Blackstaff,rascal,pups,antis And The Bramble Bush!

[rascal_2005 79]

So on tuesday night, myself and blackstff decided to have a mooch and a ferret on wednesday morning.

 

8:00am wake up, coffee, bacon sarnie and a ciggy and im loading up the pup into the motor and off we set. About 45 mins we meet up with blackstaff at the destination.

The place we was trying forst was a farly big garden that had hedges along 2 sides and fenced on the other 2. Apparently the rabbits have been hammering anything the poor old girl has been tring to grow all year and something had to be done.

We decided to try a bury in one corner of the lawn, it wan under a small tree with some shrubs surrounding it. Blackstaff had brought both of his dogs (todd and pearl) and i had brought the 10 month old pup (margret aka maggie). Blackstaff left todd in the motor and had just pearl working loose and maggie tied up so she could see what was going on (first time shes ever been ferreting), whilst myself and BS worked the nets. We set the long nets out on a circle around the shurbery and off we go. Pearl was marking like a demon, pugs (a new jill and a mean agry little git aswell) in and away we go.... 2 mis pass and the first bunny bolts only to hit the net and for pearl to be on top of it within seconds. Not 2 mins later and the second bolts the same way and again it is met with the same doom! 5or so mins go by with nothing happning and pearl is marking another hole and is telling us that this is were the bunny will bolt, BANG!! The bunny fires out of the hole at a rate of knots but only to be met by pearls open mouth covering the hole!(not the first time i have seen this with her...or the second). We wait around another 10 mins with nothing much happning, when another bunny springs to life and hits the nets! Pearl again does another great job of holding it and brad does the honers of dispating it. Brad goes to show the pup what all the fuss has been about and then we hear the noise all fieldsports men dred......OI! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING??? LEAVE THEM POOR BUNNYS ALONE, I HAVE CALLED THE RSPCA!!

Ohh got the woman nextdoor is an anti! We start to collect up the pugs as we know were this is going!

The nextdoor anti comes flying through the back gate of the garden with her 3 dogs running and shitting all over the place, BS grabs perl by the collor as she doesnt like to be messed about with by gangs of unruly hounds and brad askes the woman to put her dogs on leads as he wouldnt want tere to be a problem, the old girl then tells us what we are doing is wrong and that pearl is an aggressive dog, and tht shes like that because she does to much ferreting!!.... By this time im ready to blow but BS explanes that rabbits are a national pest, what we are doing is leagal and that she is tresspassing with her dogs running loose and could she please put her dogs back onto leads, to wich she replys no and realises her dogs trying to eat the rabbits. After 15 mins of her shouting and moaning she realises we are not going to listen anymore and she wanders of to try and rally the troops!

Me and blackstaff decide that we should leave as not to cause the landowner any grief, pack up let the landowner know and set off for a cuppa and to the next place totry.

 

The next piece of land was about 2 miles up the road, its a stables with some quite rough fields around it that have burys and wood poles that hold bunnys, so we decide to do some bushing and see what we could push out first then try some ferreting!

We set off with all 3 dogs on the slips and soon realised that we would be really limited to were we could run as the ground was frozen so hard. On our walk we saw the biggest fox both of us have ever seen, i thought it was a roe at first, anyway thats another story!

 

We soon realised that we was limited to some small burys in some woodland that we would bolt for the older dogs and a long bury on the side of the sand school that we would let maggie have ago at on the slip!

 

So the older dogs away and maggie on a slip, box of pugs out and away we go, we dropped one ferret in at first but all this seemed to do was push the bunnys from one hole to the next along the sandschool and the pup was only getting off the slip before they hit another hole, so another ferret was dropped the other end so as to work towards eachother to dislodge any waiting bunys. It carried on like this for about 45 mins -haour were the bunnys went from one hole to the next with short chases between, maggie never had a real chance to be fair. Then all went quiet for about half an hour! BS located the ferrets and realised a bunny was in a stop end, out came the spades and digging started...only about 3 feet down BS found the ferret and reached in to find the bunny. As he did the ferret goes on his merry way and carrys on working the holes. One bunny pulled out to make 5 so far! Another long wait and we realise these bunnys were not haveing any of the dog work and would rather face the ferrets than the bounding ball of excitement that was waiting above. One pug picked up and put away and we found the other about the same depth but this one was under a bramble bush, BS cleared away asmuch as he could but proceeded to get himself wrapped up in the prickly vines and tear himself to sheds!!!

