Hammergun

To avoid the smell, you need to try not to slit the guts so you can get then out whole. This is best done by pinching the belly skin and slitting it where you pinch it. Put your fingers in the hole and tear it apart, or carefully insert the knife flat against the underside of the belly and cut away from the gut. After you have skinned it, you will have a bit of skin round the ******** (look at my photo earlier in this topic). Grab hold of this and use a narrow pointed sharp knife to cut around the edges whilst pulling it gently this way and that. When it is free, it will come away with the rubbish attached. You can also push your finger through from the inside to help it. In my opinion you are best leaving the head on until you pull the skin over its neck. After you have skinned it, rinse it and lay in cold salted water for at least an hour, or preferably overnight. This gets the blood out and the meat absorbs moisture to help it cook.

Went out hunting again today. Yet another blank day. Even one of the covers which nearly always holds a fox was empty. Where have all the foxes gone this year??

Try Collared Doves - they are much better than ferals.

HeHe

See, YP - I told you he was a poacher. The sort of people who give shooters a bad name and sponge off our syndicates. :<

Constant ringing in the ear is called tinnitus and is caused by exposure to repeated high pressure waves (e.g gunshots). It is irreversible and cumulative (gets worse the higher the exposure). Blacksmiths are also prone to it due to the constant noise from hammering, as are workers who use pneumatic hamers. Some 50p foam earplugs are every bit as good as the more expensive ones. Effectiveness depends mainly on the attenuation range. Some are best in the low ranges (such as chainsaws), others best in the hight ranges. Some do not give adequate protection for some applications. Electronic ear defenders work by blocking sounds of a certain pressure level or frequency, whilst allowing quieter sounds through such as speech. Again, for them to be effective, you need to ensure their performance in the relative octave band for shooting.

Yes - everything must pass proof before it can legally be used or sold. Proof also includes visual checking as well as measuring and firing a proof load.

You put a brass thing on the end ot the rod called a jag (or it may be a wire loop in a plug instead). The jag looks like the thread of a 1/2 inch bolt with a slit down its length. You stick the patch in the slit (or thread it throught the wire loop), soak it in barrel cleaner (such as Youngs 009) , twist the ends of the patch round the "threads" and run it up and down the inside of the barrels. If you shoot plastic wad cartridges, you will need to run a bronze brush soaked in barrel cleaner through the barrels first to loosen the debris. Finish off by pushing a bit of kitchen roll through the barrels to remove the dirty barrel cleaner, then wipe the barrels outside and in with a patch lightly soaked in Rangoon oil, but only put it on lightly or it will run down the barrels and spoil the woodwork. Don't forget to wipe a little oil over the rest of the metalwork. If there is a trace of oil up the barrels when you want to use the gun again, run a dry patch through them to remove it or it could stress the barrels when fired.

I'm going to borrow a professional audiometer from work one weekend soon, which gives readouts of peak values and wavelengths they occur at. This is a personal noise level logging meter which I'll take shooting. When I have the data, I will post it here. You can use this data to compare the attenuation characteristics of hearing protection devices. This information can be used for selecting suitable ear protection. Watch this space..........

It's made by Parker Hale and is available from most Parker Hale stockists.

Difficult to get into unless a member of your family is one, or at least heavily involved in the trade with good contacts. To be a true gunsmith, you need to get into an apprenticeship. There are plenty of "gunsmiths" who are good at basic repairs / woodwork etc, but couldn't make a gun from scratch, or at least don't have the equipment to do so. There are also a few dubious "gunsmiths" who I wouldn't trust with a spud gun. There's a book out called "home gunsmithing" or something similar which is supposed to be pretty good.

You need lots of patience. Original muzzle-loaders tend to be rather on the expensive side (but keep their value). However, there are a number or Repro guns about which are much cheaper/ Get in touch with your nearest muzzle loading club. You need a license to keep Black Powder, available from the Home Office. They are cheap and fairly easy to obtain. Alternatively you can buy a substitute called "Pyrodex" which you dont need a license for, but it's nowhere near as much fun as the real thing! One thing to remember is that you need to spend much more time cleaning a muzzle -loader than a normal shotgun.

........I thought it might be the pie crust!!!

YP - It could be that he is a poacher? - That's what they do.

Removing Rust You need to get a very fine grade of emery cloth, typically 320 grit (no coarser). Scratch off the rust crust with a craft knife, then Tear a thin strip off the emery cloth and wrap it round a ballpoint pen. Use this to rub the rest of the rust off as far as you can go to get the bright metal underneath. Wipe the area with methylated spirits, then apply some touch-up blueing from your gunshop. When finished, wipe with a damp cloth and rub the barrel with Rangoon Oil.

