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comanche

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Everything posted by comanche

  1. comanche
    Not only is the dog not stock-steady ,it clearly doesn't retrieve either ... Seriously though; if my three £1.50 ex battery girls were the victims how would I price their replacement? Whatever the answer the outcome would be a lot more civilized, less stressful and cheaper if the dog owner made the first move of reconciliation and offered generous compensation instead of messing about and playing for time trying to find out what breed of chickens had been killed . I'd suggest the owner invest in a couple of ex layers himself in order to steady the dog.
  2. comanche
    I've never had any problems. I'd guess purse-net making is only a small-almost incidental- part of the market for bulk spun-poly for the factories that turn it out by the pallet load. I've had the old bolt that seems more prone to kinking more than most, but nothing that hasn't been reasonably alleviated by loading the needle in alternating directions. Back to the pink twine; like a lot of spun poly it bulks up a bit with use -especially after a few wettings- but I reckon along with lime green it is one of the easiest colours to see during those late afternoon winter pick-
  3. comanche
    I've never subscribed to the trap shy excuse. To a mole its just something in the run they decide to dig round or shift ;might as well be a rock,root ..or ... mothball . Its not like they have an I-Spy book of mole traps to refer to. In fact they can't read very well (glasses don't stay on due to lack of sticky -out ears and contact lenses are too fiddly for their big hands ). Apart from the desire to shift or dig round a foreign body in the run , or coming at the trap from an unsporting angle; I do believe that moles have a little tactic to avoid painful encounters with others of their spec
  4. comanche
    Funnily enough there is a Rumanian guy does a bit there. I've had a couple of good chats with him (his English is better than mine) . The obvious subject came up;eating the catch. He showed me pictures of him fishing in his home country ,and yes,along with pictures of some very lovely looking wildie types being returned, there were a couple showing dead carp ready for the BBQ . Over there he fishes in the dammed sections of clean rivers which requires a day ticket but its accepted the angler will take the odd fish for the table. His view of British carping is less than enthusias
  5. comanche
    They used to swarm in this stream when I was a kid, along with stone loach and bullheads, but -and its only my theory - the nature of the river changed when a load of crap-sorry carp- escaped from the mill-pond in a flood. I'm pretty sure they hoovered up the spawn of these tiddler species as they became pretty scarce for a long time though remained common in some of the feeder streams where there were no carp. The carp have been shifted downstream to the main river over the years and the gudgeon and loach are making a come-back. Only circumstantial evidence but food for thought.
  6. comanche
    With our local mill-stream settled after the recent rain and the end of the season looming it seemed an ideal excuse to spend a few hours on the bank with middle grandchild. I took my wonky old cane rod and centre pin to add a touch of "Mr Crabtree" to proceedings while Den stuck to his Poundland gear. What was planned as a quick dabble turned into a marathon session as just about every spot we tried yielded fish . Some were tiddlers-little perch and gudgeon- but bearing in mind the stream is barely ten feet across in most places and consists of long shallow stretches of gravel
  7. comanche
    As long as its got a nose and is obedient sensible around ferrets almost any breed is fine for marking. In fact my first experience of a marking dog was a mongrel spaniel owned by a colourful chap that I sold a ferret to when I was quite new to ferreting . He came back a few months later and asked my dad if it would be Ok for me to join him and his lad on their rabbiting ground as my extra nets and ferrets would boost the team. Bob -the dog- inspired my urge to own a marking dog of my own. Although I went on to work one of my mum's whippets to ferrets the first dog that I could call my
  8. comanche
    Its true that a lot of dogs who get to know the ferreting of foxing game will start to mark inhabited burrows with little encouragement ,others will show a natural interest in inhabited burrows by catching an interesting scent from a subterranean animal. Its up to the owner to read the signs and work on the partnership from that point. But ,it is possible to teach a dog to mark, and very reliably. If you doubt this ask yourself how sniffer dogs are trained to mark the most unnatural of items.
  9. comanche
    I know some people place moth-balls( You surely need a steady hand to castrate a moth!) as a repellent in the runs, only to find them kicked out the next day and the mole as active as ever. . Thinking outside the box(or having a daft turn) ;I wonder if placing a trap either side of a moth ball might work. If nothing else I might just have started a new Old Wives' Tale I often wonder if a mole's feeding instinct and the urge to patrol its tunnel overcome some of the arguments about strange scent . I had a job where I caught several moles from an area of soil that was stained by, an
  10. comanche
    Dexterity is good enough to feel the indent of a Talpex trigger -rod set humble of the hole in the plate. They last Ok. To be hones,t they seem to be the same gloves that retail for £3.99-£4.99 anywhere else.
