Back up at the shoot

[Sausagedog 7,381]

17 minutes ago, Stavross said:

Mad as a bag of squirrels good going on the tree rats

There are thousands this year stav.

I was watching thousands of starling going home too today. Not seen that since a kid.

I saw a peregrin this afternoon also.

[Stavross 16,142]

I don’t think I’ve ever seen this amount of squizzers up at the shoot, it doesn’t matter where you are walking they run across the tracks and rides in front of you 

Out the back of where I used to work you would get 10’s of thousands of them all in a murmuration, amazing to watch 

[FOXHUNTER 5,021]

Well decent weather today for a change , but we only had 5 guns and 2 beaters. So we mainly walked and did as best we could. Lots of birds flushed that weren't shot at as we were so thinly spread. I had a decent drive on the quarry shooting 5 ducks and a partridge Still plenty birds for Boxing Day just hope we have a few more guns .

[Sausagedog 7,381]

Just now, FOXHUNTER said:

Well decent weather today for a change , but we only had 5 guns and 2 beaters. So we mainly walked and did as best we could. Lots of birds flushed that weren't shot at as we were so thinly spread. I had a decent drive on the quarry shooting 5 ducks and a partridge Still plenty birds for Boxing Day just hope we have a few more guns .

Wow. Not seen a grey for decades.

[FOXHUNTER 5,021]

Just now, Sausagedog said:

Wow. Not seen a grey for decades.

We are lucky that we have a few coveys on our place , lovely to see.  I know a lot dont shoot them but it doesn't harm to take the odd one

[Stavross 16,142]

Another shoot day and what a day it was, as this is looking more and more like it was going to be the last day of the season, from the start we were going to make the most of it. Today along with the usual suspects we had my 3 favourite shooting mate with me, in the form of mosh the sheep farmer, longshanx and robin foxer ( off that there YouTube) as I’ve been getting the shoot into some kind of order over the past two weeks I ran through the plan of attack with the shoot captain, his finishing statement was “ they better be where you say they are or your getting the blame “, charming. The first drive of the day was to be Gordon’s pen and unlike previous days we pushed the full drive through, having to stop the beaters 3 times as not to flush the birds all in one go, longshanx had some absolute screamers over him, taking a couple with ease ( I think someone has been practicing ) Seeing that amount of birds come from where I said they would be gave me a bit of confidence in the day. A few small ish drives to take us to lunch, still producing a few good birds, some low, but these are good for the kids to have a go at. Lunch out the way and now we would see if my hard work had paid off, it was time for the 2 piggeries drives, first off “tree side” now although there was some really fast, curling birds I was expecting a bit more. Now to the other side and as l put the guns out I thought this is going to be a belter with the way the wind was whipping across the tops of the trees, the guns were not to be disappointed. From the start the birds were up, I was out in the field with robin and with the wind, you could see what was going to happen. The birds were along the edge of the trees and as soon as they got up they would attempt the fly into the wind across the field, get 15 yards out and think sod this, turn and go right over the full block at lightning speed with the strong wind behind them, by the time they reached the guns on the track with the speed and height of them there was no shame in a miss or two. After taking congratulations off a few people for the drive and getting a little chuffy on with myself we headed to the forestry pen drive, this has been a difficult one this season, the birds are never there during the day but are going back to roost, so with it been late afternoon it was an ideal time to give it a go, from the off a few birds broke cover and this is how the drive continued until the end. An absolute belter of a day with some of the best people I know, 40 was the bag ( picked ) and although that sounds a little low it’s no shame to miss some of them birds that were over the guns today

[Stavross 16,142]

[David.evans 5,323]

I’d be shocked to stav if that thing fell out of the sky , did any of you lot identify the specific bird your holding 

ugly git

great write up mate well enjoyed that 

[BenBhoy 4,706]

1 hour ago, FOXHUNTER said:

We are lucky that we have a few coveys on our place , lovely to see.  I know a lot dont shoot them but it doesn't harm to take the odd one

I think its OK to take the odd one so long as proper work is done rest of the year to help them out. With backing from my gaffer, I've taken on personal challenge of boosting our wild greys. Counted winter covey of 9 last week, thats the most seen in last 20 years here. But have to admit I prefer to see them fly on not shot at.

