Welsh Stinger

Can you give me any info on Senghenydd range ?

I find this thread very disturbing , It sounds as if we should be ashamed of our life stile and we shouldn't mention what we do in public . Who the hell are these people who keep forcing their way of life down my throat while not even willing to talk about mine . At the end of the day they owe their freedom and survival to our history of hunting/shooting whether its enemy or for food . Who gives them the right to subject our children to their beliefs ?

Great story and photos , thanks for sharing . I never ever thought I would see the USA again after leaving the Royal Navy in 1979 .Little did I know then that I would get married and have two son's one of which would marry a native American and would settle down in Flagstaff Arizona and that his work would take them to Alaska for 6 months out of every year . I never dreamt that I would hunt Elk , white tail , Javelina as well as small game in the States . I have been hunting with a bow for the last few years . Its hard to believe that there are guys out there that can take out a deer at 80+ yards with a bow , I am good out to 40 yards and can get a good pass through at that range . These modern Compound bows are unbelievable and the new PSE bow has a speed of 366fps and can blow a 2" broad head straight through a Bison . Hunting with a bow in this country is illegal that's one of the reasons I have to go bow hunt America.

If you follow the instructions to the letter that come with your Birchwood Casey bluing kit I don't think you will be disappointed . http://www.birchwoodcasey.com/ Its been out a long time , tried and tested over the years and its still going strong .I did my first gun with it in 1971 and I have been using it ever since . Like others have said it is of utmost importance to make sure the barrels are perfectly clean , dry and oil free before you start bluing ,every thing you need is in the box . I made two wooden dowels to plug both ends of the barrels so they would sit between two small clamp on bench vice and I don't have to touch the barrels once they are clean. Good luck and take plenty of photographs .

Guys I have been using a lee load all for over 30 years , I did have a 12 and 20 gauge model but I sold my 12 gauge loader several years back . They are so simple to use that I always wondered why more people didn't use them . Back in the day there were shot towers doted around the country where you could buy shot but the carriage was so expensive I ended up making my own . As far as what empty cases to use I would always recommend Winchester when ever possible because they are parallel tubes so they don't use so much powder . Get a hack saw and cut straight down the center of a few different makes and you will see the difference , a Winchester cartridge is all plastic and there is no base wad in the tube , its all one piece with just a hole for the primmer . What are you buying wads for ? the whole reason to reload ( apart from personal satisfaction ) is to keep the costs down . Get yourself long to a clay shoot and ask the owner if you can go around and pick up a few black bags of wads and a couple of black bags of empty cartridges . You can reload a Winchester cartridge up to 10 times before you throw it away . You can sort through the wads and pick out several different types then try them in the load all and you will see which ones will crimp best , you have nothing to loose if some don't work out just cut them open and tip the contents back in the load all to be reused . With a bit of practice you will soon be able to match wad to cartridge and those couple of black bags of empties will last you for years. Once you can match a Winchester wad to a Winchester tube you will get a perfect crimp every time , by using a used wad it crimps easier because its been bent before therefore it doesn't try and push the crimp open again. Before you load always check you empties for wear and tear and if they look a bit worse for wear then ditch it and use a newer one . Another thing is to put a bit of tape on the load all lid to stop the bushings falling out if it is bumped as that can be a pain in the bumb if that happens . Good luck and happy loading.

Do they make a 20 bore cartridge for fox ??

muffin the mule ?

My second pair of barrels are skeet and skeet .

It works really well and is big business in the US and they have hundreds on the market . I have a lot of friends who swear by it and even spray deer attractant on their camo and boots when walking into the woods . Do an online search and you will be amazed . Now go out there and try it.

What do you mean GIGs ?? I am part of the 7 o'clock razor blade brigade .

Years ago there was a shot tower near Bristol where you could buy shot by the kilo , I only used it twice as the carrage cost almost as much as the shot so I ended up making my own . I don't know if it is still there these days but it may be worth finding out .

Hi guys I have never lamped fox before but I picked up a "Fox call UK " rabbit distress call at the Three Counties show at Malvern back in September and since then I have been going out in the evenings with the NV calling in fox . I don't take a gun , I am happy enough seeing how close I can get them in to me. I did manage to get one into six foot and another about twelve foot but on the whole they tend to stay at around 20-30 yards . I have shot fox before but only if I happen upon them while game shooting . I don't do much shooting these days but I do hunt , I hunt with a bow and it is one hell of a challenge . Bow hunting in the UK was banned in the 60's so I can only shoot targets here , I go bow hunting when I visit my son who lives in Arizona with his native American wife. The difference between a Bow hunter and an archer is an archer likes to see how far away he can hit a target where as a Bow hunter tries to get as close as he can to his quarry before letting go. I shall be reading your fox threads with interest hopping they will help me call in those coyotes when I next go States side.

