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Flairball

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Everything posted by Flairball

  1. Flairball
    Watched my father walk in to one of those fences. The wire ran across both thighs. Shocked the crap out of him. Funniest thing I’ve ever seen. I’m laughing just thinking about it. As for your dog, I think just running him in scent rich areas a bunch will get he back on form. Maybe leave the gun a home a few and just let him flush some game without any shots, and then layer the gun back in, just to be on the safe side.
  2. Flairball

    Finally,..

    Flairball posted a topic in Wildfowling

    I don’t do much fowling, but every once in a while I’ll sit along a nearby river and pass shoot. This season things have been strange, and most days I sat there I ended up going home with a pheasant or two, either pushed over me or walked up on my way out. Today I didn’t kill any pheasant, and I didn’t see many ducks, but I did connect on this one, which thought it’d fly over.
  3. Flairball
    I’ve had a couple good walks in the woods over the last few weeks. Here are a few pics.
  4. Flairball
    You all have seen Ginger before. We had a nice day, recently.
  5. Flairball

    Cartridges

    Flairball replied to sam r's topic in Wildfowling

    Bismuth #6’s for ducks. Bismuth #4’s in my pocket for if an geese happen by. Not shooting long distances, so these work fine. Planning to handload some bismuth #7’s for a few spots in the uplands where it is not uncommon to jump teal off a creek or pond.
  6. Flairball
    I wouldn’t think a 3 1/2” would have any advantage unless you are shooting larger shot sizes, in which case you’ll just get more pellets in your pattern. My experience has been that holds true with 2 3/4” to 3” and between gauge size. Shooting larger pellets size up for more payload. I seldom shoot geese, only with Les (thanks Les), but shoot ducks when I can, and pretty much always shoot a 20g with nothing larger than #4’s, usually #6 Bismuth. Depending on what shot size and choke you are using, a 2 3/4” shell pay actually work better. Try patterning a few. Also, don’t worry about speed too m
  7. Flairball
    Bonus woodcock. The woodcock are starting to migrate north again, over here. It’s not uncommon to see a couple when out training or running the dogs. Never thought I’d see one in the middle of the city, surrounded by high rise buildings. This woodcock killed itself by flying into the glass roll up doors of the firehouse. It seems the woodcock flew in to the fire house when the doors were up, and then decided to try to make its failed escape after the doors were down. We are situated in the ground floor of a very large high rise, and the doors are quite large.
  8. Flairball
    Took an hour out of my day to take the dogs for a walk around some fields, woods, and hedgerows. It was time well spent. The dogs are working well together, and my older dog (on the right) made a fantastic retrieve, swimming through some very heavy flooded cover for a hard pricked bird.
  9. Flairball
    Yeah. Like a litter of Labs. Or maybe Chessies.
  10. Flairball
    The last 3 years I’ve shot with friends in Yorkshire. I’ve seen quite a few woodcock on shoot days, but I’ve yet to connect with one. This year I am coming over earlier, so I doubt I’ll see any, but I’m sure the shooting will be just as fun.
  11. Flairball
    He took your money, he owes you an explanation. And your money back. And,..can the shoot captain decide this on his own, or must it be brought up with the rest of the members? I’ve always understood (maybe wrongly) that the shoot captain is the guy in charge of organizing, and holds some authority, but not ultimate authority.
  12. Flairball
    The woodcock season and migration runs a little differently, here. They are on the move, now. By mid-Nov they will be gone, having moved further south to their wintering grounds. The last two days I have gotten in to them good. Tough to kill, living in the really thick, young saplings, but fun to try. We moved 48 yesterday and today. I managed to put 4 in the bag.
  13. Flairball
    Finally got a day when I could spend some time really getting after some birds. I made the mistake of running them together for a bit, so my bitch became very competitive and broke on the first bird. A shake and a talking to sorted that out, and she followed up by making a fantastic long blind retrieve on a bird on another bird the pup flushed while she was out on a marked retrieve. I elected not to send the pup because he wasn’t as steady as he should have been.
  14. Flairball
    GWP is a versatile dog, but the fowling aspect of its versatility is not what it was bred to do as its first job. It is a dog that was bred to point and retrieve game, both feather and fur, and retrieve from water when needed. As well as blood trail. I think you should think about what you will use the dog for 80% of the time. If you will spend most of your time shooting ducks and geese, you’ll be better off with a Lab. A GWP wants to run. I think a Lab could, with some training and exposure, become a proficient fox flusher. Training to scent track (Fox scent), and to retrieve fur (Fox fur) co
  15. Flairball
    Sounds like you might need to recruit some help from here to get rid of some foxes.
  16. Flairball
    Too bad the grouse have been suffering, but glad to hear days are being cancelled (glad in the people aren’t being greedy sense), and the resource managed properly. Red grouse shooting is one of the things I’d most like to one day, be it over dogs or driven (which I’ll probably never be able to afford).
  17. Flairball
    I’m not gonna say you’ll be good, nor don’t do it, but why not skip the steel and shoot bismuth? Bismuth performs better, is not terribly expensive, can be found with fibre wads, and the new upland loads are slower and lower pressure. The slower low pressure loads should be fine for that gun and are sufficient to kill fowl (remember, the high speed fowl loads came about as a result of steel being lighter than lead). The slower loads will be easier on the shoulder than high speed steel, too. You should be able to kill ducks with #5 shot out to 40 yards. Anyway, good luck and have fun
  18. Flairball
    We can not shoot over a pond that has been fed, but we can spread feed up to 10 days before the season opens. I’m thinking I might spread a little something over the next couple of weeks before the season opens to get them checking in. The ducks do visit the pond and creek, but it’d be nice to get a few more on it. It’s a very quiet, secluded spot, so I think if I get some more coming in, even if the feeding stops they’re gonna like the place. Any recommendations?
  19. Flairball
    For better, or for worse, we do quite a few things differently here in the US. It is very rare for anyone to raise poults in an open top pen. I wish more people would. Anyway, I belong to a dog training club. We have 2 bird pens, 1 partridge and 1 pheasant, but we do not do any kind of an early release. Members grab whatever birds they need for training and head out. Being able to train on pen raised birds is a big help when training a dog. Depending on the drill many birds are fly-aways. Truth is most birds I put out are not shot in training, rather I will run a dog the next morning to try to
  20. Flairball
    No. Breeding is something you plan, not something you just decide to do when your bitch is in season. The idea is to breed only for the betterment of the breed. That usually includes a wide search for a good stud. Love your dog. Shoot a lot of birds over her. Spoil her. But leave the breeding to others.
  21. Flairball
    Hypothetical question. As a means of reintroduction and/or population supplementation what percentage of pheasant would you expect to survive, and go on to breed in the wild, if released using the standard model of releasing poults via a release pen? In considering your answer/expectations let’s assume this is an appropriately sized release pen, with appropriate cover, regular feeding, regular pest control, and not shot at. Thanks
  22. Flairball
    The weather has been quite mild, spring like, so I’ve been able to get in some training with the dogs. At 7 months old Bailey is coming along nicely. If his training stays on course he may well see his first trial in the fall. Here are a couple short vids.
  23. Flairball
    Doing great, Les. Thanks. Hope you are well.
  24. Flairball
    Pour a bottle of beer in the kibble. The beer keeps me fat, might work with a springer.
  25. Flairball
    We all know its not just about the shooting. A day of shooting in the countryside is about so much more. Sometimes more important than the shooting. Part 3, the Sticky Toffee Massacre
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