Back up at the shoot

[Sausagedog 7,381]

Well that worked!

Nipped out before the weather deteriorates again. Spotted one that locks onto my red light at 400yds and by the time I get to 300yds it slips away. It seems to be in a particular wood and my little bediwhippet was scenting the air  in there last weekend so I may just let her run the wood soon and I carry a shotgun.

Any way on the way back along the farm track I sprung a fox right where I leave bait regularly.

I let it calm down a couple hundred yards away and then started squealing. In it came.

75yd shot, ran away 30yd stopped and got one extra free.

Vixen.

[FOXHUNTER 5,020]

Interesting hunt last night ........

Arrived at farm at around 9.30pm and set up caller in field adjacent some scrubby woodland. Started playing hare call but no response so switched to vixen mating call ....................immediately I had a fox screaming in to the caller , stopped it around 20 yards from the caller and had a nice dog fox grassed   I picked up the fox and caller and was heading out of the field but when I got to the gate I had a casual look back like I always do and to my surprise there was another fox . Now this one wouldn't call and seemed content just to sit so I put a sneak on it and ended up about 120 yds away , got set up on my sticks but it was sitting behind a metal gate with a bar obscuring its vitals. I sneaked in closer and noticed there was a pile of dolomite to my side so I climbed on top of this which enabled  me to take a shot from the bipod. I could see its neck between the bars of the gate and duly sent my pill ......... this turned out to be Mrs Reynard. So a great result with a pair in the bag and nice to be out on a cold night amongst a few snow flurries.

[Sausagedog 7,381]

5 hours ago, FOXHUNTER said:

Interesting hunt last night ........

Arrived at farm at around 9.30pm and set up caller in field adjacent some scrubby woodland. Started playing hare call but no response so switched to vixen mating call ....................immediately I had a fox screaming in to the caller , stopped it around 20 yards from the caller and had a nice dog fox grassed   I picked up the fox and caller and was heading out of the field but when I got to the gate I had a casual look back like I always do and to my surprise there was another fox . Now this one wouldn't call and seemed content just to sit so I put a sneak on it and ended up about 120 yds away , got set up on my sticks but it was sitting behind a metal gate with a bar obscuring its vitals. I sneaked in closer and noticed there was a pile of dolomite to my side so I climbed on top of this which enabled  me to take a shot from the bipod. I could see its neck between the bars of the gate and duly sent my pill ......... this turned out to be Mrs Reynard. So a great result with a pair in the bag and nice to be out on a cold night amongst a few snow flurries.

Excellent  

[Stavross 13,711]

That’s proper foxing, proper calling, proper foxes and proper foxing weather

[Dervburner 2,548]

Good work and a good result Mark

[Stavross 13,711]

Feeding today before another shoot day tomorrow, they are hammering the feeders at the minute with this snow and cold winds we are getting, for some reason a big group of birds have decided to spend the day around the farm buildings in all the years I’ve been going up there they have never done this. After feeding it was out with the chainsaw to clear the tracks of fallen trees, hour and half later I can now get around on the quad again, a couple of guest guns tomorrow ( one of them from the family that owns 90% of the land I shoot on ) so with a bit of luck we’ll put some good birds over them

[Stavross 13,711]

Got one of my mates shooting tomorrow, he said pick me up a couple of boxes of something posh to chuck at them if you are passing the shop, fu*k me 10 quid a box, for that price I’d be fuming if I missed

[Sausagedog 7,381]

16 minutes ago, Stavross said:

Got one of my mates shooting tomorrow, he said pick me up a couple of boxes of something posh to chuck at them if you are passing the shop, fu*k me 10 quid a box, for that price I’d be fuming if I missed

I don't know why I'm laughing. Prices of everything is crazy now.

The other crazy thing is them cartridges will be very little different than their basic line!

Don't ask how I know!

[Stavross 13,711]

14 minutes ago, Sausagedog said:

I don't know why I'm laughing. Prices of everything is crazy now.

The other crazy thing is them cartridges will be very little different than their basic line!

Don't ask how I know!

They come in a nice shiny box though even the cheap stuff ain’t cheap anymore

[FOXHUNTER 5,020]

3 hours ago, Stavross said:

That’s proper foxing, proper calling, proper foxes and proper foxing weather

Yes mate , no sign of thermal or Nv , just traditional

[Stavross 13,711]

Day 3 over and done with, it was one of the best days we’ve had ( so all the messages are saying), drive number one was the usual tip drive, from the off the birds were getting up over the guns at a good height and continued to get up right til the very end of the drive, drive two, Gordon’s pen, now although this drive is next to the tip drive and we knew some birds would of moved out from it, there was still a good show and the guns that were down on the forestry track had some very high fast birds over them. Now time for elevenses, soup, sausages with red onions, chocolate cakes and sloe gin and Prosecco drive number three tree side ( piggeries ) this has turned into a hard one to beat now after the strong winds, leaving a lot of rubbish on the ground and a good few fallen trees, the birds were sitting really tight in the cover but we still managed to flush some good birds from here. Drive number four, just a small one to finish the morning of and a few of next doors birds from along the field of rape

lunch time

drive number five, piggeries ( ruff side ) right from the off this drive was mental, I think every gun had good numbers of birds over them and they all managed to bring at least one down each, after that excitement it was time for drive number six, roadside, somehow I only ended up with 6 beaters on this one, I think the walking was getting a bit much for a few of them, but we made the best of it, only flushing a dozen or so birds but still at a good height and a bit of snap shooting needed on this one. Drive number seven and time for another biggie, forestry pen, once again everybody got shooting here, we stopped the drive half a dozen times just to give the dogs time to work the cover, even doing this we still managed to walk over a good few birds, one more just to finish the day off, drive number eight, back of the forestry buildings, now there’s some really thick cover here and you could have a pack of 30 spaniels and still wouldn’t cover it all, even so we still pushed out a few birds to finish the day off, 6 woodcock came out of this one but we tend to leave them alone until January 

the guns managed about 75 birds today which is a big number for up there, the lad who’s family owns most of the land i shoot had a cracking day shooting 21 and his game keeper mate who came with him was in the mid teens and was first to compliment me on the quality of the birds, which is always nice to hear from someone who does this professionally instead of just makes it up as they go along, like me, my mate Mosh also had a good day taking 10 for himself, roll on the next one

[Stavross 13,711]

[FOXHUNTER 5,020]

Sounds like a great day , well done

[Sausagedog 7,381]

Good for you Stav.  

[Dervburner 2,548]

Nice write up Stav, glad you had a good day, your hard work paid off