny lip on the edge of the moderator hole may be f*cking it up for me?

 

If it is - and my hoped for visitor will know All about such things - then no problemmo. That end cap screws off and I'll just send for a new one. Heh! That'd actually almost be the prefered outcome! It'd mean I haven't completely lost my ability to shoot, as seems the case right now! Well; Ability to zero a scope anyway. And I've never claimed to be too clever at that. That's why I like my lasers. * Sigh! *

 

So, there it is. I've got that one off my chest. Maybe my phone'll ring tomorrow and tell me the cavalry's ready to come see me? If so, and he can at least manage to get this thing striking a few inch group, I'll be perfectly happy to take over from there and define it to my own eye. Just as long as I know I'm on the paper and not throwing rounds dangerously haphazzardly around the general compass direction.

 

I feel better for that

 

 

 

Harmonics? What; Like " Co o o ome Ho o o ome to Birds Eye Countryyy ... Bi ii irdseye Countryyyyy! " Remember that one?