comanche
-
Content Count
2,566 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
3
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Gallery
Articles
Gun Dealer's and Fieldsports Shop's
Reloading Room
Blogs
Calendar
Store
Classifieds
Everything posted by comanche
-
After a couple of cancelled trips we finally managed to get out boat fishing. The catch included mackerel,bream,bass ,conger and undulate rays. Though l didn't catch any conger or rays myself l did end up as Tope Catching King. All day long the mini-sharks ,mostly between 10 and 20lbs, kept hoovering-up my badly presented baits. What made it fun was that l was using an old cane rod and a reel that is best described as a quirky but well considered bit of British engineering. Made by Grice and Young ,The Orlando looks like a simple drum reel apart from a weird sticky-out th
- 5 replies
-
- 12
-
-
Last year l couldn't use my bicycle because blackbirds nested in one of the panniers . My mate who had left his Landrover parked on my front lawn while he worked on it couldn't move it because another blackbird decided his engine bay was a great place to raise a brood. This year l have a nest in my shed.Luckily the parents are of the tolerant sort and put up with me creeping in and out for tools and work gear. It probably helps that l try to make up for any disturbance and buy their confidence by scattering a few worms on the lawn every day. Even though do try to time my visits w
- 6 replies
-
- 10
-
-
I had a pile of old rebar offcuts and chicken mesh. Metal Micky the local scrap man doesn't like wire. So l made a Birthday present for a friend. WARNING ; proper metal fabricators wishing to avoid trauma should not enlarge the picture to examine the atrocities that pass for arc-welded joints.?
- 1 reply
-
- 5
-
-
Once pulled into a farmyard to see a bloke wearing shorts and a tee shirt precariously balenced up a ladder injecting Cymag into a wasps' nest with a little brass hand pump that took both hands to operate. So no protective gear of any kind ,all alone , perched hands-free on an unsecure ladder dispensing a , by then, illegal and rather dodgy chemical at less than an arms length into a nest-full of angry jaspers. That could've been a dangerous situation. It was OK though ; he obviously knew what he was doing ,coz he had his eyes screwed closed and had turned his face away
-
The aging memory plays tricks ,but l'm convinced that years ago l heard that a couple chaps involved with the original trials of phostoxin tablets almost came to grief. Even though they had been screwed shut a part-used tub leaked enough fumes into the back of their vehicle to kill their dogs . The operators just managed to drive to hospital in time to save themselves . After that the tablets were coated in wax to slow their reaction with damp air. One story l know is true involves a tin of Cymag erupting on a pumping machine ,probably from a build up of pressure in a blind t
-
I don't know if the people following or contributing to this trap thread have seen the little trap video in the Country Crafts section of the Forum. If you haven't , have a look at the second bit of film in the "Olden Days Tools and Traps" thread?
-
It's the intrinsic strength and quality of the things that is a testament to their makers. Even today the springs still hold their temper and rust is often only supeficial . The modern view seems to be to use as little material as possible . Then give everything a quick dip in something silver to hide the fact that it's made of something with the iron content of a dog biscuit . Here's one l spotted in a customer's garage this very morning. A sort of middle sized one. One from my shed. And the same one . *Event reconstructed by an actor .
-
That tale in itself needs to be incorporated into any book that does surface on the subject . It's part of Fenn History ! Rodent Lime £6 for a half pound tub 9 I guess Mr Fenn was referring to the Springer. Had he forgotten to renew his patent? The same catalogue lists the Mk4 and Mk6 Fenn Specials . I guess it was the stainless steel treadle that nade them special . And you could save yourself 25p by ordering the trap without a chain .
-
?So by the time the Mk111 came about, the patent had been granted.
-
Can't work out from the photo if Phil's Mk111 wire-framed Fenn has the four little holes in the plate that mine has . Both my ones have the same patent numbers on the trigger catch even though they are different .
-
Yes. The little bird trap . I pinched that one from my brother as well? I've one somewhere in the loft that's still fitted with the mesh for enveloping its victim.