  11. comanche
    Watch out for flies in the summer. the wet round bales hold water all year round and become a perfect breeding ground for all manner of flying sh#t. I made that mistake myself! I bought a load of old 3'x2' flags of the council etc and laid a hard standing 10 yards square for over wintering pigs. saves the paddocks for the rest of the year. Chuck your wood chippings on the flags and when done, spread on the paddocks. I can well imagine you are right. The really mucky outside of the bales go on the dung-heap . We only use the next layer -the stuff that looks ok but is apparently not up to "
  12. comanche
    Our first pigs are pretty much due to go. Luckily we have tame tree surgeons who are more than happy to drop the odd load of chippings off . In fact they are desperate to be rid of them a lot of the time. The chippings are great for drying up the ground , which along with the outside of the round bales from the stable-yard, have helped stop the piggy-paddock from becoming a buffalo wallow.
  13. comanche
    Poundland gardening gloves;rubber fingers and palms ,fabric back and they only cost a pound !
  14. comanche
    Ooh no ,he's welcome to take the micky ... his permission is better than mine.
  15. comanche
    I invited an old friend ,Stu, who used to do a bit of ferreting to join me and my usual partners in crime Martin and his son James on visit to bit of my local permission. Its been hit pretty hard over the last couple of years so we decided to split into two teams to cover more ground . Martin and James set off with their two proper lurchers in one direction, while Stu and I accompanied by my "semi-lurcher" went the other . Trusting the dog's nose we skipped over a lot of dead burrows until we settled upon one the dog showed an interest in . We set a lot of nets for four rabbits but h
  16. comanche
    What about the painful five year apprenticeship as a "Prospect" mole-catcher to a satanic master, the obligatory all-night skinning sessions and dark rituals dedicated to the spade -handed God refered to, in hushed tones, as Talpus the Magnificent ? Worse: the degradation of Lady's Night at the Mole-catcher's Lodge; when the tyro is forced to writhe to the point of exhaustion while wearing a velvet boiler-suit and rubber hands for the entertainment of absinthe-crazed women. There are books as well. For me one from the 70's by a well known Shooting and horror story author tru
  17. comanche
    I've blanked school dinners from my mind. I only recall the vomit-making domes of what was passed-off as mashed potato. I saved my dinner money until I had £10 and bought a Relum air rifle. Funnily It came via Mum's club book and she didn't think to question how I'd saved £10.
  18. comanche
    To quote the judge,"bearing mind the good works for the community". According to a mate -who should know ;that's "apronese"
  19. comanche
    Stick an ad in a local paper or farm shop. You may have no replies . You may just get a call from some elderly lady or gardener with a single rabbit in compost heap. Don't turn it down. Its a foot in the door and elderly ladies are great at spreading the word.
  20. comanche
    If it was mine and it was a first attempt;rather than waste a whole lamb I would hacksaw a leg off the frozen carcase,defrost it and experiment on a small scale with a fire-pit if that's what you fancy trying. I had one of my lambs back whole recently ,looked at it, considered the problems of cooking it in one piece and gathering enough folk in one place to get through 18 kilos of meat..... and cut it up.
  21. comanche
    I 'd be interested as I also have one in as new condition . I don't use it as I can pick up one my old Relums and not worry about scratching it. A couple of years back a dealer offered me £200 unseen for the HW97 but I wasn't that desperate.
  22. comanche
    Just back from ferreting some rather exclusive new ground. Due to the nature of the "Establishment" there were a few formalities, including a small lecture on protocol and a limit on the direction cameras could be pointed. This pep-talk took up valuable time and we knew our remit to tackle an area of derelict woodland rich in rubbish ,building spoil and the remains of an old sewage works would leave little room for error. There were several large burrows to tackle and luckily we decided the best approach was to net everything up and work from one to the other. The dogs showed
  23. comanche
    I've worked ferrets that have lost teeth through age or wear and tear. I suppose it might have made them less likely to kill a rabbit but it didn't stop them having a go. Anyway a large percentage of digs are the result of a ferret sticking with a live rabbit that's stuffed itself into a dead end so teeth or no teeth its a case of the spade or a long wait.. So the deliberate breaking of a ferret's teeth is a no-brainer all round.
  24. comanche
    One advantage of the 12 bore is that there are so many different loads available. If you find yourself shooting at short range-over ferrets or in cover perhaps- you can always use a light cartridge to minimise damage .
  25. comanche
    I've been using Albi-traps for the last few years as my local farm shop stocked them at a reasonable price and I was able to have a good hands-on play with them before buying. They all seemed to be have assembled on a Friday afternoon and required a bit of bending and tweaking but the springs have proved to be good and after a bit of bending,trimming the traps have stood the test of time. When my local supplier started selling a different manufacturer's product that didn't feel right to me I managed to buy some traps direct from Albi at a very good price. They still all needed attack
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