adzyvilla

i have an atco admiral, bought for £20 from ebay needing only a bit of a service to get the briggs and stratton engine running sweetly. It too has a plastic deck which is very robust, and unlike steel wont rust like my old hayter did. one of my best ever ebay purchases.

its going to have loads of roundabouts so the developers can put a housing estate on every one of them (along with the occasional retail park or light industrial estate). It is ridiculous that it wont connect up with the A47 at the Easton roundabout, but if rumours are correct, it would'nt be worth the money and hassle to build a main road across the wensum valley as a lot of the land is flood plain and not suitable for housing! (not that it hasn't stopped them building elsewhere on flood plain). It makes you want to cry that the county council have just steamrollered though the plans for this ridiculous road. In my opinion the greed and corruption involved in building this road to nowhere is staggering.

my sister lives in seaton, its a very good staging point for walking in the surrounding area if you like that sort of thing, and i have fished in the mouth of the river and from the beach (with little success but thats probably down to my skill). I always like to take a trip over the border and visit lyme regis, its a really charming little town with loads to do. Hope you have a good time while you are visiting devon.

i go past the site every now and then, and it saddens me to to see what they are doing and for no better reason than to allow the developers in to pave over north norfolk and build houses for ***** from london to use at the weekend. it wont be long before norwich has filled everything inside the northern and southern bypasses. And Jaymo, i don't think Mid Norfolk shooting ground is effected, although its very close the roadworks just miss the eastern edge. in time however when taverham has filled out, it might be different.

I bought an early 2000s petrol Rav4 for the missus, just over £2000 with 70000 miles on the clock in November. It returns 30-32 mpg (town and b-roads), is really comfortable, quiet, and spacious. Had no problems so far apart from an abs sensor which was fixed under warranty. My dad swears by Subarus however, having owned Forresters, Imprezas and Legacies in the past. All can be picked up cheaply, rarely go wrong and are superb in the mud and ice. Horses for courses, but he is looking at a brand new Rav4 next, so make of that what you will.... Good luck in your search.

yes I often have that problem too...

You could be better off posting on thefarmingforum.co.uk, i'm sure someone on there will give you an opportunity or know someone that can. Either way, good luck.

hello from just up the road in Dereham

I have completed the survey and made appropriate comments.

well i don't do enough to bother you big time shots on here but my dad has a w&s 700 that was bought new in 1965, was his only gun until very recently and has been well used to the tune of approx 2000 carts a year giving well over 100000 shots fired and it has (to my knowledge) never missed a beat. I can also testify to the club guns at bisley shooting ground having worked there for a few years in the past. They take some serious abuse over the average year and must be the most used guns anywhere in the UK.

ive been hitting consistently with them and was pleased initially, but have also noticed the number of runners increasing too. I need to shoot a little more with these carts before i'm certain its not me as the gun i'm using is new to me too. Better than in D&Js I had before though.

the toyota electric fork lift (traigo i think a 1.5 ton machine) I use at work is used and abused all day and has never given us a minute of trouble in the 5 years i've worked there. We have a 10 ton gas powered one also and it is a right pig to use. Stick to electric if you can I say.

my dad has a manual one. gets approx 32mpg. should think the auto will be slightly less?

Second day out after last weekend off, and a marked difference today both in terms of the weather and the quality of the birds. Over 1000 pigeons shot on the estate during the week so still plenty around, but would I see any? Started at around 2:30pm, 15-20mph winds and light drizzle. In my usual spot at the end of the wood, with my dad over the other side of the river, and the welcome addition of my brother (up from the smoke for a visit) down below me at the other end of the wood by the release pen. On my drive over I saw huge numbers of woodies grazing on rape and flailed maize on either side of the road, so I was thinking this is going to be a good afternoon. I could hear a few shots from different points around me but It seemed quieter than normal and perhaps the rain was keeping the fair weather shooters away. Took a fast crosser which surprised me with my first shot, purely an instinctive snap shot and it fell about 100 yards out into the meadow. Quickly reloaded as I heard several shots behind me signalling my bro was getting underway..... but nothing appeared. I didn't fire another shot for what must have been 20 minutes, seeing only fleeting glimpses of birds well out of range. Dad was merrily blazing away over the river but I didn't seem to have the luck today. I moved to the edge of the wood to get a better view of the outlying land, setting up camp in a thicket of rushes by a big hawthorn bush, I couldn't believe I had missed this spot before, as It was a great little natural hide. It worked almost immediately as a pair of pigeons whizzed past me. From my new vantage point I could see that the birds had altered from their normal flight line and were going around the end of my wood and up either side rather than over it. My new spot allowed me to pick off several birds over the next hour, but it was more misses than hits as they were still flying fast and high, but at least I was seeing more now. Spending a few minutes pondering why the birds were behaving differently today, I heard voices coming from the other side of the river. I couldn't see anything so I thought no more of it, But the flow of birds had dwindled so I took the opportunity to gather in the fallen. So far, 6 in the bag for 20 shots, I left my new spot and headed back up the wood to join my brother who had also been quiet (or so I thought). Turns out he had wandered further away from the bit I put him in and was going around blasting dreys as the pigeons were avoiding him. Turns out that the voices I heard were some walkers (over a mile from the nearest public footpath) evidently a bit lost. We saw a few more birds but I was keen for my brother to have more of a go, so I let him shoot at what we saw, I did wipe his eye once though (always a pleasure to humble your big brother...!). Getting darker now, we waited for my father to appear, chancing our arms at a few long range crows before meeting up and heading to the car and home. Total bag between three of us: 10 Total shots between three of us: 69 Personally, 7 for 25. Just didn't see the numbers I was expecting and what I did see was far out and fast. Not making excuses, honest. Think the wind being in a different direction and a few neighbouring woods unoccupied didn't help, but i'm assured the numbers are still here. Hopefully decoying one day this week, so I will let you all know how I get on. Oh and my brother, with a borrowed gun and very little practice got his first pigeon for 20 years. Good on yer Joe!

