Hammergun

You need to go to the Windows start button, then go to settings - control panel - keyboard and click on the "language" tab, add "English - British" (using your Windows CD), then remove "English-US".

Let's try to keep the sizes down a bit next time!

Precharged - Air Arms, Theoben, Daystate etc. etc. The more you pay, the better you get Steer clear of the cheap imports.

There's an article on it in this month's Sporting Gun magazine!

Anyone coming into the PW Arms? Been haveing trouble getting it to work tonight mind you.

Got given this as a birthday present but I've already got a copy. Hardback book detailing techniques for decoying, roost shooting etc. Very interesting. This is in mint conditon, possibly even unread. £3.50 to any pigeonwatchers!!

The decoy may well date from the early 1900s though its difficult to tell. Probably between 1900 and 1940 anyway. I saw one on Ebay which fetched about £50 a few months back.

Have to thin my cabinet out a bit in anticipation for the .22!! For sale is a nice 12 bore back action hammer shotgun, 30" barrels, Fine brown Damascus with Jones underlever action. Very tidy gun. Nitro proof and bores are at least 7 thou in proof, the minimum wall is 25 thou. Clean, shiny bores other than a very slight mark in the r h bore. Finished by W R Pape, Newcastle Upon Tyne. Engraved metalwork with game scenes. £295 ono. Please email for photos.

Here's some info on how the professionals do it which I got from an old keeper this week. If you are wishing to prepare rabbit skins, cut off the feet at the first joint and make a slit at the back of the thighs from one leg to the backside just under the tail, then across the back of the other thigh. Loosen the tail and carefully separate it from the tail bone by easing ot off with your fingernails so that it remains attached to the skin on the back. Next slit right down the belly to the chin, then push the forelegs apart and make a slit from the inside end of one right across to the other and peel the skin right off, cutting the base of the ears so they come off with the skin, and cutting round under the eyelids and the nose, and under the lips to take off the head skin intact, complete with lips and nose. Next you have to pin the skin stretched out onto a board and remove the sinews by scraping with a sharp knife. You cannot just simply use them as they come when removed from the rabbit or else they rot from the grease and hair falls out. After this is done, you can start tanning.

I am told that this pattern sometimes occurs half way through shedding the winter coat, whereby the moult starts at the nose and goes backwards to the ears.

Contact your local hunt and invite them over to draw the land!

Try different brands as they all have different shot patterns. Have you tried Super XLR? Most events only allow fibre wad nowadays, as do also many shoots. Pesonally I hate plastic wads and would never use them They look really bad littering the countryside.

If you can't be bothered to tan them, remove sinews and use borax instead of salt as it works much better.

Scottish Rabbit As above but stuff with tinned haggis! (available from Safeway / Morrisons etc) Serve with a dram of whisky!

Here's a great one from Hungary. I tried this at the weekend. Stuffed Roast Rabbit You need a rabbit which has been gutted using a very small slit in the belly, with belly flaps left intact, and well washed. In Eastern Europe, it is traditional to cook complete with head, tail and feet (I cooked it in this way for authenticity, though I took the meat and tongue off the head and removed the head and feet before serving). The tongue should be well washed before cooking and kept as this is considered to be a delicacy. 1 oz shredded suet rashers of streaky bacon to cover rabbit Fried onion for gravy Mash liver and use for gravy. Stuffing - 2 crumbled rolls / crumbled bread 2 rashers lean bacon, finely chopped 1 small onion 1/2 tsp caraway seeds 1 tsp paprika 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (or chilli powder), more if desired. 2 oz shredded suet finely chopped red pepper 1/4 pint milk 4 oz sausagemeat or finely chopped smoked meat. salt, pepper Brown the onions, peppers and bacon and mix with dry ingredients and sausagemeat / smoked meat. Add milk, salt and pepper and fold together, adding sufficient milk to make a stuffing consistency. Stuff rabbit as full as you can get it, pushing right into chest cavity and belly. Pull belly flaps over to keep stuffing inside. Lay rabbit in oven tray and layer with fat streaky bacon so that flesh is covered. Sprinkle suet on top. Cover with foil and roast in a moderate oven for 2 hours, basting regularly. Uncover and cook for a further half hour, basting regularly. Make gravy using liver and fried onions. The rabbit was cooked to perfection, very tender, moist and well flavoured.

I always send the rings in to one of the homing organisations. My great grandad used to race them and always appreciated knowing if they were dead. (used to shoot plenty of ferals too, mind) Racers which have got mixed up with ferals aren't much good as you say, but it's still useful to know this when planning breeding programmes. Woodies reared in captivity are unlikely to survive. Should have kept them for the pot!

I am just having a go at stuffing a rabbit at the moment. Best for rabbit skins is "White Tan" from Snowdonia Taxidermy Supplies. £10 for enough to do 25 skins. Leaves the skins soft and supple like you see at the game fairs. Remove sinews, rub salt on the flesh side and freeze them until you are ready. If you want to do skins complete, you need to separate the outer skin from the ear cartilage by turning the ears inside out then back again, do the same with the paws. The tail bone must be removed and it is easiest to do this as soon as the rabbit has been shot. Peel the skin back to the tail, and carefully pull, keeping your fingernails in front of the tail skin. The tail bone should come out whole, still attached to the body (this takes a bit of practice). When tanning, massage the ears, tail and paws to get the tanning solution to flow into them.

Anyone off to Chatsworth this weekend?

I got a cheap set of riffler files for £2.95 from one of those cheap tool shops which sell the cheap brands such as "Rolson" and " Am Tech". Whilst they may be useless for metalworking, they are OK for chequering. There is only one tool in the set suitable, (the "v" profile) but it is much cheaper than getting an individual new one. You can buy quality riffler files from http://www.cromwell.co.uk There are special chequering tools for sale from Peter Dyson gunmakers tools, but they tend to be expensive. If you are doing chequering fron scratch, they do a chequering head which has a follower which runs in the previous line to keep the new line parallel. http://www.peterdyson.co.uk

Make sure you degrease before you apply. You need to use a primer first. That's why Cranfield's hammerite didnt stick. Etch primer is best on aluminium.

I would kill the squab and take it home for the pot!! Better to get it rather than leave it as a live meal for a fox, or if it survived, to guzzle up the new drillings!!!

Here's a healthy bunny for comparison.

This is a close up of a mixy bunny's head in the advanced stages. You can see the puffy nose and eyelids.

There haven't been any really bad cases of mixy round here for some time like you describe, I presume because the rabbits are getting more resistant to it. This one is typical, and you can't always tell until you cut them open. It was a young bunny developing mixy and its eyes had started to turn. However, it was obviously mixy when I cut it open, as you can see here. Anyway, humans can't catch mixy, so you needn't worry!

Buy yourself some Rangoon oil from your gun shop. It is a heavy oil which repels water and rust-proofs your metalwork. It also resists fingermarks. Thoroughly clean down the metalwork, then apply it with a patch, ensuring you get it in all the hard to rech places. Don't put it on too thick or it will run. This will prevent rust, even on really wet days. Also never put the gun back in its slip wet. Use an old towel to dry it off, and ideally let it stand somewhere warm and airy or at least spray it with some gun spray oil.