243deer

If only that were true and they had not flown the 5 minutes to come and destroy my brassicas while I am at work!

We had a lad at work who caught covid from his wife. He did the decent thing and stayed home for 2 weeks. Fit lad so only had a day of discomfort. He was, however, immediately put on statuary sick pay and he lost about £800 - a lot for a young family with one income. Seems to me somewhat unfair that financial support was not given in that situation at the same level (80%) as furloughed non workers. As he has said - next time he will come to work as he cannot deal with the stress and worry, I for one would not blame him.

and a ridiculously high entry fee

I have a few friends who are paramedics who feel very stretched. One is a shift manager and so prioritises the 999 calls, not a job I would want for any money. Last time I had a stay in hospital I was bed blocking for nearly 6 hours after being given the go ahead in the morning to go home. As a consequence I believe the money is already there to fund services better if it was freed up by more efficient management.

Absolutely and unashamedly but I can also load my sbs when pigeon shooting a tad faster than anyone can load an o/u

Just goes to show that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, for me the barrels are the wrong way round

With the greatest respect to all on pw, legal advice is best dispensed by members of the legal profession who will have knowledge not only of laws but of how they have been applied in specific cases on which our legal system is based

A new opportunity for some river trout fishing means I am looking for a 10ft 5 weight trout rod, just wondering if anyone has one sitting unused in a cupboard they might wish to move on before I buy a new one. Budget is 100 quid ish

Vince summed it up very well. Thankfully, like many of our laws, the licences are not that well written. This is to our advantage as crop protectors so best we all just keep quiet and carry on as we have been whilst simply being able to quote which GL licence number we are operating under if (and that is an astronomically big if) we are ever challenged to quote that specific information.

Thanks for the replies folks. I have plenty of good dedicated wire cutters but they have a habit of walking off the tractor whereas my cheap multi-tool sits on my belt and is very useful and always there for the myriad of little jobs around the farm, I was living in hope really that the more expensive multi-tools might have becomd more worthwhile and useful.

Does a reliable multi-tool that will cope with cutting multi strand high tensile heavy guage electric fence wire exist? Looking for opinions of folk that have used the tool for this task multiple times and how long/how many cuts the blades can last for please.

Rewilding can undoubtedly work but, and it is a big 'but', only if you remove the human population and all other invasive, non-native, species from a large enough area to make it viable. All other schemes are simply there to make humans feel better about doing something to right the terrible wrongs humans are doing to our world in general. A harsh opinion I grant you but formed from seeing the parallel between the damage an unchecked deer population does to an area and the damage an unchecked human population is doing to the world.

Passing on skills and enthusiasm to the younger generations is one of the most fulfilling days out you can have. Those who jealously guard under used permissions do not realise what they are missing out on.

I feel your pain - a nightmare weed. Can you possibly do without the area it grows in for a couple of seasons? If you can then cover the area with thick black membrane/plastic and starve it of light. I know of no chemicals that will effectively kill it systemically. If you remove by hand bag it and bin it not in your compost bin as we do not want it. You need to clean up every scrap which is not easy and be careful you do not transfer it on your tools, brushes in particular. Good luck!

John Forsey always a good place to check for wildfowling shells

You have sort of answered your own conundrum when you stated that you do not use each calibre much. It probably means you still have a ways to go on finding the limit of their usefulness. I have an even greater range of calibres and uses for them all so I would suggest you keep all you currently have and add more cabinets and calibres. Fed up with the bs I keep reading about the .17hmr ammo by folk wishing to appear knowledgeable, I have not had a problem in 10000 rounds + and know several pest controllers who do a lot of rabbits and use more ammo in a year than I do in 10 who have also not had a problem. There was a small qc problem with the ammo several years ago which did not last long although some of this ammo is still being used up by folk who do not shoot many rounds, it is not an ongoing problem.

An aweful lot of us started with an unlicensed BSA meteor or similar progressing from a catapault. This week new blood which would have joined our community has been prevented from doing so in the same manner due to age and or licensing restrictions depending on where you live. We should be vociferously fighting all changes tooth and nail. Unfortunately our representative organisations do not have the stomach for a fight.

I made my as I went along from bitsa wood I found in my loft plus 4 x 3 inch posts. Defo raise it off the ground makes shooting the odd visiting rat a lot easier, I have only had 3 visit briefly in 2 1/2 years. Make it movable so you can give parts of the garden a rest. I use fencing pins and netting for movable fencing. I am also with owee on the effectiveness of diamataceous earth in dealing with red mites. We have not had any yet, I treat every 3 months being careful to put a face mask on as not too clever fir humans either in a confined space. I put in laminate as flooring, very easy to clean out, just make sure you always put down a good layer of shavings as a start. Organic layers pellets are my preference and I also treat with verm-x. All this has led to very happy rescued hens.

Every rifle shooter has to set their own limits depending on their capabilities. My preference using a .22 with subs - as that is my usual ammo - would be a straight on head shot at a max of 35 yards. I would not take an engine room shot with a .22 - far too much chance of the fox running off injured, albeit it might be fatally, to endure a slow death. Even with a .17hmr I prefer close range head shots, up to 50 yards. If I am going foxing I take my deer rifle, 6.5 x 55 se, they do not get up as even with the bigger calibre I limit range to 100 yards. Missing a fox creates a problem for later so I would never encourage what I would consider 'hero' shots in one who is young and inexperienced.

DSC1 is like reading the manual on a new machine before starting to use it, some folk will inevitably dismiss it as not necessary. I really enjoyed my course and learned plenty. Having DSC1 and a couple of stalks booked takes away any reason to be refused a deer rifle. You do not need your own permission - even though some forces try to make this a condition many stalkers only ever go on paid outings. I would recommend a couple of stalks with an experienced guide after DSC1 so that you can learn to gralloch well and not ruin your first carcasses. DSC1 does not teach you how to gralloch and DSC2 tests that you can gralloch - yet DMQ have failed to recognise this shortfall for decades which is a shame.

I think virtue signalling should be banned as it is both discriminatory and inherently hypocritical

From a purely selfish stance I agree with the conference being in Cornwall. Lovely quiet evenings here in Norfolk whilst the contents of Marham base are gallivanting in the South West.

It does not seem to matter how many munties I shoot, male and female they just keep coming so as Nev says fill your freezer with munties, you will not run out. On one of my permissions, 170 acres, we do a doe count in September and usually set the cull at 50% assuming we see a normal year of recruitment, this keeps the population stable. If we do not quite get the cull by the end of January then so be it we adjust at the next count. We have a very decent buck who produces 'gangsters', heavy bodied youngsters who survive well. We only take murder bucks, old bucks going back and maybe a youngster or two every year if there is an excess of bucks, rarely more than 2 bucks a year average and some years none at all. If you take a drive around your area at dawn and dusk you will quickly get an idea of the general deer population remembering that it is always higher than those we see.

Very lucky last Friday morning to see my first ever nightjar. It flew up from the road and as each side was hedged flew in front at about 2 feet high with me gradually losing speed to try and give it room to feel it could turn, which it eventually did after 200 yards or so. I was praying that one of Norfolks death wish drivers was not coming the other way on this twisty country road.

That is a very clear case of aggravated trespass so we already have a law to deal with this. The police should be doing their job as aggravated trespass is a criminal offence. However, this means that the highly educated, degree toting, senior officers would have to get off their butts on a weekend and give some orders. The protestors have timed it well.