ratman

I have used many types of decoys over the years, the old flexicoys used to be the rage at one time. I still have some but I don't rate them so much these days. I think if they made them in a feeding position instead of all heads up it would help. I have shells, sillosocks etc and they will all work on the right day. I tend now to use dead birds only. I have a second hand freezer that I keep the birds in. I select a dozen good conditioned birds from the days bag and take a small crate to keep them in to avoid them getting duffed up amongst the other gear in the back of the wagon. Once home I tie them in pairs with a thin string around the neck as you would gamebirds. I then carefully place them full length out on their backs in the freezer in a wire basket tray. This is important so as the birds do not get caked in ice etc as it will make them look shabby when you thaw them. The morning before I am going shooting I remove the decoy birds from the freezer and hang them in pairs by the strings so as they can thaw out and what little ice they may have picked up in the freezing progress can run off and this keeps the birds in top condition and dry. When they are totally thawed they are put in the crate to transport to the field. It sounds a bit of poncing about but it is worth it.I see people put them in carrier bags etc and they end up soggy and shabby looking, The most natural decoy is a real bird and in good condition there is no better. Another tip is to clip off the feet with a sharp knife or scissors, this makes it easy to recognise the already frozen birds when picking up at the end of the day. If the conditions are right you can get two or three trips with the same birds. I also do similar with the pair for the magnet. I am probably preaching to the converted but in case a novice should read this, another tip is to track down an old bicycle wheel and remove the spokes, these make great pegs to prop up the birds head, by pushing one end under the birds chin and into the head it will hold the head nicely and allow you to present a good realistic decoy. Despite all this, as it has been said many times on here, the fieldcraft in finding the flightlines and setting up in the right place is the most important factor to a successful day. Good Shooting All.

I have a cheap s/s non ejector that I would take a hundred quid for. I am in Surrey

You may find that taking all the decoys in and just using the magnet may help, also was the magnet shining in the sun ??

I suppose he did rescue that mange ridden creature he lives with so he has some experience. I have listened to my last queen record chaps

So he was quite happy to make his fortune with someone who was dropping anchor in poo bay and died of aids, yet his kind call us perverts :blink: This may interest you as well http://web.orange.co.uk/article/news/fox_a...=1#newscomments Mr Bryant also runs an animal detterent business, if you look at the address I have posted in the comments section on the news tab and read his profile you will see he was leader of the LACS etc.

You can shoot over rape at any time, obviously if and when the pigeons are on it. This time of year they do tend to turn their attentions to clover, and newly drilled crops and the large winter flocks of a couple of months ago will disperse to allow for breeding. I have shot good bags over tall rape but mainly because there was a flightline over it, the pigeons that were feeding on it were tight to a hedge where the rape was much shorter. The secret is being able to make your decoys stand out over the top of the crop, a magnet is a good start and I also use Chris Green floaters which will stand out and bob and weave above the crop. One very important thing to take into account is collecting the dead birds, are you going to cause more crop damage than the pigeons by walking about in a standing crop ?? A farmer will soon revoke the permission if he can see damaged crops caused by trampling around looking for birds. The next best time to shoot these fields will be at harvest time, often my best bags have been the day after the field has been cut, pigeons seem to hit fields hard in this area as soon as they are harvested and then move on. It is not always the case and some times it can benefit to leave the fields a few days to let numbers build up. As always it is best to spend time watching the fields to work out flightlines, it soons becomes obvious when the pigeons are moving most and from which direction

I have caught a weasel in a mole trap and a grass snake on a line of mouse traps screwed to a plank of wood. They were in a swimming pool pump shed behind closed doors.

I do use the Chris Green floaters occasionally. I tend to put them a long way away from the pattern as purely an attractor. If I am off the flightline then I will put them in the most prone positon so the pigeons see them and at least show a bit of interest. If I use floaters near the pattern then I will always put them at the rear of the decoys to simulate a bird flying in to land. I do have reservations about flappers though and will only use them if there is a good breeze. Nothing looks more suspicious than a pigeon 4ft of the ground and not moving I reckon.

I have caught 52 since christmas. I am a professional pest controller and most of the mole work I get tends to be odd ones in gardens etc. I do a lot for local authorites in schools, parks etc and now the snow has gone that number will rise dramatically. I have one area to clear where I estimate there are somewhere in the region of 40 moles. It is over 25 acres of pasture land and has now thawed out enough to start playing.

