woodcock1

We really struggled this season with the rain especially for the first 2 months. I don't bother with the gopro much when its wet because the quality is always poor with water beads on the lens. The numbers of woodcock were about the same as last year and the previous 15 years to that also. Never seems to change much although it seems to take less effort nowadays to put a few in the bag. Nothing beats them for me and I again await the November moon with great anticipation.

A few clips again from the last day I was out. A short video this time as I made a mess with some of the recording and it was unusable. Enjoy

Apologies Tony. Just recognised the boat.

Good wee clip Andy. Decent bag of birds.

Hi folks, I haven't been on here in ages. Got away from the forum and had almost forgot about it. The forum still seems as popular as ever and has plenty of good posts. I have been doing plenty of shooting this winter and had some great days at the pigeons at harvest time. I have recently made a clip of local woodcock shooting and thought I might share it here as a way of reintroducing myself. Hope you enjoy!

Congratulations, Im sure you are on a high since. You will never forget it. Well done.

Great video Ollie, thanks for taking the effort to produce and share. Lovely ground, and a nice driven woodcock that knocked your cam off.

Cheers supergoose, we are spoiled with some of the best woodcock shooting in the world here. Your quite right with regard to the right and left. I don't count it as such unless both birds are in the air at the same time. I don't know what the woodcock club rule is regarding that though. I would call this instance a double but not a R&L. I've been very fortunate to have had 5 R&L's in the last few years one of which was witnessed an got my place in the club. It's my hope to capture one on film soon.

Wildfowler, mine is a go pro 3 black. I'm using gopro studio for editing and it has a feature for creating smooth slow motion. Takes longer to process but makes better viewing.

Had a rather frustrating day last Saturday in terms of my own performance. I was missing a lot and even when I did hit them was only wounding birds. I was using the same setup as always so I guess my mind just was'nt focused. It all came good in the end though with a nice pair.

This is one of many places I shoot woodcock although admittedly one of my favourite. I only ever visit the same area a couple of times a season. We are very lucky in northern Ireland to have so much access to free shooting. I could shoot everyday of the season without covering the same ground twice. I was out today a while and had 8 woodcock. I shot terribly though and should have had a couple more. Had to second barrel a lot of them. I suppose you just get off days. I wore my gopro most of the time today so will try putting another video together tomorrow.

My preferred woodcock shell is eley olympic trap 28gm 7 1/2. That day I was using 32gm 7s as it will cover any game I'm likely to meet including pheasant rabbit etc.

Thanks guys, just getting onto the camera and settings,editing etc so hopefully they get better as the season progresses. Underdog you would need more than thousands to persuade me to sell that dog. The relationship I have with the dog i one of those things that money cant buy. She just seems to know what you want her to do. She is just over 4 so should only get better with time. A few people have mentioned foxes after watching this. I have never flushed a fox her with the dogs although we did shoot some at night with lamp and rifle.

Gopro hero 3.

Let me know how to do that, GRR

I posted a couple of videos last year but this is my first this season. woodcock have just appeared in good numbers in the last few weeks. I filmed this last Saturday morning. Im getting on to the camera settings a little more and have recently purchased a new computer for better editing performance. Anyway hope somebody gets some enjoyment from it

Good to see you getting a few clips posted. I assume this is with the gopro. Have you not tried any editing software yet to combine all your short clips into a film.

http://cbcdn2.gp-static.com/uploads/product_manual/file/55/HERO3_Silver_UM_ENG_RevC_web.pdf This is the manual for a hero 3 silver. On page 22 it shows narrow medium and wide available only when recording at 1080, on frame rate 24 or 30 fps. Try changing to those settings first then see if the option becomes available.

In my hero 3 black (ex Duffryn cam) Go to the spanner in the menu then the 1st option in the menu is a screen with 4 arrows pointing outwards. enter that menu and you can select resolution 720 1080 etc the frame rate 30 48 and so on and FOV wide medium or narrow. I can only assume the silver is the same.

Probably hard to get second hand but well worth buying. Cracking gun.

When I lived in a timber frame house I had the police carry out an inspection as I was applying for my first rifle. They turned the cabinet down as it was only fixed to the timber framework using bolts. They said it needed to be bolted to the floor , so I just kept it where it was and put 4 thunderbolts through the base of it into the concrete floor which the passed no problem.

Well you did say lovely brides. Heres mine, yes on our wedding day wielding a shotgun, my shotgun to boot. The photographer was my shooting buddy at the time and though it would be fun to incorporate some of the things we enjoy into the wedding album . There also one of her standing looking rather peed-off, with myself in the background fly fishing. Good times! Apologies for the quality, I took a photo of a photo.

Im not sure where Monkton is but i assume we are in differing areas. This was filmed in Co Antrim N Ireland I have since upgraded to a gopro hero 3 which is much better suited to the job. However due to the huge increase in quality and video size my computer is no longer able to cope and refuses to work with the hd footage. Now I need a new PC to go with my camera upgrade. There wouldn't be many snipe in that area, I would flush maybe a dozen in a visit. It quite high ground in terms of altitude. However I live down in the lower Bann Valley and there are plenty of snipe down here. I used to shoot them a lot, but to really set the bar high I always used a side by side in .410 guage. I shot a few right and lefts with it over the years which is always satisfying. I don't shoot snipe anymore as I no longer eat them. Great sport though.

Underdog, It was your story that prompted me to add my own! I suppose I should put a photo of myself in thee too so you know who you are talking to! Myself hunting with a friend just before Christmas.

It has been a really fantastic season at the woodcock here in County Antrim, numbers have been very consistent throughout the season and never more so than the last couple of weeks. I havn't had much time with work commitments but I try and squeeze in at least once a week. My main hunting dog Molly has been a breath of fresh air. You could go all day without ever having to correct her. There hasn't been a single bird which wasn't retrieved by her. At the beginning of the season she hadn't much stamina and after a couple of hours in heavy cover she was ready for home. I changed her diet along with my other 2 springers (one retired and another 2 years old which has turned out to be no good) to a diet of raw minced chicken and high quality complete food. What a difference this has made. She will easily do 5 hours with very few moments of rest in between. The weather has been very mild and most days wet and as a result most of the birds are found on high ground and mountain areas. Last weekend in particular It was very noticeable. I hunted an area divided by a road across the middle of a mountain slope. I flushed 20 birds on the high side above the road. I stopped at the car for a cuppa and then hunted the low side where I flushed only 2 birds. The cover is similar but there would be 3-400 ft of a difference in altitude. Anyway I have 3 more days available to hunt before the seasons end. I however have a personal bag limit, not per day but for the season and I suspect I will only require one half day to finish my shooting for the season. I try and remember to take a photo or two everyday I am out but often forget, however he is a few from the last couple of weeks. A couple again are stills for a gopro head camera. My son loves to get involved but is just a little too young for the actual hunt. My hunting star Molly, loves to pose. Poor pigeon happened along at the wrong time. Woodcock and pigeon pie went well though My "benelli woodcock". I have started to use this gun more often than my side by side. It is so pointable and rarely misses. A long range retrieve. Bird was shot flying downwind at a great rate and carried by a gale force wind some 100m before crashing into the heather. It was a truly great retrieve. This is what I shot of the 20 birds I flushed on the high side of the road last weekend. It is only a few minutes walk down to the cover in the valley 400ft below but there was only 2 birds on the low ground. Last friday evening, shot in about 2 hours after work. A still from the headcam. "Bird Up" And another. This bird was actually missed with a single barrel. It burst from the whin bushes with great vigour and just done a back flip and over the other side. I just had a split second chance but didn't connect.