Popular Post Nik_B 3,790 Posted November 14, 2013 Popular Post Report Share Posted November 14, 2013 The hat Once again thanks to work I was resigned to either no shooting or getting the odd scrap here and there, the syndicate shoot I wanted to join in February looked like it was getting more and more popular and I wasn’t surprised, I’d been there 4 times last year and loved it but the tax man had other ideas. An email arrived on Monday last minute chance for a 60 bird driven day on Wednesday! To my amazement I was in luck and wouldn’t be working till Thursday so I paid up and then started to work up myself up in to a frenzy. It’s funny how the smallest things become a big deal when your heart starts racing but my beloved flat cap had shrunk to the point it fit my daughter and I had to get another one! I rushed out and bought one that would do the job. With the hat sorted I started to worry about not getting out of my pit in the morning so at the last minute rang the B&B which is on the farm and they had a room spare. I chucked my 200 quid ‘farmers gun’ and some cartridges in the boot and set off. It was 8pm before I was on the motorway but this way I’d not feel like crap first thing in the morning. I bought a couple of beers on the way down so I would sleep. Quick check of the weather before bed dry and windy….very windy!! The Farmers Got to the B&B, I wasn’t really sure what relationship they had with the shoot or farmers so thought it best not to say anything. In the morning I felt guilty trying to turn down a full welsh breakfast but I was starting to get butterflies in my stomach, which would be worse not eating anything or leaving half of it? I settled for toast and scrambled egg and a slice of bacon….and did my best to eat it The owners wife spotted me sneaking down stairs with my wellies and asked me “You in the field today?” I sheepishly replied I was on the shoot next door…well the one on this farm actually lol and she looked shocked asking me if I’d told her husband. They ran the farm, their three lads farmed it and they new the shoot captain well.. I felt right stupid lol Met up with what were now familiar faces….and a few new ones…couldn’t stop myself fawning over the dogs sorry but I’m a sucker for it you’ve got to love those Spaniels all fired up and trembling with adrenaline….I knew how they felt Headless Chicken We started on the duck pond, I don’t think I’d ever had a good start on there but as we snuck up on them it was packed. The wild ducks were the first off the pond I missed a couple of shots but managed to pull myself together. I concentrated on one coming right at me, it was going so fast I didn’t have time to think my gun was up and bang it was down, can’t blank now ha ha! What followed on from this first shot is something I still haven’t been able to wrap my head around. From using a gun I couldn’t hit a barn door with I then neatly folded three more very nice ducks two quartering fast towards me and the last a really nice crosser. I couldn’t contain myself and a few f**ks and sh*ts slipped out lol My adrenaline was literally pumping through my veins like I’d just been injected with half a tonne of amphetamines. I was on such a high I couldn’t come down off it! I Picked up the last couple of ducks and then someone stumbled on a bizarre scene….A perfect formed pheasants head lying of the ground, not a scratch on it. We found the body and it was exactly the same. The best theory anyone could come out with was that maybe it had flown in to a tree or a wire and had conveniently decapitated itself. Next the drive along a copse near the pond and I missed two pheasants. I then though “Oh here we go…I know what comes next! Handful of decent shots in the morning then bugger it up the rest of the day” Got that T-shirt! We walked off to a long gauze covered hill, the dogs flushed one pheasant which was shot but it was suspiciously quiet! The other end of the hill is thick with cover; gauze and brush and I have seen some insane pheasants come off there it can be full of woodcock. I wandered down to my little bit of field. As I walked through some long grasses I felt a thump on my foot. I looked down and a hare had run in to my boot. These are sights that I never want to forget. All's quiet on the Western Front We are all facing the hill and gauze and as the beaters come over the brow of the hill you could see little indications of activity, like a tired woodcock would rise and settle. And then it began! Once the song birds had got the out of dodge (why are they always the first to fly off?) I watched two smallish but plump birds fly very fast and high right over my head. At the last second a flash of plumage made me realised they were partridge, I’ve never seen them in flight before) but I watched them go right over me (shaking your head right?). Then more birds came over it, becoming a steady flurry, little groups of twos and threes very very fast and we were all missing them at first….probably through shock! I started to get frustrated, I’ve never shot a partridge yet and after 7 or 8 came over I thought I’d lost my chance but they just kept coming, pheasants then got lifted as did woodcock. I’d wasted 4 cartridges for nothing and then connected to a lovely fast pheasant followed by another and then a third beautiful cock, looking down around me the ground seemed to be covered in cartridges and I could barely keep up reloading! Finally a partridge came my way super-fast with a rocket up its arse quartering left to right and without a thought I just mounted and it was down. I was already excited….too excited but now I was like a 5 year old that had been given the keys to a sweet shop….this wasn’t exited this was HIGH as a freaking kite!! I recon at least 60 Partridge were flushed off that little hill, plus 10+ pheasants and a few woodcock. I doubt I will see something quite like this again it seemed to go on for ever! Afterwards everyone was ecstatic and the beaters and gamekeeper must have been seriously chuffed with themselves. You could have paid hundreds and hundreds of pounds for that and it would have been worth every penny. I was probably gibbering like a lunatic but we were eventually bundled in to the 4x4s and driven down the hill to the next little strip of woodland. This is where I shot my first and only woodcock last year, the memories flooded back. Three of us were lined out and as the dogs worked the cover it became apparent that I was a bird magnet that day. We only saw two birds and the first was a cock pheasant going like a freight train, twisting almost 160 degrees I fired a single shot and it folded immediately…. 