-Mongrel-

No what you mean about the choccie lab remarks. They tend to stop once your dog has found a few birds that their superior dogs have failed on.

+1

Rosso/Rossi

If RFD costs are prohibitive, do you know anyone else who can take them. If they are locked in someone elses cabinet, to which you don't have access and the FEO knows this, same thing isn't it?

+1

2 for me...but that's a weight to distance to walk calculation!

Indeed, as well as some over zealous thread closing, Cranfield in particular does seem to be fond of shutting a thread down. Never happened to me yet so no axe to grind, may have had a couple of posts deleted but not a thread, just my observations and opinion. Not that they count for anything of course. The joys of a privately run forum. Still about the best forum on the net though purely because the Walts get jumped on, by the members mostly rather than the mods LOL!

With you on that one, but sounds like he could have been a hell of a lot unluckier!

That it was, all the sweeter for being a short session. This particular morning it was a Hart Missile 120, I take the top hook off, I think 3 trebles is too much and can make unhooking a nightmare! If they on the surface I'm finding the Xorus Patchinko/Patchinko 2 are working really well around here at the moment.

LOL @ the one in the hide! He looks as though he's about to tell you to F' off!

I decided to crawl out of bed early at the weekend as the weather has been nicely settled here for a while and there have been some big baitfish/mackerel shoals building. Car loaded and off we trot to one of the busiest sections of Brighton shingle you could find! It's the nudist beach!!! Not at 5.30 am though! It was still pretty dark so I wandered down onto my mark and clipped a lure on. Then just sat down and grabbed a cuppa out of the flask, watching the sky lighten is always a magical time for me, and 15 minutes after setting up, I flicked the lure out for the first cast. The first few casts were completely interest free, then suddenly bang, the lure rod tip gets pulled round! Then starts tap-tap-tapping away in the characteristic rhythm of ...a mackerel! Oh well, better than nothing and quite tasty. 4 more in 4 casts was enough to confirm that I had an inshore shoal and, as it got brighter suddenly the surface just exploded! Millions of tiny baitfish attempting to evade the marauding mackerel shoal below, were leaping out of the water to escape! Where there's this many snacks there has to be Bass, but I couldn't get through the mackerel to try my luck at them. After maybe 20 minutes and with the light rapidly strengthening the mackerel started moving, still feeding well but about 70 yards offshore...which gave the bass room to work all around the shoal and, crucially, allow me to work outside of the shoal. Game on! Next cast and a couple of twitches on the rod tip to start 'walking the dog' and SLAM! The rod tip is wrenched round...and stays round while the reel clutch starts fizzing, this is more like it! A couple of yards gained and then lost as it dives hard, then a few more gained...and a few more, and we're winning. After about 5 minutes it's beached and picked up. A nice lean bass of just under 3.5lb, not large but certainly lively, next cast, bass on! And so it continued for another 30 minutes or so, fish after fish, some tiny, some decent, all good fun. Then the first rays of the rising sun made it over the top of the South Downs and that was, as it always is, the end of proceedings. As son as direct sunlight hits the water the bass switch off, seen it many times and spent HOURS trying to disprove it to be about the light...but it is! Time to pack up and go home to make breakfast, (I've often done these sessions and come home for brekkie, and then gone to work,) total for the morning was 9 Bass and half a dozen mackerel, two bass for the table, both of about 3-1/2lbs or so and the rest of the bass returned. A great short session.

To be honest, if you are going out mentored, then all you need is your gun. The huge rucksacks come when you start taking nets and decoys and lines and and and.... Give it a go, but just don't take on the 6 mile walk to a distant hotspot. While the closer spots may be a bit more shot, you will at least get the flavour of what wildfowling entails.

You have PM

Just be realistic and honest with yourself and whoever takes you out. A reasonable level of fitness ie the ability to walk the dogs over the fields for 4 or 5 miles, will get you out to reasonable shooting spots generally, but as said, if you have a long slog over soft marsh it will soon find your weaknesses. You don't have to fight through waist deep gloop to go wildfowling! .

Hahahaha! With comments like you've been making, you'd be more likely to see the Pope coming to help you! Anyway, a table legs not a firearm or knife etc...it's just a stick, so why would you expect to see armed response?

No idea on the warranty but I'd doubt it. As for the gun, I had one and it was faultless once it had been properly cleaned and had gallons of gloopy grease taken out of the action!! Good gun for the money IMO, I'd buy another.

Just don't like seeing people get caught.

To be fair, I think it's unlikely they nick a cocker pup to train fighting dogs. There is however a good market for cockers anyway and even more so gundogs. It'll probably be sold on to some innocent and the thieves make a few hundred trouble quid. Still ******** though!

Fair enough, at least you had the decency to speak with him to clarify. My main point was really that it does seem that as soon as somebody says "I'm a copper", some people see it as open season when really we should be encouraging them to stick around and give us the benefit of their experience. I saw similar on a motorbiking forum. We had 3 traffic bike coppers on there and had a good two way relationship with them, but as the forum grew the anti Police attacks got worse and more frequent until eventually they'd all had enough as well as a negative attitude to anyone from the forum. Bonkers really, the idiots had, with their vitriol managed to make bike coppers (who were on there to build bridges) anti biker!

...or buy a new one for less...

So does my AirArms. When I've used all 10 and pull the trigger again it goes Pfffft, rather than phut!

Funny you know, but I was completely aware that Ginger Cat was a copper, he said so very early on in his PW career, he has again in this thread as he has in many others, so I see no reluctance from this particular copper. To be fair, I'd be reluctant to 'come out' on here with so many muppets constantly police bashing. As far as illiteracy goes, he's hardly illiterate. I can easily understand him and there's far worse on here every day. Maybe if English was your first language you'd find it easier, maybe your literacy might be better too? Judging by the post quoted above you're in no position to criticise others. Maybe we'll have to give you a typing test with a mobile after a bottle of wine and see how you get on? For Gods sake, the man is prepared to come on here and give a PROFESSIONALS opinion which is worth 10x more than most of the other personal opinions and you want to pick him up on a typo or two? Amazing.

You can have a pet dog that works. I do. She's a retriever, but hadn't retrieved anything but tennis balls until 4. She now retrieves pigeon, rabbit and 'fowl. I'll admit that I wouldn't put her on a game shoot, but that's my (lack of) doing rather than her failing. She's a fowling dog that's kept ticking over on pigeon and rabbit!

Oh I dunno, I've seen quicker!

I would do everything I could to ensure that nobody get run over that's for sure! Whereas you stated that you would try and run over as many as possible, rather than defuse the situation. That, Mr delburt is uncalled for, and the kind of comment I'd expect from an 18 year old herbert, rather than a supposedly responsible adult.