New Forest Bath Time

If it's freezing, smelly and full of mud then that's an open invitation for the dogs. If it was warm and clean then not a chance without a struggle......

White Fallow New Forest

Out on a long walk with the dogs today and spooked a herd of fallow between 20 and 30. Probably would not of seen them at all if not for the white doe which you can just make out on the vid.

More from the 12th Dec.

16 birds plus two ducks, one pigeon, one partridge and a tree rat (Stephen's best shot of the day, and he took two cartridges to do the job). Plus Kevin displaying a rather dead black cock bird called Sweep, he was my friend and will be deeply missed although the £50 fine will lessen my mourning ha ha.

A big thanks to the beaters who work their socks off to get the birds over the guns, cheers guys.

12th December Shoot

Apart from the very slow start to the day at Worthy Park, due to the lack of birds - promise they are there somewhere on the shoot, another shoot day at the farm enjoyed by all attended. Our mid morning feed was supplied by Julie, partner of Smudge. There was plenty to go around with hot bacon, sausages, onions and mushrooms with even a bottle of ketchup before it went missing, last seen in Tristan's hands, which cannot be denied as per the photographic evidence......lol!

Apologies

Anyone that has logged on recently to read any fox lamping reports may I apologise now for the lack of any edits. Unfortunately when ever we have planned to go the weather has transpired to act against us. It has either rained or the moon has flooded the fields with too much light, which Mr Reynard does not like.
Prime example is tonight, from earlier weather forecasts Thursday looked good to go with ample cloud cover to blot out the moon, the day arrives and where is the bloody cloud, it's buggered off elsewhere. This is very frustrating as the fox's should be in mid mating season and moving around the fields a bit more than usual.
Our time will come no doubt so in the mean time another night sat in front of the goggle box.
Effing weather!

Another Funny

28th Nov Shoot

Various photo's from our shoot on Saturday, 28th Nov 2009. After the previous day was cancelled due to heavy rain etc the onus was on to make up for the missed day. (Some of the pics taken by Roger). Everyone went home happy after a longish day as most of the drives were used although a couple proved a disappointment with Worthy Park a let down. May have to use that as the first drive on the next shoot to see if that makes a difference re birds shown. Apologies to David re the mud plastering of his Discovery.....

Revenge of the Duck!

Hmmm - could of been alot more serious!

Gorgeous Weather!

Picture taken whilst out in the New Forest on Saturday - under shelter of a few trees as a heavy rain front came across. Even the dogs were not keen on the wind assisted weather at that stage.

Wet and Windy

Instead of out shooting pheasants etc (day cancelled due to weather conditions) I took the bassets and cockers out in the forest.....the noise is the strong wind.

Country Watch

Below is a typical email that I get from the Country Watch scheme in Hampshire. Although it is difficult to keep up with the car reg plates that are reported this scheme is an important tool against theft and other ilegal activities that are taking place every day. It also brings to attention what those so called gypo's (far to polite a name for those wankers) are up to......


Dear All,

Between the 5th & 7th, an attempt was made to remove a wheel lock from a horse trailer at Compton

Overnight of the 9th & 10th, a van was broken into at Colden Common and items of plant equipment stolen. The items included a Stihl disc cutter, a JCB hydraulic breaker pack and gun, and a Bomag vibrator plate, model 18/45.

On the 9th, at approximately 3.30pm two males were disturbed in a field containing horses. The males are described as looking likefather and son, the elder one being white, aged mid 50's, 5ft 10ins,medium build, balding, wearing jeans and a dark jacket with white stripes on it.
The younger male is described as white, heavy build, 5ft 9ins tall, wearing a biege and black top.
When challenged by the caller, they stated they were looking for mushrooms.

On the 10th, 2 house burglaries occurred at rural premises at Twyford.


Vehicles to look out for.

A green Toyota Hilux, GP53TXG, seen acting suspiciously in the Horndean/Clanfield areas.

An Isuzu Trooper, 4x4, H826KFX, seen trying to drive onto the illegal traveller site at Abbotstone Down car park yesterday, 10.11.09 at midday.

A white Toyota Hilux, N476DBK, seen at Ovington, near Alresford, yesterday, 10.11.09, at 9.45am. Occupants described as two traveller looking types. The vehicle had a number of containers on the back, that looked as if they contained red diesel.

A blue/silver Mitsubishi Pajero 4x4 L252SGW. Stopped at Compton at 10.30pm, 10.11.09, by Police after the vehicle had been seen parked unattended near to the scene of a recent theft. A search was carried out, but nothing found. All the male occupants had very muddy footwear.
In relation to this, if any Countrywatch member from the Compton area has discovered anything amiss, please contact me.

