Popgun

Advocate works for my dogs, Frontline not very good anymore. I'm using advocate on my dogs and not had a flea or tick yet this season, fingers crossed they don't at all. Figgy

I've never used Texas rigged decoys I shoot from a duck punt in about 2 to 4 feet of water with about 20 decoys all single rigged will there be much of a gain if I use a Texas rig, if so can anybody tell me how to make this Texas as I've not got a clue. Thanks Pat.

I eat a lot of Marsh samphire , we have a fair bit Rock Samphire here I would like to try a feed does anybody have a recipe for Rock Samphire? thanks Pat.

Done

My Cocker used to suffer very badly with nettles but grew out of it when he was 2 years old. Pat.

When you stop looking at the ladys it's time to nail the lid down and dig the hole. Pat.

If I was a bit younger I would transplant a few as they a fast growing and good in the wood burner every cloud has a silver lining Pat

Try This Firm For your Black Powder, Peter J Starley Oak house Birmingham road Warwick CV35 7DX phone no 0845 2266005. have a look on Google. Pat

I tried steel shot from my heavy breech loader the best results were with zink plated T shot 4ozs of hawkers grain BP and 14ozs of steel T shot in a plastick cup wad I tried it at a pattern board it shot a very tight pattern to tight but playing with the cup wad could help this I shot a few duck at about 45 yards they were hit with a lot of shot and i was expecting more birds so I think the pattern never opened as well as it should. the velocity dropped of rapidly over 45 yards.my problem was I can't get the velocity up useing Black powder. there is a lad up in Scotland who says he has cracked it so maybe it is posable. Pat.

When I was young I played with the loads on my muzzel loaders I loaded some very big powder loads but all that did was to blow unburnt powder out out of the barrel which I think just blew the pattern. if you start at 3ozs of powder to 16ozs of shot then play with the load to fit the size of the gun. Rember to much shot is a lot worse than to little shot it's just trials untill you get it right remember when you shoot at a pattern board do'nt forget about penatration it's no good having a good pattern if you do'nt have the velocty to kill your birds. hope this helps to get you started.its good fun playing with puntgun loads and if you shoot your trials inland over non wet lands you can use lead shot loads because you do'nt want to pay for non tox for pattern board shots. Pat.

The Muzzel loaders have top hat percusion caps into a priming chamber which has fine grain black powder in it which you need to measure out after trying different measures of the priming powder the chamber has an opening threaded end and I used a pricker to push into the main charge which is loaded into nitrate paper for ease of loading this makes sure that the flash reaches the main charge. if you try out different loads of priming you will see that it makes a difference at least i think it do'es. I seem to think the puntguns allways shoot harder in very cold weather, some people say they havent noticed this so maybe it's just me. Pat.

I have 4 Puntguns 2 muzzel loaders and 2 breech loaders the breech loaders are 1 1/2'' and the muzzel loaders are 1 3/8''the long muzzel loader has a 9' 6'' barrel and is a very hard shooting gun,the other muzzel loader has a 8' 6''barrel and shoots well the load for both these guns is 14 ozs of shot and 2 3/4 ozs of hawkers grain black powder,1 of the breech loaders has a 9 ' barrel the gun uses 32 blanks which are loaded half full with fine grain black powder, the load for this gun is 3 3/4 ozs hawkers grain and 20 ozs of shot this gun was built by Blands and shoots shoots well. the other breech loader I had built in the 80s its barrel is 7' 10'' and the gun is 140 pounds and shoots the same load as the bland which go'es 95 pounds this is the weakest shooting gun of the lot it uses 38 blanks half loaded with black powder Ive shot a lot of birds with this gun but it no where near as hard shooting as the long muzzel loader which is recesed bored. I am sure that muzzel loaders shoot a lot harder than breech loader and the muzzel loaders are a lot lighter than the breech loaders the long gun is 78 pounds which is very near half that of the modern breech loader. thats my take on it for what it's worth. Pat.

Looks like an american red oak. Pat

Hi Mate where abouts in Dorset do you live. Pat

Thanks for the info Nick the days of poping into Belsize boatyard are long gone you could get anything there I'll probable have to make a pair more work, i've just finished the poole canoe and am just about to start a new duckpunt for the shoulder gun a small one for me and the dog still you have to do some thing to pass the time,then it will be time to get the single punt and big guns ready for the new season. Cheers Pat.

I've just built a 19'6" poole canoe and I need a 10'6" pair of heavy duty oars ships life boat or Navy oars do'es any body know where I can buy a pair. Thanks Pat.

Good old British seagull I used to keep one of my duckpunts at the back of there factory, i grew up using them when you had a problem starting them you just took the plug out and looked at it put it back in and the seagull would start first pull without having done anyting to it.I used the Silver century on the Poole canoe and the 40 plus on the duck punts.

My cocker started limping I checked his foot out could find nothing wrong next morning the leg and foot were swolen so off to the Vets he cut the foot between the toes and drained it then put the Cocker on a drip with antibiotics I picked the dog up that evening his foot and leg were nearly back to normal, the Vet gave me a course of antibiotics for the dog after which he was back to his normal self. 2 weeks on he was limping again so back to the Vets he looked him over and said the dog has an infected toe joint and antibiotics are not good in joints it will probably re infect the foot and leg so he wants to amputate the toe, the Cocker works on a large commercial shoot doing 40-50 200-400 bird days plus a lot of rough shooting with me, will he still be able to do a hard days work with out the toe? thanks for your time Pat.

It looks like Triticale to me and the odd bean Pat

Over years of night puntgunning I've seen a few things in the night sky that i can't explane but never anything that i can say for sure was extraterrestrial. Pat

I work my Cockers on a local game shoot they often come home with closed up eyes my vet used to give me a small tube of ointment at the start of the season the vet has now retired so i'm looking for some ointment to put in there eyea after a hard day in the brambels what do you people use and where can i buy it ? Pat

I useally cut my own cordwood but because of work last year i never cut much cordwood so I'm having to buy some for this winter I've just cut a load for next year which I'll stack and sheet the top then split and stack in the wood shed in the spring,the Question is whats the going rate for a cord of seasoned hardwood thanks. Pat

I use the .270 for all i think it's the best all rounder there is. Pat

I give my 2 Cockers Mackrel fillets in sun flower oil once a week they love it and it keeps there coats in good nick. Pat

If you put him in the car and drive him to where you walk him he will soon love going in the car as he will know it means he is going for a run. Pat