Back up at the shoot

[Baldcoot 2,352]

Good luck, should be out but week 2 of covid. Feels like someone is stood on my chest pouring salt in my eyes

[si brown 8,486]

2 hours ago, Stavross said:

It’s not looking good, 12 people missing and thick fog and rain

Thought it was going to be a good day for you, was out last night and the fields were frozen solid…mate I was out with is shooting at sinnington, not to far from your shoot. 
 woke up this morning to it slinging it down and the back garden flooded

bloody typical 

[FOXHUNTER 5,021]

I popped out last night to check my bait station to see if a fox had found it yet. Still plenty rabbits there so wasn't hopeful , started calling and nothing but then I noticed to my left slightly obscured a fox lying in the field. I could have shot it 10 times over but wanted a 100% identification , I knew it was a fox but wanted to see its body as using red led its eyes were glaring back at me but I couldn't see its body. Eventually it stood up , great I thought but it dropped into a ditch and laid up. I spent the next hour trying every call under the sun to try and get it to move but it stayed put. I kept getting the odd glimpse of its eye but no chance of a shot. Finally after an hour of lying in the snow frustration got the better of me , I could make out its ears only and tried for a head shot , forgetting the rifle shoots slightly high at 100 yds so I think I probably shot between its ears  This was the start of an eventful night as when I tried driving out the farm up the dirt track it was pure ice and I got stuck. Foot to the floor and the car ended up doing 180 degrees , so drove back down the track and floored it back up the bank just managing to make it out of the farm. Next stand was only about 1 mile away . As I was putting out the caller a fox did 2 barks a few fields away so I thought I might be in luck , it turned out I was as 5 mins of playing vixen mating call had a mangey dog fox come in and stop 15 yards from the caller. Did this fella a favour as was in poor condition , must have been freezing as someone had stole his coat.

It was then off to the 3rd stand of the night , no fox seen but I did mange to call 4 roe in to the caller using vixen mating call .....

Got to bed at 2.30 am thinking about the 1st fox and should I have shot it when I had the chance , but decided I did the right thing , always need 100 % ID ......now I may have a shy fox . Time for NV 

[Sausagedog 7,381]

37 minutes ago, FOXHUNTER said:

I popped out last night to check my bait station to see if a fox had found it yet. Still plenty rabbits there so wasn't hopeful , started calling and nothing but then I noticed to my left slightly obscured a fox lying in the field. I could have shot it 10 times over but wanted a 100% identification , I knew it was a fox but wanted to see its body as using red led its eyes were glaring back at me but I couldn't see its body. Eventually it stood up , great I thought but it dropped into a ditch and laid up. I spent the next hour trying every call under the sun to try and get it to move but it stayed put. I kept getting the odd glimpse of its eye but no chance of a shot. Finally after an hour of lying in the snow frustration got the better of me , I could make out its ears only and tried for a head shot , forgetting the rifle shoots slightly high at 100 yds so I think I probably shot between its ears  This was the start of an eventful night as when I tried driving out the farm up the dirt track it was pure ice and I got stuck. Foot to the floor and the car ended up doing 180 degrees , so drove back down the track and floored it back up the bank just managing to make it out of the farm. Next stand was only about 1 mile away . As I was putting out the caller a fox did 2 barks a few fields away so I thought I might be in luck , it turned out I was as 5 mins of playing vixen mating call had a mangey dog fox come in and stop 15 yards from the caller. Did this fella a favour as was in poor condition , must have been freezing as someone had stole his coat.

It was then off to the 3rd stand of the night , no fox seen but I did mange to call 4 roe in to the caller using vixen mating call .....

Got to bed at 2.30 am thinking about the 1st fox and should I have shot it when I had the chance , but decided I did the right thing , always need 100 % ID ......now I may have a shy fox . Time for NV 

Just look at that set up. So simple

[FOXHUNTER 5,021]

2 hours ago, Sausagedog said:

Just look at that set up. So simple

Yep , simplicity works

[Stavross 16,160]

4 hours ago, FOXHUNTER said:

I popped out last night to check my bait station to see if a fox had found it yet. Still plenty rabbits there so wasn't hopeful , started calling and nothing but then I noticed to my left slightly obscured a fox lying in the field. I could have shot it 10 times over but wanted a 100% identification , I knew it was a fox but wanted to see its body as using red led its eyes were glaring back at me but I couldn't see its body. Eventually it stood up , great I thought but it dropped into a ditch and laid up. I spent the next hour trying every call under the sun to try and get it to move but it stayed put. I kept getting the odd glimpse of its eye but no chance of a shot. Finally after an hour of lying in the snow frustration got the better of me , I could make out its ears only and tried for a head shot , forgetting the rifle shoots slightly high at 100 yds so I think I probably shot between its ears  This was the start of an eventful night as when I tried driving out the farm up the dirt track it was pure ice and I got stuck. Foot to the floor and the car ended up doing 180 degrees , so drove back down the track and floored it back up the bank just managing to make it out of the farm. Next stand was only about 1 mile away . As I was putting out the caller a fox did 2 barks a few fields away so I thought I might be in luck , it turned out I was as 5 mins of playing vixen mating call had a mangey dog fox come in and stop 15 yards from the caller. Did this fella a favour as was in poor condition , must have been freezing as someone had stole his coat.

It was then off to the 3rd stand of the night , no fox seen but I did mange to call 4 roe in to the caller using vixen mating call .....