4 or 5 minutes later a partridge rocketed up in the air directly above me and heading straight over my head, inexplicably I just shot it effortlessly out of the sky. The farmers gun! We wandered down to the trucks and to be told by very experienced people that I was shooting well (even if they were just being polite) is a feeling that would be worth millions if you could bottle it. So the farmers gun worth 50p, that I couldn’t shoot was now worth more to me than anything, I wouldn’t sell it for two grand. I actually felt like I'd shook the queens hand and never wanted to wash it again....no fear this gun has never been cleaned or oiled anway We all piled in to the trucks and drove back but honestly I could have floated over the woods like a balloon. The safety stumble The last drive, everyone is getting cold and tired especially the dogs. Concentration starting to fade I miss a sitter watching someone take a pigeon (hmm pigeons really do it for me every time) then right at the end I get another rocket like pheasant which I see at the last minute…..becoming routine now….I finally get on to it and pull the trigger and then………Nothing!! What the actual f**k? my knees almost buckled as I stumbled slightly forward. “F**king shit!! My safety was still on ha ha ha!! Well that was just a priceless way to be brought back to earth. You might have had a good day but you are always learning. I hope I don't wake up Just as we walked back to the hut and no word of a lie I almost had the feeling that suddenly I was going to wake up in the B&B and it was all a dream and if that had happened I wouldn’t have been surprised. I could have slept outdoors on the farm that night and I would have still woken up buzzing. But work was calling (2am start) and everyone was packing up so I bade farewell and left. I get in my car and drive off, I’m still off my trolley on adrenaline, I turn the radio up and they are playing really great music on radio 2 lol??? It just added to the surreal feeling. Drove home deep in thought and when I get back my daughter is waiting for me, I show her and the dog the birds which they both love and my daughters bedtime stories will be tales of the field by dad lol She’s a real keen one so one day it will be her shooting! I counted my cartridges, I shot 26 and took ten birds which is far better than I would expect on a clay ground. As a team our average was about the same 170 odd for 60 birds...what a day! Anyway I promised a couple of pics last time, they’re not great..I didn’t have time to take photos!! The B&B The Bag Drive home The welcoming committee The lucky hat I forgot to add...the hat that started all the stress.. It's still on the dinning room table with the tag in it! i left the bloody thing at home in my panic 20 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Nik_B 3,790 Posted November 14, 2013 Author Report Share Posted November 14, 2013 f**k me I'm going for a smoke lol that was a right pain in the arse... I want to see one of those well paid Mods come along and sort this mess out Quote Link to post Share on other sites
fireman 10,884 Posted November 14, 2013 Report Share Posted November 14, 2013 Have to admit to very rarely comming to this bit of the forum but that was a grand write up of a grand day . 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Nik_B 3,790 Posted November 14, 2013 Author Report Share Posted November 14, 2013 right sorted out most of the mess...it wouldn't let me post the whole thing at the beginning Quote Link to post Share on other sites
stabba 10,745 Posted November 14, 2013 Report Share Posted November 14, 2013 Excellent Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Born Hunter 17,763 Posted November 14, 2013 Report Share Posted November 14, 2013 Nick the enthusiasm in your posts is infectious! It's a feeling we're all used to... I have never been able to eat properly on a shoot day, I'll try but have f**k all appetite with the excitement. Embarassing eh? I just take a couple of breakfast bars for when my appetite perks up after the first drive. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Nik_B 3,790 Posted November 15, 2013 Author Report Share Posted November 15, 2013 The first song that was on the radio when I hit the A55 what a tune 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
hily 379 Posted November 15, 2013 Report Share Posted November 15, 2013 A good day Quote Link to post Share on other sites
paulus 26 Posted November 15, 2013 Report Share Posted November 15, 2013 f**k me I'm going for a smoke lol that was a right pain in the arse... I want to see one of those well paid Mods come along and sort this mess out sorted you useless c**t Quote Link to post Share on other sites
The one 8,474 Posted November 15, 2013 Report Share Posted November 15, 2013 Nice read and sounds like you really enjoyed it Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Nik_B 3,790 Posted November 15, 2013 Author Report Share Posted November 15, 2013 f**k me I'm going for a smoke lol that was a right pain in the arse... I want to see one of those well paid Mods come along and sort this mess out sorted you useless c**t You can go back to drinking champagne now Quote Link to post Share on other sites
smiffie23 67 Posted November 15, 2013 Report Share Posted November 15, 2013 Fantastic write up. You should send that off to a magazine. Stu. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Ideation 8,216 Posted November 15, 2013 Report Share Posted November 15, 2013 Great write up mate. Sounds like a great day! A good mixed bag also! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Haggis81 147 Posted November 18, 2013 Report Share Posted November 18, 2013 Good wee story, sounds like you had good day Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jasher 55 Posted November 21, 2013 Report Share Posted November 21, 2013 Great read Nik Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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