I love my cocker bitch, she works all day and retrieves well. She is very steady and a pleasure to handle. The only fault I would have with a cocker is if you are looking to pick up regularly. Mine will retrieve pheasants to hand out rough shooting and when we are picking up but you can see her tiring as the day goes on. The shoots I go on tend to kill 250 - 350 bird bags and when you take into account the weight of a good cock pheasant pro rata to the weight of a cocker it is no mean feat for them to have to do all day. Partridges, no problem and I use mine pigeon shooting always. I shoot large numbers of pigeons and she will run all day picking them up. She hunts cover really well and will work the thickest brambles, tending to duck her way under them as opposed to jumping over. I guess if I could have a dog the size of the cocker with the strength of a springer that would be the ultimate dog for me, but above all the cocker fits on your lap better in the evenings,

I shoot a lot of pigeons over decoys each year and have several thousand acres to protect. My last 4 days have both been in excess of a hundred bird days, the best being just over 200, and all to the same decoy pattern. I favour a small clump of decoys, seven or eight is ok. Place them 15 yards to the left of your hide and 25 yards out. Place the magnet on the right hand side of the clump and don't forget to angle the birds wings inwards slightly to represent birds landing. To the right around the same distance out and again 15 yards to the right of the hide, place a larger clump of decoys. I normally put 20 or so dead birds or rubber decoys to start with If I have no recently shot birds. The pigeons will head towards the magnet and see the larger clump which entices them straight across the front of the hide towards them, intending to land on the inner edge of the larger pattern. You effectively have a 30yard gap in the middle which is the killing ground. I add the shot birds to the right side pattern and slowly decrease the size of the killing area, this usually forces them straight at you. I speak from experience and hope this helps.

Isle of Wight and Browsea Island are two places that spring to mind. I was asked to clear an area of squirrels in Hampshire as they wanted to try and establish red squirrels. I pointed out what a waste of time it would be as the area was surrounded by areas heavily infested with greys and it would be a no win battle against them. Shame but reality unfortunately.

Why do these jobs never come up in the South

A mate of mine has a bloody good way of getting rid of them at night. He went to a local disco sales shop and bought a blue fuzz light and connected an adaptor so it can be plugged into his cigarette lighter in his landy. Now when he sees their lamp shining round he gets to a good vantage point where they will see him in the distance and plugs it in. You see how quick the lamp goes off and how quick the pick up leaves the field I expect you could get a cheap fuzz light on ebay or somewhere on the net

Well done mate, nice to see people helping our feathered friends during the hard times. I have just spent a small fortune on feed for our garden to help them along

To be honest mate you would save yourself a whole heap of worries if you just bought in some ex layers. Rearing pheasants and partridges for a novice is not adviseable unless you have a lot of time on your hands. Ex layers are the laying stock used by gamedealers or gamekeepers for their egg supply in the spring, most keepers will release them once they have finished with them but you will find some for sale if you ask around or check out the various shooting publications. A release pen would be needed and siting it is important to holding the birds on the shoot. You ideally need somewhere with a bit of bottom cover in the woodland to offer the birds warmth and shelter from the rain and wind, bramble or laurel etc is suffice. You also need mature woodland or conifers etc so the birds have somewhere warm to roost. The size of the pen will depend on the amount of birds you intend to release. The pen will need to be regularly fed and fresh water must always be available, the odd bale of straw will give the birds something to peck and scratch about in and help keep them interested in staying put. An electric fence will initially need to be put around the outside of the pen around a foot or so away from the wire and 6-10 inches high to keep foxes away. With ex layers they will go up to roost much higher than poults initially and will require much less looking after. If you provide them with the right habitat, food, warmth, water and protect them from predators and human interference, ie dog walkers etc then you should have a few birds around for a shoot day. Good Luck mate

For a good days shooting it is very important, unless you can get under a flightline in a wood. It is not just the case of building a hide and putting out some decoys though, on odd occasions this can work but to consistently shoot good bags of pigeons it is important to study and understand flightlines. Keeping a diary is very important and a lot of information can be gathered in a short time that will help improve your days sport. Pay attention to details such as weather, wind direction and strength, time of day, date, crop and what state the crop is in, ie standing wheat, laid barley, drilled Pigeons will use a flightline to enter a field and hours spent watching is very important to identify the flightline and at what time it starts and stops and in which wind direction they favour. Once identified it is then up to your field craft. Can you build a hide under the flightline ?? is there a nearby tree that the pigeons are using before dropping in etc. It also pays to watch a field of feeding pigeons and see how they are coming in, from which direction, how they group on the floor etc. All this will help you become a better and more consistent pigeon shooter mate

