THE GRIFF

After owning lots of different wellies upto the £50/£60 price bracket over the years and hardly getting a season out of any of them I finally bit the bullet and treated myself to a a more expensive pair last year. I bought myself some aigle, very comfy, warm and still going strong, I don't think I will ever buy any other wellie in future. Would definatly recomend Aigle to anyone want wellies.

Order one of these and put a connector from maplins on your flapper to plug into it. They weigh nothing and are nice and small, will run a flapper all weekend on one charge http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/290926383451 Might take a week or two to arrive but worth it

I bought one of these pinewood rotary's last year and can honestly say I think it's worth every penny. What makes it different from others apart from the lightness and the upright, slim design is the fact it doesn't need as much juice to power it like others. I run mine with a 12ah lithium battery and can run it all day with dead birds or hyper flaps. The lithium battery weighs hardly anything and the weight of this rotary makes life so much easier when added to the rest of the kit walking too and from your hide. There is lots of overpriced gimmicks about in all sports, especially pigeon shooting, I myself have plastic, rubber and neoprene decoys as well as bouncers, floaters, different sticks and pecker things which all work on the right day but you would need a quad or tractor to get it all to your hide. With this rotary you carry it as far as you want with one small/light battery and it last you all day, most other rotary's you will need at least a couple of 7ah batteries or more for a longer session and are a lot heavier and bulkier to carry long distances. Don't get me wrong, the pinewood one will not attract more pigeons than a £40 one off ebay but does make life easier. The pinewood rotary with a lithium battery is one of the bits of kit I have, and one I haven't regretted buying.

I have also got some of these decoys and found the same problem, they just spin round in the wind, they look very dark when next to real birds in your pattern, in certain lights they look like ferral's have landed in your pattern, nothing like wood pigeons. Although saying all this, if it's not windy they do work and they are very light to carry too and from your hide.

Sold to me, meeting up to collect it over this weekend

How many litres, can it be put on with a roller, is is heat resistant military paint and has it been opened or is it a sealed tin?

I am looking at getting a new pair of wellies as I am on my third pair in the last 12 months. I am ideally looking for some that are comfortable to walk in and warm in the cold, I aren't bothered if they are too warm in the summer because I normally wear boots in the summer anyway. One of the issues I am having is finding a pair that my harkila pro hunter trousers will tuck into as these trousers are quite thick, my previous wellies have been thin neoprene type ones and although they are comfy they havn't been warm and don't last very long. I have looked at the hunter style wellies with adjustable strap at the side and was wondering if these would accomodate the trousers better. I have looked at the le chameau and the aigle iso boots but although they both feel good quality I am reluctant to spend that sort of money on something that can easily be torn on barbed wire. Is there any cheaper options anyone can recomend and which wellies are people wearing that are comfy with thick trousers tucked in?

I will take the speed controller please

I tend to put the rotary quite close to the hide but offset to one side depending on the wind to reduce the chance of shooting the rotary. I would like to think I didn't get that excited and carried away I shot the battery, what would you do if you are shooting near livestock or had a building near you, I am sure you would not shoot these if you were aware they were there, but saying that I am sure most if us have peppered decoys with shot whilst shooting low birds.

Yes, you answered your own question. I have a magnet I have just blown the speed controller in it and spins far too fast without it, you can't even tell they are pigeons it goes that fast. I also bought a new seeland one a few weeks ago I sent back because it went too slow, it just looked pathetic.

Just a quick update on my previous post, I sent the wildhunter lithium battery back under guarantee for an exchange, it was faulty. These batteries are protected from over discharging and stop working with 20% of the power remaining to protect the cells, you can't overcharge them either if you use the correct charger as it cuts off. The new 15ah battery works fine with my pinewood rotary and starts off at 38rpm, dropping to about 32rpm after 3 hours, it hasn't started to go any slower than 30rpm even towards the end of a 8 hour session in 40mph gusts of wind using dead birds and the battery was still showing half charged. I would think this battery will last a 12 hour + session in the summer. I also have a chineese 4800mah lithium battery from the bay I use for my flapper used with a random timer and it works fantastic, very small and light and powers the flapper for days off one charge. I am very wary when I charge it because of the stories of them setting on fire but upto now it's been fine, I do take it into work to charge it so I can keep a close eye on it. Regardless of what some people might say, using lithium batteries rather than lead acid batteries does make a lot of differance to the weight of your gear when carrying it along way.

