JBS

Why throw them if u have the freezers? Makes no sense to me, just keep freezing until you have enough for it to be worth the trip? Criminal to shoot them only to throw them away

Sounds like too much going on to me, if birds want the field then all the gadgets can have a negative effect sometimes. I would have took all the plastic decoys in as soon as I had enough dead birds, half a dozen real birds are better than 30 plastics in my opinion. We have started with no deeks at all plenty of times before and just set up deads on sticks and hedge made bouncers as we shoot them.

I've just leased a new l200 challenger, I used a company called future vehicle leasing after trying pick up trucks direct and a few others for quotes, website prices look very attractive but they are usually a high deposit with low mileage allowance and big final payment etc. I settled on a two year deal with 1k deposit and 170 a month payments all plus vat, also being a finance lease deal there are no mileage limits and a simple balloon payment at the end of the contract, works well for me but I am a vat reg business which makes a big difference. Also pick up trucks direct said they couldn't come close to the deal I got.

Yes that's annoying, they only seem to do it to the spring feeders in the pen though?

Do you mix the two in the same feeders? If so easy answer is don't mix the two! I tend to fill they're empty favourite feeders/top hats with wheat before all the pellets run out so they start to take a bit of wheat and only fill the others as they completely run out.

That's good to hear as I've just ordered the l200 challenger! What tyres are you running it on?

By cutting the slab you will take away the strength of the raft. I doubt any building inspector would pass it off without getting the engineers agreement to alter in writing but I have done it before! Did the engineer even visit the site or is it all calculated from the plans? If so get them out and show them the test holes to see if they can come up with a better method, for the sake of £100 ish site visit it could be well worth it.

Have you added anything to the lead when you made the ingots?

Seems like it's almost dead central to the fire so I think rather than making a bodge of covering I'd be tempted to straighten the crack up with a grinder and point it up, it would just look like the stone came in two sections

Thanks for the offer, I'll get some real figures from them after the bank holiday and give you a PM

Exactly how I like to do it, I shoot top first as I just find it easier to stuff one in the top in a confined space, multi chokes shooting half and three quarters.

Nice truck, is it based on the warrior or the Trojan?

No milage limit on the deal I'm looking at, it's finance lease so you pay a small deposit, about £1000 then monthly payments for between 2 and 4 years then a balloon payment at the end of the term, this is the bit that concerns me as I haven't asked what this will be!! I think it's a case of if you look after the truck it's value will out way the balloon payment. I only do around 6000 a year but I'm a builder so it will get some abuse

Has anyone on here had any dealings with pick up trucks direct? I'm thinking of leasing a new warrior off them and at £156 a month almost seems too good to be true

Do you know why his insurance wouldn't pay out? I had my van done over two weeks ago and I'm in the process of claiming on my tool insurance that is part of my public liability. One good thing is I took photos of all my kit on the advice of a friend and I have receipts for everything but my petrol cutter which is older than my seven year financial records that I keep for work.

How sad, but remember it's not the length of their life, it's the life they lead. Blue would have seen more pigeons in five years than most other dogs on here put together.

I'm sure this has been asked before pc but to save me searching, did you make the net you use yourself? It seems to blend very well with every background

Blast and point it once, or paint it every year wishing you had blasted and pointed

Observation is key, nobody can tell you the best time, it's up to you to moniter activity, if birds are in the area it could be the same or next day, if they have to find it then four or five days but the longer it goes on the more chance of germination. I agree that drills are very efficient but operators are not always the best and there may well be areas where seed has been spilled and certainly where the drill turns is always a favourite, we have shot over bean fields that look devoid of beans on the surface but the pigeons seem to find them

We have shot good bags over drilled beans when they are green and three or four inches tall, I understand it's not the greenery they are after but just because it's germinated doesn't mean you won't shoot them on it, as said though this doesn't last long and the worse the drill is the better the shooting is!

I think some people are also forgetting the difference a good ratio makes to picking up a good bag, if you go out and shoot 4:1 and pick up 40 birds that could easily have been a 100 plus day for a better shot. Generally we shoot two in a hide, if you pick off 3 or 4 every time a small gang comes in numbers build quickly but at 1or 2 for four shots it's a big difference

Thousands around here hitting different blocks of rape daily, as per usual rape shooting they are there one minute and gone the next, easiest way of of picking up a decent bag is in the roosting woods

Cheers Motty, What size and length is best?

How do you use the rods? Is just a case of propping the head or up the back passage and in to the head? If so how do you stop them turning over?

Always sit down and stay sitting to shoot unless the shot forces me to stand