The Unintended Keeper ( Diary of a keeping blagger )

[Stavross 13,708]

1 hour ago, shovel leaner said:

I would just carry on as normal Stavross. You haven’t got bird flu yet , you are relatively low numbers . It seems to be hitting the bigger shoots with shitty feed rides . I know you can never say never but if it was me I wouldn’t go for the big day , as one or two of the guns won’t be there and miss out and be pissed off or someone would be pegged badly and miss out . You can be philosophical if you get a good stand next week but if it’s all about one day , someone will be unhappy. 

I think for the moment I’m going to carry on as normal, aiming for 40/50 bird days, they have got to be happy with that, before I took over I was on a day there and the bag was 8, in all the time I’ve been going they had never had a 50 bird day, they had almost 70 on the first day last weekend, I’ll just keep my eye on the numbers as we go through the season, I don’t want to get to a point where the numbers are like they used to be 

[Stavross 13,708]

Back up at my mates farm this afternoon, firstly to have a look for a doe, I did see one with a buck but it never offered a shot and I had to let it cross the beck onto next doors land and secondly to take a young lad out with me that in the near future will be putting in for his FAC so wants as much experience with different calibres as he can, today was the .17 and hares were on the menu. We had a little practice first with some 100 yard targets ( stones ) once he was on the money I let him loose on the hares and fair play to the lad he hit some crackers, I think he only missed 2 and did something I’ve never done and shot 2 with one shot, I’d spotted what I thought was a very big hare through the thermal, he put the lamp ( mounted on the scope) on it and went for the head shot, when we went to collect it he had neck shot it and there was another one dead next to it, also shot through the neck, hopefully over the coming weeks we’ll see if we can get him on a fox with the centrefire

[ianm 2,594]

Yesterday was the third shoot for us and we had a decent day finishing with 71 head. I managed to account for 4 mallard 6 pheasants 1 partridge and a pigeon.  Then this morning we went out for the pinks and shot 14. Tonight was a duck flight on some pits and I managed another 4 mallard. 

[FOXHUNTER 5,020]

You've had a grand weekend

[foxdropper 17,092]

Perfect mate 

[FOXHUNTER 5,020]

17 hours ago, ianm said:

Yesterday was the third shoot for us and we had a decent day finishing with 71 head. I managed to account for 4 mallard 6 pheasants 1 partridge and a pigeon.  Then this morning we went out for the pinks and shot 14. Tonight was a duck flight on some pits and I managed another 4 mallard. 

Your duck flight was much more successful than mine . Got an invite yesterday, lads have been watching 60+ coming in , just my luck nothing

Anyway went lamping afterwards and got a vixen

[Stavross 13,708]

Saturday was our second day, I was there just as the sun was rising to feed round and have a look what was where before the guns arrived 

first drive was the usual “ tip drive “  I seemed to have a lot of beaters this week and a few wild dogs, from the minute we set off birds were getting up over the guns, 5 minutes into the drive I heard some shots at the end of the drive turns out that one of the members dogs had ran right through the drive putting a few birds up, luckily it only did the top and he managed to get it back on a lead, we finished that drive with a flurry of birds at a good height with the young’uns showing some of the old men how it’s done 

we stopped for elevenses, ham, cheese, crusty bread and some chutney’s, the person in charge of drinks brought bottles of port, the dirty basta*d

drive number 2 was “ Gordon’s pen “ again, a good number of birds came from here and luckily for me the majority of them went the way I wanted them to, that being over the shoot captain as he had decided to shoot this drive and put himself on a peg where he knew they would be high

drive number 3, “ roadside “ and I decided I’d have a go at this one, I listened through my radio as the shoot captain lined the beaters out and set them off, it was 30 seconds later and the first few were over the guns, I managed to drop a cock bird behind, I thought it a bit odd for the drive to produce birds so soon, then a black lab appeared in front of me, I was straight on the radio but nobody would own up to it being their dog, drive knackered