I have had a flapper for around 12 months and have just had to sort out the threads on the ground spikes due to them being dirty and rusty over time. I was just wondering if anyone lubricates any other moving parts within the casing, being mechanically minded I would presume any moving parts out in damp weather on a regular basis should be cleaned and lubricated every now and again.

I was also disappointed when I received mine at first with the quality but have to admit I am impressed with them when in use, they look really good in the right conditions with the wings flapping. First impressions were they won't last 5 minutes but they seem to be well built on closer inspection. They are however useless in windy conditions, I have just made som thicker rods out of 3mm fibreglass for when its windy but have yet to test them.

I had one for about 12 months. They take a lot of getting used to "drainpipe on a stock" would be a good summery. They are also very long in length and a bit clumbsy. The basic investarm gun is very cheaply made and not good quality, I had issues with it double discharging which were sorted under guarantee. On a more positive note, it is a very handy tool to have for certain situations when other shotguns are too loud, around buildings and built up areas and around livestock when a rifle or louder shotgun can't be used. I got rid of mine because it hardly got used. They are supprisingly light being a plastic stock and aluminium (i think) moderator but it is only a £250 gun with a £500 moderator.

Where would be the cheapest place to get a magtame speed controller?

Uttings and the seeland rep said the seeland one went fast enough but to me 20rpm isn't so I sent it back. The rotary I have at the moment goes too fast now I have blown the speed controller, it's like a helicopter taking off. There are plenty of threads on here about ideal speed for a pigeon magnet with around 35-40 being about the ideal speed for most situations, although some people do like to slow them down on very calm days. As I have already said, the video on aa decoys site looks as if it is going slow, so I wanted to know if that was the fastest or the slowest setting. The way to measure the real speed is rpm, not somebody saying "its fast enough" because from recent experience one persons "fast enough" is not what I am looking for. So to answer your question I am comparing the rpm to a speed I think is correct, pinewood magnets are 40 rpm this info is available if you ask them and I have spoken to people that own one and have confirmed it.

I have had a few problems lately buying things online and have had to pay postage a couple of times sending things back so I just wanted to research it before I rushed out and bought one, like I said on earlier on there website in the video it looks as if it is going quite slow. If anyone owns one of these and is using it tomorrow, could you please count how many times it turns in 20 seconds, this number x 3 will give the rpm.

I recently bought a seeland one, spoke to uttings and the harkila/seeland rep before I bought it as the info I wanted was not advertised, they didn't have the exact rpm info but was told it is as good as any other magnet and between 30 and 40 rpm with dead birds depending on the wind. When I tested it on the fastest speed it was doing 20 rpm and 10 on the other speed. In my opinion 20 rotations every 1 minute is not fast enough and that was with no wind so would be even slower in the field. That's why I am asking on here, people that sell things don't always tell the truth and if they don't know the answer they often just make something up.

Bump Thought I would bump this again to see if anyone can answer the original thread. How many rpm does this £45 rotary spin at on each of the 2 speeds when using a dead birds. Not intrested in wich magnets are better than others, which ones cost more or wether they all do the same thing, please start a new thread if you want to tell everyone why yours is better. Thanks

The video on there website looks as if it going quite slow, it's a 4 second video and it turns 1.5 times, that works out around 22.5 rpm according to my working out. It says it has 2 speeds, Is this the slowest speed or the fastest?

I presume speed 2 is faster than speed 1, is this correct? Can you confirm what ah battery you are using to get 5 hours use? Thanks for replying it really is appreciated.

I have just been looking at the aa decoys £45 rotary on the web and have a couple of questions. It says it has 2 speeds, does anyone know approximately what rpm each speed does with 2 dead pigeons and is the speed dramatically slowed down with a bit of a wind? With a 12ah lead acid battery how long will it last using dead birds before it slows down to the point where it's too slow? Thanks in advance for any replies.

I stand corrected, it seems you can shoot Lesser black backed gulls under the general licence without a special permit. I personly wouldn't have a clue identifying one gull from another so wouldn't shoot any. I would think you would need quite heavy shot to bring one down.

You can apply for a special permit to shoot certain types of gulls but I don't know the procedure of getting one or the reasons for getting a permit granted. I only know that certain months of the year a local estate gets granted a permit to shoot certain gulls and they have to be recorded, the keeper and the wardens are listed on the licence, I think the reason for getting it granted is to stop them eating the pheasant eggs. Unless you have a special licence then the answer is NO YOU CAN'T.

The idea is to make life as easy as possible to get to where I am going in one trip, if after an hour I have to pack up and move 2 feilds over then the lighter and less bulkier the better. I don't mind making 2 or 3 trips back.