Grandalf

Right now I am trying to sum up the energy and the interest to go and mow the lawn. But then I was never interested in gardening. Will get round to it sometime I suppose. It won't go anywhere. Look after yourself my friend.

Sorry the delay in answering Marsh man. It's a combination of things. I don't have the urge for fowling as bad as I used to and that's come on slowly over the last several years. This is mainly due to the fact that, as we all know, the best fowling is when the weather is at its worst and the inclination to sit out there cold and wet is not the same as it once was. My wife went into a care home just over a year ago and I had been home caring for her for more than ten years. (She was disabled but now has Alzheimer's badly as well and is totally confused all the time). This meant that my free time for fowling and other things was limited to when I could get a relief carer and this could not be done accept on a pre arranged basis. No last minute decisions. So I would have everything ready days before and go whatever the weather - Good or bad for fowling. Now I can go more or less whenever I want but find that I would much rather go stalking which I took up a good few years ago. (I have just done a DSC1 course - Not that I needed to but wanted to. It was very informative). So now I still get up at silly o'clock but don't have to do long approach marches on the marsh. A gentle wander to a high seat or a slow and sedate stalk through the woodlands is far less strain on this old body of mine. The drag out can still be very taxing though. However, I think the main reason is that I have had glaucoma for many years and my eyesight has deteriorated very badly in my right, master, eye. This meant that about six years ago I had to start doing all my shooting left handed. I got on with rifles straight away as my left eye is still very good and you ususlly have lots of time with a rifle shot. Shooting shotguns cag handed is not so easy though. Simple birds get missed very easily and it has never got any better. It just feels all wrong after 70 years of doing it the other way round. I have handed all my shotguns bar a Hatsan semi over to my son. So now I am getting out just as much, maybe more at certain times of the year, but I never go stalking in bad weather as it is usually a waste of time anyway. The deer bed down in the thickest brush and stay there. The other thing is that the resultant venison is much valued by many of my neighbours in the small village in which I live. I also enjoy the butchering and basically live on venison myself these days. It is super stuff to eat. So I am still very active but just doing something different but similar, if you know what I mean. I intend doing a sponsored half marathon for Alzheimer's Society funds this coming August so I am not sitting on my backside watching daytime telly yet.

It's not easy. I have also decided to call it a day as I explained on this site a few weeks ago. I'll be 85 by next season so I have had a good run. You will always have the memories.

Done

I'll stick to my choice of Tina Turner.

Nobody on this topic said they were giving up Lloyd. We all do something else. We have all fought battles with our health as we got older. In my case I have lost half the sight in my right (master) eye so I have resorted to shooting shotguns and rifles left handed. Give that a try next time you go out shooting. I have a ******** back. You can give that a try too. Try dragging a fallow or red out of a ditch on your own now. Then imagine what it is like when you are eighty. The cold strikes more, the back hurts more, the eyes see less and you have other obligations - mine was to care for my disabled wife for over ten years until she went into a care home when she got dementia. None of us are giving up. We are country men and country men never give up or stop being countymen. You just have to be reallistic and adapt. Stalking two or three days a week, aged 85, all through the year is hardly giving up!

Before I get accused of slandering NE about the shooting rights, the small marsh that we shoot is just at the back of the sea wall and is owned by NE. We have just come to the end of a three year licence. Now the negotiations start all over again. No reason, at the moment, to believe that it wont be renewed. In days of old we could shoot the green margins of the mud but that got stopped.

Yes, even with the winch that I have added to my truck. You have the right spot. I have shot there for 20+ years and I have shot the estate shoots a couple of times too. NE stopped all shooting on the mud a few years ago.

Thanks for the support chaps. Nice to know that I am not alone on lifes field sports journey. Just got back from stalking. Gentle morning - Because I was on my neighbours land I didn't have to leave the pit until 5am - and a four minute drive from my drive to their drive. Saw two roe, which they don't want shot, and one munty buck which they did and I did. He's now hanging in the chiller in the garage. Now I thoroughly enjoyed this mornings outing, came back with a good few meals for me and Noodle and the knowledge that I have saved some of my neighbours ten thousand British hardwood trees from damage. Funny how your views and feelings change as you get old. I'll keep taking the tablets and go on as long as I can. Next up is to mentor next doors daughter on stalking so that she can protect her own trees. She has just applied to the police so god only knows how long that will take.

