aister

A friend and myself have just enjoyed a cracking week of sport down in Kent, a mix of fallow stalking, fox shooting, pigeon shooting and trout fishing. I had real trouble fox shooting, I missed a few but did end up with one. I have never shot with a red filter before which was different and I always got the impression that they were a lot further away than they actually were thus resulting in me missing over the top............I know I know excuses excuses but I have never seen a fox before let alone shot at one, they are smaller than I was thinking. The one I got was with the 6.5x55 on our way back to the car after deer stalking. I have been stalking before but not for fallow, it was great. The first stalk we were on a fairly long slow stalk in the rain where we fell in with two prickett's, I bagged the bigger of the two with a neck shot which dropped instantly, the nosler partition doing the trick from the 6.5. The other prickett was unsure of where the shot came from and hung around long enough for my mate to drop it, big smiles all round, his first deer and my first fallow. We set up everything for a photo and guess what, I forgot the camera. My mate got a couple of snaps on his phone though. The next stalk a couple of days later was brilliant, walk a little, look a lot was the order of the day, thick woodland and noisy under foot. The first deer we saw was a doe with a fawn which spotted us. We stood still for 20-25 minutes with her watching us, barking and prancing around before she finally decided we were not a threat and carried on. It seemed like forever but was great to watch as she was only 50 yards away. As we started off again we spotted 3 fallow bucks 100 yards away heading in the same direction as she went. As the grass was low enough I went into the prone position for the shot, I was told to take any one of the three when I was ready. I got lined up and gave a whistle to which they stopped perfectly, I took aim and fired. I saw the three deer depart at speed but I was sure of the shot and heard the thump of the bullet connecting. We waited 30 minutes before we went for a look. The buck had gone 40 yards dead on his feet, I was absolutely delighted. IMO it was a text book stalk. Not a huge buck by any means but a nice symmetrical head and a beautifully marked hide. The 140gr nosler partition had performed well IMO, small entry hole, the heart was almost in half and the exit hole was a bit bigger than the entry with very little meat damage. We had a couple of outings on the pigeon, another first for me as there is no woody's here in Shetland. One thing I noticed is they are very easy to miss ha ha. No huge bags but we bagged 36 the first morning and just 12 the next. It is a cracking sport and certainly one I wish we had up here, not sure the farmers would agree though lol. Here is a pic from our first morning. We also had a morning out fishing for rainbows. It was a lovely warm day and I thoroughly enjoyed a nice relaxing day with the rod and it was also another first for me as we don't have rainbows up here. I tried a few different flies without success until I noticed trout rising under an overhanging tree, I put on a daddy long legs and after a few failed attempts and some laughter from my mates I managed to land the fly close in under the tree and bang a nice trout nailed it, my first rainbow. Shortly after that I landed another one using the same tactics. Time to go, I reached for the camera and yes you guessed it I forgot the camera. I really enjoyed our week down in Kent, hopefully it wont be long before we are heading down again although one thing I wont look forward to is the 14 hour ferry followed by the 10 hour drive, the things you do for some sport.

A while ago I started to notice that I was missing easy shots with my BRNO .22 so I set up a target at my usual 60 yards and was quite surprised at the groups. The rifle was zeroed but the group was a smidge over 2". This was with winchester subs which I have always used. I took the scope and rings off, took the stock off and everything looked fine, put it back together and the groups were just the same. Yesterday I took advantage of the nice day and tried out some different ammo, Winchester subs, eley subs, CCI subs and CCI segmented. Here is the results, 10 shots each at 50 yards. Win subs. CCI subs. CCI segmented. Eley subs. I noticed something was was wrong around about the time the winchester box changed from light blue to a fancier black box and also when I looked on line I found two other people having accuracy trouble with their .22's, both were using winchester subs, probably coincidence as as far as I am aware nothing has changed about the win subs except the box design. Has anyone else had any trouble with winchester subs?

Henry Krank http://www.henrykrank.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=6060

That sounds about right, we had a meeting the other week with the farmers about the geese and it was agreed that the local fowlers would do the best we could in the season and that we would work together and help each other out to try and avoid an open season cull.

Please don't mix this up with people shooting big bags of wild duck, it's a different thing all together. In Orkney and here in Shetland the resident geese are out of control and causing serious problems for the farmers and left unchecked I am not sure how it will all end. I don't want to be part of a cull but when it is on my door step and I care so passionately about my sport I would rather be involved and see that it is done right than to sit back and have them get in cowboys blasting at anything and everything that moves, leaving wounded birds behind them and scaring the carp out of whats left so that no one can get near them. Just now before the migrants come in we will be hitting the home geese hard, I wont be sharing any pics or details about it on here or anywhere else as it just draws bad press from people who can't accept that it needs to be done.

Here in Shetland I remember a good few years ago the mackerel was so plentiful that they were sometimes a pain in the backside when fishing for haddock, sometimes couldn't get down for mackerel and if you got to the bottom and managed to catch a haddock the mackerel shook them off on the way up. Last year and this year there has not been much around. I have not been fishing much this year but trying to get a bait for the creels was never a problem as there was always plenty colefish and mackerel, but this year no mackerel just plenty of colefish.

Good on him, well done. Hope I am still out with the gun at 76

Good stuff well shot

Well done matey your dog looks a lot like mine, my kids thought it was my dog

Good luck to all of you that is out in the morning I won't be out with the gun till monday but I will be up early in the morning for a reccy as i was this morning. With me getting exited and getting all my gear organised the poor hound doesn't know whether he is coming or going Straight shooting fellow fowlers

Those whistling wings fair got me exited

Cheers guys

Really pleased to tell you all that my wife is expecting our 4th child I really need to get on with the extension now ha ha.

Just been tonight and bought a slab of RC50 0's and my new head lamp came in the post yesterday so I am good to go as I think the rest of my kit is fine, I have been buying other shot in dribs and drabs through the year so the wife doesn't notice to spread the cost. Just need to start on the reconnaissance missions this next week to find out what the birds are doing, as far as I can see no barley has been cut yet and the geese are still a bit spread out although this last week I have seen bigger groups flying around. looking forward to the season and also reading your posts and seeing your pics. Good luck to you all in this next season, hope its a cracker and that dream flight coupled up with faultless marksmanship finds you all

Nice looking gun Wayne, good luck with it in the coming season, let us know how you get on with it

Here is a link to the 4 bores Watson brothers are making http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMtVW2gSJ40 I would love a big bore someday but with a young family and extensions to build money is scarce. I get the chance to use a friends big guns and love every minute of it. Taking down a right and a left of geese 70-80 yards up with a 25lb double 4 is a great feeling. Really looking forward to getting out with him again this coming season.

Its horrible, another tragedy on our shores.

What I noticed with the lee safety scales was that the weight varied depending on where the powder was in the pan.

I have had warne rings and bases on my center fire rifles since I started with rifles and have had no problems with them at all

Yes check it just to be sure.

I will probably take the afternoon off and go for a look with the hound

Love mine. If I keep it clean it cycles perfect, having said that its been pretty dirty and still cycled fine. If my SX3 broke tomorrow I would order another without thinking about anything else

She looks great

Love mine. If I keep it clean it cycles perfect, having said that its been pretty dirty and still cycled fine. If my SX3 broke tomorrow I would order another without thinking about anything else

Well done