Ratting..smoker or ferret.

[AMADORE 5]

Does anyone know anyone anywhere that uses ferrets instead of smokers to bolt rats?...are the old customs dieing?.. The only thing mechanical around my dogs noses are spades!

 

 

IMO..ratting is best done with time on your hands ..slowly and methodical. I cant belive a terrier can mark well when a smoker is used. What about when your done and walk away from a hole do you let the terrier follow you with the terrier eager to see you stik the damn thing in the next hole.Seems to me that the work is being done by the smoker and guy on the trigger instead of only ferreting the terrier marked warrens. Are well perhaps im getting a little old but im sure my dogs are in tune with me and my quite way. I cant see the pleasurer of a noisey smokey bleeding machine and a terrier flitting from hole to nole...Rant over lol

[rushty 1]

I use smoker , but I would much prefer to use a good ferret. The only problem I have with ferrets is that I dont have any land to bring them on to rabbits with and therefore they have no experience of hunting. We almost lost a little bitch once to the smoker , the said bitch was a bugger for keepin her nose underground and we almost lost her by the time we realised she was in trouble. I too like to see the dogs mark and then dig, my little bitch gives the subtleist of hints that shes on to something sometimes and if i didnt keep an eye to her i wouldnt notice it sometimes , having said that it was last season and this season she seems to have moved up a gear in as much that she marks and stays on. But in an ideal world it would be ferrets.

[goldfinch2007 2,331]

everyone used to use ferrets,trouble is they need looking after.people look for the easy option,myself included.saying that i prefer ferrets.good post.

[ratman 1 0]

the biggest prob is finding a game ferret that is small i have 3 small ferrets and 1 is very hard

and the other 2 are only ues on rabbet

yas ratting with a smoker is harder for the terriers and for me becouse when i am back home i can

still hear that 2 / in my ears like a mad bee but they bouth have +&- i find small jobs for the

ferret and biger jobs the smoker is the boy for the job

[Guest digbert]

i always used ferrits when ratting, i was allways told by my old man was to stand back and be quiet, which is true, i dont go ratting now with ferrits because im in to fox control for game keepers , so i travell alot so i thout it wasernt fair on keeping an annimal in a cadge doing nothing so a gave them to a friend.but when i was at by god we had some good fun, i never brought young ferrits up on rabbits because, half of them would go soft quick,or some not work at all,we traped little rats and put them in a cadge with a load of young ferrits that got em thersty for rats and i used to feed big rats to them aswel,the best ferrits were outcrossed to a wild polecat we trapped, bloody hell the young of that cross was shit hot only thing is nothin would bolt as the ferrit killed in all the time, and most of the time youed lose them because we were ratting on tips,but the ones we had left we lined em to a good white hob and the young en s of that was allot better, so i kept that line of ferrits on as most lads struggled to find good ferrits. good luck to watever u decide as i thout ferrits were better, least you dont go home with a headace

[Cleanspade 3,322]

its much better to use traditional methods with all working dogs even when digging. but its good to have modern technology to fall back on when its needed

[luke. 9]

Does anyone know anyone anywhere that uses ferrets instead of smokers to bolt rats?...are the old customs dieing?.. The only thing mechanical around my dogs noses are spades!

 

 

IMO..ratting is best done with time on your hands ..slowly and methodical. I cant belive a terrier can mark well when a smoker is used. What about when your done and walk away from a hole do you let the terrier follow you with the terrier eager to see you stik the damn thing in the next hole.Seems to me that the work is being done by the smoker and guy on the trigger instead of only ferreting the terrier marked warrens. Are well perhaps im getting a little old but im sure my dogs are in tune with me and my quite way. I cant see the pleasurer of a noisey smokey bleeding machine and a terrier flitting from hole to nole...Rant over lol

Hello mate, i have used both ferrets and smokers to bolt rats, but ferrets are by far the most effective and successful in my opinion. All you need is a good dogs nose and a game ferret and youll laughing mate.

Luke.

[GET THEM OUT (.)(.) 39]

smoker all the way, ,none of my terriers are friends terriers are broken to ferrets, plus i would never think of putting a ferret in some places that the rats lives in, most times i would never see them again,

 

 

horses for courses and all that, , , ,

 

atb

[pritchy 2]

ive recently started using ferrets for rats and i find its a brilliant tradition that shouldnt fade out, something about dogs and ferrets working together priceless!!

