Hi to all my old friends on the THL rifle section

[shovel leaner 7,650]

3 minutes ago, foxdropper said:

There’s me thinking I was a hit with the ladies ?

 

Proper “ stud muffin “ you mate , got to fight them off with a shitty stick .

[shovel leaner 7,650]

I went out on the shoot before I finished in January to shoot my last fox as a gamekeeper. The mission was to get a nice head and give it to the local taxidermist ( Mark Ball) and have it mounted for posterity  . I shot two and gave him both capes and said take your pick of the best one . I think he did a good job . 

[Stavross 16,641]

32 minutes ago, shovel leaner said:

Cheers Stav , How’s things ? Are you guys putting any birds out this year ? It’s a rich man’s game this season . I think I picked a good time to slide out of the back door . The shoots near me have struggled with their cover crops because of the dry weather , no chicks , the chicks they did get were not very good , insane gas prices , fuel prices , feed and wheat prices , in short the costs have gone through the roof . 
             I don’t know about the nonsense that’s been going on , this section of THL was always friendly and light hearted , long may it continue. 

I don’t know where to start with it, last season was the first full season where I was in charge of it all and it turned out to be the best season they have ever had, more by luck than good judgement I think  ( even managed to give a couple of lads off here a day ) so now the members have decided that I will run it, probably the worst year you could be given the job, the prices of everything is crazy, my birds are meant to be here next week but I’ve heard nothing from the lad and the last time I spoke to him he said 3rd week in August and we can only have 500 instead of 800, he said 500 because I told him if we could only have half I wouldn’t bother, there’s a lot of small shoots around us that are getting nothing, I’ve got quite a lot of wildies up there at the minute so with a bit of luck I’ll hang on to a few of them, hopefully we get a few good days out, if the members get to pull the trigger a bit and have a laugh they’ll be happy, their fees have stayed the same so they understand they won’t get what they got last season, on the up side, price of wheat is coming down, maybe not to the 90 quid a tonne we were paying a few years ago but it’s something

[shovel leaner 7,650]

1 minute ago, Stavross said:

I don’t know where to start with it, last season was the first full season where I was in charge of it all and it turned out to be the best season they have ever had, more by luck than good judgement I think  ( even managed to give a couple of lads off here a day ) so now the members have decided that I will run it, probably the worst year you could be given the job, the prices of everything is crazy, my birds are meant to be here next week but I’ve heard nothing from the lad and the last time I spoke to him he said 3rd week in August and we can only have 500 instead of 800, he said 500 because I told him if we could only have half I wouldn’t bother, there’s a lot of small shoots around us that are getting nothing, I’ve got quite a lot of wildies up there at the minute so with a bit of luck I’ll hang on to a few of them, hopefully we get a few good days out, if the members get to pull the trigger a bit and have a laugh they’ll be happy, their fees have stayed the same so they understand they won’t get what they got last season, on the up side, price of wheat is coming down, maybe not to the 90 quid a tonne we were paying a few years ago but it’s something

I don’t really believe in luck , you make your own luck . If you didn’t put the effort in that you do it wouldn’t have been as good . I know some shoots that happen to be near or in between large commercial shoots that put little to no effort in and have fantastic results but they are the exception. I’m sure that if it wasn’t for your diligence and hard work the syndicate members would have very little to shoot at . 

[ianm 2,594]

Good to see you back SL, I was only thinking about how you were going on the other day. I hope your sister in law makes a complete and speedy recovery.

[Born Hunter 17,837]

On 19/08/2022 at 13:21, shovel leaner said:

Cheers pal, The wife’s sister has had a tumour removed and some glands and so far so good . But something like that makes you think about life and your priorities. 
              I hope that the pyjama wearing sniper is still bursting with health and exuberance? 
       Here are some memories of my last shoot day and then a picture of the team on beaters day . 

f**k those pictures sparked a bit of excitement in me for the season. I'm actually keen to start mornings dogging in! 

Good to see you back. I take the same attitude with the south coast. Not living there keeps it special.

[dytkos 17,863]

Welcome back SL, David Brent 3rd from right?  

Cheers, D.