A Couple Of Birds

[Daz39 962]

Went out for a short morning shoot with Bigmac today full of good intentions and drive to get something this morning. Turned up at 4am and after zeroing the scopes we set off in different directions. I put the red filter on my P7 to give it a go with a freshly charged set of batteries and I was quite happy with the results. The main beam may have only been going 30-40 yards which was a little short for me, but it was picking up sheep eyes out to 70-80yrds so it looked promising.

 

I was on super stealth mode today, nothing was going to hear or spot me. I’d walked most of the first field when I saw 2 pair of eyes about on the limit of the lenza, figure it had to be 70- yards so I started my stalk. I was being incredibly slow, quiet and trying to keep the lamp off as much as possible. I’d gone maybe 20 yard when I knelt down, waited a couple of seconds and popped the lamp on to check the rabbits, as soon as the beam hit them (maybe 50 yards) the pair of them ran. I watched them go to ground and then thought…ah maybe I should try to squeak them next time. I laid up for 20 mins but these two had no intention of coming back out. Lamp shy.

 

I carried on, covering half the ground I would normally cover as I was going much slower and quieter but there was very little out. After about 90 mins I came to the paddock and as I scanned with the beam I spotted 3 sets of eyes, the two outer sets belonged to the horses in the paddock, the 3^rd set were a rabbit about 30 yards away, bang in between the horses heads. One of the nags moved when he noticed the light and when he put his head back down, the rabbit was gone. No way I was going to take that shot anyhow.

 

As the light started to come up and the battery drain down I noticed the red lamp was less effective, I shone in near the pond and saw nothing, and on a hunch I took the filter off and used the white light. Bang 40 yards away was a rabbit but the white light scared the wassit out of him and he hopped into cover. It was odd that the red lamp showed nothing at that time of the day, the light level at dusk and dawn is horrible to shoot in for me.

 

So 4 rabbits, no shots, but happy that I didn’t do anything dumb. The lamps scared the rabbits off.

 

After a brew and a catch up with Mac – who’d picked up a rabbit 10 yards from the car again, I really choose the wrong directions all the time – I went off again to the bottom field where I saw so many rabbits the other night. There was nothing on the way (daylight now) and as I got to the boundary fence I could see 2 rabbits 50-60 yards away. I climbed the fence as quietly as possible but I assume my outline would have been visible as I climbed and both rabbits ran. I decided to lay up again, I got to within 30 yards of where the first rabbit went to ground (without walking past it) and went prone. I was scanning the full length of the field and there was nothing for 150 yards. After 20 mins the furthest rabbit came back out, he had to be 60+ yards so I decided to leave him alone and hope the closer one came back. The rabbit only stayed in the field for seconds before going back to ground. As I sat there I watched a robin land on a branch and was distracted by a crow…A CROW right, I turned slightly and saw the crow sat on a pole. I took aim from 25 yards and hit him in the chest, he flew half a yard and dropped into a thick hawthorn hedge row. I didn’t look for it as I couldn’t eat it, only for Mac to point out “you can’t take a photo of it either can you?” oh yeah. I gave up on the rabbits as it was getting to opening time and the open cast machinery started up with a racket.

 

I got back to the car to see Mac with another rabbit but he agreed there wasn’t much about. I was putting my gear away when he said “howay, lets have one quick look in the farm yard”. So off we went. As soon as we got in we both spotted a bird on a line. I physically grabbed Mac by the shoulder to let him know I had seen it and was going to shoot. It only had to be 20 yrd max and I took a standing shot, resting on a wall. I hit the bird in the chest and it dropped down. The SECOND it started to fall, all I could think of was “ah cr@p – he’s going to make me gut that now”. I find de-breasting a bird far worse than gutting and skinning a rabbit. When I got to the bird Mac said it was a dove, I had assumed a female pigeon. Another thing I need to read up on, bird identification! Mac said some doves are protected but not this breed.

 

We walked a little more and saw a rabbit on the road feeding, I went prone on the road and stupidly scraped my boots at the last second! You have to be extra quiet on tarmac/gravel and the bunny ran.

 

So, not a fault free morning, but not a blank either. Sure enough, Mac said “reet, get that breast sorted”….I’m going to freeze it until I feel a little less green. I told Mac I need to stick to rabbits as they are far less gory.

 

Happy days….not top dog, but I felt like I did OK today, not much around and the lack of a bag was mainly down to the lamps and the horses, plus ONE noisy boot!

Edited September 14, 2013 by Daz39

[bigmac 97kt 13,842]

TOP DOG who MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE atvbmac :thumbs:

[Craig Fosse 286]

Blimey that fonts hard to read at half 5 in the morning so I left it till now, nice one mate good shooting!,

 

Gutting and preparing food should be welcomed as much as shooting it !, I'm looking into tanning to do something with the rabbit fur now, I always plan to use as much as the animal I can

[Daz39 962]

Pre-breakfast gutting, not great. If you need a bucket of p1$$ for the tanning. Let me know.

[j j m 6,630]

well done bud

[Craig Fosse 286]

Haha cheers mate! In going down a safe solution route rather than pish brains battery acid and all that

[Skot Ruthless Teale 1,701]

nice one on the crow and dove Daz

Edited September 15, 2013 by Skot Ruthless Teale

[Daz39 962]

Thanks guys, taking a far more relaxed approach from now on. If I get something great, if I don't, at least I'll enjoy the fresh air, experience and to a lesser and much smaller degree, the company... LOL

[Gaz 177 263]

Nice post Daz

[Daz39 962]

Thanks mate