-
It is possible ; l pinched it from my brother who used to go to France and come back with van loads of stuff to sell at antique fairs . Apparently there was a market for French rust and woodworm in this country ?
-
Live- baiting is an excellent way of catching fish but over the last forty or fifty years a lot of anglers have taken to long stake-outs rather than more proactive forms of fishing. This applied mainly at first to carp and specimen anglers who started camping ,sometimes for days, with their perfectly presented hook baits nestled in areas patrolled by big fish . Slowly the technique was adopted by anglers seeking other species ,including predator anglers . The method became even more popular when the Law started to allow the use of up to four rods. At its best this
- 10 replies
-
- 13
-
-
-
-
-
They are designed for punching very neat holes ( so that accurate scores can be recorded) in paper targets .. They are spot- on for standard 5 and 10 yd indoor competition ranges where accuracy is more important than power . Further than that they are not so aerodynamic. Though they are sometimes recommended for short range pigeon control in buildings. Possibly due to some imagined or real shock value and the fact they won't go through the victim or damage the building if you miss?
-
April Ferreting sounds a bit like a female news-reader on regional TV but l'm actually referring to ferreting in April.....Which l did today. It was a paid job so it had to be done sooner or later and with a bit of breeze to take the heat out of the Sun, now seemed as good a time as any. The bury was a fairly substantial one in sandy soil but in an open field so l didn't feel under-manned . First conundrum involved deciding on a longnet pattern. Across to baulk hole hopping, or a classic surround? I opted for the latter;well a horseshoe - shaped affair . Partly because it might
- 6 replies
-
- 15
-
-
-
-
I have one somewhere. It was given to me by a friend who lost interest in ferreting. Unfortunatly by then he had also lost the collar . If l remember correctly the signal from the collar was picked -up when it was about seven feet from the box. The signal strength was fixed and you gauged the ferret's depth by how far from the ground the box was. So if you picked-up a signal with the box held five feet from the ground; the ferret was two feet down. If you held the box as high as you could above your head and still got a signal ; the ferret was crawling up your trous
-
Sounds about right. They are sold under a couple of Teutonic-sounding company names . All those springy wire ,gopher ,vole and mole traps remind me of the annoying little key-ring type puzzles that used to come in Christmas crackers. Probably an age thing?
-
Windhager vole trap.
-
Back in the 70s when my mates all had knackered hand- me -down Meteors and Dianas ,or in my case a Relum bought new with my school dinner money , this sort of kit would've been way beyond our dreams and purchasing power Only a retired Colonel or your dodgy uncle would've owned a FWB 127 ! Fast forward a few decades and how things have changed ; the rifle was a gift from a customer and only needed a seal and a fiddle to bring it to life and even the Milbro pellets came free . The old Nikko scope had dodged between various guns since 1980 but looks like it has found a permanent
-
Or a coat of the waxy stuff used for waterproofing horse rugs. Dead cheap .
-
I rubbed it some more and a Genie appeared ?! Unfortunately ge had a strong Arabian accent and was hard to inderstand. Three times l said "l wish you would speak more clearly." After which he said in perfect English "That's your quota used up," punched the air and disappeared in a puff of smoke. But yes it does say Fenn on both handles. I probably kept this one because l think the trigger plate is a bit funky.
-
You could be right about the curved jaws being better. I've always thought that the straight ones were more likely to drag in the bottom of the run tather than glide to a close . I once took a disc cutter and pliers to batch of brand new straight jawed traps in order to alter them into a curve!
-
I'll have to untangle the Tildesley from the bundle of "interesting " but unspectacular scissor-traps hanging on a wire in the shed and have a look now. A picture of The Fenn ; I couldn't see a name at first but under the rust it is stamped A FENN on the top crosspiece of the handle . The trigger plate has a neat little adjustable tang for sensitivity but only on one side and if l recall l found that there was something not quite right about them. That could my ineptitude though?
