ColinF

We were given some wheat a few season ago, which had barley mixed in it. The pheasants would pick out the wheat and leave piles of barley under the feeders, which then got wet and mouldy. I think they would eat barley at a push, but if your neighbours are feeding wheat you may struggle to hold them. If it was me, I would pay extra for some wheat. If its for ducks, they seem to love barley. I haven't tried feeding oats at all

I think its only a matter of time, I'm sure the Hunter UK version would be popular in 28 bore

This is my experience as well, the guns that joined from Guns on Pegs are still syndicate members

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I bought a Nordstrom multi tool new from Ebay, with hedge trimmer and pole pruner/chainsaw attachments. I'm impressed with it so far, I've cut the hedge a couple of times and used the pole pruner quite a bit. It has got plenty of power and all the parts are available at reasonable prices. I'm not usually a fan of Chinese built stuff, all my other two stroke kit is Stihl, but if its only for occasional use it will do the job. If you wanted it for professional use, look for something better

Please show me anything from a reputable source that says standard plastic wads break down in weeks. I know for a fact that they don't. I assume that you are referring to plastic wads used in lead cartridges, as you will know the plastic wads in steel cartridges (which is what this thread is about) are much thicker/stronger and will last even longer in the environment. If fibre is so unpopular I'm surprised that the cartridge manufacturers bother loading them and they are so readily available..... Perhaps its because the majority of game shoots, most Sunday morning clay shoots and even some shooting grounds only allow fibre wads? I'm not sure what "Shooting Life" is, but if you look at the Just Cartridges price lists, which include velocities, you will see that at best the steel shells are no faster than lead, and slower in some cases.

Can you back up these claims? Although most clay shooters use plastic wads on shooting grounds, everyone I know who shoots anything over farm land uses fibre wads. What do you class as "very quickly", in my experience plastic wads take years to break down, even some of the photodegradable ones. I run a game shoot with one duck drive, this is the only place where we allow plastic wads for obvious reasons, every year I pick up loads of plastic wads from the surrounding fields, I would say those fields are littered with wads and a danger to stock if left. I'm sure that more plastic wadded than fibre cartridges are sold, but if you just asked about game and pigeon loads, I don't think that would be the case

Are these the ones? http://www.perdixwildlifesupplies.co.uk/product/dbsnare/

Ask to have the WMR as a dedicated NV rifle?

In my experience, I have had the best results with barley. I think it lasts a bit longer than wheat in the water and some of it floats which probably attracts ducks and makes it easier for them to find it. Its also normally cheaper than wheat. I haven't used spuds because they aren't really grown around here. What do you think is best?

Barley is the best, but wheat will also do. If you can get hold of tailings, they are usually cheap or even free

The small nut on the wire is the stop, it just needs crimping in place. Its up to the user to set the stop in the appropriate place to make the snare legal, see the Fox Snaring Code of Practice below. The snares I bought were not from Bisley, but had a similar nut as a stop. I crushed them on to the wire with a hammer and they work fine. http://adlib.everysite.co.uk/adlib/defra/content.aspx?doc=110661&id=110662

Have the weeds gone? It's supposed to be drilled in wide rows, or it gets too thick to be attractive to birds later on, so if it was drilled with a normal drill, and the spray just thinned it out a bit it might be ok?

I haven't grown any, but I believe it doesn't amount to much in the first year anyway, but provides good cover from the 2nd year onwards. Calaris is for use on maize to control weeds, including some types of grass, so it probably hasn't done it much good? How about spraying everything off and replanting in August/September? I'm sure your seed supplier will be able to recommend a more suitable selective herbicide to control the weeds

We've never had much luck growing kale. It's needs a good seed bed, quite a bit of fertiliser and good conditions to get going. Once it comes up, it gets hammered by flea beetle, pigeons and rabbits. We now use a sorghum and millet based mix, which is a lot easier to grow on our ground

We keep ours on pellets until they are 14 weeks, grower pellets for the first 2 weeks or so, then on to poult pellets which are a bit cheaper. We also get some medicated pellets, with flubenvet, which costs £90 extra per ton. We have treated the water in the past but its a lot of work and messing about, medicated pellets are much easier

Sounds like you are up against it, having the keeper next door on side will help though! I don't think 30% is too bad in your situation, as long as everyone enjoys the days, the returns don't matter too much anyway

It will be difficult to stop them wandering out of the wood, can you dog them back in from the surrounding fields?

We start mid October, so we need our birds early July. Last October wasn't too bad for holding birds, but the year before was difficult mainly due to a massive crop of acorns.

End of August is quite late, when do you start shooting? Most of our birds are in a Forestry Commission wood, but we do shoot on the surrounding farm land

The wheat will probably be at least 4 weeks away from being cut, your birds will be a lot bigger by then. Last year the field next to one of our pens was wheat, I asked the combine driver to let me know just before they started and I walked through the wheat almost in front of the combine! This year the same field is grass and will be cut for silage any day now, which will give me a chance to catch up with the fox that has moved in

Ours tend to hang around the area immediately outside the pen, so its not too much trouble to walk them back in, there were about 20 out this evening. As time goes on they wander further during the day, but usually come back to the pen to roost

We got ours on Monday morning, by Tuesday there was a pile of feathers outside the pen where something (probably a fox) had taken one. If you have an open top pen with pop holes, its pretty much impossible to keep them all in, you just have to keep walking them back in the evenings. Sounds like you might need to extend the wire that guides them back to the pop holes to stop them walking around it?

Job lot of hanging drinkers suitable pheasant, partridge, chickens etc. There are 18 in total, 17 are complete and the other one just needs a plastic cap which are readily available and should cost less than £1.00. Also included will be various spare parts, most of which are brand new. The drinkers have been used and will need a good clean, but still have plenty of life left in them. The drinkers, valve stems, hanging straps and pipe retaining nuts are all included, there is no hanging cord or water pipe. These are a popular drinker, all parts are available and they are easy to use and maintain. I'm looking for £80 for the lot, collection from the Towcester area.

You need to think about what you are trying to achieve. There's a big difference between 6 and 10 days, and you need to know roughly how many birds you expect to shoot per day, or over the season. Once you know what you are aiming for, you can work out how many birds you need to release, how big the pens need to be, how much feed will be needed, how many feeders, how many drinkers etc etc. The rent and cover crop costs will depend on how good the ground is and what the farmer wants out of it, he may prefer a days shooting instead of rent? If you are looking to get something started in time for the 2015/16 season I think you've left it a bit late, especially if you haven't got any land yet.