[AMADORE 5]

I PUT THIS UP ON OUR PLUMMER FORUM AND HERE IS A BIT I WROTE ON THERE...HENCE THE PLUMMER BITS IN IT.

 

It has to be said alot of todays ratting is done "around" making a living,which is a must.

I understand the problem of other dogs.

For me hunting is a lone thing though really Id much prefer my own company so i can learn the dogs signs. Having "others " about especially ratting is stressful for me and i think for my dogs especially any males who simply dont work but over mark each others marks, for ages. I do see the social side of it though...ive had some of the best ratting days with friends with dogs that got on quite well.

 

If you have ferrets then get a locator and have a do.

 

 

You learn the dogs signs and the dog learns where to stand and you can see it like a lurcher looking at the ground head tipped and ears alert...arhhh the good old ratting days.

 

Concrete ive ferreted holes under banked up gravel roads used to keep the river back ...years ago and have laid up ferrets 15 feet down from the crown of the road and 8 feet in the banking side i lost my best one in such a place but found her laid up the next day down the roadside banking about 8 inches in laid asleep on a doe rat. I used the bleeper box and dug her out at 7.30am before work ..luckily i was ferreting "at work" so to speak i just packed her away till lunch.

 

 

Ive used ferrets under the bodies of excavation machines and Victorian drains, all at the same place.

 

Todays smokers area cheap version of the professional device that was available for the land owner/farmer or vermin exterminator, in years gone past.

 

Pest control back then gave a good wage....high bounties were paid for the skill of the pest controller and he was in great demand.

 

Even today i know a farm labourer and mole catcher who makes more money than I for his side job!!!! of mole catching. It was/is a lucrative business.

 

BUT VERY VERY SECRETIVE. WHY? MONEY/GREAT REPUTATION..BRINGS SOCIOL STANDING AND ADMIRATION SOMETHING EVERY MAN ALIVE HAS A DESIRE FOR!

 

Smoke was once the "poachers way" for rabbiting blown down the holes many different smokey fuels were used .(SOME HIGHLY ILLEGAL AND DOWN RIGHT DANGEROUS) ...these smokey fires lit all over the warren and dosey easily caught bunnies pop out.

 

Mans ingenuity and farmers being tight adaptions came to be .

 

Pest control has been part of my job for 13 years now and my employers will pay next to nothing for the service. So they get next to nothing!

 

So how do tight farmers get the job done call in the moley man the river keeper or the retired gamekeeper or the village school boy complete with terrier. Pay next to nothing and work the pants of them!

 

I reckon today's smokers are used to get "numbers" of rats bravado and machismo fame and social standing. Exhibitionism, really on a grand scale.

 

So we now have hot headed killing terriers no working ferrets big forearms and teashirts with im a member of the huddlesford rat pack!

 

Been there done that got the "t"shirt I'm as guilty as the next man...but i learnt,, that its not all about numbers its about quality time with your own bred stock.

 

Its about knowing the terrier will preform better than anyone else's when the engine of the smokers spluters to death.

 

Are you breeding hunting terriers or catch dogs.

 

By the way Mink hunting terriers worked to both rat rabbit and wheterver ENOUGH will not kill ferrets. I started this riverkeeping job with ratting terriers they were bred for rabbit and rat i kept ferrets and they were never ever killed ...because they saw loads of work with ferrets.

 

They killed the first mink instantly they saw it and went home and drank milk with the ferrets. But as the rabbit population dried up and the new pups werent broken to ferrets it became harder to educate.

 

Plummers are kept here because they are intelligent enough to know the difference bewteen what is right and what is wrong.Education is the key.

 

I gave up my ferrets as they dont swim ! and rabbits here are now a rareity i killed over 1000 within 12months on one farm with 1 lurcher 2 ferrerts and 6 plummers.

 

Its about time someone brought out a "an oldways" video.

 

Bye the way given enough time plummers will brake to anything and hunt anything..its time and patience something lacking in todays society, its never to late to learn and its never to late to convert ...SO DO IT NOW !!!!

 

 

SCRAP METAL IS GOOD AT PRESENT ...DO IT THE GREEN WAY CARBON FOOTPRINT BE AWAY WITH YOU ..OFFSET YOUR FOOTPRINT...SCRAP THE SMOKER!