A Silver Lining

[RemyBolt 420]

This will probably be my typical long winded drivel kind of report. I hope you enjoy it.

 

The alarm went off at 5am, up and to the site. Amazingly, my car needed a big scrapping as there was loads of frozen ice on the windscreen. Thankfully the good old Zippo hand warmer came to the rescue while in the field. Anyway, I get to the permission, still in a half daze, and start getting my gear out the car. Gun, jacket, small gear bag (containing pellets, oil, etc), and then I stop. Not because of any medical condition forcing a black out. Quite the opposite. I was out for pigeon and crows. I stopped because in my morning stupor, I had left the hide and decoys at home! Not an ideal start.

 

Determined and stubborn (mostly stubborn) I decide to march onwards and hunt my quarry old-school style. So, jacket on, bag over one shoulder, gun over the other, and without a hide, I head off to the high seat, half way up a tree. Did I have a lovely cushion with me? Stupid question, of course not! Did I have any way to camoflauge myself up in this tree...that had no leaves? Of course not! Could this day get worse? Easily.

 

To cut a long story short, I took one shot to gauge whether I had knocked my zero off, when I knocked my scope. The scope was fine. That was it! If I had a shotgun with me...easy few shots to bring home some quarry, but alas, EPIC FAIL!!!

 

I reassess the situation, head down, hide better, you know how it is....tribal hunter in the woods, kind of thing. Even after my attempts to hide myself in the bushes, low to the ground, with masses of overhead cover, a green shemagh style scarf to cover my face (the one 'extra' clothing item I had with me...I even forgot my gloves!) Still not a single animal decided to come by.

 

After many hours of watching the grass grow (I later realised the reason nothing came by wasn't because I was too obviously there. The grass was too high for them to land in, but because I was still pretty much asleep when I got there, I clearly wasn't thinking straight....or at all!!! haha).

 

On the way back, I stocked up with loads of nice new decoys from the local country sports store, and they are now my 'car decoys'. So that is my silver lining.

 

Moral of the story, don't go out for an all nighter, get 1.5 hours sleep, then go out shooting. Or at least, if you do, wait for the caffine to kick in before you leave the house. Maybe make a list of the blindingly obvious things to take with you haha.

 

Ironically, I still had a brilliant time, just sat up there, relaxing, and having a quiet bit of me-time.

 

Love it!

[chrismdd 787]

Relaxing in the Somerset countryside, anything more would of been a bonus. Chris

[RemyBolt 420]

Relaxing in the Somerset countryside, anything more would of been a bonus. Chris

Spot on mate.

 

Tim, those pics are brilliant. I need to start taking my camera out with me. I practice deer stalking with a camera, while I'm waiting for my FAC to go through, so it makes sense to take it along anyway, regardless of what I'm hunting.

 

Cheers guys.

[chrismdd 787]

Wish I had my camera with me this morning walking the dog up on the river Parrett, spent fifteen minutes quietly following an otter along the river whilst it was hunting for crayfish, had some really close full views at less than five metres away.

[j j m 6,540]

lovely country side mate

[RemyBolt 420]

Wish I had my camera with me this morning walking the dog up on the river Parrett, spent fifteen minutes quietly following an otter along the river whilst it was hunting for crayfish, had some really close full views at less than five metres away.

It's for this kind of reason that Ebay has provided myself and my wife with lovely SLR style cameras. She knows I'm going to be deer stalking soon, so we're out together stalking for photos. It's cool that she's a veggie, but is okay with me hunting, and even okay with learning to stalk along with me.

 

Next time I'm out and about....photos!