out

thanks for the feedback guys I cant wait to get back out there again, there were good numbers shot on the estate that weekend and still loads around.

My first time sharing my shooting adventures with you guys on here, Had a successful afternoon/evening yesterday so decided to share my experiences. My father and I have a good spot in a large wood with a river running down one side, approximately in the middle of a large shooting estate (mid norfolk). Lots of surrounding belts and woods, and most of them had a gun or two in them, plus plenty of bangers going in the outlying areas. We arrived about 3pm and took position at either end of the cover and took some time to watch the flight lines. Wind was blowing about 40-50mph, but it was dry and reasonably warm where i was in the midst of a clump of tall conifers. Slow start at first, but I took a pigeon with my first shot, which was a relief following the pathetic show I put up at the two beaters days I was invited to this season. I had 5 in the bag after the first hour for approx 20 shots, not bad for me in challenging conditions. Things hotted up just before 4pm and there were lots of pigeons swirling around in the gusts between our wood and the belt on the other side of the river. Some really sporting shots and a few more in the bag before the wind dropped a bit and the birds seemed to disappear. Dusk was moving in and I heard my dad having a good go at the other end of the wood, turns out he was more interested in jackdaws and carrion crows at that point, but my mind was soon refocused on the woodies as they started to come back in, looking for a safe place to roost. I fired a further 10 or 12 shots before I heard my father crashing through the undergrowth towards me, picking up 3 pigeons for 3 shots. We took stock in the semi-gloom back at the car before we headed home. Total bag between us, 19 pigeons, 2 crows and a jay for my 55 shots and his 26, so roughly a 4:1 ratio, which was a fair result in the conditions. Dad away next week, so I will be off to see a mate on his farm who is having rat problems, so an opportunity to dust off the .410 and give the Pigeons a rest for a week (at least from me as there will be plenty of others out on the estate im sure). I saw large numbers of pigeons yesterday and certainly no less than in previous years, so hopefully this will be a good year and I look forward to some decoying over flailed maize later on this month. Hope you enjoyed my tale Adam.

Ditchman i've just spent a very entertaining evening reading this thread, you really are a craftsman. I used to run a H reg 110 HiCap pickup for work and we also had 2 ex mod landys knocking about, they were looked after by a man known to me as 'Big Jim' who was the man on Bisley camp when it came to all things mechanical, but I bet you could teach him a thing or two. Anyway, I look forward to the next installment. Keep up the good work. P.S. as you like mowers, I have a Hayter Hayterette with the 4.5hp briggs and stratton engine on it that you are welcome to. It is in several bits, I just want it out of the shed to be honest. I'm fed up tinkering with it and buying spares and it still not working! I like engines but i'm not in your league! All the best Adam.

if it really is looking irreconcilable and you think things might get messy, i'd go with the storage at your local rfd just to be sure, you will still have easy access to them and they are safe with them. Storage bill might not be as bad as you think. Otherwise unless you know someone friendly you can sign your guns over to until this situation works itself out, I cant see a better option. I hope you can sort it out with your missus before it goes too far.

i have a b525 lightweight and i use d&j 30g loads fine through it for pigeon and some eley 1st 24g for clays. have shot some black gold 32g 5s on driven days, these performed very well (as expected) but they were a little punishing on the shoulder after a while. its a fine gun you have there hope it gives you great service.

I got £150, same as last year but less than previous years, which is funny as we have had 'our best year ever and are turning work away' according to the MD. We got the standard 'you've all done very well' grace brothers style speech that we get every year, and then told that would be it no more bonus from now on as the company we are merging with don't do bonuses. Someone in the meeting then mentioned the fact that they shut down for two weeks over Christmas with full pay (they are Canadian), so would we be adopting that tradition instead of the bonus....? Funnily enough no we wont be. Still it was fun while it lasted. Back on the overtime next week, gotta keep the boss in foreign holidays and flashy cars.

i had an upright hydraulic one by browns of leighton buzzard. it was awesome. got it at a farm sale for next to nothing.

welcome to the forum from a fellow norfolk resident. Lots of us on here i'm sure you'll fit in well.

try total home in norwich, they did ours earlier in the year and we were very pleased with them,

nice one oowee im hoping to get mine in the new year. have fun!