ClemFandango

Every day is a school day. I bet I have seen pigeons eating Ash buds and never taken any notice, there is no reason why they wouldn't have been doing it right under my nose. And here I am thinking I know everything.

Black buds says Ash to me, although I have never known pigeons to eat ash buds but can't see why they wouldn't. can you post a pic? At least can you describe the bark or the leaves?

I have 3 Remington M1100's and one 1187 sps magnum. love them all but the favourite is my 1187.

Awesome and great to see. I would keep that .223, won't be long before he'll be wanting to have a pop with that.

Keep the .223, it won't eat anything sat in your cabinet and your boy will grow quick and fast. Not long before he'll want to try rifle shooting and imagine how handy it would be to have a centerfire rifle with low recoil that he may just bag his first fox with.

I bet realistically you wouldn't notice a lot of difference between the two while stalking/shooting at normal ranges, say sub 300yds. Personally I'd pick whichever one was easier to get ammo for in your area but then you say you homeload. .270 has a slightly snappier recoil but not really noticeable if the rifle is moderated.

Nah. Watch it alone with the curtains drawn.

Have you seen GIA?

I tend to cook haunches rare as possible so my advice may not be the best but I have done shoulders and hocks so that they fall off the bone as you describe, You kind of need the sinewy stuff I think to give it texture. I would do it in a slow cooker or a casserole dish in the oven as low temp and long as possible as If you do it whole you'll need a bloody big slow cooker! There's a recipe on Stalking Directory for Muntjac Cassoulet which is quite nice. I add a tablespoon of tomato puree to mine. It might need a bit of adapting for a haunch in the oven but It should work. https://www.thestalkingdirectory.co.uk/showthread.php/144580-Muntjac-Cassoulet?highlight=muntjac+cassoulet

how much does it cost to have a gun proof tested?

crashed the yogurt truck a few times over her in my teens. Have you seen The Rock. Con Air? easily the best film ever made.

A sparrowhawk weighs at most 350g. They ain't carrying a cat away. An adult grey squirrel will be 400-600g ish. More likely you have a Goshawk at your bird table.

Very young like weeks old. There's no way it was a sparrowhawk. Gos and Sparrowhawk look similar, that's what my money is on, not sold on the prey item yet though.

I only use one piece rods.

You're weird if you don't

yup thats what it is.

I have found pigeon remains around Sparrowhawk nests so that's not too much of a stretch but I bet it would be at the top end of what they could manage size wise. Also there is no doubt that any raptor can or had become urbanised, look at peregrine falcons nesting in office blocks, Didcot powerstation etc. The Red Kite was at it's most abundant when we had open sewers. In fact proper sewerage has been by some suggested as the cause of the decline of the Red Kite in this country, they were obviously not only urbanised but dependant on Humans.

But it does mean that they are detectable by metal detector so you don't need to put a washer on them solely for that reason as Clakk suggests.

There is no way on this earth a Sparrowhawk could take a cat. Even a kitten would be pushing it. They are aggressive birds and may swoop on one, even latch on but they absolutely don't have the strength to carry one. A Gos is stretching it but it's a possibility, Female Gos are larger than males. If it was a cat I would say it's likely to have been a very small one.

Gos with a squirrel. Think of the physics involved. Google tells me an average adult domestic cat weighs 3.6-4.5Kg You say the bird wasn't as big as a buzzard, that rules out Eagle owl which might just be capable of taking a small cat. I would think 2Kg would be extremely large prey for even such a big bird to carry. A fully grown Eagle owl weighs a little under 3kg, a buzzard 1.5ish. I assume because you say it was smaller than a buzzard you are sure it wasn't a buzzard. There's no reason that a buzzard wouldn't be carrying a squirrel even if it hadn't killed it and had just come across a roadkill one. A goshawk similar weight, 1.4kg for a big one. Very aggressive bird but in no way capable of taking a cat. But as others have said they do enjoy squirrel. I suppose that a kitten may not be outwith the prey range of a gos but I would say it's unlikely. Not impossible. Unlikely. The other possibility is are you sure it was an animal at all and not just carrying nest dressing or nesting material?

isn't the spring metal? pretty cool. And by the looks of it you'll never be short of ginger merkins. Bonus.

Quite right. BASC are a waste of space.

good advice.

I've cut heaps of tyres with angle grinders no probs. have had two discs shatter cutting stainless pipe and some box section though, both times I think I twisted the disc, neither time did any of the shrapnel come towards me, thats what the guard is for.

definitely not Blackthorn. I assume everyone else is right and it's wild plum.