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Trying to lighten the load


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Been so slow with the shooting lately so I have been going through all my kit around the place.

Didnt realise just how much I had accumulated in over 30 years of shooting, some of it home made from decoys to rotarys .

Of that age now retired and creaking in places when I need lighter kit, I have been working not too successfully to that aim.

 

All the farms I shoot wont allow vehicles driving over them cept on dry stubble, sometime's, so I got rid of the landy for something a little more economical.

 

Somehow I have still managed after all that sorting to fill the large boot of my car with kit that must at least make the trip with me "just in case needed".

The fact that I have always used artificial decoys added to the bulk of what I used to carry but a better weight than taking real birds, I now use modified FUD's for the ground layout and hypas on a rotary/ flapper bouncer till real birds are downed if I feel they would be an advantage.

 

At times as we all know you can place a few decoys out real or artificial and get a good result , other times everything in your kit will just not do it.

I have purchased a few new Items and bartered for others to replace the older worn kit, including a new semi auto 12 gauge.

 

I carry my main kit in a rucksack which also holds my seat plus 100 cartridges, my gun, hide poles and bouncers in a fishing quiver, all up weight around the 27 kilo give or take.

I always add a flapper and battery but only take a rotary and battery on the shorter walks.

 

 

Now can anyone help with sorting out the creaky body !!!!

 

 

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This subject has been covered several times and various fishing barrows have been suggested, it seems to me that they cant be pushed (physically) down a tram line through a standing crop of wheat ect to get to the desired spot. A sit on shopping trolley aint going to get there.Also how do you get these things over various obstacles on route, Eg gates tied up with bits of bailer twine, fences and ditches.

Edited by fortune
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This subject has been covered several times and various fishing barrows have been suggested, it seems to me that they cant be pushed (physically) down a tram line through a standing crop of wheat ect to get to the desired spot. A sit on shopping trolley aint going to get there.Also how do you get these things over various obstacles on route, Eg gates tied up with bits of bailer twine, fences and ditches.

 

Yes I know , was a jibe reply on my part :)

I have done the barrow route and in the right conditions yes it can work but as many have found they can more often than not be more hassle than just carrying kit .

Not asking what I can use or do just more of an old age groaning statement of what we all at sometime or other will struggle with :yes:

 

P.S dont rate LG stuff :)

Edited by deny essex
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alright .....another stupid suggestion coming up...........

 

 

there are available small monkey bikes...all they are is a frame ...wheels...and back sprocket........they were made for the logging industry ...you put your chainsaw on it (take the bar off).....did a couple of other simple things...and off you went to work.....in the forest

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DOH! just remember'd the solution to kit carrying, mentor a younger newbie :) Ehh COSD !

Yeah, except I hit the big five O this year, so me thinks you need a younger model weightlifter type newbie, to take advantage of :)

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I find if I cut my gear down to a bare minimum I can just about manage to take it in one go .

 

Four poles with the magnet arms and one floater in the pole case

Two 5mtr light weight nets

Small battery ( 4 hrs ) , magnet motor , spike base and cradles in my game bag

50 to 75 cartridges in my cartridge bag

Fold up seat , 12 shell decoys and three dead ones .

 

The beauty of being retired is your not pushed for time and if it take two trips well so be it . plus the exercise keep the joints supple , or at least till you sit down :lol:

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sounds like ur like me,but im missing left leg below knee for last 44 years,so i got a fold up wheelbarrow from ebay hide poles and gun on my back everything else piled on an held in place with a couple of bungy lastics,great when conditions are dry but obviously harder when its wet an sticky.

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Shooting every few days I just cant be doing with all this stuff. I mostly don't shoot pigeons so don't bother with the magnets and stuff but have whittled it down to just one bag and almost the heaviest thing is the cartridges.

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This subject has been covered several times and various fishing barrows have been suggested, it seems to me that they cant be pushed (physically) down a tram line through a standing crop of wheat ect to get to the desired spot. A sit on shopping trolley aint going to get there.Also how do you get these things over various obstacles on route, Eg gates tied up with bits of bailer twine, fences and ditches.

If I'm on my own and have to shoot standing crops with only tram lines to travel down, I use a modified folding wheel barrow on which I have fitted a larger/wider wheel. I find it will pass down the tractor wheel tracks without damaging the crop.

It is not to travel to the shooting position specifically but to carry the birds back to the Disco.

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You lot have got me thinking ...............i have a spare chainsaw...steel.....oxyacety...and loads of sprockets and chains from acto mowers...so during the autumn i will start a new thread on building a very small trackbike with paniers maybe frount wheel drive or rear wheel drive.....something that can be thrown into a boot or rear of a landrover.....

 

ive seen loads of chainsaw bikes on the net, but i rekon i can make something better.........

 

 

might be something along the lines of a world war 2 corgie,,but lighter and smaller

Edited by ditchman
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You lot have got me thinking ...............i have a spare chainsaw...steel.....oxyacety...and loads of sprockets and chains from acto mowers...so during the autumn i will start a new thread on building a very small trackbike with paniers maybe frount wheel drive or rear wheel drive.....something that can be thrown into a boot or rear of a landrover.....

 

ive seen loads of chainsaw bikes on the net, but i rekon i can make something better.........

 

 

might be something along the lines of a world war 2 corgie,,but lighter and smaller

That I cannot wait to see.

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It is a perennial conundrum for Old Fossils like me. I have a golden rule of only one journey to the hide position with my kit.

 

There is no such rule about journeys back to the car. The more journeys the more pigeons are in the bag.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I was using a modified golf trolley for while until a fishing barrow came up which i now use for all my long walks, but I have come to realise how much kit I don't need every time so over the last few years I have really cut down what I take and it has had no detrimental effect on my pigeon shooting, mind you I only need to take 10 carts every time!!

Outlander

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I try to have a good look before I start to trek off across fields in hope of being in the right place. In my right hand I have a plastic drum with the lid cut off so that it is like a tall bucket. In this drum are 2 nets about 6x4, 3 v top sticks to hold up the net. about a dozen half shells and a couple of fulls. about three knee high cradles to keep the decoys up a bit as if they are coming in to land and a string operated flapper. Across One shoulder I have a net bag that carries about fifteen fulls. Across my other shoulder is a game bag in which I carry about 100 cartridges max ( depends on how many birds are floating about and how far I am away from the car.) Food and water for me and the dog ( again it depends on if there is a stream for the dog and how long I think that I am going to be there and how hot it is.) When I shoot I use the drum as a seat and keep everything small. Around my waist I have a cartridge belt which I hang from the center hide pole. I also take a few of those orange carrot sacks to put the shot birds into which helps keep the fly off the pigeons. in my left hand I sometimes carry the gun or it is in a slip across the front. that's it. no batteries no rotary or anything. on the way back any water is dumped and the weight of the cartridges is swapped for the weight of birds with luck. I did at one time consider making a sort of saddle bag for the dog to carry the cartridges but thought better of it. sometimes it works out well but it can be a job dragging through a tramline in the heat of summer.

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