Stavross

I’ve never been a fan of the.223 but they are cheap to run, I’ve always liked the .22-250 and I’ve never considered a .204 so that’s something I’m going to have a look at, cheers

It a cz 455 synthetic, with a hawke 4-9-50 scope and a SAK mod, cheap as chips, there’s loads of.22 to choose from and all do the job, but if you want a tool to do a job you won’t by a better rimfire than a cz

As the temperature had dropped to -1 and there was clear skies I thought I need to be out for an hour, for no other reason than a walk out in the crisp air, so I grabbed the little.22 and headed out to check the camera for foxy action, so first thing when I got there I headed over to the camera, I’d baited up over the past few days with a couple of breasted out pheasants, a rabbit and a squizzer, now the only thing that was missing was the squirrel but the camera had not triggered so I’ve no idea what has taken it, possibly one of the buzzards at a guess, so at the minute it’s not looking to good for my little mates first fox, at least not here as I was out I thought I’d have a look for a couple of hoppers for a lad at work and I think he will be more than happy with the couple of big lads I managed to drop for him, both took between 50 and 60 yards and dropped on the spot, both head shot, recently I’ve neglected the .22, always picking up the mouse gun but enjoyed it tonight, so it’s back in favour On another note I been thinking of a variation, for a dedicated fox rifle with a NV scope as the scope on the .243 won’t take an NV add-on because of the quality of the glass, now a mates been saying.223 but all I keep thinking .22-250, decisions, decisions

I’ve just been concreting at a massive egg hatchery unit and was testing the water about shooting, anyway as it goes they don’t need my services because nothing is outside anymore, I got talking to an old boy there that had been in the game all his life so asked him about the fox/badger thing and he said when they did a lot outside and birds were killed and you found the carcass you couldn’t tell if it was a badger or a fox because they both kill the same way and will both remove the head ( I didn’t know that) he said the only way they could tell would be a fox would kill everything and leave most of them where as the badger would kill one or two and always try to take them, he then went in to methods of control but the only one I would advise was fencing

Nice work, you are certainly getting amongst them , I’ve just got in from a walk out, seen nothing and got rained on a lot

Same up this way with the acorns, last year the trees were covered in them, this year the beech nuts have come good and the pheasants have been making the most of them, come to think about it that will be why there’s so many squizzers around the farm

We get a lot of dog walkers up that end of the shoot and if they get bothered early on the tend to wander, most of the time down to what’s known as the forestry drive, closer to the farm, there was a lot of birds at forestry today so maybe they have down where it’s a bit quieter

Had a few tree rats while I was out as well, they seems to be loads about this year, I shot 6 with the .22, I must of seen over 30, I could of made quite a bag if I’d taken the shotgun

Feeding up this morning and they are hungry, it was good to see a few feeders empty or getting very low, they are now taking a lot of feed now much of the natural has gone, I was there on my own today so had plenty of time to get around the full shoot to see where the birds move out to once they came off roost, there was good numbers in the 4 main drives around the farm, so with feeders filled and a good bit of hand feeding on the rides and straw we have put down I headed over to the far side of the shoot known as the valley drive and pen, not a bird to be seen and not a massive amount of feed taken, so it’s looking like we won’t be shooting this drive on Saturday, it always seems to be the case that there’s always one drive each year that doesn’t produce the birds, for some reason or an other, last year it was the oak wood and this year it seems to be the valley

Well I popped in to check the camera on the way back from feeding up and to my surprise the rabbit was still there along with what’s left of the pheasant carcasses, I checked the camera and all that was on it was a couple of videos of buzzards pulling fluff out of it before the crows moved them on, so I dropped a squizzer off to go with the rabbit as we all like a varied diet and I’ll pop back down tomorrow to see if anything has happened, fingers crossed it hasn’t come a cropper on some other land or the road

My experience with them black and white terrorists is that unlike a fox they will only kill one and take it away I have never seen them take the head off like a fox and move on to kill another, that’s not to say they don’t just because I haven’t come across it

Cheers lads, when I was a few years older than him I was what you might call a bit of a wrong-un, I always remember when my mam and dad went to the school and a teacher telling them that I didn’t hang around with the wrong crowd, I was the wrong crowd, then someone took me out with the dogs, then fishing and then shooting and that was it, that was all I wanted to do, if them couple of lads hadn’t done that for me who knows where I would of ended up, some of the nicest most genuine people I know are all part of our shooting community and this lads definitely on the right track to become one of them people

So every time I see my little mate from the shoot he asks me if I have had any foxes and next time I’m out can he come, now he’s been out a few times now on the rabbits and his shooting has got better and better, so I’m thinking maybe it’s time to give him a go at a ginger, now I don’t want him to think this is an easy thing but on the other hand I didn’t want to turn up somewhere not knowing if there’s any chance of getting a shot off, so over the past couple of weeks I’ve had the camera out on some local fields, I’ve had bait out and had nothing for the first week, then Charlie showed up, it has regularly been taking bait over the past 10 days, first off around 3am but is now coming between 11 and 12, I showed dedication in encouraging this young lad by going out in the rain last night to bait up with 2 breasted out pheasants where I found the batteries had ran out in the camera, so I brought it away with me and charged them, back down tonight in the pouring rain to bait up with a rabbit and put the camera back out, the fox must of sat there eating the pheasants, I’m off to feed up at the pheasant shoot in the morning so I’ll pop in and check the camera on my way back, fingers crossed it will be coming in a little earlier and weather permitting we can have a go next Friday before we go pheasant shooting on the Saturday

I’ve found hare distress pull in hares and rabbit distress just brings in owls, I’ve had a barn owl drop onto the caller once