I had cause to speak to the victim of a recent plant machinery theft, who informed me that he had told his insurance company of the theft, only to be told that he wasn't covered, as the theft occurred overnight! Apparently this was mentioned in the 'small print' of his policy.
Please check your insurance policies, and query it if necessary.

Part two - 31st Oct 2009

Various other pics from the day including the mid morning break of fresh bacon rolls cooked by Shelly on the camping stove. (Greg - best start planning as it is his turn for the refreshment goodies on the next shoot).

The day started damp and overcast but landed up warm and sunny. Considering the low attendance it was a good day with a good few birds in the dairy strip and also the farm/river strip and by the gods I actually managed to shoot a hen bird. My shooting with a 12 bore leaves alot to be desired but it can only improve (I hope)

Many thanks to the beaters, Keith, Ashley, Alistair and of course the days photographer/cook/beater, Shelly.

31st Oct - 2nd Shoot of season Part One

Just of few of the pictures taken by Shelly of our 2nd shoot of the season. Roger managed to land a cock bird into a tree that wedged itself in. Ashley was duly sent up said tree to make a retrieve but to no avail, (Keith needs to take Ashley on a few more training runs).

We were low on numbers including dogs with only Bud (Stick nicker) and Charlie (hasn't got off his bed since coming back home - well he is 11 and half years old! - this is his last season. If you look at the close up shot of the tree you can make out the cock birds head and beak.

Disco Welding

The disco on the ramp for its dose of welding so that it can pass the mot. This was the night before our second shoot so it was a relief that all went to plan. Kevin at MOT's Only was the magician with the welding torch.

A year gone........

One year has passed with out Lily, however I try to write about this gorgeous basset nothing seems good enough.

For such a short space of time Lily will have a life time of thoughts.

Adult Vixen

This adult vixen was shot on the field above the railway bank from a rough guess of 200 yards or slightly less (Stephen's guess). I missed another later in the night shooting from the sticks which was a let down, although we now know exactly where their den is so we will let them settle for a couple of weeks before we try an ambush.

First day of season

Well the first day of the new season is only a few hours away. It is going to be a walked up stroke boundary day to avoid the main drives which will provide plenty of exercise for guns and beaters alike.
It will be good to get going though and to see if our hard work during the last six months will provide us with good sporting birds and a good supply of.
Fingers crossed that tomorrow goes smoothly to plan with all of the syndicate getting a shot or two.

At Last!

It has been an age since the last fox was decked on the farm. Thankfully on Tuesday night a vixen was spotted on the river field and thus dispatched after a few minutes later by the game strip cover.

As the picture shows the shot placement was good and it was probably dead before it knew what was happening.

Other reynards were lamped with two in an unsafe position to shoot at plus another that was sitting nicely at a distance which under the red lamp was difficult to be sure that it was a fox. That was until it got up and disappeared up the bank.

Scum!

This hare was found on Saturday morning near the clump of tree's on the shoot. It was in a very sorry state but still alive, just. Not having a suitable rifle to do the right thing I took it off to the local vets who put it to sleep.

Yes I could of found a decent stick or pulled it's neck but the chap had suffered enough due to the scum that let it's running dogs do the damage.

By all accounts it had probably suffered for two days and I took pity for it's condition.

Contrary to popular belief outside the shooting world we do have a heart!

Where no heart is found is for those bastard travelling twats that think they can go where ever they like to entertain their thieving minds....

Stubble Burning

The next door farm stubble buring. Haven't seen that done for an age.

Breakfast at 'A La Hopper'

On the feed round this morning. The birds looking strong and healthy.

If Only!

Yep, if only there was a set of crowns in between those ears. Pics taken this morning. She got up eventually, the two kids were tucked away around the corner. The grass pic shows where she was laying. You can just make out the two knee imprints on the right hand side.

Chat up lines!

This could be the best chat up line ever for bird pulling. Just sprinkle a bit of the contents and knickers down! If only that simple............

You may recognise this from adverts in the shooting mags and after a bit of mulling over and our birds seen with ruck sacks departing to all corners I have taken the plunge and received the 'Bird Puller' in the post today.

If it does what it says on the tin then bloody good news. Must admit its does smell tasty. Will update the blog with the results in due course.

Looking Good

Whilst out stalking on Monday morning came across a few more Frenchmen, no bucks unfortunately. Apparently a 40 plus covey was spotted on one of our fields so it's fingers crossed that they linger around for our first shoot. Plus some more feed hoppers to place this coming weekend should help.

