“Hello Duckie “!!!

[shovel leaner 7,650]

Although my keepering duties have finished for the season , ( I stopped being paid at the end of January and start back in May ) , the shoot owner still thinks I’m at his beck and call . 
         He has a pond in his garden with some little white call ducks on , they are noisy sods , but they bring in all sorts , Mandarins , Carolina wood ducks , Teal and Mallard. I got a text from him asking if I had a fox trap he could borrow, because a pair of foxes were seen running around the pond trying to get the ducks . Now that’s his way of saying do something about them please . I text back that a trap probably wouldn’t work and that I’d be up with the thermal and rifle . 
        The night was bitterly cold but absolutely no wind , so it was bearable, I set out for the shoot and it felt good to be out again after a bit of a break . I had jet washed the mule and didn’t want to shit it up or my truck so I planned on a bit of a sit out near the back of his garden which overlooks the deer park. There is a fallen oak which offers a good shooting platform and seat , so I set the caller up and made myself comfortable. It was about 7.0pm which is the time the foxes were spotted. I scanned around with the thermal, rabbits , muntjac, a few fallow way in the distance, very quiet and very still . The caller was on pheasant distress and then rabbit distress but nothing was showing. The ducks were dabbling around and not bothered by anything. I had been there about an hour and it was a good job I’d brought my flask as it was nice to feel it’s hot Tea go down . I was starting to get cold and made a deal with myself “ half an hour “ . I thought I’d try vixen mating call , ( this was a couple of weeks ago) . It’s eerie howl penetrating the still night . I was continuing to scan with the thermal and saw the unmistakable shape of Charlie running at full pelt towards the caller , I fumbled around for the remote to turn the volume down , it was on the tree somewhere!!! No time it was looking straight at it up in the branches of the young oak , confused it tilted its head trying to understand what was going on . By this time I’d steadied the cross on the digisight just behind its  front leg centre of the boiler room and sent the 50grn Vmax, it made a loud “thwack” , and I watched it drop instantly without even a twitch of its tail . Good I thought now I can go and thaw out . Not the pair that the boss had seen , but a result none the less and it would keep him quiet. It was only about 50 meters and a dog fox , it looked like he had a bit of mange possibly , as there was some fur missing off his tail but otherwise in good condition. 

 

[Squirrel_Basher 17,100]

When’s the book out mate .Tales of a part time plasterer

Nice write up mate and another fox bites the dust .
Im not bothered with them here now but I just know a call will come when there’s lambs about .

[ianm 2,594]

Good result! 

[FOXHUNTER 5,021]

Is the shoot just continuing as normal next season ?

[Dervburner 2,549]

Good write up and good result SL

[shovel leaner 7,650]

5 hours ago, FOXHUNTER said:

Is the shoot just continuing as normal next season ?

As far as I know . I’ve just got to wait until the AGM . I think it will .

[shovel leaner 7,650]

9 hours ago, foxdropper said:

When’s the book out mate .Tales of a part time plasterer

Nice write up mate and another fox bites the dust .
Im not bothered with them here now but I just know a call will come when there’s lambs about .

I can’t think of anything as uninteresting as my plastering life . I do however have a vast reservoir of funny anecdotes and stories from my days on sites . There used to be some real characters about when I was young . The drinking culture was different too . All the gangs I worked with went to the pub before they went home and Friday afternoon was always a boozy affair. There were some rough paddy’s about .

[shovel leaner 7,650]

I’ve just got off the phone to the shoot owner and we are all systems go for the coming season . He said he has had more enquiries pre season about guns wanting to join than ever before . 
            Must be they have heard how good the shooting is and how good a keeper I am , or more likely there isn’t a lot of shoots going ahead this season .

[Squirrel_Basher 17,100]

Same mate .Used to work in a groundwork’s gang of paddy’s and all of them had a hip flask passed around every 10  minutes .

They were pissed all day everyday .How we got anything done was beyond me .I remember two of them driving one of those old handstart dumpers about 6 miles to a pub for lunch and we never saw them for rest of the week .

[shovel leaner 7,650]

10 minutes ago, foxdropper said:

Same mate .Used to work in a groundwork’s gang of paddy’s and all of them had a hip flask passed around every 10  minutes .

They were pissed all day everyday .How we got anything done was beyond me .I remember two of them driving one of those old handstart dumpers about 6 miles to a pub for lunch and we never saw them for rest of the week .

I know two paddy’s who were supposed to be laying a screed . They got it delivered, and because it was near lunchtime and they wanted a couple of pints , they took a handful of the screed ( it had a retarder in it which gave you about 3 hours working time ) they put the handful of screed on the bar and kept feeling it . After about two hours drinking they thought it was starting to harden , so headed back . They nearly killed them selves laying it . 
            Apparently they had an AGA delivered on wheels and it rolled across the room

[chandler01 0]

17 hours ago, shovel leaner said:

Although my keepering duties have finished for the season , ( I stopped being paid at the end of January and start back in May ) , the shoot owner still thinks I’m at his beck and call . 
         He has a pond in his garden with some little white call ducks on , they are noisy sods , but they bring in all sorts , Mandarins , Carolina wood ducks , Teal and Mallard. I got a text from him asking if I had a fox trap he could borrow, because a pair of foxes were seen running around the pond trying to get the ducks . Now that’s his way of saying do something about them please . I text back that a trap probably wouldn’t work and that I’d be up with the thermal and rifle . 
        The night was bitterly cold but absolutely no wind , so it was bearable, I set out for the shoot and it felt good to be out again after a bit of a break . I had jet washed the mule and didn’t want to shit it up or my truck so I planned on a bit of a sit out near the back of his garden which overlooks the deer park. There is a fallen oak which offers a good shooting platform and seat , so I set the caller up and made myself comfortable. It was about 7.0pm which is the time the foxes were spotted. I scanned around with the thermal, rabbits , muntjac, a few fallow way in the distance, very quiet and very still . The caller was on pheasant distress and then rabbit distress but nothing was showing. The ducks were dabbling around and not bothered by anything. I had been there about an hour and it was a good job I’d brought my flask as it was nice to feel it’s hot Tea go down . I was starting to get cold and made a deal with myself “ half an hour “ . I thought I’d try vixen mating call , ( this was a couple of weeks ago) . It’s eerie howl penetrating the still night . I was continuing to scan with the thermal and saw the unmistakable shape of Charlie running at full pelt towards the caller , I fumbled around for the remote to turn the volume down , it was on the tree somewhere!!! No time it was looking straight at it up in the branches of the young oak , confused it tilted its head trying to understand what was going on . By this time I’d steadied the cross on the digisight just behind its  front leg centre of the boiler room and sent the 50grn Vmax, it made a loud “thwack” , and I watched it drop instantly without even a twitch of its tail . Good I thought now I can go and thaw out . Not the pair that the boss had seen , but a result none the less and it would keep him quiet. It was only about 50 meters and a dog fox , it looked like he had a bit of mange possibly , as there was some fur missing off his tail but otherwise in good condition. 

 

Nice hunt