I use lithium batteries in my night scope and they cost around £5.00 each over hear but for £8.50 I got 4 rechargable lithium batteries and the charger from Hong Kong and that included the postage , they only took 5 days to get here .

The last time I bought them they were a penny each and only now I have run out . Do you reuse empty shells and wads from a clay shoot ?? I used to buy my powder from a warehouse the other side of Bromyard , they sold it by the keg ( like a 5 gallon drum ) . I don't even know if its there any more . I used to make my own shot but was always worried I would get lead poisoning from breathing the fumes. I have still got enough to load a few hundred and I haven't made any for about 12 years.

Releasing town foxes into the country has been going on for years . Fifteen years ago a van full of town foxes from Bristol was released in the countryside near Usk in South Wales . These fox didn't know how to survive in the " wild " and after a few days the lucky ones were found in and around the farm yards and country houses where they were shot . The unlucky ones lasted a week or more and were found either dead or starving to death on the sides of the roads to weak to walk .

Hi Steve , Where do you get your primers from and how much are they these days ?? I sold my 12 bore loading gear but I still got my 20 bore "Lee Loadall " and its about time I loaded up a batch .

pigeon shooting seems to have come a long way since I started . High tec carbon rods to spike your dead birds on , we had the same idear but we would cut lengths of hazell from the hedge . Before the magnets were about we used home made flappers made from a 4" length of battern , some stiff wire , a couple of elastic bands and of course a ball of string and once it was set up a few yanks on the string would cause the wings to open and close and was enough to turn a passing bird. Maybe pigeons have evolved along with the gadgets , maybe they were more stupid 20-30 years ago .

Are there any home loaders here ?

Litts was a great shop 30 years ago when it was a small concern and they treated their customers like human beings but as soon as they expanded all they could see was ££££ signs and its got worse ever since . Once they corner the market and all the other small gun shops closed down they were free to charge what they want and I begrudge spending a penny in there .

I am a retired matlot come carpenter .

The biggest advantage a ploughed field has to offer is HIGH VISABILITY and at no other time of the fields life cycle will your decoys stand out more than on a ploughed / bare field . If the field is in the right position and you can put a big enough decoy pattern out there you should be able to grab their attention and bring them in close enough for a shot. As you gain more experience you will be able to get them to drop in right where you want them.

Don't worry about what gun , what cartridge , what choke to use . You should always use the gun that YOU feel most comfortable with , the cartridges YOU feel most confident with and same goes for the choke . If you use a Bikal and the guy next to you uses a Holland & Holland it doesn't mean that he is a better shot and his gun will shoot further than yours , it just means he has more money than you ( and come to think about it he is probably a better shot too ) LOL

Knowledge is the key to any shooting ,hunting , fishing and everything you do through out your life . You can read as many books and watch as many videos as you like but whether you can put the information you have gathered into practice is another story and what suites one may not suit another and at the end of the day its all down to you . Get to your field early enough to spend time working out the flight lines , there will be more than one so get to know the area . If you set up near one flight line you can bet they will use another so don't be afraid to move positions ( and I don't mean move every five minutes ,you have got to give things a chance to settle back down ). The only way to gain experience is to get out there and learn buy your mistakes . When you have gained experience you will be able to look at a field and sum things up as to where to set up and believe me you will be able to get those birds to come into you weather they intended to or not. You have got to make your decoy pattern first and foremost visible to low flying as well as high birds and you have to put enough out to make that passing bird think he's missing some thing. I don't believe you can put to many decoys out but that's just me but saying that I have had just as good days starting with 5 as I have had with 25 and that's one of the beauties of pigeon shooting " there are no hard and fast rules " and every time out is different. I'm sorry I am ranting on here , you must be all thinking " who the hell is this guy " , pigeon shooting has been a long time passion of mine . When I am in town or driving around every time I see a pigeon , crow or jackdaw I find myself subconsciously lining them up for a shot . I had better go to bed . good shooting and good night.

Boy I must be getting old , I didn't know what a magnet was until I read right through this thread but I have got a good idea what it is now . I have seen photographs of them but never used one . The only modern thing I use is a pop up blind and it beets the heck out of carrying all those poles and netting. You may well laugh at this but when i was a boy and there was no money about ( like it is getting now ) we would roll wet empty milk bottles in the cold ash of a camp fire and set them out on the field and use them as decoys and believe it or not it worked . once you shot a few birds you could do away with the bottles.

Tastes like chicken .LOL