Edited December 19, 2020 by BenBhoy

[FOXHUNTER 5,021]

Stav will you be appearing on team foxer channel soon then ?

[BenBhoy 4,706]

[Stavross 16,142]

10 minutes ago, David.evans said:

I’d be shocked to stav if that thing fell out of the sky , did any of you lot identify the specific bird your holding 

ugly git

great write up mate well enjoyed that 

That’s frank the pheasant, we use him for species identification so the less experienced guns know what to look for

5 minutes ago, FOXHUNTER said:

Stav will you be appearing on team foxer channel soon then ?

I don’t know about that, he did film some of his shooting so he might put some of that in a video 

[David.evans 5,323]

Robin can’t do that mate with out your permission, 

[Stavross 16,142]

He asked if he could film his shooting and I said he could, most of its shotkam and him filming himself shooting 

[Longshanx 833]

1 hour ago, Stavross said:

Another shoot day and what a day it was, as this is looking more and more like it was going to be the last day of the season, from the start we were going to make the most of it. Today along with the usual suspects we had my 3 favourite shooting mate with me, in the form of mosh the sheep farmer, longshanx and robin foxer ( off that there YouTube) as I’ve been getting the shoot into some kind of order over the past two weeks I ran through the plan of attack with the shoot captain, his finishing statement was “ they better be where you say they are or your getting the blame “, charming. The first drive of the day was to be Gordon’s pen and unlike previous days we pushed the full drive through, having to stop the beaters 3 times as not to flush the birds all in one go, longshanx had some absolute screamers over him, taking a couple with ease ( I think someone has been practicing ) Seeing that amount of birds come from where I said they would be gave me a bit of confidence in the day. A few small ish drives to take us to lunch, still producing a few good birds, some low, but these are good for the kids to have a go at. Lunch out the way and now we would see if my hard work had paid off, it was time for the 2 piggeries drives, first off “tree side” now although there was some really fast, curling birds I was expecting a bit more. Now to the other side and as l put the guns out I thought this is going to be a belter with the way the wind was whipping across the tops of the trees, the guns were not to be disappointed. From the start the birds were up, I was out in the field with robin and with the wind, you could see what was going to happen. The birds were along the edge of the trees and as soon as they got up they would attempt the fly into the wind across the field, get 15 yards out and think sod this, turn and go right over the full block at lightning speed with the strong wind behind them, by the time they reached the guns on the track with the speed and height of them there was no shame in a miss or two. After taking congratulations off a few people for the drive and getting a little chuffy on with myself we headed to the forestry pen drive, this has been a difficult one this season, the birds are never there during the day but are going back to roost, so with it been late afternoon it was an ideal time to give it a go, from the off a few birds broke cover and this is how the drive continued until the end. An absolute belter of a day with some of the best people I know, 40 was the bag ( picked ) and although that sounds a little low it’s no shame to miss some of them birds that were over the guns today

Belting day as always, I'm not afraid to say I absolutely love my days on the shoot. It doesn't matter if I hit anything, but of course it makes your day even better if you do (practicing?... When have I had chance for that? ). For me today I was buzzing when the first bird that came over me, a hen (a shout from mosh as a heads up) got dropped with the first pull of the trigger and barrel of the day folded up and dropped. Same drive another one, a cock this time dropped again first barrel. Class start to the day. Between me shooting and beating there was some really good high birds I witnessed getting dropped, . 

My next drive shooting was a no show of birds over me, but the piggeries made up for that. Like Stav mentioned the birds got flushed into the fields and turned back over into the wind, this drove them over me. 

I'm managed 2 really good birds, so again I was well happy. 

I clocked one between me and Hugh stood down from me (he didn't even see it, it came over than high and fast). 

I though bollocks I'm having a go at this, it was sky high, wings out flat with the wind behing him.............

Yeah I missed, but this was Dave Carrie high and I ain't that good. 

So my tally was 4, I'm good with that. 

A fantastic day again, Stav your hard work has paid off, I doff my cap to you my friend