Colc08

Illston on the Hill should be be around 45 mins drive for me so will be fine. Thank you for your reply, I shall drop you a PM

I'm looking for beating within the circle of Market Harborough, Grantham, Huntingdon & Wisbech so and where 20 - 30 miles from Stamford. Ideally I'd like to go unpaid but be allowed to beat one stand one back behind the line of guns. But if required to beat all drives then no problem. I am looking to get experience for my little cocker bitch and standing back behind the guns watching and listening will do her the world of good. If anyone can help me out then it would be massively appreciated and I am sure I can show my thanks through a bottle or two. Cheers Col

I don't start shooting myself untill late November so I am alooking for a bit of early season beating if anyone know of anywhere in the 20 - 30 mile or so radious of Stamford. So anywhere out from Market Harborough across to Wisbech. Grantham down to Huntingdon and anywhere in between. I have a cocker spaniel of who I am wanting to get as much experience under her belt as possible this season. In an ideal world I would like to beat one drive and then stand the next one behind the line of guns and for this would expect no pay for this. At this stage it would do my cocker the world of good to just stand back behind the guns watching and listening but would be happy to beat alternate drives if required. I know its a long shot but if anyone can help me out I would hugely appreciate it and i'm sure i can show my thanks with a bottle or two. Cheers Col

Cheers guys, Brampton hut is not too far from me so may pop along as soon as i get chance.

Not had chance yet mate. Moving house this weekend and have been so have had all the usual to sort out as well as being flat out at work. Hopefully over the next few weeks this will settle back down to normality and I will crack on with the sticks. I have been keeping my eye out for some decent telescopic washing line p[oles in various shops but cant seem to find any light enough. Anyone know the best place to pick these up? Cheers

Where do you guys from the Peterborough / Stamford area do your clay busting? Any grounds or clubs would be great please Moving down the road to this area so was wondering where I could go if I fancied a few clays on a Sunday morning. I am aware of Grange farm near Wittering but I think that's a bit more of a lesson/ corporate set up rather than a turn up and play kinda place. Cheers Col

That is an amzing picture...got me think ahead and getting excitited about the coming season now.

Pm sent

I trained my first gun dog last year ( still continuing ) and used Joe Irvings book as a guide. With the little knowledge I has and listening to others advice she seems to have turned out better than expected for my first time. Others may tell you different but in my opinion there is not a lot of difference in the basics what ever bread your training. My advice would be to use your chosen book as a guide but keep an open mind and always listen to others and see if there advice agrees with what you have in your own mind and implement it accordingly. Don't try too many different variations of ideas though as you'll only confuse both yourself and the dog.

Come on then let have an instructional on how you posted that photo off your phone smarty pants. For the life of me I can't do it. I'd post so many more pics on here if I could do it off my phone.