We are not having any luck on the fox front at all. The one's that we do come across are lamp shy and depart at a rapid pace. We will have to ambush those to stand any chance of getting a shot off unless someone would like to donate a thermal imaging camera to a good cause!

Touch wood the luck will change one night as we have not been this barren at all. Either we made such a good job of controlling them earlier in the year or the little darlings are not going out to play until real stupid o'clock. I suspect that stupid o'clock is the factor. An all nighter beckons.

Youtube video

Not in the UK but still avid viewing if not seen two bucks fight.

Showing promise

Here we have a picture with a couple of Frenchmen which was taken up by the Ring of Tree's. The green shoots is the mustard cover strip beginning to show through, in six weeks time hopefully it will be of a good height to drive the birds out of as this drive has the makings to be really challenging to the guns.
Prior to the photo taken we managed to get out at least 6 more feed hoppers with straw rides. Another 4 to 5 to go then that job task is done.
With less than 6 weeks to go before the first shoot I think we are on top of things with just a few smaller jobs to be carried out.

you tube film

Hoppers!

Saturday morning was spent working on the game shoot, placing out the feed hoppers and straw rides where possible. Started with sacking up the corn provided by the farm and then placing the hoppers in the wood strips and spinney's. Still need to create some straw rides and place a few more hoppers out on the shoot but at least a start was made. Hopefully this will all be done by the month end.

The wildlife seems to of buried it's head and not moving at all. Probably the harvest machinery has left them a little nervy. Should be out lamping at some stage this week cause it's about time that the luck changed for our benefit.

Wrong Place

Just typical, the normal Saturday evening at Jane's mothers for tea where I always like to walk to the bottom of the garden that overlooks a field for the after meal smoke. There is always a chance to watch a bit of wild life even if it's just a few rabbits. This time one fox cub was hunting in the middle and duly came in to the squeak until the incumbent horse's decided to run the cub back into cover. Although as my attention was on this cub another came in from my right to about ten yards away until it found the source of the squeak, me! Again the nag's chased this one off as well until it reach the outskirts of the field where it decided to sit and wait. Could of shot the darn thing ten times over.
Earlier in the day a mornings client stalk for a buck resulted in 7 doe's counted and one kid. Not one buck made an appearance.

Bugger!

After what seemed an absolute age we got a lamping session done on Tuesday night. Myself, Stephen and Martyn all tooled up and ready to go. Two main fields were cut although not cleared of the straw, both of them account for a good number each year.
Optimistic was the bye word, after a good few months we should bump into hoards of them, thus expecting the landscape to be like a Christmas tree with eyes shinning every where.
Who the hell were we kidding, not one set of eyes on the fresh cut fields and a few spots of the resident bugger on the river field.
If I am honest then this was no great surprise as each time a field is cut it takes a good week before they gain their confidence to venture out onto the stubble. Lets face it they have just had their cover removed so are fully exposed, would you do the same?
We did lamp two other sets, one which would not stay around long enough in a safe position plus another in a smaller field which was spotted virtually by the road side hedge with the M3 as his background. We did not fancy explaining why a truck had a bullet hole through it so it was left to disappear.
Next lamping session should be a whole lot different....please!

Still Waiting!

Nothing to report from this weekend. Took one of Roger's clients out on a mornings stalk on Saturday with no success. In fact, not one Roe was spotted which was purely down to the weather. Although there was no rain up until around 8am the beasts were bedded down and not moving at all. May of been a blessing in disguise though as the client was not used to the early start and was drifting off with the zzzz's.
The good news was to see one of the main fox fields near complete on the harvest cut. With a little luck on our side regards the weather we should be out on Tuesday night with the lamp. Crossed fingers, touch wood....................

Cracking shot from Youtube

Ellie & Lucy

Not so the puppies any more...if you want a nice garden and house then Basset's are not for you!

Chilled

Yesterdays buck hanging in the chiller unit. At least I can leave the carcass until next weekend to butcher it.

Cull Buck Video

Short video re this mornings successful stalk at Alton in Hampshire.

Cull Buck

Stalking at the Alton wood is always a difficult one. Dense woodland and thick undergrowth makes for a tough time although I have found that it does hone the mind into thinking about every move you make. This mornings stalk thankfully resulted in a young cull buck which was taken on the bottom ride. After a few squeaks on the caller it came in from behind me. The unmistakable crunch of a deer foot on some dry leaves alerted me to his location. The first look and he was only 15 yards away looking directly at me. After a few nervy minutes I managed to get in a shooting position only for the buck to take a small fright and bound up the slop back into the tree's. All was not lost though as he stopped about 30 yards away and took a few steps showing his flank, the scope was filled and a freehand shot taken.