By this time he is quite peeved and he is Fing and blinding at the poor bushes, eventually he finds both rabbit and ferret and picks them both up.....only for him to drop the bunny, maggie is off and catches the thing in a few meters...great i think good girl....BANG! She drops it and its off back home into the bury!!! God sakes!!!! Fert back in and no sign of him for 15 mins. Quick check with the locator and hes back in the same hole as he was dug to lastine!!! Reach in and out comes mr bunny with ferret still attached! Quickly dispatched and we are happy!

 

We decide to leave the sand school, so maggie is put way and the 2 older dogs are given ago in the woods. One on a slip and one lose to give them both a chance at a run.

Pugs dropped in and within 2 mins a bunny is bolted across the field next to the woods with pearl in hot persuit.. A good few turns and we thought pearl had it but it hits the safty of the hedge and is away, as pearl is returning another is bolted and todd is slipped, only to be hamperd by real thick scruby stuff so no bunnys from here. We move onto the next little bury and te same set up is repeted, but this time pearl is on the slip and todd is loose. About another 5 minuit wait and a bunny hightails across the field and todd is off, under a barbe wire fence with a wicked 150yard course withsome good turns, but this bunny is his..he hits it hard and retreves it nicely to hand chiffed to bits with BS even more so!! 6 in the bag so far!

 

Pearl is loose now and its all abit quiet, just thinking about giving up when dont you know it, the ferrets push anotherone out!!... This one is again trying to turn and evade pearl but was soon caught to the delight of BS!!!

 

7 in the bag and its time to call it aday, we have had a day out and the dogs have got a good bit of work and some exersise!

 

All in all it was a great day with great company ...and the pup got out aswell!!

Hope i didnt bore you too much??

 

Rascal

 

Pics to follow!!!

 

[esoxluscious 44]

great write up

[kranky 507]

Great read, magazine quality write up.

[BEARINATOR 2,869]

Good read mate

[Westy76 546]

Nice write up but where's the fecking pics!!!!

 

[blackstaff 488]

About time you done the fecking write up :D Here's some pics to go along with the story, hopefully !!

 

Rascals bitch

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's the link for the full set of the day's pictures - http://s1106.photobucket.com/albums/h372/Blackstaff-Photography/Hunting%20pics/Ferreting%20Jan%2013/?albumview=slideshow

[The one 8,479]

Nice read mate shame somebody tried to spoil it for you

[Gooner 143]

Good write up & pics, how did the landowner feel about the neighbour & did the RSPCA arrive?

[blackstaff 488]

The lady who's garden we were ferreting was fine. She was glad that I handled it the way I did and even apologised to me !! She was of the same opinion as myself and Jon that it had nothing to do with her and she trespassed. My permission said she will speak to the Anti and let me know how it went, and that we did the right thing to not antagonise the situation any more. She also said that she needs us back soon which is always a bonus. I'm just glad I had my bitch out and not my dog as I would imagine that the situation wouldn't of ended up with her going home with 3 ill mannered, uncontrollable dogs all in the same health they came into the garden in ! The blue brigade didn't show whilst we were there unfortunately, but I haven't spoken to the owner yet.

[northern lad 2,292]

Quality read/ write up,dogs are a credit to you,superb ATB Dave

[pip1968 2,490]

excelent write up,but you should have hit the anti around the head with a rabbit

[muddy 6]

Those are some solid dogs mate great pics!

[NEWKID 27,159]

Good read that mate and cracking pics.... Shame about the bit of grief, but sounds like you handled it really well, nice one lads....

[mhopton 807]

very nice dogs mate they look as if they have staffy in them ? and the comment about hitting them round the head mate really you forgot to say after it,s been gutted good right up good pics good day well done buddy

[Moe 108]

good report there mate and some nice photos,looks like the ferrets gave them rabbits some grief by there backs.shame about the old bag could of had a few more in thebag.