anser2

I always feel I want a few more flights inland in early February but also feel that on the coast by Feb 20th you know really its spring. I would be happy if both foreshore and inland shooting ended by Feb 10th. But we start messing about with the seasons at our risk. Too many bird watching organisations and antis looking to reduce our seasons. We could be opening a can of worms that will be hard to close.

You maybe lucky and chance on some old stock , but as a whole they are not available in this country these days. Ask yourself why do you need them. They are great for high flying duck and geese , but overkill for most wildfowl shooting. If you shoot on the foreshore or have a high flight line on your shoot there may be a place for them , but for the average shot they are too much and will smash birds under 35 yards. I see from your posts you are a new shooter. Ask yourself can you cleanly wildfowl at 50-60 yards the ideal range for hevi shot. If not so I would stick with Bismuth or steel until you gain the experience needed for hevi shot.

As Marsh Man says they are ok for the money, but after a season or two I would get some good GHG or Avery decoys. I bought 10 of the Amazon type decoys for a pound each. and they lasted a couple of years. They are made in 2 halves and many split in the game bag and the eye you moor the decoys with becomes very brittle in very cold weather and a number broke off the decoy.

Wise words figgy. Never the less I am a great fan of after chokes in semi autos.Though they can vary a lot in their effectiveness. For what its worth I had great success with an American Turkey choke and BBB shot at pinks, but be aware the room for error in your aim is small. A Lot of people blame the choke for missing but usually is aim and skill of the shooter who is the problem.

It was finished some time ago but with moving its been on the back boiler for some time. Early in 2020 I will have to see about getting it published.But thanks for asking.

I think the full moon is still a few days away yet to there could be a few hours of darkness before dawn.

You cant expect to shoot up ducks on there feed\resting pond in the morning and expect them to come back in the evening. They are not that daft ( usualy ). Feed the pond and shoot it once a fortnight or 3 weeks at evening flight or if its a resting pond shoot and then leave the next flight for at least a month. Do not do both.

You pays your money and takes your choice. In all science books all ducks are drakes (males) and ducks (females) But in shooting books most teal are called cocks and hens.

Hi Marsh Man , good to be back on line after a prolonged break moving house ( now living in te same village as you ( if you can call it a village. As for making time to shoot. I have plenty of ground , and when the wind blows or it is foggy I go wildfowling. In clalm ( nice weather ?) I go freshwater fishing. Problem solved.

IN 50 years of wildfowling I have never had a decent duck flight under the moon ( best 3 ducks ) and can count the good good goose flights on one hand. Give me a dark night no moon and get the flight over and back home beside the fire and a steaming mug of tea rather than spending freezing hours out on the marsh , usualy for nothing. Some love moon shooting , but not me.

Panoma I have already posted where you are lying on Sep 23. Perhaps if edit it a little you will understand better. You claim that remainers want to stop shooting. That is obviously not true. I for one am a remainer and have shot for the last 55 years.. Back into Hospital very soon to do not expect an instant reply.

Simple you said, " like what the EU remainers want ". Why should remainers want to ban shooting. I am a remainer and I do not want to ban shooting, my son is and likewise, he does not want shooting banned and many of my club members are remainers and shoot, so obviously do not want shooting banned. There is no connection between Brexit and shooting. So to imply that remainders want to ban shooting is clearly a false statement.

Are you really so foolish Panoma or do you just ignore the opinions of anyone who does not share your personal outlook on like. One of these days you will grow up and join the adults world , until then its best you keep your opinions to yourself. At the moment you seem to feel you are free to lie and then complain when someone challenges you. That's the sort of thing little kids do not adults. If you make a statement then be prepared to back it up.

Sorry Clem that is not true. N E own many reserves such as the Ribble NNR and manage huge numbers more NNRs and SSSIs across England such as the North Norfolk Coastal NNR and my old ancient woodland reserve Swanton Novers NNR. All NNRs where shooting is allowed by wildfowlers, game shooters vermin shoot and in the case of the woodland reserve deer stalking.

BASC (WAGBI) used to have a survival film " Shotgun Wedding " that they used to rent out to clubs. I saw it first on TV and then my club rented it from a social evening and i held for a week until the club night watching it many times at home. There was a great clip of a morning flight at Blakney, Norfolk. Not up to the standard of todays films , but then the equipment was a little more primitive in those days.

Which was ?

Indeed and for some species such as barnacle geese the opening of shooting seasons in some areas along their migration routes. While no mention of restrictions in the UK it is recognized that greylags in Iceland are taking a bit of a knock from shooting on their breeding grounds. This year will be interesting for pinks and I suspect we will see a drop in numbers due to the " Beast from the East " spell of very cold weather in March. The very period when the birds need to be putting on weight for migration an breeding they were struggling to find food and were probably in poor body condition.

Why would EU remainers want to stop shooting on public land when the majority I know shoot on public land as I do. A stupid statement that is a clear lie. There is no connection between shoot and remaining in the EU other than the EU is a very pro shooting body as are most Europeans..

I shot a foreshore mallard in early December last year very close to a flapper. It was in a bunch of mallard in very poor light , strong wind and rain and I never realised how small it was until the dog retrieved it. .