For a good days shooting it is very important, unless you can get under a flightline in a wood. It is not just the case of building a hide and putting out some decoys though, on odd occasions this can work but to consistently shoot good bags of pigeons it is important to study and understand flightlines. Keeping a diary is very important and a lot of information can be gathered in a short time that will help improve your days sport. Pay attention to details such as weather, wind direction and strength, time of day, date, crop and what state the crop is in, ie standing wheat, laid barley, drilled Pigeons will use a flightline to enter a field and hours spent watching is very important to identify the flightline and at what time it starts and stops and in which wind direction they favour. Once identified it is then up to your field craft. Can you build a hide under the flightline ?? is there a nearby tree that the pigeons are using before dropping in etc. It also pays to watch a field of feeding pigeons and see how they are coming in, from which direction, how they group on the floor etc. All this will help you become a better and more consistent pigeon shooter mate

I am not too far from there

Make sure to print what you control and that you are insured. Don't just offer a mobile number as a lot of people steer clear. Good luck

Welcome

Welcome

Welcome

I am a professional pest controller and catch somewhere in the region of a thousand moles a year so I feel very qualified to advise you here mate. I do not use claw traps as a lot of my work is in schools and other public areas and as you can imagine when the kids see them sticking out of the ground it is open season to lose the lot. I favour a trap called a duffus, which sets at both ends. The trap is set inline in the moles run. I don't wish to get in a debate about weathering traps and wearing gloves etc but based on my own personal experience it does not matter a jot either way. I have set traps straight off the shelf and as shiny as you like, further more with my bare hands and have caught moles as effectively as using my old traps and wearing gloves. Moles have a poor sense of sight so a nice new shiny trap would not make any difference to the mole as he cant see it clearly anyway. My personal opinion based on years of mole trapping is they also have a poor sense of smell as well, a moles keenest sense is being able to detect merest vibation through sensory hairs on his snout and his tail, and it is this keen sense that alerts him to worms stumbling into his feeding chambers. A mole will make three types of run, first type is an exploratory run which is seen as a raised lump above the soil level, If you poke your finger in the raised furrow you will push straight into the run. To be honest these are not very good runs at all for catching moles and best ignored unless you have no other options, secondly they have a feeding run, typically around 3- 5 inches deep, these are the runs patrolled most regularly by the mole in search of his food and the most effective place to set a trap. The third type of run is around 8-12 inches deep and is the breeding and sleeping chamber, you may notice the occasional much larger molehill and it is usually around these the deeper runs will be found. These are the runs you would be looking for if you were gassing moles by the way. Anyway like I said it is the feeding runs you will need to locate to be successful, I use a purpose made dibber made of stainless steel to dib into the ground to find the run, you can improvise with a bamboo cane if the ground is soft or a screwdriver or a metal rod if it is harder. The trick is to come about 6 inches away from the fresher looking molehills and gently apply pressure on the dibber as you push it into the ground, experiment at 2 inch intervals until it suddenly gives, indicating the void of the tunnel, now try again 2-3 inches away in all directions until you find the continuation and are able to assess the direction of the run.With a trowel dig a small hole about 3 inches square inline with the burrow, it is best to dig a smaller hole and carefully manufacture it larger until it is perfect for the trap than to dig a hole too big in which case the trap will not fit snug and it is likely the mole will dig past it or fill it with soil for you. With your fingers carefully clear the soil from each end of the tunnel to expose what should be a straight run, remove any excess soil from the run and with the back of two fingers level the base of the run, youe trying to create a nice level straight run, Set the trap and by pushing one end in at a tilt, fit it inline so it covers the run, now wiggle the other end into place, it is now that you will most likely have to remove a lttle more soil to allow the trap to fit, be careful not to take too much at a time as ultimately what you are trying to achieve is a nice, snug fitting trap that is level and inline at both ends. It all comes with practice but persevere. When I have the trap inline I lift it a couple of milimetres to make sure it is free to operate, ensure the top of the trap is not hindered so as the trap arms can travel fully without getting caught on the over hang of the hole. Once you are happy with the trap cover it with a plate or piece of wood. I use 6inch square aluminium sheet about 2 mm thick. Ensure the plate is high enough above the trap that it can spring fully. Cover the plate with the soil from a molehill to exclude light and draft and jobs a goodun. By law the traps must be checked every day so when you check them carefully remove the soil and look at the top of the trap, if the arm is in the air the trap has been sprung and hopefully you have been successful, if not put the plate and the soil back and check again the next day. Feel free to pm me for any other help. Hope this helps Ratty

I often used locators but never bells or muzzles. I always had the view that if a ferret had a muzzle and you lose it, then a slow lingering death would follow. Also if it came up a gainst a rat it could not defend itself etc. I did always feed my ferrets in the morning I planned to work them. I do not believe all this nonsense about starving them to make them better hunters, ferrets will hunt instinctivly and whether they have eaten or not will hunt rabbits. They are more likely to kill and stay put if they are hungry. Lets face it, I don't like going to work on an empty stomach !!!