Ferreting and new long nets

[beany01 223]

Well I saw some Longnets for sale on fb, but couldn’t have a look until after the lady had picked her kids up from school. It was near one of my permissions I hadn’t been to in a while, so I thought I would kill two birds with one stone. 
I nipped over late morning, soon got started by long netting an open Warren of around 8 holes spread over a good area. Approx 80 yards to circle it, with a couple of 15 yarders ran across to prevent hole hopping. I then sat on my barrow, had a quick coffee and a smoke to give it a 10 min rest, then put the ferrets down. The rabbits always take a while to get moving here, as they always seem to sit deep in the warrens, 12ft deep is the norm before the ferrets start pushing anything out. Well one must have been sitting in a higher level, as it popped out in a couple of minutes, only a half grown little ‘un that shot straight through the nets! Just what you need when the lady who owns the paddocks was having a chat! The ferrets then went deeper and another 3 came out and wrapped up nicely.  The ferrets then surfaced, which gives me the idea it’s empty. All the nets were put back in the basket and a short 150 yard move to the next open Warren. This one is spread over a good area, taking 90 yards to enclose all the holes. I had to run the nets around 30 yards along the other side of the paddock fencing, as there was several holes in the fence line. This seemed to perk up the interest of the horse in the paddock. He was straight over being snouty, and a few nose rubs later, he was my best mate! The ferrets went down and 2 rabbits were wrapped up in the first 10 min. Then they had to work for the rest, around 15/16ft from the surface. Over the next 15-20 mins another two popped up and were soon wrapped up in the nets. The ferrets then surfaced at the fence line with the horse having a sniff, a quick squeak to get the ferrets attention before I went and grabbed hold of them. I don’t fancy a horse getting too close, getting a nip and going mad near the nets etc. 
I then moved to the fence line at the far end of the paddocks. I haven’t got access to the other side, but the other side had fitted a rabbit fence along the hedge two years ago, so keeps everything this side. 120 yards of Longnets along the hedge, with a few stop nets in the clearings where possible, and half a dozen donk boards pushed up to the rabbit fence spread along. I put a single ferret in one end, until it worked a long a little, incase it went the wrong way up the hedge into someone else’s property. Well you can guess the rest, it went the other way I wanted, and a bunny flew into the distance. I crawled under the hedge and grabbed hold of it before it went any further! I then walked along 20 yards, where there is a gap in the holes and put two ferrets in. One soon shot out and was dispatched. They then went deep, a rabbit shot out, ran along the fence line, hit a donk board then disappeared. I wondered where the hell that went? Then another rabbit popped out, hit the donk board and vanished like the first. I then crawled under the hedge, and the ferret was the other side of the rabbit fence. Bugger. Why do people use chicken wire? It doesn’t last, and is the same effort as digging on weld mesh. Well I slung the wax jacket over the two rows of barbed wire, got my foot on the lower row and jumped over. A quick squeak, and the ferret ran to me. She was dropped over the fence a little further along. I then struggled to get back over due to little leg syndrome. The land was 18 inches lower this side, so it was a struggle getting my foot on the first row of barbed wire. Once back over, I put another ferret in, so 3 in total and they worked along the rest of the hedgerow. Two more rabbits came into the nets, but another couple ran the fence line and got out the other side. The chicken wire had several holes and was now stuffed. Waste of time. 
The owner came and had a chat, she mentioned a couple of new holes two paddocks along, so I went over there, netted the holes and got another one. It was now 3ish, so time to pack up, 11 rabbits in the bag and a lesson learned, the fence was now shot to bits, and the rabbits knew the escape route like the back of their hand. 

Once everything was in the van, I made the 7 mile journey to look at the Longnets. A nice, friendly woman answered, her husband was still at work, but she said I can have a look at the Longnets. There were 50 purse nets and a purse net harness and bags which looked spot on. No nasty nylon purse nets in sight. The longnet was 6z, so ideal, I counted the meshes between poles, and it was 100% slack. The nets were tangled up, but a count of the poles told me what was advertised was there. There were 4 x 5 yard gate nets, 3 x25 yard Longnets and 1 x 15 yard longnet. Her husband only had them a season, and the mesh looked new. Then I had a closer look, and they had them rubber bands top and bottom of the poles, which perish after a year or so and fall off. Shit. There was also knots everywhere on the bands that caught other meshes and were going to be a nightmare. The intermediate poles were laced through the meshes and also had electrical tape in several places on every pole. I don’t know who rigged them, but they were rigged like crap. I did like the idea of a different coloured top line to bottom line, I thought it was a good idea, and also approx 4” coloured band on the top of the end poles, so you knew which was the end, and they were different colour matching pair on each longnet. The nets were in good condition, but needed stripping down and rerigging properly. The laced in intermediates would stop slack moving, and the knots on the poles would catch up like hell. No wonder they were tangled in the basket. I was straight with the lady, and told her they needed rerigging. She said would I buy them at a lower price?  I said yes, I’ve rigged lots of commercial fishing nets, so can easily do it, it just takes time and I offered her 2/3 of the asking price. She phoned her hubby, explained the situation and he said would I go £20 more,  I said no, they are rigged very poor. He said a tenner more than I offered and I agreed to it. All the time I was looking at the nets, the woman’s kids were commenting, so I said here’s an extra fiver as a token gesture to get the kids some sweets. It wasn’t the husbands fault he brought crap rigged nets, he didn’t know any better. I’ve watched my dad rig herring nets, trout nets and various other nets since I was knee high. If you can rig them properly, you can virtually rig Longnets blindfolded, they are so simple. 

[beany01 223]

[beany01 223]

[BIG TOM 835]

nice little read there mate and a few bunnies in the bag, sounds like a bit of a bargain on the nets if you can sort them out. not ventured into the long net game yet still just dogs and purse nets for now. maybe soon 

atb BT

[beany01 223]

Yes the nets will work out cheap, I dont mind spending time rigging nets, its quite therapeutic. I would rather spend a few hours rerigging them now than constantly untangling meshes from the knots, it would drive me up the wall. Grommets should be arriving in a day or so, and I'm going to put lead line on the gate gets, Ive got about 1000m of it in the garage, so thats not a problem. Long netting and dogs is the perfect combo, you will wish you done it years ago. I havent got the time for a dog, so I have to run myself.

Edited September 30, 2021 by beany01

[Guss33 375]

It looks like a good starting point, I myself have only started using long nets the last 2 seasons and I have found them to be great. Unfortunately in Australia l haven’t meet any one else who has them or uses them. On top of that I also made up my own quick set nets and baskets to set them as their is nothing available here they worked out very well , wouldn’t have been able to do it if it wasn’t for the help from the other members from this site got a lot of great advice and help. I will post up some photos later on today their was a bite of trial and error but at the and of the day it all come together.

[Guss33 375]

This is the start of the quick net system I made. It’s one of the best things I made. It did take a little trial and error but at the end of the day it works a treat. If you look up on long netting on this forum you will some great home made ideas and the people on it are really helpful. Give it a crack and once you start using it you won’t go back. It really tops of your hunting kit. 

[Guss33 375]

And this is the finished product. 

[beany01 223]

Well operation sort out Longnets has started. They now look far better. More finesse, precision and nothing to catch up on. No comparison is there really! I dont know why people fit such heavy braided nylon, 1.2-1.5mm is plenty. 

Edited October 3, 2021 by beany01