Yet another era of my life has ended. I've decided to give up fowling. I am going to be 85 in June and, though still being fairly fit and active, the motivation has gone. Whilst still loving being out on the marsh, or anywhere else that's rural for that matter, I've decided that the thrill of the hunt is not what it used to be in the case of wildfowl. Went out yesterday for what will probably be the last time - carrying a shotgun. I had the marsh to myself, slight drizzle but nothing bad, and there were ducks and geese about. What was missing was my urgent appeals to mother nature to send them over my way. I saluted each flight as it passed by and did a lot of thinking. I have been fowling since the early 60's, when I left the army, and have enjoyed every moment of it. My original mentor was the legendary Sid Wright on the Wash marshes near Long Sutton. My headquarters was the Bull with Mrs Mitchell. (Another legend). Frank Harrison, another professional guide, Wild Goose Man Kenzie Thorpe and fowler/punter James Robertson Justice (the actor) were all part of the scenery in those days. Heady days to be fowling on the Wash as a newbie. I got hooked very quickly and it led to many years of fowling along the East Coast and Norfolk Broads. Later I had a small fowling boat on the Alde and have been a member of just about every local club and syndicate. For the last 25 years I have been with a small syndicate on the Blythe estuary and that is where I was sitting and pondering yesterday afternoon. I came to the conclusion that I had shot enough wildfowl. Simple as that. The 'Memsahib' is now in a care home so there is only me and Noodle, the obligitory labrador, to feed, so I don't need much more than the venison that I still obtain from my deer control activities. So the decision was made. Fowling has followed the game shooting that I gave up, for much the same reasons, three years ago. I still go beating. I assist the young keeper that is now doing the job that I did for more than 25 years on my local shoot when ever he asks. But mainly I go deer stalking. The deer numbers are increasing all the time where I live in North Suffolk. Farmers are asking me to 'thin them out a bit but don't exterminate them' which is local speak for Deer Control as practiced over the rest of the country. They always add 'and if your see Charlie, knock him down too'. So I am never at a loss for something to do and Noodle and I just love venison. To all of the many friends that I have made during my fowling life I say enjoy your sport while you still can, spend every spare minute you have planning your next trip or being on the marsh. The antis are winning I'm afraid. When I started you could fowl just about anywhere you wanted. Scruffy looking men, mud splatted and wearing ex army clothing whilst carrying a gun and sporting a cartridge belt never even got a second look. It is all just a little bit different today.

Edenman, I never intended to imply that I had not enjoyed reading your story. Probably I could have worded it better. I have been a member of PW for many a year. I was instrumental, by way of a plea to Teal, in getting a section for fowlers added to the site. In the early days it was pigeons only. Now it includes stalking, game shooting and many other things. I think that the older members will back me up when I say that I would never deliberately shoot a man down for telling us how he enjoyed his days/nights sport. I sincerely apologise if I upset you. Above all, keep posting about fowling. If I can no longer get there I can enjoy reading about it.

I'm nearly 85 but I still have very fond memories of often being out all night, often with Sid Wright the fowling guide, on the Wash marshes. That was back in the sixties. Kenzie was still at it too. It still goes on but fowlers are, in the main, people who do things and don't bother much about telling the whole world about it over the internet. Now I am reduced to being a keyboard fowler but still get up at silly o'clock to go stalking - Do you know what time it gets light in the middle of the summer? There are shooters and there are hunters. I have always been one of the latter.

Pulsar or Pulsar or maybe Pulsar. Had mine for years and it still cuts the mustard. Simple to use too.

Would agree with you Bishop. Global warming is increasing the UK's average windspeeds and I am sure that it is affecting the habits of my local deer. I don't say that they never come out of the woods but I certainly pick my stalking trips based on the wind forecasts. They certainly don't like heavy rain either but that is not new.

Marsh Man, very nice. My Miroku also came from Richardson's, well there was nowhere else to go in those days. Now I use Jason down in Fram and he did his apprentiship with them. Sorry you don't have anyone to hand it down to. I have two sons but only one shoots. However, I have three grandsons and a grand daughter who have all dabled with shooting and two of them are in the military. Then I have a great grandson who has just turned 16 so there is no shortage of 'good homes' for my cast offs! Thank you for the comments Gentlemen. Dougy, John is the one that you met at the Stalking Show. He has just retired from BMW. Makes me feel very old. Happy Christmas to all of you.