Zapp

Wookie, I work in Huntingdon, and the nearest that I know of is the Gun Shop, Whittlesey. I have only been there once (only because it is out of the way for me), and they had a good selection of guns and seemed pretty helpful. They are out on the eastern side of Peterborough, about a 25 minute drive from huntingdon. Here is their website: www.whittleseygunshop.co.uk Hope this helps Pete

I use Eley Pigeon specials 32g no6 at the moment. I have also used Rottwiel 30g no5s, and found them to be pretty good too. Pete

Hi Fenlander Welcome to the forums. Be sure to stick around as this is an excellent forum, I have only ever had 1st class help and friendly banter from it. Pete

Hi Tim, welcome to the forums. What kind of shotty/cartridge combo do you use for pigeons? Pete

Had my first of the year on friday on a new permission (200 acres of rape). Luck was not on my side, as the birds showed NO interest at all in my deeks, but I saw a flock of about 300 birds working the nearby fields. My bag? 1, yes 1 pigeon, which was a straggler from said flock which strayed over my hide. I am not disheartened though, as the shoot has great potential and I cant wait to go back! Still, I had a 100% kill rate! Pete

Kingratcatcher I too use an Opinel, and would rate them the best, in spite of the fact as you rightly point out they lose their edge quickly. I simply carry a small steel and give it a quick swish each time I use it. Pete (Edited due to the fact I was replying to the wrong person...Doh!)

I think that reversing the truck through the fence was an act of mercy after everything else which had happened to the winner (especially the holly stick rectal probe!!!) When I was at junior school a lad in my class was missing from school one morning. The teacher explained that he had fallen from his dads shed roof and was in hospital, but would return to school soon. He was very quiet when he got back, a bit of a shadow of his former self, but was otherwise fine. Only a few years later did he finally confess the truth behind the story I should point out that this was late summer and he had been wearing shorts). He had indeed been playing on his dads shed roof, but it was a knackered and rickety affair. One minute he was playing happily, the next, he went straight through. This would have been bad enough, had he not landed on the end of one of those old fashined hoe handles (the straight ones without a loop). The majority of the impact was absorbed by his testicles, which were smashed against the section between plums and rectum . Unfortunately there was still enough momentum for the hoe handle to continue a fair distance up his back passage , leaving him to crawl in considerable pain to the shed door and wimper for help! On the bright side, the doctors told him that were it not for his testicles heroic diving save, he would have suffered a perforated colon and would probably have died! It took me a good twenty seconds to get over my horror and sypathy before I spat beer across the pub and disolved into hopeless laughter. Mind you I bought his beer for the rest of the night! I am also happy to report that in spite of his rather horrific accident, he has two kids and (I would assume) suffers no problems, ahem, "moving his bowels". I just hope his dad got rid of the hoe, or at least wears a glove when using it! Pete

Welcome!

Hi all. Hope everyone had a great xmas etc. Mine was somewhat thwarted by a powercut on the big day, so it was a bit of a washout! Anyway, I got a phone call today out of the blue from a farmer who had been given my details by a friend. He said that he has 300 acres of mainly rape fields near me, and that they are getting "battered by pigeons", and would I mind helping! As if this is not good enough, they are the self same fields I drive past on the way to the in laws, which I have been eyeing enviously for years! What a christmas pressie! There are now two bottles of Bells waiting for my mate who passed the details, and a few hundred cartridges waiting for the pigeons! I cant wait!!! :yp: Gloat over, sorry! Pete

Thanks for the replies, chaps. I expect that it will be just a matter of putting lots through it till it calms down. I am off to sporting targets again tomorrow, so hopefully a hundred or so more will help! Thanks again Pete

