Keith

not even going to bother arguing with people with such narrow minds. this will be my last post on the site as i don't wish to waste my time conversing with fools and bigots.

Put your decoys out in the patterns you can find on this site using the search function - put them out along the flight line from the roost to the river on your dad's land. think seriously about getting a flapper or bouncer to have at some place at the opening of the pattern to look like a pigeon coming in to land. hide yourself siwthin 20 yards or so of the decoys and wait patiently. good luck

What's more likely is that when Radio Four broadcast at lunchtime, they didn't have a definitive version from the police and so relied on newsagencies like AP and PA. Speaking as a former BBC news journalist and current journalist trainer, they would have taken the common aspects of the 2 corroborating agency reports to make the story. They would have got the word pellets from the description of the injuries. I didn't hear it but would take a guess that the air gun reference came from the reference to pellets and was maybe in an interview where the presenter will have been asking about the weapon. When the police statement became available they changed to shotgun as per the police interview available as video on a link put up in an earlier posting. Without wanting to start a row like y'day and derail the thread, news reports are never infallible and are only as good as the info made available by police, hospitals and eye-witnesses, none of whom can always give a 100% accurate account. so journos have to make judgements and sometimes they are wrong but not always through their own failings. It's often simply because insufficient info is available but people will still want that news in their bulletins. Not that journos don't make mistakes - they do - but not all the time. But there will be more and more mistakes or inadequate reporting as more and more jobs are cut in newsrooms. 2,500 going in bbc over next three years. that may gladden the hearts of some of you, butn your news will not improve as a result.

get spyware bot - works like dream

not too many shoots in harrow and north london

It's tough if all the farms have gone to other shooters. Have you tried NPPC to see if they have any shooting opportunities in Northumberland. Or type farm or farmer and your area into the 192 phone numbers website and then phone every number and then follow up any slightly positive responses with a visit. As you'll see from a previous post, I'm about to pay £200 to get some decent land to shoot over. Good luck.

Dustyfox is right, so I went up his morning and got a tour round the three diferent farms on offer to shoot on. One o 350 acres mixed rape, wheat and cattle. One of 170 acres with mix of rape and wheat and one of about 50 acres 10 mins drive from where i live with beans. All of it nearer than my existing permission and in total about four times the size with a better mix of crops. saw plenty of flocks there and quite a few rabbits. on the 170 acre farm there are pheasants and partridge and i can shoot them too. The farmer has also agreed he'd support a fac application if i make one, as all three farms have been fac checked by the local firearms officer. the farms has rabbits, foxes and muntjac. So, I'm going to have a shoot there on Monday and if I like it I will pay up. I agree with those of you who are worried by the principle but I have little choice being a townie with no decent farmland within reasonable distance and about 50 turndowns from farms up to 30 miles away. unfortunately my permission has no rape and i've seen hardly any pigeons - just scattered individuals and a few groups of 5 or ten in about 12 visits. and the rabbits here are hammered with myxie.

Absolutely agree but the problem is that around the edge of London shooting opportunities are few and far between. I have one permission but it has few pigeons and practically no rabbits. Lots of local farms get paid by syndicates and shooting is hard to find. If the farm looks good I'll give it a try.

Go for a Fujitsu-Siemens - get it direct from their website. v good machines and great value. K

Hi - just spoken to a farmer who is willing to let me shoot over his land. He has 350 acres, which includes winter rape, and has neighbouring farmers who will let him have his permitted guns shoot over their land when they have problems. The only downside is that unlike my other permission where it's the Scotch at Christmas, this one wants £200 a year and he already has 2 others who shoot on the farm. It's not extortionate and I'll pay as he is nearer to where I live and it is a large farm with plenty of birds and rabbits, but was just wondering how common this is. Happy new year! K

Deerhunter Pacha jacket, large game bag, leather cartridge belt, new Springsteen CD, Plant/KRauss CD, new Levon Helm CD (v good if you liked the soundttrack from Oh Brother Where Art Thou). Got the missus some fancy leather boots and perfume (Issy Miyake and some other Jap one - why do Japs make such good perfume?).

And me - particularly opening topic categories.

I went out for a quick swing round my permission this morning. Very frosty and quite a mist. Not a bird in site but a beautiful winter morning. Surprised a roe deer as I parked and it dashed of into the trees. Walked round for an hour with not a bird in sight. The surprised a roosting pigeon, which flew off through the top of some bare trees. I hit it through the trees at about 35 yards and knocked it down into the trees. It was a flapper and I followed it up quickly as it tried to get away on the ground. As I was nearing it, it managed to get a couple of feet off the ground and skimmed into some heavy bushes. As I followed it in a hen pheasant shot out and ran off for about 20 yards into the edge of a wood but stupidly stopped and turned to look at me as it started to take off into the trees. Hit it at about 25 yards. Couldn't believe how big and heavy it was. Picked it up and went back to get the pigeon - could I find it, could I hell. Still the big fat hen was good compensation. Saw three more pheasants soon after but out of range and not having my missus and dog to flush them out of cover, had to give up on them. Didn't see another bird all morning but had enjoyed a beautiful winter's morning, was out in the countryside, doing what I enjoy and got a fat pheasant into the bargain. Here's the hen and my Beretta.

