Back up at the shoot

[Stavross 16,324]

It will of been the cabbage

[FOXHUNTER 5,021]

Received a call yesterday from a farmer to say the crows were back on the barley stubble which he has just drilled with turnips. I popped in on my way to work and there must have been 500 birds on it so I said I would shoot it in the morning.  Anyway I was set up for 1st light but the number of birds wasnt there. Anyway still had a good morning ending up with 83

[David.evans 5,323]

Good shooting again mate , no barley just wheat on my perms , should be of by next week with a bit of luck, can’t wait 

Atb 

[FOXHUNTER 5,021]

28 minutes ago, David.evans said:

Good shooting again mate , no barley just wheat on my perms , should be of by next week with a bit of luck, can’t wait 

Atb 

Yep hes hoping to get the wheat cut next week , one of my favourite fields to shoot is in wheat so hoping for another good day once that gets cut. 

[Stavross 16,324]

Up to my mates farm tonight with longshanx as all the rape has been cut over the past couple days, on the lookout for a buck, when I got towards the bottom of the field I clocked a buck and a doe in next doors wheat, shortly followed by another doe, although he was shootable it wasn’t worth the risk, taking it from next doors land, he looked to be a old boy and we’ll definitely be back up as soon as the wheat is down along the wood, if the weather holds the wheat will be down towards the end of next week  

( bucks on the left )

[David.evans 5,323]

Does somebody else shoot on there stav 

[Stavross 16,324]

1 hour ago, David.evans said:

Does somebody else shoot on there stav 

On my mates place there’s just me and an old boy that comes when he wants a deer, I’ve seen people on next doors land but I don’t know who owns it 

Edited August 11, 2021 by Stavross

[shovel leaner 7,650]

I was getting a bit of hassle from BOP just after I put the poults to wood . There isn’t a lot you can do about them legally. Diversionary feeding is one option, and that works for some lazy old Buzzards, but some like fresh kills . 
           I was having a sort out in one of the sheds on the shoot and found some old Keepers choice feed bags with some predator eyes printed on the back . I tied some up around a pen that was having problems and low and behold it seemed to do the trick , and put off the BOP that was bothering the poults . 
          A mate rang me up yesterday moaning about a problem BOP that was making life difficult in one of his pens , so I told him about these bags . Anyway he is coming to pick a few up and try them in his pen and see what happens. It’s worth a go . I’ve tried all sorts , I’ve even hung up old CD’s , they really didn’t like the Spice girls .

[Stavross 16,324]

I tie feed bags to the fence posts and bird scare tape across the pens and it works well, once the birds are out on the rides all I will say is “ good luck to em “ there’s a lot of BOP up there, to make things worse some sort of eagle has escaped from an estate down the road and took up residence around the shoot, the old girl has seen it a couple of times and she said it’s massive, they have been up from the estate to try and catch it, but have told the old girl the radio tracker isn’t working anymore so they are not sure how they will find it, god knows what havoc that thing will cause if it sticks around 

[shovel leaner 7,650]

1 hour ago, Stavross said:

I tie feed bags to the fence posts and bird scare tape across the pens and it works well, once the birds are out on the rides all I will say is “ good luck to em “ there’s a lot of BOP up there, to make things worse some sort of eagle has escaped from an estate down the road and took up residence around the shoot, the old girl has seen it a couple of times and she said it’s massive, they have been up from the estate to try and catch it, but have told the old girl the radio tracker isn’t working anymore so they are not sure how they will find it, god knows what havoc that thing will cause if it sticks around 

I agree , once the birds are out of the pen , it’s not a problem. 
        I had the same with an escaped Harris hawk a couple years ago . It’s telemetry had fallen off . I saw it next to one of the Maize patches in a tree.  I got the boss to go on Facebook to see if anyone was looking for one and sure enough he located the owner . I met him and showed him where I’d last seen it and left him to it . He assured me it wouldn’t have done much harm to the pheasants . 
        By coincidence, my wife was walking to the daughters house and saw a van next to a gateway with a van full of hawks . Now my wife will stop and talk to anyone , about anything. She got chatting to the falconer about the birds , and she asked , “ do they ever just fly off and not come back “? He replied that the Harris hawk went missing the other day and ended up on a pheasant shoot, he said put it this way , I didn’t need to feed it for a while and laughed. I was f@cking furious , if I see it again there won’t be any phone calls. 

[FOXHUNTER 5,021]

12 hours ago, Stavross said:

Up to my mates farm tonight with longshanx as all the rape has been cut over the past couple days, on the lookout for a buck, when I got towards the bottom of the field I clocked a buck and a doe in next doors wheat, shortly followed by another doe, although he was shootable it wasn’t worth the risk, taking it from next doors land, he looked to be a old boy and we’ll definitely be back up as soon as the wheat is down along the wood, if the weather holds the wheat will be down towards the end of next week  

( bucks on the left )

You need the deer magnet with you mate

[Stavross 16,324]

46 minutes ago, FOXHUNTER said:

You need the deer magnet with you mate

There’s a few more fields cut up at the shoot if you fancy an evening up there, I’ve just been and picked the camera up and there’s loads of deer on it

[FOXHUNTER 5,021]

1 hour ago, Stavross said:

There’s a few more fields cut up at the shoot if you fancy an evening up there, I’ve just been and picked the camera up and there’s loads of deer on it

Cheers , any fallow bucks on camera?

[Stavross 16,324]

Haven’t gone through it properly yet, I’ll check when I get in

[Stavross 16,324]

3 hours ago, FOXHUNTER said:

Cheers , any fallow bucks on camera?

Well  I went through the camera and I’ve clearly got a fallow doe with a another smaller one in tow, I got a fleeting glimpse of what looked to be a young fallow buck, not much of a head on him at all, all the oats are down around the piggeries and the old girl has said the rape and wheat at the back of the farm should be down next week, she said she can’t wait until the rapes down because the deer are jumping into her grass field pulling the electric fence down, the good thing about this field is once the wheats off it gives you access to the oak wood drive and there’s normally deer grazing the edge of wood as the make there way from the forestry blocks

 

i didn’t get to go on my own today because the missus is off work and had volunteered me to look after the nephew, so off we went like a little weird family, he didn’t want to go, then when he was told there was no options he wanted to take his bike. Bike in the back we set off, once we got there I went and got the quad, all of a sudden he’s not interested in his bike, so we had a ride over to collect the camera on the quad, then went back to the farm to collect the missus and explain to him that we were now going to walk for a mile or so, he didn’t seem to quite grasp the concept of walking and was knackered 500 yards in his mood soon changed when he found out he was about to have a lesson on shooting  the .223, to be fair to the lad he listened and did everything he was told and hit the target on his second attempt, is it just me or are youngsters just a bit weird now, when I was his age I would of jumped at the chance of going somewhere like that, no need for bribes like riding around on quads or shooting rifles, it makes me sad that most kids are like this now

Edited August 12, 2021 by Stavross