lordripon

Hi ferret ! you say royal mkv is awesome ! what was it like in the first season ? I am asking because I am putting another cover into canary grass this year but don't want to wait two seasons for it to work well, I was thinking of sowing mustard into it at the same time but this royal mkv sounds like it could be a great alternative was the cover shootable in the first season ?? thanks

I think you miss my point ...if your not providing grit they will find it , in my case they find it from the road side causing more problems than tar intake . I agree totally with the importance of grit , and would love to have the budget to provide it properly in my case I have done the best I can ...moved their grit source to them . sorry if I cause any offence. rant over

quite right paul.....ordering my grit now ! how much grit do you use per ton of wheat ? oh you said ...7 bags to 4.5 ton so costing about £6.50 per ton , I use 17 ton of wheat and 3 of pellet . so my yearly cost will be £130 to provide for 1100 birds about 12p a bird or about 26p per shot bird I know my boss will take some convincing ....I think he will tell me they should get it from the road side and I will end up sweeping it up again

the birds eat it anyway ? and £4.20 is more than the cost of a poult ! if you haven't been giving your birds grit it is a cheap and argument free way of getting it into them as well as stopping them wandering into harms way picking it from the road sides.... I would love to buy grit by the pallet load but as my shoot has not budgeted for this in the last 32 years its just another cost to the shoot owner. so my birds will continue to eat a potentially contaminated product.

sewling is normally made from used pheasant feed bags cut into strips ( cut 2" strips with Stanley from open end of bag to the bottom through both sides of the bag, leaving the bottom seam of the bag as the central point ? ) loop this onto long length of baler twine with a very simple loop over the line pull line up through loop incert length of sewling until central point is at loop pull on twine... done ....no cable ties, slipping bits or fuss .... wrap it on to a large cable drum .

canary grass its great for about 15years but takes a year to establish well

I always supply water next to every feeder , and supply road grit in every release pen . just sweep the excess grit that forms at the kerb side on bends in the roads . I used to get a lot of birds ran over on the back lanes that run through my shoot , when I watched the birds on the roads I realized they are collecting grit......so I decided to collect it for them and even deliver it to the pens . I now lose hardly any to cars

black magic and luck bud

+ 1 bang on bud ! Meopta 7 x 50, I use mine for lamping fox , deer and long range (200-250) vermin. I have had scopes with all the bells and whistles on....but nothing beats a good quality fixed mag the 7 x 50 being the best I have found , the biggest point is getting used to range estimation with a fixed mag scope is sooo much easier than through a variable mag . I junked a nikko stirling diamond variable mag in favour of my meopta

bazanty just means pheasant in polish , the poles get most of their eggs from france then export them to us as bazanty ! they are just mixed up ring neck / black neck crosses

I agree with you , feeding late in the day is best , but I have found that my pond is not getting any duck in the day, I would love to have some in the day time as it is in a pheasant drive. you can shoot every two weeks, but I have never found the numbers will be as good as if you had given them a month to recover. as this is an important part of my job , I take great pride in my flight pond management and would soon be out of a job if I could not produce the results

it sounds to me like your trying to shoot it too much ? I have just had a over grown pond cleared this summer cutting 50% of the trees down so I have down wind side of it completely open, I have spent the last 3 months feeding it, at present I feed 10kg of wheat every morning and have counted the duck coming in on the evening flight three nights in a row , 510pm the first duck arrives by 520pm I have 100 ducks on the pond by 530pm its up to 130 duck. this has taken 3 month to build up ! I will shoot the pond the next time we have no moon and a good windy night I will NOT shoot it again for at least 5 weeks !!! I never take a dog or gun with me when I feed it and I feed in the morning to make sure I don't show my self to any duck ! but my pet moorhen always comes over for food if I shot it every two weeks or so , I would expect to have no duck or very little.

I am looking for a good second hand schmidt & bender 8 x 56 scope , Hungarian or german what have you got thanks

I am not 100% sure ...but I think we are not allowed to pull or clip call birds wings anymore ?? I think it is in the conditions of the general licence that we all read before operating a Larsen trap ? I think the best way round this is to clip the legs off the 'do gooders'

yes...one lop eared and a dwarf blue my Mrs has one too.... seriously Leicester is not a very good area for bunnys , I think its due to the Leicestershire clay that covers most of the county, rabbits like sandy soils that drain well and makes it easier for burrowing ? what do you want to do with these bunnys ? shoot them ? ferrets ? hawks ?