I used to have an earlier version of the Fuji - which was great, cumplicated and took v good pics. Now have the Panasonic Lumix - it's very good and has more added features, bells and whistles. On balance I found the Fuji better to use on things like safaris or taking pics when I'm out shooting. hard choice though, as both are good cameras.

But as other colleagues on the site warned me - if you're shooting them in your garden have your reasons ready for when any of your bunny hugging neighbours call the boys in blue. I've got a, long garden and can shotting up the garden without any danger to neighbours and those of either side of me know what I do and are quite happy with it as long as I don't kill the tree rats in front of their kids. Wildebeest in manchester eh - why do I pay to go to Africa on safari! Happy Christmas

Jeremy Paxman - v decent bloke Josh Lewsey (Englandf Rugby World Cup winner) - outstanding Dr David Owen - pompous idiot Alexey Sayle - very nice guy, totally unassuming

I agree with a lot that's been said already. I've never been to the states but have worked with a lot of Americans in the UK and in Africa. There are very I've met that I haven't liked. Those I have disliked have been the "you can't do this to me i'm an American" types. Went on a 2 week group safari with 2 New York lawyers who were exactly like that and give Americans a bad name. I think Bush is a dangerous lunatic but previous US governments have acted in much the way he does very often - Bay of Pigs, Guatemala, Grenada, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Iraq and Afghanistan. Because the US is so economically powerful and militarily strong they think they are the world police and everyone who does not have a system based on their very flawed democracy is wrong. When it comes to fighting wars they are poor - they shove in manpower and heavy weaponry and blast away with no understanding of tactics, graduated use of force etc. Compare Britain in Malaya with US in Vietnam - which country is now peaceful, prosperous and not littered with the poor, deformed victims of chemical warfare? Read Max Hasting's great book on the Korean war - Americans fight the way they play grid-iron: they may be tough and violent but everything has to be predictable, done in grids; they can't cope with the need for flexible tactics and the need to do something other than blast things to pieces. When they've tried peacekeeping it's been a disaster - as in Somalia, whereas as Britain and other countries do it v well - such as in Sierra Leone, where the British army did a fantastic job - sensitive to local needs but willing to send in the paras to wipe out drug-fuelled rebel bandits when necessary and do it clinically not by wasting acres of land and killing scores of civilians. As for the US and free trade - they want free trade except of course when they want to protect US farmers, steelworkers etc So in my view, nice people but an arrogant nation that elects crass governments and has a power complex but lacks the subtlety to use it sensibly.

1224

I bought a small pop up from Bush Wear. I use it along with hide netting if I cannot put the hide up with a hedge or stand of trees behind me. Gives me a seat, a bit of shelter when it rains and provides cover behind me if there's no natural cover. Was pretty cheap and it's light and pops up/folds down very easily. Comes with its own bag.

Quirky but Brilliant - saw him live in 1974, he did a great Peaches en regalia and Chunga's Revenge. Loved the Fillmore East Live album and, of course, Hot Rats.

When they ban scrums, rucks and mauls in rugby. They've already more or less outlawed reasonable use of the boot to clear players out of the way when they are lying over the ball. When they make us get written permission from ramblers who use footpaths within a mile of where we shoot.

About 100 acres with some woods, nice open fields along a flightline or two, some wild pheasants and lots of myxie free rabbits. And a new Beretta semi-auto to go with the game gun. And to keep me warm in the winter, Nigella Lawson or Romola Garai.

Hate nights - out of 28 years at BBC I've worked nights or rt-nights for 18 years - one streth of 3 years where I did mainly 2 hour nightshifts on live programmes. never adjusted to sleeping during the day. Never again. A swine for family life too.

On a personal note, many thanks for the wonderful service you provided during the falklands, you kept us sane and well informed My profession ATM is a Conflagration deluge technician and also a Directional facilitator for other CDT`s. Hi Henry - did you serve in the Falklands? Which unit? I had a safe but odd job during the war - working for BBC Monitoring Service on nights listening to and transcribing the argie Radio Liberty propaganda station, seems Sandy Woodward committed suicide 4 times during the war according to them!

Jimi Hendrix's Johnny B Goode from Hendrix in the West, Won't Get Fooled Again by the Who or Honky Tonk Women by the Stones