pointer
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Everything posted by pointer
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She had another two rats yesterday which would normally be fine but she dragged one into a bush and had broke into it by the time I got to her. This put her overweight today and it showed as two rabbits that the pointer found escaped. Not much was sat out so we went ferreting. We ended the day having bagged seven rabbits between the two Hawks and witnessed plenty of entertaining flights where rabbits escaped. It's the first time I've taken my hawk here and it's certainly a place worth visiting again.
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sounds like things are going well for you now mate,
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She was still a bit overweight but I'm desperate to get some hunting done. She ignored a few rabbits at the end of the beam and flew half-heartedly at two others but eventually a young rabbit was spotted at the side of a dry stone wall and she caught it. It wasn't sporting just a pure mugging but I felt she needed a kill and I let her feed from it. Not too much as I need her on weight for the weekend. We then ran a few rabbits with a mates young lurcher.
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I do like to see a pointer on point lol.
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I didn't want to just starve the hawk back to its hunting weight so I fed her a small amount of rabbit yesterday expecting her to be lower today but she wasn't. I wasn't too bothered as I didn't expect to do anything with her but I'd seen a rabbit in a field whilst walking the dogs by torchlight so went back with the hawk and a lamp and it was still there. A young rabbit that was sitting tight far enough from home to ensure it would be caught easily. It sprang up and the hawk was off after it, she closed the distance but then pulled away and sat in the field while the rabbit ran to the hedge,
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The hawk was still overweight this morning but I tried to get her to do something. Unfortunately she was worse than yesterday and hardly moved for an hour before refusing to come out of a tree. After waiting ten minutes I had the pointer hunt through the cover thinking that if he flushed something she might move. He soon found a pheasant and she did fly after it but with no real attempt to catch. Luckily she landed on a small bush and I was able to grab her jesses and take her home. I hadn't wanted to stay out so long and quickly had to drive home, get washed and changed before getting to the
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My hawk is still overweight from eating the moorhen two days ago. I took her out this morning but after a lazy flight at another moorhen she went into a tree and stayed there for ten minutes. It's a shame as the weather was perfect. This afternoon I took my pointer out with the lurcher up the dales. She's too young to do anything but I like to have pups out and about and seeing sheep. Before going home we called to see a farmer to ask if we can fly the Hawks on his land and he gave us permission. It's a big bit of land on bracken and tall grass covered hills perfect for soaring.
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It was already nearly dark by the time we got onto the first field and with a fairly strong wind blowing I knew I was pushing my luck. My hawk was immediately soaring around over the waste ground and stream before flying down low and out of sight. This bit of land is difficult to cross with small but deep ponds and a stream to cross. This took time and I couldn't find my hawk when I got to where I had last seen her. As it was now dark I had to bring out the receiver and tracked her down to the edge of a stream having eaten a surprisingly large amount of Moorhen. This ground is bad enough to ne
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A couple of rats for her this week, the last one was a bit tricky at the bottom of a bush with a poor hold and as I ran over it looked to be biting the Hawks leg but it only chewed the anklet up. Still a lot of rats about this year, I could have done with them a few years back when I sometimes struggled to find rats for my team of dogs. I only managed to get out for a few minutes after work yesterday but only wanted one flight. I got it but the pheasant took her away across the field and as I got to her it flushed again and they were gone out of sight. It was getting dark and started to rain
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When it came to building mine I looked at every thread on IFF, read the books and did internet searches. I wanted to stay away from wood so used 12mm White plastic boards. This was then bolted onto 1" galvanized box section framework. Looking back Id have saved a lot of time and a lot of drill bits by using TEK screws instead. I found perches the thing that took the most thought, I settled on one across the back made from 12mm stainless steel bar with a mix of AstroTurf over pipe insulation and perch rubbers for covering and then put in two plastic shelf perches. The one at the front was
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Yeah it's warm, if it hadn't been windy it would have been like a summers day. I'm enjoying this season and the hawk is seeing quarry regularly, something she didn't get to do for much of last season.
