Elk hunter

Social Zero Day....Spare Places Available. I've a couple of spaces on my zero day in Leicestershire on Monday 2nd November. Plenty of reactive steel for all, starting at 9am till 3pm then down to the farm for a meal. 100-700 yard targets for CF 50-250 yard targets for RF My day has gone from strength to strength and only have a max of 18 on any given day. Many regulars but wish to increase my small data base keeping the days interesting. Great fun day with light minded shooters from all walks of life. Meeting shooters with a passion for long and short range. The is by invite only and £25 including the meal. Open ticket and Shooting insurance in a must. Any more info please contact myself. Andrew. This advertised elsewhere too.

I don't get it I, as I said not every everyone's cup of tea yet some feel the need to express the distaste. Get over it move on if you have nothing constructive to say. Funny how people see stags as this majestic animal that should be wild. But are quite happy to bait, decoy or even trap other forms of wild life and call it sport. So please if you don't like it leave it and look at another topic. Kind regards Andrew

The stag is in a park couple hours south of me and no you haven't seen it. I was told open to offers but I expect over £2-3k he's Woben Abby size but not the price. Kind regards Andrew.

One of my clients is having to reduce his herd and this 30 plus point animal is one of them. Anyone wishing to make a serious offer or any more details please pm me. I don't realy deal in trophy heads now so all offers will be passed on to my client, if excepted he will deal with you directly. It's a park animal that has to be culled and I know not all agree with this but please I wish to keep this thread civil. Kind Regards Andrew.

What a nice way to spend a day. Andrew

Expencive lesson. But just let it go as others have said, saying something will achieve nothing in the long run. Andrew

I like the idea of a smoke pole but I would need a wever rail and some glass fitted. Good fun once you get used to the Click......Fizz...............BANG! Andrew

You don't have to swim in the sea to find sharks. Andrew

There's a debate on the SD that was closed recently to do with this company. The customer has the police involved now and not a good read. Andrew

Done see the issue. Many pay large sums for land leases for deer stalking and may only go a handfull of times a year. £300 is cheap shooting and like many things in this world now you have to pay to play. Someone will snap it up and well done to to op for offering it to PW members. Andrew

Goto Rifle. I'm fortunate to own a good collection of rifles for vermin and deer but alway go to two in the collection 80% of the time. But in my c/f collection for deer I can use .223, 243, 25-06, 257, 6.5 &308. But my 308 TRG only gets used for park deer, stunning old Steyr 243 only goes out if the sun shines, 257 WMag (let's not go there) 6.5 not enough love and so on. Till I get to my Tika S/S in 25-06 bought 17 years back s/h from minsterly ranges. Still has the old 6x42 swarovski with 26mm tube on that I fitted the day I bought it. Took it for a spin yesterday and off the roof of the van using 100 sp home loads still key hole 2 rounds @ 100 yards. It's accounted for more deer than I can remember, when going north it always comes with me even if when I take other rifles with me it will always come out the slip. It's old, not perticularly pretty but so reliable, it's my goto rifle as the rest seem to be luxury items. Do you have one! Andrew Two 25cal but only one got too.

Looks a nice place to sit for a while. Good shooting. Andrew

Thoses who have read my recent threads know I've taken up taxidermy 10 months ago. Although still an amateur my workshop is perry much kitted out and love to tuck myself away there. I've do many corvids on my own and a roe under supervision. It was time to stretch my legs and my Border Fox I shot has been a full solo mount from field to foam so to speak. Well I've finally finished it. My Border Fox. After removing from the tanning solution the skin needed a good wash to remove the formic acid and the fox smell. Warm water and washing powder. Good wash Into the tumbler to remove some of he moisture before I thinned the skin down on my grinder. This is done to help when the skin dries, it shrinks and the thinner it is the less it shrinks. Took me a good couple of hours as the more preparation done the better the finnish. Next onto the test fit. This is to see where the form fits or needs work. Either adding some clay or removing some foam. Although the form was small enough in length it needed building up on the neck and face. All a learning curve but worth the time, but adding the eyes stated to bring things to life. Test fit Filling out The skin fitted well and soon came together looking like a fox although half drowned. My daughter helped where she could pinning up the mouth and ears. Most of my time was spent tweaking, moving and pulling the hide to get the look I wanted. Then a pile of pines were added to stop anything moving as it dried. Helping hand. Pinning. Finally dry and looking good. For my first mammal I'm over the moon with the results. He's not perfect and I've learned plenty which has made even more enjoyable mount to do. Looking forward to doing another when they have stopped moulting. Funny how I take more notice of dead thing at the side of the road. Andrew.

Field Skinning A Fox. I was up in the borders at the weekend deer stalking and Saturday was glorious but windy. Came through the trees onto some clear fell and something caught my eye. A fox in full winter coat trotting through the brash. Quickly lay down and dropped a 6.5 round into it, let's say he stopped abruptly. Good size for up north. Coat almost as good as my dog. He was a beauty and was not going to waist it and I carried it back to base. I got out my Tavel Taxidermy set that I made from the van. As the weather was warm I decided to have a go outside on the grass. I've been dying to do this on an animal in the open for a while now. Just had to try. To start with a couple of measurements were needed, eye to nose and across. After this I could set about capping off the skin. I wanted the skin removed like a glove so I did not have an stitches or cut line showing on the finished mount. Cut all the way round it's torso and lower front legs. As it was so fresh the skin came away easily, but still had to be carful no to nick the skin. Peeled it up over it's forehead and under round the neck. Measure twice. Cut once. Took minutes to get this far but stopped at the eyes. More care has to be taken here onwards as it's very difficult to patch up around the eyes, need to keep all the iner eye lid intact. Down around the lips and over the nose, again care taken as its very thin and hard to correct later if an unwanted hole is here. Almost there. Like a glove. When the skin was removed a took the old converted table knife. This is used to split and part the ears, the result is enabling them to be turned inside out. The first ear went to plan inside out all the way to the tip. but the second I managed to push to hard and fast with the knife resulting in a small rip at the back of the ear. Something to remember but fixable with care. Me old knife In all the hole prosess took no more than 30 minutes to do, so I then capped the rest of the skin off including the tail. Looking forward to mounting it and I feel a David Crokett hat coming on with the rest of it! Andrew

The rabbit could just be changing to summer coat nothing more sinister than that. I hope! Andrew