A "Bore Guide" is, broadly speaking, a tube that replaces the rifle bolt. It is rather like a bolt in appearance (without the knob) but generally made of plastic. To clean the rifle you remove the bolt and replace it with a bore guide. The bore guide ensures that the cleaning rod enters the chamber perfectly straight and cannot cause any damage to the rifle. A bore guide tends to be specific to one particular make and calibre of rifle as it has to fit in the place of the bolt. In my view you would be very foolish to use a rod and patches without a bore guide. There are "universal" bore guides but I am not a fan of these and prefer a custom bore guide for a specific rifle. Typical price around £20 to £30. A "Patch" is a small circular or square piece of cloth that fits on to a "Jag" which is a pointed piece of metal that screws onto the end of the cleaning rod. Patches are normally purchased pre-cut to the right size to suit a particular calibre. I use one piece coated rods with a rotating handle which allows the patch to rotate freely as it passes down the barrel following the rifling. My .22 rod is Parker Hale and my .17 is Dewey. The Dewey is better quality but both are more than adequate. Typical rod prices around £20 to £40 and jags maybe £5, patches around £10 for 500-1000. Basically you need a rod, a jag and a supply of patches, and a bore guide. Rod through using wet patches soaked in an appropriate bore cleaning solvent using a new patch with every pass and only pushing the rod with the patch in one direction, from breech to muzzle, remove the dirty patch and withdraw the rod. Repeat until clean. I do not use metal brushes. The rifling groove inside the barrel (especially in .17hmr) is incredibly fine and easily damaged. One reason I only use rods and patches is that you can "feel" the patch as it goes through and really see the dirt on the patch. As the bore gets cleaner the patches pass through more easily (again, most noticeable with the tiny bore of hmr). There is a very real risk with things like a "bore snake" of pulling through dirt and rounding off the edge of the receiver or the crown by not pulling absolutely straight. I did purchase a bore snake, fell for the advertising, used it once and never again. I have too much respect for my barrels. I finish of with a patch containing a drop or two of gun oil and if the rifle is to be used within a day or two a patch with meths to remove the oil followed by a dry patch. I subscribe to the "keep your barrel spotless" group as this is the way I was taught by my shooting champion uncle. Tonight I shall very thoroughly clean my cz .22lr and tomorrow if the weather is suitable I shall shoot a series of targets at 50 yards to see if there is any requirement for "conditioning shots". Thanks Dadioles. That is exactly the kind of answer I was hoping for Thank you sir, I now know how to correctly clean my rifle without damaging the rifling in my barrel. Which I did not know before.

Was just looking at these on eBay today. You can get a kinda long nose wand type thing and looks like you take your bolt out and slide it in from the back. Be interested to know if they are any good.

Thanks for your answers guys. I've not come across Bore Guides or Patches before. Can anyone explain? Sorry to seem simple but I like to be educated rather than find out the hard way and to a newbie rifle shooter every little bit of info is invaluable. Cheers Col

As title suggests, when and how do you clean your rifle? I have a 22 rimmy and hoping to soon get my 243 but not sure wether I should be cleaning them after each outing. I have read that it will throw the zero out for the next few shots. Is this coreect? but at the same time I wouldn't want to leave it and risk or corrosion. Also how do you clean your rifle? I have a cleaning kit, rod type with wirey brush type head and wool mop. I would always wipe down any exterior metal work with an oily rag but not sure on the inside of the barrel itsself. Advise welcome Cheers Col

Ha ha yeah a 20mm should just about sort out anything I come across Kes. I'll have to check that I have land clearance for that. Shouldn't be a problem I wouldn't have thought Thanks for the replies chaps. Tickets going back to them in the post today. They also missed off my .243 moderator Can't complain though they have been very good with me and very fast too....maybe too fast

On my FAC ticket I have slots for .22 Rimfire. Any .22 Center Fire & .243 But on the Ammo section it states I can purchase ammo for .22, .22CF & Center Fire. I does not specify 243. Does the Center fire allow me to buy any Center fire ammo including 243? My tickets looks roughly like this: Firearms. .22 Rimrire .22 Center Fire .243 Ammunition. .22 Rimfire .22 CF CF Purchase 500 200 100 Hold 600 300 200 Any comments would be really appreciated. Cheers Col

Cheers guys, I'll have a go as soon as I get a chance. I'm moving house in a couple weeks so wont get much time the next few weeks but will have a crack at it as soon as I can and will post a photo of the monstrocity I have created once complete. Really looking forward to using some of these as keep popping out in the vening after a few bunnies and my success rate is rather limited when I have to try and creap over to the nearest fence post for a good old lean Ha ha Col

These look amazing and just what I need as have been thinking what sort to buy for the last few weeks. Just wished I was not a complete disaster at making things. Does Davyo or anyone else fancy making me a set of these? Ill onviously pay for parts, postage and your time and effort. I'd have a go at them myself but i would seriously make a right hash of it and any money spent on parts would be a total waste. I have spent so much money I little projects in the past only for the lot to end up in the bin. I just don't even bother starring now as I know it will only end up one way ha ha Col

Well done mate, I too had a cracking day out with Fenny on the drillings last spring. Col