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I couldn't fly my hawk on Friday due to having a works night out to attend. Yesterday I went to a few places with her and took the pointer. The problem with her refusing rabbit and only flying game birds has had me wondering what to do about it. I thought she might just need a touch of weight reduction but before I did that I wanted to make absolutely sure that her behaviour wasn't down to her being silly about the dog again. She didn't get to catch anything yesterday and only one rabbit was found which got to ground a few feet away but she was keen on the pheasants and moorhens. After seein
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I only got fifteen minutes after work and the hawk missed a few moorhens in thick cover around a stream. My mate had been out with his hawk a few fields away and had caught a rat. I took her back out with the lamp but two foxes were working the fields. One rabbit was making its way across to the hedge and although it was pretty far away I slipped the hawk. She wasn't able to close the distance fast enough and it made it to safety.
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I use a lightforce 170 with variable power and a 10amp lithium battery. It's very lightweight. It does for any kind of lamping but if I'm shooting rats I change to a smaller lazerlite with a variable power switch on the airguns stock. Obviously when your doing a variety of hunting etc it's best to have kit that can do it all. I could probably lamp my hawk with some of the extremely cheap cree torches.
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Thanks for the replies lads. If I'm honest I'm more worried that I've messed up in some way. I feed from kills a lot and rarely go for more than two kills. I can accept a hawk selecting it's quarry if it knows something is nearby that it wants. Today she ignored or half heartedly flew rabbits that should have been easy to catch..... Real easy and then a minute later she would fly a pheasant that would have her out of sight and when I got to her she would be breathing hard. I guess that's the part I'm struggling to understand.
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I've tried adjusting her weight but it makes no difference to her desire for game birds. I reckon her behaviour has cost around 12-20 rabbits. Some of today's might as well have not bothered running they were safe enough. At one point she was in a tree and three rabbits moved in front of her. I couldn't understand what was going on as my dog had hunt through the area. I had him do it again but this time he jumped the fence and the pheasant was against a wall on that side. Then she came to life and flew it down the bank into cover but didn't get it. I know she has been doing this for a few we
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I'm sick of pheasants. They have caused me nothing but problems all season. I'd taken the afternoon off work to fly the hawk. Within five minutes of arriving the pointer had put a rabbit out of the cover and it was caught after a straight flight. I thought we might have been in for a good session but at first rabbits were hard to find and then my hawk was spending too much time flying after partridges. This wasn't such a big deal as I don't mind her pursuing what gets up. However we then moved onto the banks and what followed was just plain stupid. She ignored rabbits and only flew pheasants.
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I arrived back home in heavy rain so there was no chance of flying the hawk. I left it until half an hour ago before taking her out with the lamp. I couldn't see a rabbit in the field at first but as I swept the light back across I thought the lump in some taller grass might be a bunny so we made our way over to it. It was a rabbit and it was sitting tight too far away from safety. This is the kind of rabbit that the lamping section in books tells you to find for a young lurcher lol. It had very little chance of escaping and it didn't. There aren't many rabbits in my local area so I grabbed t
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It was already getting dark when we got onto the field. I had hoped to flush a pheasant and let her go on a soar while I walked down the hedge. She spotted something, landed in a tree and a few seconds later dropped down on to a rat. There wasn't time to do anything else but I'm not complaining. Any kill on a day when she only has ten minutes flying time is welcome.
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Well done and Happy birthday mate.
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I used to get kids setting off bangers out the back of my garden, it used to set the dogs off. They weren't frightened just excited but it's annoying.
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The wind was even stronger today but I couldn't let another day pass without doing something. I went and had a look in a wood that I'd been invited onto, it's not big but it's only a couple of miles away. The leaves are still on many trees but she had a squirrel under pressure. The chase lasted for a couple of minutes before it got to safety. She then hit a moorhen in the river but couldn't hold it, a few minutes later she crashed into the riverbank after another moorhen but she didn't connect with it. I hadn't taken a dog with us which was a mistake as the cover was thick. By now the wind was
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stunning bird...............i need to start begging invites to see other species out hunting.
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I knew after last season that I needed woodland and didn't do much about it. That was really stupid of me. It's something I need to sort out soon because sitting at home looking at trees bending in the wind isn't healthy. We are likely to have another mild but windy season. With short days and having to rely on weekends we have to be able to get out.
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It was too windy to do anything today. I was going to try this afternoon but she was blown off the glove just crossing my yard before being weighed. The met office reckoned we were getting 18mph wind and 28mph gusts. I wish they had been right but it was windier than that. Losing days to bad weather is a major issue that I need to find a solution to. Getting permission to hunt in big woods that are in sheltered areas would be the ideal scenario, after ringing around I'm going to try a couple of woods tomorrow if I can but they aren't all that big and with wind gusts predicted of 50mph it might
