aister

well done . there was competition for the spot we were in today so we were in the park at 3am. i didnt even bother going to bed, couldnt sleep with excitement anyway :lol:

Looks like you got one with a neck collar by the look of it ? check out where it was from & let us know , wonder if its one of the Orkney geese ? theres two with collars. i will send in the number and location in and let you know what i get back

3 sx3's and a webley and scott ,which kept jamming or we might have had more. i was shooting with RC50's size 0, one was shooting with gamebore mammoth 50gr no3 and the other two was using fiochi 52gr no 3.

this morning was one of those mornings where everything worked to perfection. 3 of us in layout blinds and one in a hide along the fence. 24 FUD decoys around our blinds and a good stiff breeze on our backs. we waited a long time before the geese came, we arived at the park at 3.15am and the first geese came about 5.45am. they came in just a treat, it reminded me of some of the american vids on youtube, paddles down and trying to land just 20-25 yards in front. the 4 of us shot well (very unusual). the geese came in small bunches of 8-20 which is just what you want. by the time we were finished, a very tired max had retrieved 45 geese. i would just like to say before anyone says that thats excesive, a few of years ago i would never have shot that many and i would be pretty ****** off if someone in the area had shot that many but shetland is getting a bit like orkney with the number of resident birds increasing rapidly. the local farmers are struggling with crops such as carrots and neeps. there have been talks of a cull here so we may as well have a good crack at them while we can. we had a great morning with a good few young birds which will be good in the pot. the pics are poor as they are from my slightly damp mobile. if you look close you can see orange bands on the necks of two of them.

force the stick in to place then pull it out again, put on a good blob of araldite or superglue then stick the stick back in. i didnt do that to begin with and it pulled out leaving the stick in the ground which was a nightmare to find in the barley stubble.

yes its mostly greylags. depends on the weather when the pinks pass through, if its a good southerlywind there might be a few hundred that will stick around for a few days but if its calm or they get a tail wind they just pass over. we sometimes get a bunch that mix in with the greylags or sometimes they mix in with barnacle geese and stay throughout the season.

my favourite has to be teal, we get quite a few here in shetland. i love them springing out of a ditch or burn on a cold frosty day. geese is nearly loosing its appeal as there are so many here all the time, it used to be when i started shooting that to get in the teens per season was good but now you could shoot in the teens in a morning. there is still something very special about goose talk at dawn though.

i will agree with flynny, i have an a-bolt in .223 and it is very accurate. mine was £625 with a spare mag, mounts and a bushnell scope. very happy with my a-bolt

my reason for buying an extended choke was a friend of mine was out shooting geese and his choke came loose and burst the end of the barrel so i got an extended one for my sx3 so that when i am out in the field i can go without a key and i can also check it easily just for peace of mind.

i bought a cz 527 hornet a week ago and so far i am well impressed. my reason for buying it was to have a gun to grab and go. the .22lr is a great gun/caliber and will always have its place but its good to have a bit more range. the .223 i have is very accurate and is great to set up in one place and "snipe" with, but with the mod and the big scope and usually the bipod, its not a gun to carry around comfortably. i have tried PPU 45gr SP, hornady 35gr v-max and sellier and bellot 45gr SP through the hornet and so far it likes the ppu and s&b best with s&b having the edge. i tried a few home loads with what i had in the cupboard (waiting on my RFD to get in lil gun) and groups were a bit better. i used PPU brass, win small rifle primer, H4198 powder and speer 45gr spitzer SP and with 11gr of H4198 i was getting just under 3/4" groups at 100. looking forward to getting some lil gun and some pistol primers and some time and weather to have a proper play with it, but so far thumbs up for the hornet :good: P.S the only trouble i have had so far was with the hornady and S&B brass, the flash hole was to small for the lee case trimmer to fit through and the de-capping pin on the die was tight tight tight

i use an extended teague 1/4 and either a flush fitting skeet or 1/2 for sporting when using my over and under.

thanks for all the input guys, will see what happens and let you know

not sure tam, none of the olicks were that big so we didnt weigh any of them. the one in the pic was the biggest, probably 30"-32" long.

my favourite shell was 3" winchester super speed 0's through my sx3 with half choke, never had a shell that could kill like it, the RC50's in a size 0 is a close second.

i agree with davie mac, ghg decoys look great

i might just try for it and see. you never know! it does sound like good fun.

they look like good fun but sadly there is no club here in shetland.

whats the story with getting one? do i need to be a member of a club or can it just be for target shooting?

finally filled the hornet slot on my cert with a mint condition second hand cz 527 prestige. only got it this morning but so far so good. topped it off with a leupold 4-12x40 rifleman, shot a few targets first then headed out for half an hour and got 6 rabbits. decent group with ppu but it hates the 35gr hornadys. waiting on my dealer to get in some lil gun so i can try a few of my own, should hopefully get it before too long. might try a few rabbits with the lamp tonight .

a mate from work offered to take me out for a run in the boat yesterday so i jumped at the chance as i havnt been out fishing this year and was hardly out last year either. not far out from the pier we stopped to try for bait and fell in with mackerel straight away so we took enough for a couple of feeds each then enough for some bait. we tried a couple of places for ling without much success so we thought we would try for a haddock. no haddocks to be seen but we did get a whiting a couple of cod and some more mackerel. with the tide a bit stronger we tried for ling again and this time they were taking better and in a short time we had 20, we could have had more as they were taking better all the time but i had to be home to look after the kids. sorry the pics arent great but as you can see from the first one it was a cracking day to be out in the boat. cleaning the fish on the way in. not huge ling but good for the pot.

i have had 2 gun barrels powder coated, one on a side by side and one on a pump. seemed to work fine but it marks/scratches very easy.

i ordered a neoprene coat and a dummy for my hound yesterday at lunch time, i got a dispatch message from them last night at 7.40pm, it has just arrived in the door here in shetland from wiral at 9.40am. :good:

it will be used as an interpretive center for "viking unst", there is a replica of the gokstad ship along side the longhouse so when its finished it will be like a viking village. i gurante there will be one feast and plenty of drink taken and thats when we are finished .

just a couple more pics of the viking longhouse we have been building over the last 3 summers. at the moment i am making up door frames and the roof is ready for earth and turf. hope you like .

when i got my 17hmr first i got a mod with it but it wasnt long before i ditched it. the rifle was more accurate without it, there was more bullet drop with the mod on and i found it the bang made no difference to the rabbits, also a pain in the buttocks to clean. just my opinion though.