As you can see the bullet was a good hit which left a good blood trail thus the buck was found another 20 yards in to the wood.

Then the dreaded walk back to the car with a carcass, uphill most of the way....small price to pay.

Thats what a fox looks like!

Won't be long now before we can get out lamping, the farm started the harvest yesterday, so all those lovely crops that our reynards use to hide in will be gone, oh dear, what a shame...............

Vermin Control

Twins

Yes there are twins along with the doe in the pic. Couldn't get closer for fear of spooking them as the doe had already clocked the car. Double click on the picture and it should enlarge a little.

Picture taken this morning, no bucks to be seen...crafty gits!

Butterfly Heaven

Whilst out stalking this morning came across a hot spot for butterflies along one hedgerow. The pictures do not show how many there were. Lets just say have not seen a gathering of such before.

Made the morning!

Hundreds Of New Pets!

The poults are in.....so here starts the feeding season. All went smoothly eventually after one of the electric fencing units went tits up with a cable that had come loose therefore no anti vermin device. It was fixed rapidly and installed just in time. The weather was not at its best first thing this morning although by 11am the sun was out ensuring the little blighters had a warm welcome into their new surroundings.

Still it's a nervy time when they go in hoping that everything has been done to enhance the well being and protection. Back up to the shoot over the next two days just to make sure then it's some one else's turn on the rota.

4th July Work Day

The two pictures here show the game farm where the poults are coming from this year. The batch that our birds are being selected from looked fit and strong even at 6 weeks old.

The delivery date will in less than ten days time so Saturday's work party was a hectic number of hours trying to get as much done and I was pleased with the work that was achieved. There are a few jobs to finish off but all should be good by the time the little blighters are installed in the release pens.

The Waiting Game!

Sorry folks but no pictures or video's to upload at present, so you will just have to do some reading instead.
It feels like stuck in a doctors waiting room, you know your appointment was at 10 but you are still sat there at 10.45 trying to read a magazine that has no interest to you what so ever. It must be at least two months since we have floored a fox which is due to the crops reaching a level where you can not see the blighters. Only the fleeting glimpse of an eye then gone if we got lucky.
Plus the bucks are making themselves invisible in day light hours.....so the wait has slowly ticked away.
Just one day away from July, actually less then 12 hours away which is bloody good news. The crops have turned golden meaning (crossed fingers) that the combine should be out within the next two to three weeks and hey presto we have our play ground back again. Must stock up on the pro plus as a few all nighters are on the cards to whittle down the charlie's.Plus, just maybe with this current hot weather the bucks just might start the rut a little earlier than usual.
It is also approx two weeks before the poults will arrive which starts the feed rota over again for this year. The pens still need some work doing with a work party planned for this Saturday plus the collection of the feed to store. I will be glad when that's done and the birds are in.
All in all July will be a busy month on all fronts concerning the shoot, thank christ for that, the trigger finger has nearly turned blue for lack of exercise.

Another youtube vid to watch

As not out hunting myself due to the high crops this is another vid found on youtube to keep the viewers entertained.

Something to watch

If Only

Last Thursday saw a decent mayfly hatch with this one staying long enough on the car for its picture to be taken. I have never fished during mayfly hatch, hopefully one day will be able to do so.

There is nothing to report on the rifle front, the crops are too high to be able to see Mr Charlie and the bucks are tucked away apart from one good sized beast which I see on the way home from work most days. Crossed fingers he doesn't come a cropper on the road.

All you get for 4 hours hard buck stalking is a short arsed terrier with attitude!

Could it be better?

Make sure you have the sound up. Sometimes it makes it all the worth while when the alarm goes at 3.45 to go stalking.

Worthy Pen

The first work session took place on Saturday with myself, Stephen, Kevin and new shoot member David attending.

Worthy Park Pen was the project for the morning to encourage more ground cover inside the pen so when the poults arrive they have somewhere to bury into and get away from the weather and each other. The picture shows Stephen and David creating a gap to let some sun light into the top half of the pen.

Whatever we cut back was used to create clumps of cover. Extra rubble was also placed around the outside of the pen to give the fencing more strength to protect from charlie.

The fencing needs a few more cable ties in some sections plus the electric fence will need to be repaired nearer the release date. Once this has been done then the pen should be ready to go. (Although more ground cover will be required - tops of fir tree's etc)