shalfordninja33

26 will be phased out of performance hard tails in the near future, not many brands making them now. 26 will be around at the lower price points as there so much tooling out there for them. AM bikes and above will be 26 for a while. Most people appear to be faster over the same ground on a 29 rather than 26. Move stable, bigger contact patch, more grip. Tis the future!

Mmmmm Kay's catalogues, essential 'reading' when I was a boy ;-)

I've owned a Whyte carbon 29c for about 18months and it's been the best bike I've ever ridden. Whytes are less common than specialized. Although the specializeds will generally have better componentry pound for pound than the whyte. Have a ride on all three, note which feels lightest to ride, big 29inch wheels can be heavy and rolling weight will make a bigger difference to the ride than over weight, it's an area where money was saved on my whyte, they were the first thing I changed and made a huge difference to the ride and handling. Whytes have long top tubes with short stems which make them stable and fast handling. The specialized will be more neutral and you might find it easier to get on with. For that money I'd go for carve comp. it's likely to be lighter than the whyte and better specced for the price. Plus if you really get into it and want to upgrade or don't like it and want to get rid it will be easier to sell on. In the meantime here's a pic of my 29c. Far more bike than I'm capable of using, like my guns really ;-) Let us know which one you go for.

Castrol slx engine oil on my semi and o/u. A litre is £17 and will last me about 10years at its current usage. It's thinner a most gun oils and sticks to the metal parts really well.

Had our Beaters day on Saturday, 32 head for 119 shots. We're having out last walk around on the 1st where both beaters and guns will be shooting together, it will be fairly low key, a few will stand but in the main we'll be walking though the drives in a line clearing up cocks and the vermin.

Sell magazine/catalogue/brochure printing.

I wait with interest Andy..

yep, suit off and old trackies and tshirt on for me. Looks great when the mrs sends me to the supermarket for some late night baby medicine

Hello Everyone, Jsut been reading this article about the Glasgow Helecopter crash http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-25353001#TWEET982901 Does anyone know what this term means; : "During normal operations yesterday, one of our EC 135 fleet has experienced an indication defect that requires further technical investigation. Warning Light on the dash coming on?

I had Glow worm 38cxi put in the loft of our 3 bed semi last year. Really good. I'm sure they're owned by valiant?

They're all I put through my 20, very good.

John Squire of the Stone Roses/Seahorses would be right up there in my opinion..

Impeccably observerd in our office, only four us though.

Cracking story madman. I bet you've got some cracking memory's there. Something I hope to build up now my daughter has the bug.

Funny you should say that magman. That's exactly what Hollie was doing at towards the end!

Thanks for the replies guys. It's great deaquire that she's now at the age where we can get out and do things together. It's what I envisaged fatherhood to be. 15 months will fly by. She's tall for her age, having said that she been out and about pretty much as soon as she could walk, I remember my mum having her for the day when she was about 18 months old and telling us that she'd taken Hollie for a walk with the dogs and hollie had walked much of the way! I want her to appreciate nature and the countryside and for me to be able to show her things in the outdoors the same way that my uncle did for me when I was that age. I had such fond memories from that age with my uncle taking me feeding and it's great to be able to pass that knowledge on to her and still feed and shoot with my uncle some 33 years after I was first taken out! I remember those nights hawkeye when I was that age being taken lamping by my uncle. Funny thing is now when we go 30odd years later I feel pretty much the same as I did then! Fatherhood didn't come easy to me and I have to admit to not being the most patent dad in the past. The patience is coming and Ive certainly learnt to cherish moments like this when they come along. Great news is I have a week off work this week and providing we have the weather Hollie and I will be out on Thursday afternoon doing the rounds once again, happy days!

Not sure if this is the right place for this...... Spent a long morning yesterday filling all the feeders on our cover crops and woods on our shoot. Anyway the night before my 3 year old asked if she could come and feed the birds with me, I've taken her to the pens feeding before but only brief trips of an hour or so. this was going to be a good 4 hour outing and I had a restless night concerned that she would get bored/change her mind after 30 mins and I'd have to do the 14mile round trip to home and back to finish up without her. Saturday morning came around and Hollie was up and dressed earlier than I've ever known! Saying "daddy are we still going to the pheasants?" So I packed some snacks and a drink and off we went. Well, I couldn't have been more wrong! After a shy start, one of the other guns was helping me and Hollies quite shy around people she doesn't know. I couldn't stop her! She was helping to spread straw about, holding empty bags and waiting on the buggy whist we filled the feeders in the more overgrown areas. She couldnt believe the buggy went on its own, only having seen the push kind before! We finished up around noon and headed home with lots of story's to tell mum. We got back and after a quick lunch the morning took its toll and she crashed out of the sofa for most of the afternoon! I don't know who enjoyed it more, Hollie or me, for being able to spend such quality time outside in the countryside with her. I have a problem now in that when Hollie got up this morning the first thing she asked was "are we feeding the pheasants today daddy?" I've managed to convince her that going next weekend with be soon enough! Oh yes and here's the pic.

Google Blue Manor Windows, they're putting a compose door and frame into my house on 25th July. They've put half a dozen in houses in my road and everyones been complemetary about them. I dont know how far they travel, they're based in Braintree so its on the door step for me. No pun intended

Hello Chaps, I'm hainvg some work done on the house at the moment and now the roofs been refurbished I want to have the cavity walls insulated. I've tried British Gas and the local council who arent operating any grants or free schemes at the moment, I dont want to go down the green deal route I just want to pay and have it done in the next couple of months. Has anyone else empolyed a company to insulatate their house and if you have would you be able to give me a reccomendation? I live in Essex. Thanks.

As above, dismanlte fully, you can download a manual from the benelli website if you dont have one. I clean my Benelli Mancino with WD40 to degrease everything then build it back up using Castrol Fully Synthetic engine oil. The engine oil is thinner than gun oil and I find that spent propellent sticks to it less and it runs more smoothly, I clean it like that once a year. I put a bore snake through it after each use with a quick wipe over the outer with WD40 before putting it away.

Nice Work !

Thanks Chris, I'll leave them alone for another year in that case.

I was out yesterday in Essex, the 3 or 4 syndicates in my area roost shoot their woods on a Saturday. Had a really good night last night, all woods were covered by the sound of it and my mate and I pick up 23 for 62 shots, We both had a left and right each, nearly all were full of rape, a few had wheat from our pheasant feeders. We'll be out on Saturday afternoons for the rest of the month.

We had a similar problem in one of our woods, it had very little cover in the bottom and was very cold, Pheasants had vacated it by December each year. 2 years ago we cut down a number of the small trees around patches of brambles and it made a big difference to the cover, we paid the old branches over the brambles which then grew up through it. Its now much warmer and hold birds right through the season. We now cut down areas of nut hazel in all our woods to let the light in an enourage the growth of cover.

We planted Artichokes two years ago on one of our drives where other cover crops wouldnt grow very well. They were very patchy in the first year, sown by hand, now they've thickened up really well. To the point where we'll be harvesting them to fill in the patchy areas. Its made a poor drive into one of the best drives on the shoot. I'm lead to believe they're not cheap to buy, although we had an oppotunity to harvest our own from a neighbours shoot for the price of a bottle of scotch! We top them in January then will culivate them in the spring i expect. If anyone can tell me exactly when they need to be turned over I'd be grateful.