A good morning on the hills........

[Sirius 1,391]

Well the weather at the MET office said that we would have rain by 1pm which was all it took to ring up swifthunt and get things arranged to tackle a big warren I have been wanting to do for a while. We were on the frosty hillside just before 8am, and netting up for 10 past once we got the truck close enough that is (didn’t want to be moving all the gear too far especially as I was hoping for a reasonable tally of rabbits today, optimism lol)

The hill side warren was one of the bigger ones we do, its best part of 100 yard long and 40-50 yards wide, it’s an old place and has some deep areas and is pretty sprawling a sure place for hole hopping. It took a fair amount to net it up with well over 40 purse nets, several stop nets ,long nets and the wee trammel was out again too. We had the two dogs on today Swifthunts young pup and my 6 year old dog this was to be the first time the two dogs had worked together. We were netting up for best part of a hour and then dropped 4 ferrets at one end and another 3 in the middle. The action was pretty furious at first with rabbits hitting nets here there and everywhere not ideal for the pup, but she handled it well., Things soon slowed down a touch after the initial mayhem as the ferrets spread out and rabbits were bolting at a steady speed into nets and to the dogs. Predictably we missed a couple of bolt holes outside the net and lost maybe 5 rabbits, two of which sort cover in nearby small warrens so they we marked for later on.
After a hour and half working all the ferrets were showing although I am sure there were maybe one or two left in there but they had bolted several times, and I was sure we were heading for a layup, so we lifted ferrets and nets and had a well-earned rest with 28 rabbits in the bag.

As we were bringing in the last of the nets both dogs were marking a couple of other places where a few rabbits had gone to ground and one were we hadn’t seen rabbits. I just love it when dogs do this; they just know the warrens finished and wonder of to find the next place.
The 4 warrens are in a big bowl at the of a valley and the plan was to head up there with a few pursenets and a longnet and a few ferrets and account for them also. This all went to plan but again a few slipped the nets/ dogs on two of the warrens and went to ground again in the 3^rd warren. I some how managed to get hit in the bollocks (which was nice)by a bolting rabbit who was travelling at a fair pace from the warren up the hillside as it was trying to get to the warren I was netting up , luckily my bollocks are pretty big and I had him pinned and he soon paid the price for head butting my jewel bag. :yes: With a throbbing bollock we started the 3^rd warren and from here we didn’t get much joy just the one rabbit and predictably got a wait for the ferret who showed after 30minutes with fur gloves and claret, and at 6 foot I am glad he did show. The last warren was the same we bolted one and again it was a wait and a mark of 5 foot, but the ferret came away just as I was starting to dig and thinking of roast dinner and the log burner. The stinker was quickly in the box and we were on are way home for 1pm with 36 fat healthy rabbits in the back of the truck.

A bloody good morning all round, dogs and ferrets worked well and swifthunts pup made good progress even if she did twat a few nets here and there…lol

No real pics today too busy catching rabbits.

Good hunting Sirius

Edited November 5, 2013 by Sirius

[long dogs 580]

good going that.them holes are my kind of hole nice and easy to net up

[mbp 0]

Looks like you had a good day!

Nice looking Merle lurcher, is it a 1st cross?

[Sirius 1,391]

good going that.them holes are my kind of hole nice and easy to net up

 

Yep I dont think many could fail to net a open warren, It aint all like that though...

 

Looks like you had a good day!

Nice looking Merle lurcher, is it a 1st cross?

 

No its a bitza this and that and everything else, bu has a fair blob of collie in there.

[Brimmer 220]

You need to post more often sore bollocks!

Nice read again, nice looking dogs and a good bag.

I'd get myself into trouble on those deep warrens!

Keep the reports coming Sirius, a pleasure to read.

[paulf 820]

great post fella

[The one 8,456]

Great going mate

[Guest Leveller]

Looks quite light for 8pm

[Sirius 1,391]

You need to post more often sore bollocks!

 

:laugh: Your lucky i didnt post a pic of the sore bollocks in question :laugh:

Out again in the week if I get time I will post how we get along

[Sirius 1,391]

Looks quite light for 8pm

 

Yeah cheers for that messer, and how was work today?? :laugh:

Edited December 2, 2012 by Sirius

[21dangermouse 86]

Top post keep them coming atb

[theferreter 311]

great write up and a great bag of rabbits good job lads

[storm323 191]

Good read enjoyed that hope you ball have a good recovery lol

[Giro 2,648]

Good job fella

[ballickybill 9]

thats an end of day shot i like