columbus

Y.P. Got my W.G.P. he's ready now 8wks. But got to build a kennel before i bring him home.

Has enyone tried sticking a rotor underneath some oak trees when the pigeon are feeding on them.As the pigeons seem to be in small groups would it be worth it.

Y.P. I know I am playing devils advocate now ,but have you thought about a wire haired vizzla. They can do everything that a GWP can do only earlier, they are supposed to be easier to train aswell. On the down side you cannot shout at them. To get the best out of them you have to be sensitive when training them, all praise and no scolding.There is another factor that puts me off having on( the price) its £600 per pup a bit out of my league i'm afraid.

Over the past few weeks i have been having trouble with my computer, it logs on straight away but will not connect me to freeserve home page. A friend told me that someone living across the road from him had got broadband and when they were logged on he was having the same problem. To solve the problem you have to get in touch with your phone company to put a gain on your line,they done mine today and what a differance i can log on and connect in a few minutes now. I know i may be teaching my granny to suck eggs, but I thought there may be a few idiots like me out there that are having the same problems as I was, and this might be the answer.

Y.P. I have worked with a G.W.P. for the last two years pity its not my dog.Thay are great if you want to see one working,she'll be up in malham with us this winter.They are a bit slow to mature but when they do look out. My mates starts pointing larks in september,then moves on to pointing pheasants and marking rabbit warrens during the winter. They do have drawbacks they are very protective and don't like strangers, they will not enter cover for the hell of it like a spangle,but when there is some thing there and told to flush they will go in anywhere. My mates bitch has got a litter at the moment and i am hoping to get one of him cheap. I want to use it for retreving on the marsh. On the money side of the matter you can say goodbye to £400 for a bitch and £300 for a dog.

I used express 32grm 6 for everything rabbits, pigeon ,woodcock and duck,but at £52 per 500 i found that they were getting a bit expensive.So i changed to nobel sport 31 grms 6 @£42.58 per 500. ihave only used them on pigeons so far, but have no complaints.

Congratulations perhaps when you come back you could send me a cutting of the money tree that you have in your garden.

This year i have been plagued by one female sparrow hawk who has got the knack of taking woodies, she flies allong the hedgerow on the outer side of the field and at the last minute flips over the hedge and piles into any woodies that are close to the hedge.A couple of times this year i have been watching a field with about 60 to 80 birds on it and she has flipped over the hedge and sent every bird away .I have not seen her catch anything but the piles of feathers stand testomony to her prowess.Another day i was decoying a field and some of the birds were dropping over the hedge to my left,if they were wounded i would give them another barrel to finish them off.During a quiet spell i heard squeaking comming from the hedge on my left ,just then i saw a family of stoats working up the hedgerow,tried to get a shot but the hedge was to thick they were there one minute gone the next when it came to picking up one bird that had dropped about a foot from the hedge had gone with a trail of feathers leading into the hedge.Now i know that bird was stone dead and it did't get up and walk its self ,so the only explenation i can give is that the stoats had it.

While checking out some recent posts i read the one by ernyha about pigeon acting oddly in a high pressure situation.This made me think why should H.P.affect pigeon in this way. Could it be that the weather is so mild that they don't have to feed so hard to keep up thier body weight,or is it that there is not enough wind to keep them on the wing.Lets have some thoughts on it from you experenced pigeon shooters.

While looking through your tips section i saw a tip with a coat hanger cut in half for a rocking decoy. So i thought i would follow on from that and try a variation on the same theme, take your coat hanger cut the twisty bits of at the top ,straighten the wire out,then bend the top over like a shepherds crook. Put an eye in the back of a full bodied decoy and hang it from the end of the crook. The slightest breeze makes the bird bounce up and down and twist from side to side i have found it very effective with four of these shepherds in my pattern.

I just grab the birds head between my index finger and thumb hold its head firmly then give the body a few twists and the bird is usually dead.

You had better belive it gentlmen! If hunting goes so does every other type of country sport.In1966 the co-op bank refused to open an account for the Bedford ferret welfare group. The reason being that they had been told by its advisors,The League against Cruel Sports,that ferreting is a cruel sport. Now that seems a bit hypocritical, as the Co-opertive Wholesale Society lets out shooting on its 34,000 acres of farmland. What you have to remember is that 90% of the population of this country (including politicions) don't particularly care one way or another.Untill they are shown emotive photo's in the press.Then they feel that they should do "something". The other 10% of the population,"The Anti's" know this and have thier propaganda machines in place to utilise it.They are organised,and thier money buys a lot of lobbying power. When i was 13 years old i came home from ferreting with 6 rabbits tied around my belt, i felt as proud as punch as i walked through the village, people were saying "you've done well", "where did you catch that lot".How times have changed! So please don't be complaisant, march show that you care,show that we have a real roll to play in the welfare of our countryside .