I think this happens on a lot of forums, as annoying as it can be. It is always a difficult line for mods to strike, keeping needless bickering (which is what seems to be happening on the thread in question) down to a minimum without becoming the PW gestapo. Perhaps a quiet word to those concerned (which I think someone has suggested) from a mod will help deflate the ego(s) involved and steer them away from peoples genuine questions to a more suitable area such as the general banter section. Failing that, if a repeat offender emerges, it is surely for those who he clashes with to show why they are the better man by simply completely ignoring his attacks, I guarantee he will soon get pretty bored with logging on and talking to himself! Pete

It's my eldest boys birthday today (5 years old)! Just long enough before christmas to warrant two sets of pressies, the little ******! Pete

What a nice idea! I'll go for 112 A happy and peaceful Christmas to all at PW! Pete

Hi all I recently bought a Franchi 712 Raptor, which is the first auto I have owned. It performs fine with 32g pigeon loads, but when I used it with some 28g remington skeet cartridges it kept either catching the empty in the ejection port or trying to load the empty and the fresh cartridge, very frustrating as you can imagine. Having done a bit of resarch, the general consensus was that it would be a good idea to fire some really heavy loads on the light gas setting to wear the gun in. I did this today with some mule like 36g pigeon cartriges, and apart from the odd hiccup, the gun performed much better when I switched to 28g skeet and sporting loads. What I was wondering was whether I can expect the performance to get steadily better as the gun settles in, or might there be an underlying problem with the gun? Thanks in advance for any thoughts you may have. Pete

Yep, Happy Xmas to all. Not finishing work untill the 23rd sadly! Pete

Ha! Very true! As my wife's grandad, who was in the Rifle Brigade in north africa, sicily and Italy says: "When we fired, the Germans ducked. When the Germans fired, we ducked. When the Yanks fired, EVERYONE ducked!" :thumbs: Pete

You forgot to mention the bit where this pilot geezer sprung some teef called Barraccas and brung it large to Jesus instead cos he werent enuff bizzle. No, hang on, thats Chav easter.... Pete

Hurrah! Did my bit for her at work first thing. Pass on my congrats, and Ihope she enjoys her hol! Pete

Wabbitbosher said: Goodness me theres getting to be a bit of a Northants club on here! Nah, its like Manchester in the 90's! Now "kinky boots" has made northampton famous (for the next 15 minutes), everyone wants to be like us... Seriously though, welcome lord Seagrave.

No problem Nick, I'm always open to suggestions. The reason I picked ST is because it is where I normally shoot and they have a goodvariety of targets. If the consensus is that somewhere else would be preferable, I have no problems with that. Pete

Ochre, Since you are a fellow northants man, if you are within reasonable distance of rushden, I would be more than happy to invite you over for a tasting of my homebrew, or wouldbe equally happy to come and assist you in getting started. Drop me an email! Pete

Just an idea, but Nicks clay meet has inspired me... I live pretty cose to sporting targets in Bedfordshire, and thought it might be a bit of fun to organise an Xmas 100 bird skeet/sporting shoot off there for members near enough to make it. I would think that a group of about 10 wold be manegable, but have no ideas about costings etc at the mo (shouldnt be too expensive if we provide our own carts etc). This wold probably be on a saturday during the first 2 weekends before xmas. Let me know what you think. Pete

Thats a really impressive bag! You usually only see that kind of thing in old pictures with lots of handlebar moustaches :thumbs: Nice to see that the old tried and tested methods are still alive and well. Long may your sucess continue! Pete

On the advice of someone on here I tried the "woodfords" range of sugar free kits. In the past I had used the kind where you had to add brewing sugar to the mix, but was not always pleased wth the results due to a slight "artificial" taste. The one I bought was Woodford's "Nog", as I am a big fan of dark beer. It is fantastic! It wont be officially ready until tomorrow, but I have had a couple of tasters :thumbs: I would say that if you have the patience and space (and in all honesty you dont need a HUGE amount of either), homebrewing is very worthwhile. Pete

I like them with pepper sauce like you would have with steak. Stick some cream into the pan you fried the breasts in, then a load of cracked black pepper, then a little salt. Luverly!