Thanks for your reply Underdog. I am not very technically minded at all and wouldn't really trust myself to start taking things apart as really don't know what I'd be doing. Col

I have recently aquired a Browning T-Bolt in 22 Rimfire. I understand there is a continuing bug bear with the slightly stiff trigger and also as far as I am aware without drilling and spring stretching there is nothing else to do but screw out the trigger adjustment screw in front of the trigger guard to achieve about 3lb. My question is, do i simply jsut unscrew the screw to its fullest to achieve the lightest pull possible or is there a certain way i should do it? Will the screw fall out if I loosen it all the way out? Cheers Col

Congratulations on getting your ticked through mate. Not too bad a time frame either. Yes, you are right in saying that .22rf gives you authority for a .22 rimefire. ATB Col

After exchanging a few messages with Dave regarding the torch modifications I began to get my head around the possible improvements that could be achieved with Dave's modifications. Dave kindly invited me out for a nights lamping with him so I could see for myself and make my own mind up. I recently bought a 22 rimfire and inherited with it a Ultrafire 501B lamp/torch set up with pressure switch and was very impressed with its power. Having scanned the field at the back of my house I was suprised by the ammount of light this little torch kicked out and initially thought it was great. After a little more thought and no need to test it any further I could easily see that it may work to a degree whilst lamping rabbits but was far from ideal. A) due to the shear power of the white lights spooking potential, and the spread of the beam gave me excllent vision out to 20-30 yards or so but the light was also filling up my parifial vision which both caused me to squint to try to focus on the center of the beam. Now with this spread of beam it was never going to completely ideal lamping rabbits as the beam was not focus on the ''kill zone'' enough and would also scare any rabbits in the area as too much ground was lit up. I must say Dave is a really nice guy and his attention to detail seriously impressed me. He was not only good enough to take me out for a nights shooting but he also educated me a hell of a lot with everything explained to me in great detail along with the reasons why. Right from the off I could see how vastly improved Dave's modified torches and where far superior to the standard one I have. We were using a red light for searching and then a second one mounted to the underside of the barrel for taking the shot. The red beam of the modified torch was acurately focused out to ranges perfect for the HMR and also suitable for 22 rimfire or Air rifle ranges. There was no splilage of light so not filling up the parifial vision and my eyes did not seem to have to adjust from the darkness to focus on the heart of the beam. All in all I was very impressed and needless to say I took one of Daves mod kits away with me in visible red LED. Dave also demonstrated to me the capibilities of the Infra Red version utilizing his night vision gear which he has expertly built from scratch. I must say I was seriously impressed by this having not seen any night vision gear before. We sat for a while watching a grouip of around 10 rabbits both through the dash board mouted night vision screen as well as the scope attached night vison set up. It really was mesmorizing and I couldn't quite get my head around how we were sat watching these rabbits from ranges of 30 yards out around 120 yards in complete darkness yet ion the screen they were as clear as anything. I would definately recommend modifiying your existing torch/lamp set up if you are still using the standard one as they come. After seeing it in the flesh and in action there is absolutely no comparison and will undoubtadly result in less spooked quarry, much better vision and a much higher success rate whilst night shooting. Thanks Dave, I learned a hell of a lot last night as well as spending a few hours in great company Col

I have a 22 center fire slot also but am already thinking of swapping that for 243 as rather than having a rifle for each species a 243 is a multi-tool that can cater for my foxing and deer work that may well come up for me at some point. Mistake on my part not to go for it from the start because I have since learned they would have given it to me any way. I niavely didnt ask for it as didnt think they would entertsin it but turns out they will. Bloody typical. Yes I am loving my T-Bolt too. Loving the action but I do need to lighten up the trigger as causes the odd pulled shot as is stiff as a brick.

Yes it was rather quick thankfully. I thought it would be fairly quick but not that quick! Best of luck getting yours through. Weather permitting I'll be out for the first time on sunday for a zero and maybe a wander.