Warlock

Quite agree, direct to a gamedealer no licence required, they just take your name and address for their books for traceability reasons. i believe a game licence from the council is like £4 or something silly used to get them from the post office.

Almost forgot, if you are making a hide and put a roof on it to give abit more cover remember to find a long branch to push the middle out abit to create a run off, a friend of mine went shooting with me once and it was raining he setup and left a dip in his tarpauline, i watched with glee as it filled with water then fell off my stool laughing when several gallons of water dropped on his head.

The only way i have overcome this problem is to park my ford ranger up as a back stop and cover it in camo net, then building my hide around that. It`s not ideal but it did seem todo the job.

I was out on the rape Tuesday, am still new to decoying. Could anyone offer advice on the following teething problems? The wind direction was changing every 5 mins and kept dropping to nothing, i had out 4 full body decoys with feet and 5 shells on spring sticks, the pigeons would come in drop abit then make the typical pigeon squawk then veer off, any ideas what could cause this? i had the horseshoe set facing me as the wind was from that direction most of the time but the pigeon flightline was from my left following the edge of the woods i was setup on, could that cause a problem or should they just see the pattern on their way over the come into land after turning? should i turn the pattern to suit where they were coming from?

I shoot on some land where they farmer puts banger ropes down to keep the birds moving where we are shooting, trouble is the rope goes off they fly away then come back, fire a shotgun and they fly off never to be seen again. Typical.

Went back out today, had a drive around to see what was about, got on the first field at 09:30 to find pigeons feeding, they flew off as soon as i arrived and never came back, got under a flight path on the edge of some woods but they wouldn`t take the decoys on the rape. Hit 2 with 2 cartridges so pretty lame, they don`t seem to be in the right place.

As fast as i was clearing snow it just covered back up again (stubble), also started drifting up around my decoys which looked abit weird. i`m glad i have a ford ranger as all my permission is up and down hills. Went back out for an hour to see if there is any change and it`s set in for the day, i did manage to get 3 pigeons but they were due to finding them slowly dying in the snow due to cold and lack of food so i shot them with my air rifle i carry with me, (i can`t get the knack of necking birds or rabbits so i find it more mercifull to use an air rifle). Oh and i towed 3 members of the public up a hill that all got stuck in a little convoy so quite quiet really.

Well not a fantastic morning, after driving around the fields i have permission for i found one with some heavy pigeon activity, the adjacent field had a few rabbits about looking for food through the tiny amount of snow we had overnite, drove onto my first field at 09:30am and it started to snow, 15 minutes later full on blizzard. nothing was flying around due to the ammount of snow even the rabbits had gone. Visibility was about 10 metres. bit of a lost day today. Snow around Dover is meant to clear overnite so i`m hoping that the pigeons will have some feeding to make up for tomorrow. Anyone else had any luck?

I know, it just really annoys me when people that can`t read plain text properly come onto a forum then jump on their moral high horse for NO REASON!!!

I`m in the same situation, wondering whether to go out tomorrow, trouble is the earliest i can be on the field is 10am and have to be off by 4pm to get my daughter, i`m hoping that will be enough time, and never been out decoying in snow so will it work?

If you read my post you will notice that i asked "do these gulls damage the crops by eating them? or are they just looking for grubs" I then went onto say "If they are just looking for grubs and not eating the crops then i`ll leave them alone as they are not my concern i`m only there to prevent crop damage" So what i suggest you do is read posts properly think about it abit and then engage your fingers. Saying that i want to shoot them for the hell of it is slander and anyone can see from my post that i enquired into their reasons for being around the crops in the first place and clearly said if they don`t damage crops then they are not my concern.

I think the main question is do these "gulls" damage the crops by eating them? or are they just looking for grubs? if they are eating the crops & if they are the right species i`m going to stick a banger rope in the field for the day if it doesn`t work i`m going to shoot them that way i`m covered. If they are just looking for grubs and not eating the crops then i`ll leave them alone as they are not my concern i`m only there to prevent crop damage.

I got my first permission Wednesday 1600+ acres of mixed farmland around the Dover, Kent area. This was the only farmer i went to and got a yes straight away, i found him by speaking to my local gunshop that deals with game hunting supplies and has nothing to do with clays, he gave me some names and addresses and said which ones are the best to go to. Insider knowledge goes along way. Also during weekdays he has a permanent guy shooting for him full time but as you can imagine on 1600+ acres i never see him about and nobody else is around either, everyone comes at the weekend but even then he has given permission but very few ever turn up because they got greedy and signed with other farmers too.

Would be a combination of everything, seen some natural cover for flightline shooting and also i have a hide to use for decoying, hide can also be setup by an access point the rabbits use when they cross from their burrows in a disused coliery into the fields for feeding. What killing range would a 30 gramme 6 pigeon cartridge give me on a rabbit? or should i stepup to a 32 gramme to give me that little bit more punch.

Hmm that`s what i was thinking so i`m glad someone confirmed it, i have an aya yeoman o/u, a 3" escort semi, and a benelli semi, was thinking that when i get my firearms cert i could get my benelli derestricted upto an 8 + 1 to give me even more flexibility. What would give me more range an air rifle or a shotgun? i would be using a 30 gramme 6 cartirdge for pigeons would that give a good kill on a rabbit?

Hi all, i have been given permission to use rifle or shotgun to control pigeons and rabbits etc the question is should i stick to my shotgun and use a 30/32 gramme 6 cartirdge for rabbits and pigeons or would it be a good idea to have an air rifle to compliment my shotgun for the odd rabbits that wonder over? also to let you know 1600+ acres and alot is round a disused colliery so rabbit heaven. Any thoughts?

So do they eat the rape/plant shoots or are they bug hunting? anyone know? i looked on the basc website and it identified these gulls as being ok to shoot. This is new land for me and never come across this many gulls. I suppose really i should ask the landowner if he wants them dead, only thing is pigeons and rabbits i can sell, seagulls i can`t so i`m wasting cartridge money shooting them but if i`m asked to shoot them i am kind of obliged to or risk losing my permission.

I was out driving about today doing a recce on some land i have permission for in Kent and all was pretty quiet, over 1600 acres of land and only a few pigeons about nothing major but went to my favourite spot on the brow of a hill and there were about 100 gulls sitting on the ground eating with a good few more circling above and the thought popped into my mind do they eat the shoots or are they after bugs.

I bought my escort and i must admit only used 28g 70mm cartridges at the weekend and it is lovely, i left my 682e in it`s slip all day and stuck with the Escort. I have some Eley 67.5mm 28g eley cartridges so i will try them this weekend, if they don`t cycle i suppose i will have to use my O/U. Before anyone asks why i bought an escort and not a webley or something the reason is my firearms cert comes through in a few weeks and i have a grant for a section 1 shotgun so while i paid my cash for my escort i also paid my cash for a brand new benelli and got myself a nice discount and a few hundred carts and a slip into the deal.

Thanks for the replies, i will go out and get myself an escort tomorrow and try some 65mm 28 gramme cartridges, i have a load of fibre ones that i use in my 682 and hoped i could use them in the escort too so i can avoid buying yet more carts.

I wonder if anyone can help me, i`m looking at buying a hatsan escort 3" chamber but can`t find any info on whether you can use 65mm (2 1/2") cartridges in them would anyone know the answer. Cheers for any help.