angrymallard

I was coming off the foreshore on friday and the local hunt club had been targeted by "Hunt Saboteurs Ireland", an apparently peaceful protest in which theyentered club grounds and took photos of members whilst wearing scarves and balaclavas on their faces. Drove straight through them in camo rather chuffed with my 5 wigeon.

Got out yesterday myself, set up in a stubble field were that i had been watching on Sunday with a few birds about it. 30 mins in the farmer came into the field to fix fences so moved to a new field that hadn't had anything on it in a while as I didn't want to go home, set up the magnet and flapper with shot birds and by about 5.30 they were decoying lovely and managed 37 pigeons and 13 ferals. Starting to think about the ducks now, need to get myself some new waders and a new coat and sort the decoys out, shooting Strangford for the 1st time this year, so going to have to do some homework before Sept.

Just got infinity installed this month, took many hours on hold with customer service, and 8 weeks just to get an order placed, they kept coming into errors with our line. Another 3 requests for a renumbering to secure my old phone number, every time i called they issued me a completely new number. The engineer who came out for installation also said it took him 9 weeks for them to set up his connection using the excuse "none of our engineers are available in the area", even though he was the head engineer for the whole area and was doing it himself. I reluctantly had to leave virgin media when I changed address, the package itself is great however the level of customer service offered by BT is the worst I've ever experienced.

Cheers Mike and Tom picked up a 3.2 ah battery from screwfix this morning. I'll order a charger online, wont be using it until the summer anyway, counting down the days.

I've been meaning to buy a flapper for a quite a while now so just ordered the one from aadecoys, can anyone recommend a good cheap battery so I dont have to use the one from the magnet.

Another one for leaving them at this time of year until August, earlier if they are hitting the laid cereals and im asked too. Moving onto the clay variety for a change.

Maybe i'd shoot more pigeons if I use my Mojo Mallard and wind powered decoys too.

Might get to go to a small flight pond i started feeding last month, but theres alot of floodwater around at the moment so not sure what it will be like. Apart from 1 pigeon and a snipe,teal have made up my entire bag in the last month, im shooting them every week not that im complaining. Haven't seen any good numbers of pigeon around so haven't even bothered to go after them and will be out of action with uni work until the end of the month.

Good shooting, you shooting over a flight pond or splash? I'll hopefully get out at them over the weekend but swamped between uni and work at the minute.

Each model varies brand new for a silver pigeon 1 is just under £1400, going over £2100 for the silver pigeon V.

Hollow Farm in comber has an olympic skeet stand and is much closer to you. Theres also DTL and compact sporting. Thinking about getting a new silver pigeon after Christmas and start shooting more clays. Also there's plenty of ducks around, lots of water laying in the fields so they are just spread out.

It's not an increase in Brent that have caused the decline in wigeon wintering on Strangford. Yes they do eat the eelgrass but the competition is second to the fact that the birds just simply aren't turning up. Milder weather associated with climate change is reducing the ranges which birds are migrating south, so populations which would have once been destined for strangford are settling on the mainland. I don't see any real benefit to adding them to the quarry list.

Keep at it, it sounds like he is showing some potential. I have a 5 year old lab which was very lively, headstrong and easily excitable. Training started of well but being a student I was away from home alot and training sessions were few and far between and he was also spoiled rotten by my parents. But he was always keen to retrieve and with only a couple of hours every couple of weeks I was able to get him under control and retrieving well. Now he's a bit older he has settled down and I wouldn't have any other dog. He is fantastic on the water, sits patiently in the hide when shooting pigeons and i'd never go out without him. As I said, keep at it, he'll settle down and will know what is required of him and you'll have a shooting partner for life.

Teal seem to be arriving now, seen quite a few on Lough Neagh last Thursday. Managed 4 with 3 shots, shot 2 with one shot then a left and right a few minutes later. All in all not bad for an hours flight.

I currently shoot up at Lough Neagh, was gonna try and get into Strangford Wildfowlers this season but left it too late too apply. More than likely will join next season as its closer to home and want to get some "real" fowling. What are peoples experience? I know that there's good numbers of pintail now but as with a lot of places wigeon are seriously down.

I insured my first car with Endsleigh last month for £1200. A 1.1lt Peugeot 206, which is a saving of over £2500 from last year. They are great for young and student drivers. My premium cheaper through a comparison website rather than going directly to Endsleigh. I am 20.

I have one of these, the solution to stop it flipping is to simply run a piece of string through the holes for the cradle so that it is behind the rod in a position so that if the decoy begins to flip the string becomes taught.

I'm from Northern Ireland but i got my FAC when i was 17 and just had all of my dads guns placed on loan. When i was 18 I added my own shotgun to my certificate, I still need to get my guns transferred from my dad's license though.

Went out on Saturday for the first time since September. Never fired a shot but seen a lot of ducks moving. Failed to take a tufted duck as I thought 2 were coming in behind but they changed their mind. The hide was circled by "thousands" of golden plover coming back round every 15 mins or so however they were just too high. I have some uni exams to keep me away over the next few weeks but gonna try and make a return before the end of the season.

Good to see your season off too a good start.

I use RC50s 50g 3's with great effect on high ducks, still in 10 years never had an opportunity at a goose, I came close a few times. I also use Hull Solway 50g 3's and BB's for the same purpose.

RC32. 32g 5's are a great all round cartridge and will be good for flighting and decoying.

I shot my first duck when i was eleven on a small flight pond at evening flight. It was the first shot i had ever fired from the new 20 gauge my dad had bought for me and i got the bug right away. I had shot pigeons a few times before hand.

I shot 68 in August over a few days with ferals and rooks making the bag up to 104.

My personal favorite are RC20 32g 5's, a little but heavier than most people would like to use in a 20 bore instead of swapping to a 12 bore but a fantastic all round cartridge.