If your school is inviting PETA to talk, they should also invite BASC , the NFU, or the CA to talk as well to ensure a balanced debate. If they dont, then they can justifiably be accused of bias. You can do a lot in 30 seconds!! You will probably end up with more if you can keep it going. Personally I dont think you'll get much informed debate out of PETA as they have pretty much lost touch with reality. They are in short, a raving bunch of veggie wackos. It's not like talking to a nature group. Your best bet is to take advantage of their ignorance and wacky ideas. With a bit of careful planning you should be able to lead them on and make them look quite ridiculous when they start letting slip their wacky ideas. When they start stalling, have more leading questions prepared to fire at them, one after the other, and they will loose their cool when they are outmaneuvered. Thats when your fun will start. PETA have been involved in throwing ideas about such as voluntary extinction of the human race to save animals, lobbying against school milk as it's "exploiting cows". They're a bunch of total fruitcakes. Many people who donate would never hav given if they knew more about them. A quick net search will throw up more stuff. Have a look at a few of the wackiest ideas and you can structure your questioning to lead them onto these (Fun!!).

(Guts in and skin on) I'm getting 40p for a shotgun rabbit, or 60p for a headshot one. I get £1 for head shot gutted small young rabbits in the Spring and Summer. Skinned and jointed, the pub will pay £1 per rabbit. I have been told that there's a Halal butcher which will pay £2.50 for live netted rabbits. (Rabbit is a delicacy but their religion means they have to be Halal slaughtered, whicn means that rabbit meat is hard to get)

These bunnies (here waiting to join the gravy under a nice thick crust) were feeding on the farmers nicely manicured lawn last night. I shot from the window of the grain store using my AirArms S200.

I'm looking for a x-ply Goodyear 750 x 16C tyre as used to be fitted as standard to Land Rovers. As long as there is some tread left as I only want it as a spare.

You're best to try looking in gunsmiths near to you as you really need to make sure the gun is right for you before buying. A gun purchased over the internet may not end up being what you thought it would be like regarding fit and comfort. (Guns bought over the net can only be handed to the buyer by a RFD, who will charge a commision for handling them).

I was at the gathering today, and lurcher men seemed to be the best represented group. There were lurchers everywhere, and plenty of terriers and a few spaniels.

80% of Labour peers fail to support Government's Hunting Billl Only 40 Labour peers, 20% of the total, supported the Government's Hunting Bill during Tuesday's Committee Stage in the House of Commons. In the vote to reinstate the Government's original licensing system into the Bill, which was amended to ban all hunting in the Commons, the other 156 Labour peers either backed the amendment or abstained. The licensing amendment was passed by 261 votes to 49. Discounting those hereditary peers who voted the amendment would still have been carried by a majority of 147. In the two votes in the Lords and the Commons 366 parliamentarians backed a ban but 406 supported a licensing system. Simon Hart, Chief Executive of the Countryside Alliance, said: "No Government Bill in living memory has had as little support from its own party as this Hunting Bill. If only 20% of Labour peers could be persuaded to support the ban passed in the Commons there can be no justification for wasting more Parliamentary time pursuing a ban. "The will of Parliament is clear - a majority of parliamentarians want the Government to honour its commitment to reach a conclusion to the hunting issue based on principle and evidence through a workable licensing system". (From the Countryside Alliance Website)

My old gun book does not mention beeswax as part of the oil mix. Beeswax has a tendency to oxidise and go sticky (and acidic), so I would not be tempted to incorporate it into the stock oil. If you really want to use a wax, then I would suggest that a little carnauba wax would be more suitable. In my experience, waxes are best left to after the oiling has been finished. If you want to thin the oil, then pure turpentine, and not turpentine substitute must be used. Alcohol would also be suitable. My book says the colour is given by adding oil of alkanet to the stock oil, which gives the reddy-brown effect. The finish is built up by the oils curing and gradually laying on top of each other. I would be reluctant to add driers to it to rush the job along.

The tubular heaters are a good idea. They are used a lot in industry to prevent frost damage, and they use very little elctricity.

Try an internet search. Alum is a common industrial chemical. I will have a look later and if I find out I will add it to this post. You can get alum in little blocks from many chemists shops. It is an astringent and they are sold as antiseptic shaving blocks you use on cuts from wet shaving (stops the bleeding quickly). The last one I bought cost about £1, and should be enough to do one skin provided you get the proportions of other chemicals right. However if you want to do a few skins, I doubt you will be able to find anyone doing it cheaper than Lorne Supplies, unless you buy it in bulk by the 25kg bag!! Some old fashioned chemists may sell it loose, but this will be very refined and will be an expensive way of buying it.