Changing seasons are a bit of conflict in interests. For the wildfowler ( including me ) its nice to have a plump fully feathered drake in the bag at the end of the season, but you are shooting the winter survivors that are the breeding stock for the next spring. Shooting duck in September removes a large percentage of duck that are never going to survive the winter in any case and thus do little harm to the population as a whole if lost, but killing late winter birds will have an impact on the numbers breeding. The inland season ends on January 31st and the coastal season February 20th. I always feel I would like a few more days inland while you know by February 20th you know its really spring and time to stop. In an ideal world I would like to see the season end on February 10th for both inland and the coast, but there is a great political risk when changing seasons thuing might get out of our control and we might end up with a much earlier end to the season if the anties get influence in and law changes so I guess its best to leave things alone.

September 1st is about a lot more than shooting a few duck. For me its a tradition, and the atmosphere of early season fowling that you never capture later on in the season.I must confess its rare that I target geese ( though if the odd bird comes in shot I will usually have a go at it ) until the weather cools down mainly because I find they go off so quickly in hot temperatures and need dressing out within hours of being shot.

Its strange how traditions alter from place to place. On the North Norfolk coast very few fowlers shoot the duck before October and yet when I was young almost everyone turned out for the first and often it was the best day of the season in terms of the bag. But times change and only 20 out of a membership of 70 in my club shot yesterday despite it being a Saturday. While I like to bag a duck or two, its just being there and watch the new seasons dawn unfolding that's most important for me. Yesterdays dawn was one of the best I have witnessed on the 1st and with the rolling banks of fog made for a great wildfowling atmosphere. A nice bit of wind would be helpful in keeping the duck lower, but then bagging a bird is no longer as important as it was in my early days.

Good to see you are still knocking down a few geese Boyd. I for the first time on the opening day also went after a goose hoping to get under a flightline to their stubble, mainly to get away from the hot spots that I knew would attract a lot of fowlers and partly because I have a stinking cold and it was only a short walk to this meadow. The geese outwitted Bryan and I. The geese having fighted under the moon did not come our way. Ended with a single mallard.

For once my mate and I arrived on the marsh with plenty of time in hand and we had long wait before it was light enough to shoot. Rumor of a few greylags had brought us to a little fresh marsh a hundred yards behind the seawall of Marshmans East Coast estuary. The light as it came was constantly changing as banks of fog rolled out of the west only for the air to become crystal clear a few minutes later and then more fog. A late fowler arrived on club land next door in a clear spell and settled 400 yards off. 40 horses galloped up on the next door marsh and unsettled my new lab on her first morning's flight. They decided we were next to their best grazing and settled down to breakfast oblivious to two dark forms crouching across the dyke in the darkness. As soon at it was light enough to shoot birds were on the move. A single wigeon passed thirty yards away, offering an easy shot, but it would have fallen by the horses so passed unscathed, but all the remaining duck and a few geese passed a long way out cross the marsh heading for the estuary. The geese were all heading the wrong way for the morning flight and had obviously been out feeding under the moon and were now making for their roost, but there was plenty of interest to watch as the orange sun rose over the sea. A scattering of mallard and teal, over, but all too high, curlew and other smaller waders heading up the estuary, several flights of little egrets and a lone marsh harrier hunting the reeds. Oh I love early season dawns like this. There were quite a few distant shots ringing out a long way to the east, but locally all was silent. Then a panicked quack and a bunch of mallard burst out of the reeds a few yards away. I should have had an easy right and left as the bulk of the flock made off down the dyke climbing fast into a new bank of rolling fog but I knew the horses were that way and held my fire. A single drake had lifted off the other direction crossing the sunrise, swiftly rising. Somehow I missed with the first shot , but the second was true and he fell with a splash into the reedy dyke. After making the dog wait a few seconds I sent her, but she made a bit of a hash of the retrieve. Plunging into the dyke she trod on the duck pushing it under water and when it resurfaced she ignored it. I called her out, made her sit and then sent her again. This time she did grab the wing tip and pulled the bird back to shore, but dropped it as soon as she was on land. This was the first duck she had handled. All summer we had been watching tame mallard on my local river, but she is a very steady dog and never once attempted to grab one even when one bold hen bird tried to drive her out of the river in defense of her brood. I am not sure if she does not like the smell of duck ( she has retrieved dead partridge and pigeon ) or she has formed the idea that she should not touch ducks. At least the first duck of the season was in the bag. I waited until after 8 o, clock, but no more duck came near o walked over to join my mate. Needless to say within minutes a single wigeon, a bunch and a lone mallard passed right over where I had been hiding. A couple of more bunches of greys came from the stubbles, but they all passed wide of us. I think the club fowler had fallen asleep as several bunches of mallard went over him without him firing, Evening flight was spent 10 miles away further up the Yare valley. There was lots of mallard about, but no two bunches seemed to be heading in the same direction and neither of us had a shot. My one chance came as a low bird came over me that I left for my mate who did not see in time. So ended my 55th opening day. Just one duck in the bag , but with a day full of memories to remember in the not so distant days when I will have to hang up the gun.

I am not so sure speed is so important with very big pellets as they pack such a hell of a wallop. With the increased weight of a BBB pellet, it carries velocity further than smaller pellets. At 50 yards the pellets usually go straight through a bird and with a very tight choke carry enough pattern density through a couple of pellets is usually all that is needed to bring a goose down and even a single pellet hit in the forward part of the body again will bring the bird down. So BBB has the velocity at 50 yards and in the right choke the pattern to do the job. Start stretching the range beyond that and expect wounding or missing birds due to the thin pattern. That is using a 3.5 inch load.