You had better belive it gentlmen! If hunting goes so does every other type of country sport.In1966 the co-op bank refused to open an account for the Bedford ferret welfare group. The reason being that they had been told by its advisors,The League against Cruel Sports,that ferreting is a cruel sport. Now that seems a bit hypocritical, as the Co-opertive Wholesale Society lets out shooting on its 34,000 acres of farmland. What you have to remember is that 90% of the population of this country (including politicions) don't particularly care one way or another.Untill they are shown emotive photo's in the press.Then they feel that they should do "something". The other 10% of the population,"The Anti's" know this and have thier propaganda machines in place to utilise it.They are organised,and thier money buys a lot of lobbying power. When i was 13 years old i came home from ferreting with 6 rabbits tied around my belt, i felt as proud as punch as i walked through the village, people were saying "you've done well", "where did you catch that lot".How times have changed! So please don't be complaisant, march show that you care,show that we have a real roll to play in the welfare of our countryside .

Lee You want to come to west wales, i've never had such a good year.But as Cranfield says its pretty warm try first light i was out this morning on the field by 6.45 and there were already birds there, the flight had finished by 9 o'clock. So if i was you i would go early in the morning or late afternoon.

Jim Good for you, but that was just the start.Now the hard work starts, but don't give up,try practicing mounting in front of a mirror and when you throw the gun to your shoulder and you are looking straight down the rib you have cracked it good luck columbus.

Jim You said that you are using a mates gun at the moment.When you come to buying your own gun try to get a left handed gun if possible, if you cannot find one try to get as streight as stock as possible.

Yorkshire pudding It may be helpfull for you to start practicing with an air rifle at first,i know it will be a lot cheaper.But it will help you to get a feel for a gun in your left hand.

H H You can do the same test with your finger pointed at an object,close your r/eye if it dos'nt move your left eye is your master eye ,if it does your r/eye is your master eye . but what do you do if your left eye is your master but you are r/handed and cannot mount a gun l/ handed. Time for a cossover stock i think.

Neil. Some of the people i have spoken to who have the same problem as myself ,have said that it helps to close one eye. I know you are supposed to shoot with both eye's open but it dos'nt always work like that.My left eye is my master eye but i cannot see anything out of my right eye so i am shooting with one eye closed effectively. So if it works don't knock it. That sounds like a good signature!

What do you shoot the starlings with, and what do you do with the starlings after you have shot them .

Hello pc If i was you i would read and reread what i said then perhaps you would get your average up to 5 per box then.but seriously i think the only way i can explain it is like this.Take rule lay it on a piece of paper and draw 2 parallel lines of equi distance like this b-------------------- x y z a-------------------- if we take that (a) is the r/barrel and ( the l/barrel and xy the rib,and z is the target so when you mount the gun to hit a stationry target your line of sight should be xy to z but when you have a wrong handed gun for your self and mount it your line of sight is (a) to( y) not x to y as it should be get it now!

Kev15 when i asked about average's over decoys, i took it as read that if a bird came in to range ,(in my case 30 yards i can't see much further than that)you take a shot at it .So every opportunity within reason counts as a shot. We are there for the sport after all.

Highdowns hunter When i had my r/h/cast gun i was always looking over the r/h barrel when mounting the gun. Therfore any bird that was travelling from left to right i was automaticly in front of .Because the barrels were not pointing where i was aiming the barrels would be in front of the bird.If a bird was treading air about to land i would have to aim to the left of the bird to hit it.But any bird that was traveling right to left i would be behind therefore i would have to give it twice as mutch lead than a bird traveling the other way, it all gets very complecated but adds to the fun!

Highdowns hunter When i had my r/h/cast gun i was always looking over the r/h barrel when mounting the gun. Therfore any bird that was travelling from left to right i was automaticly in front of .Because the barrels were not pointing where i was aiming the barrels would be in front of the bird.If a bird was treading air about to land i would have to aim to the left of the bird to hit it.But any bird that was traveling right to left i would be behind therefore i would have to give it twice as mutch lead than a bird traveling the other way, it all gets very complecated but adds to the fun!

Like quite a few people i'm r/handed but shoot l/handed,.How many of us are there.For about 30 years i have shot with a r/hand gun,now i have a l/hand gun and find it a lot easier.Locally out of about 20 guns i know 3 of them are the same as me so how common is this.