Got to bed at 2.30 am thinking about the 1st fox and should I have shot it when I had the chance , but decided I did the right thing , always need 100 % ID ......now I may have a shy fox . Time for NV 

You definitely did that thing a favour, as we say round these parts “ that fox is fu*ked”

[Stavross 16,160]

5 hours ago, si brown said:

Thought it was going to be a good day for you, was out last night and the fields were frozen solid…mate I was out with is shooting at sinnington, not to far from your shoot. 
 woke up this morning to it slinging it down and the back garden flooded

bloody typical 

It looked perfect yesterday and the forecast didn’t look bad for today with an odd shower, wasn’t expecting that mess when we got up on the top 

[Stavross 16,160]

Day 5 over with and where do I start, at the beginning I suppose. I’ll start of by saying the weather was absolutely terrible with rain and low cloud, 12 people missing due to bat flu,  not ideal, especially when we had 3 guests that I wanted to put a good day on for as guest number 1 is a keeper on a big estate down the road and has helped us out a lot, guest number 2 is a keeper from a big syndicate in Richmond and guest number 3 was a keeper on a farm shoot and as I just play at this I really wanted them to think I had some idea about what I was doing, we gave it until about half 10 and as the rain had eased up but the clouds were still low I said too the captain “ let’s just have a go” we had a little chat and decided that as we were light on guns we’d let those that were there stand all day, so we set off for drive number 1, Gordon’s pen, now I knew the birds would be here but with the low cloud I didn’t hold out much hope for them flying, I was very wrong. Almost from the minute we set off the birds were up and over the guns at a great height and speed, I’ve never known them do this in low cloud or fog, there was a lot of shooting on this drive, not a massive amount of birds shot but a lot of shots and the drive seemed to go on for ages, stopping every few meters to let the dogs work

drive number 2, just a small one, the ruff patch next to Gordon’s pen, now early in the season we use this to hold the birds because it’s really thick cover, now again some good birds came out of this drive but once they got up it was a lucky dip what direction they went

now time for elevenses so back to the shed, it was longshanx and another members turn this time and they didn’t disappoint, longshanx going for the home cooked ham with cheese on crusty bread and the other lad bringing home chocolate cakes and flapjacks washed down with sloe gin and Prosecco and some port

We decided not to stop for lunch and shoot through and finish early, so drive number 3 was to be the forestry pen, this was a bit of a funny one today, normally the birds come out forward and to the left as we beat it, but this time they mainly came out one the left and right corners, still giving a few guns some good birds to go at but the others didn’t get to pull the trigger, that’s just the way it goes sometimes 

a short walk now to the tree side of the piggeries and drive number 4, now this is my favourite drive and I know it holds a lot of birds, so I thought I’d treat myself here and have a go myself for the first time this season, not wanting to take any shooting away from the others I said I’d be walking gun in the field and I’d take the keeper from the estate with me and put him at the bottom of the field, now the birds are on there legs when this drives starts and it wasn’t until half way through before it got going, I had a couple of wild stabs before taking a cracking cock bird above the trees, a shout from little Hugo’s dad of “ cracking shot” put a smile on my face as I collected my prize the birds started to break out over the keeper I put at the bottom and he filled his boots, this was the best drive of the day with us almost doubling the bag, on my way to the next drive with the beaters the captain came over the radio to tell me that there was a team of very happy guns after that drive

next, drive number 5, piggeries, ruff side, a few good birds came from this but a couple of the dogs got a bit carried away with themselves and in front of a group of birds and sent them the wrong way 

we finished the day with a small patch on the way back to the farm, pushing out a couple of pheasants and a couple of woodcock 

another great day even with the weather, the bag was 35 pheasants 2 pigeons 3 woodcock and a jay, not massive numbers but they had a hell of a lot of shooting and as one of the keepers said to me “ some of the birds are crazy for a farm shoot “

[Dervburner 2,549]

Nice write up Stav, enjoyable read. Glad you had a good day.

[FOXHUNTER 5,021]

Glad you still had a good day , typical weather is glorious today .

[ianm 2,594]

The weather at our shoot wasn't particularly conducive to having a nice time yesterday morning either. It poured down for the most part. It didn't help matters that i shot badly into the bargain. The annoying thing is i know what i was doing, stopping the gun, but i did it time and time again. 

Then after we had our dinner the old sun came out and it was a different day.  I also had sorted my act out and started killing birds which saved me from sitting in the armchair that night grouching.

[Sausagedog 7,381]

I just don't believvvve it! That ruddy fox did visit yesterday morning when I was sat there waiting for it

 

Edited January 10, 2022 by Sausagedog

[ianm 2,594]

31 minutes ago, Sausagedog said:

I just don't believvvve it! That ruddy fox did visit yesterday morning when I was sat there waiting for it

 

Ever heard of n/v, you can see "in't dark".

[Dervburner 2,549]

38 minutes ago, ianm said:

Ever heard of n/v, you can see "in't dark".

Might be better than the old carrot trick, I put one in each eye and couldn’t see a thing. I suspect it might be an old wives tale..unless I’m doing it wrong?.........

[Stavross 16,160]

Feeding this morning in preparation for Saturday, I took the thermal with me as I wanted to see what was about to put a bit of a plan together with the shoot captain as we are fast approaching the end of the season so we need to make the best of what we have left, I have got 2 drives that still have a lot of birds in for this time of year and they are Gordon’s pen and the piggeries ( tree side ) and another 2 that are not to bad, forestry pen and piggeries ( ruff side ) so if we do theses 4 and add in a couple of small ruff patches we could potentially have a good day, this time in the season if we do a 30 bird day I’ll be happy, there’s definitely enough birds to do this but we’ll see if the shooting ability is up to the job on Saturday, there’s a lot of deer traffic in and around the piggeries but I didn’t see any today, with a bit of luck over the coming weeks me and the deer magnet (FH) will get a couple of days on them, hopefully a couple of calm, sunny days

Edited January 13, 2022 by Stavross