New Season

[sean goshawk 189]

Well done mate I missed my first Harris was a pure machine at everything.

[pointer 543]

Cheers mate, I'm enjoying this season so far even if the cover is still too high and it's far too warm.

[sean goshawk 189]

Tell me about the heat as its messy up the Gos as they don't like it .and the cover is good for me to work the three Springer in over the gos

[pointer 543]

I'm slowly getting mine used to my mates Sprocker to help out in the places with thicker cover.

[sean goshawk 189]

I would recommend doing the that as I never used dogs and then got myself a trained Springer and was the best thing as you can't believe how much stuff you miss when not working the cover with dog's and it's a plus side to as it stops you doing the cover work just sit back and let the dogs do the work for you.

[pointer 543]

My pointer will go through just about any cover if he knows there's something in there so I don't think I'm missing out on too much but obviously a pointer won't be as good as a spaniel and the spaniels are smaller so work cover faster. Although I work heavy cover areas with my dog my mates got a small sprocker bitch which can only be of help and it's daft having it sat at home when we go out. I'd still take my pointer though he's just the job for hunting over the reed filled ponds and will mark a tree sometimes for a squirrel.

[gnasher16 30,093]

Cracking topic this chaps,great pictures interesting reading..........nothing to add just wanted to show my appreciation

[pointer 543]

Cheers mate

[pointer 543]

I've had a few good hunts lately on squirrels but she hasn't managed to catch one. She's also had a few pheasants. The one in the little clip below was found in a boggy area after my hawk had flown after something unseen by me. I thought my dog was hunting a moorhen. I called the dog away and left the hen pheasant which looked a bit wet to live to fly another day.

http://s240.photobucket.com/user/sportingdog001/media/Mobile%20Uploads/F8CF6F3E-5E3B-4EA4-8054-48E5CA82D862.mp4.html

Edited November 14, 2016 by pointer

[pointer 543]

He's getting grey around the head but he's still useful at nine years old.

[pointer 543]

We've been getting out taking the odd rabbit and pheasant with a few good hunts on squirrels even if most of them escape. Last night we were out with Fourtrak lamping, the hawk had a few long flights but didn't get to bag any rabbits. She did catch a rat and miss another. I really enjoyed it, thanks again FT

[pointer 543]

I've been spending far too much of my available hunting time trying to find squirrels which probably isn't the wisest thing to do because I don't have many woods to hunt through and the ones I do don't contain many squirrels. I should be going after rabbits but I can't help but want to hunt squirrels, the flights are fantastic and therefore utterly addictive even if they keep escaping down holes or reach an ivy covered tree. My hawk doesn't understand my new found obsession with bushytails and does catch other stuff like two pheasants yesterday. Our kill count is much lower than it could have been but I'm loving the flights I'm seeing.

 

Kills 49 and 50

[mickystaf 1]

nice read ste and some good pics well done mate

[pointer 543]

I haven't posted for a while but we've been getting out and about. I've had a slow season and maybe should have been doing more but I'm happy to go out and get a kill and feed my hawk up. We've been spending more time than previous seasons in little woods after squirrels but without much success even if the flights are exciting. My hawk caught a big rat yesterday, I thought it might be 20" long so brought it back with me but it wasn't. Still anything over 18" is pretty rare regardless of what people think and the daft super rat stories in the media. Just something a bit different to the usual rabbits and odd pheasant and moorhen we take.