Lunch Time 

drive number 4 “ piggeries tree side” not a lot in here but what was came out fast and with the wind behind it was moving at a cracking speed, Longshanx hit an absolute screamer

drive number 5 “ the no name drive that next doors go into” only half a dozen or so came out, but it was just a bit of a fill in

drive number 6, “ piggeries ruff side” the shoot captain said to me “ you shoot this” so I thought, might as well have a go with the wind been so strong. I said I’ll stand on the road, he said “ are you sure” he knows I’m not the best with a shotgun, maybe I should of stud in the line of guns, the speed them birds came over me was way beyond my shotgun shooting ability the rest of the guns had some cracking birds over them and one of the youngest lads who comes up with his grandad shot his first pheasant and what a beauty it was, well done young William

drive number 7, “ forestry pen “ we pushed this one the old way we used to do it, towards the forestry building, this was a bit of a mistake on my part as I was expecting the birds to go straight forward ( which they did ) and out to the side, sadly everything went forward but this did give Mosh and Longshanx some cracking birds over them, Mosh maybe shooting the bird of the day

the bag for the day was 55 pheasants and 2 woodcock, could of been a fair few more if people could control their dogs and understand what a beating line is, but that could be just me evolving into a proper keeper ( grumpy as fu*k )

Edited November 28, 2022 by Stavross

[BenBhoy 4,706]

19 minutes ago, Stavross said:

turns out that one of the members dogs had ran right through the drive

Moose?? 

19 minutes ago, Stavross said:

the person in charge of drinks brought bottles of port, the dirty basta*d

Haha I recall you not being best impressed when I brought Port! I love that stuff! 

Sounds like a good day mate despite the unruly hounds. 

I can't remember name of kid in blue gilet, but did he lose a bet with his barber???

 

Edited November 28, 2022 by BenBhoy

[Stavross 13,708]

15 minutes ago, BenBhoy said:

Moose?? 

Haha I recall you not being best impressed when I brought Port! I love that stuff! 

Sounds like a good day mate despite the unruly hounds. 

I can't remember name of kid in blue gilet, but did he lose a bet with his barber???

 

jack, all the young lads have mullets, it must be the new thing

[BenBhoy 4,706]

1 hour ago, Stavross said:

jack, all the young lads have mullets, it must be the new thing

Glad I'm nearly 40 & bald!! 

[BenBhoy 4,706]

14 minutes ago, FOXHUNTER said:

You forgot ugly and gay

For the sake of everyone else on this forum who doesn't want to read your childish moronic comments, as you try to impress FD in the hope he'll invite you out, after tiring of your pathetic constant begging; I'm going to ignore you. 

[socks 32,253]

35 minutes ago, BenBhoy said:

For the sake of everyone else on this forum who doesn't want to read your childish moronic comments, as you try to impress FD in the hope he'll invite you out, after tiring of your pathetic constant begging; I'm going to ignore you. 

He won’t be able to answer you for a while

[shovel leaner 7,648]

55 is a good number. The ones that escaped will be there for another day . 
            You don’t like port Stavross? Port and Sloe gin are the cornerstone of any good shooting man’s fluid intake . I suggest you go to the offie , buy a bottle of Cockburns or Taylor’s, lock yourself in with it until you do start to like it . Bloody youngster

[Stavross 13,708]

9 hours ago, shovel leaner said:

55 is a good number. The ones that escaped will be there for another day . 
            You don’t like port Stavross? Port and Sloe gin are the cornerstone of any good shooting man’s fluid intake . I suggest you go to the offie , buy a bottle of Cockburns or Taylor’s, lock yourself in with it until you do start to like it . Bloody youngster

I can do the sloe gin but port is just rank, I like a bramble gin and Prosecco but don’t tell anyone in case people get the wrong impression of me

[shovel leaner 7,648]

20 minutes ago, Stavross said:

I can do the sloe gin but port is just rank, I like a bramble gin and Prosecco but don’t tell anyone in case people get the wrong impression of me

What , they might think you’re a “ big girls blouse “!!! Surely not