Rob85

Kind of sounds like overly intensive farming, like the silage guys taking 3 to 4 cuts a year now, starts to damage the ground eventually. One perm I had refused to let his fields be cut more than twice a year to give the soil a rest

Before anything else I think you need to do more on lead discipline in the fields before letting him off. But like you're having now I had the same problems because I pushed training too quick as it was my first dog. What cured my first dog of this carrying on was doing what Joe Irving suggested in his book which was to run away from the dog while calling it's name. Confuses the hell out if them as the dog is expecting you to chase after them when THEY run off and all pups love to play chase but what you are doing is reversing the game and trying to get the dog to chase you. Then when he gets to you make a big fuss of them or give them a little treat or whatever. Only do it in an area the dog can't literally run away from, like somewhere fenced off so the dog doesnt have a chance to go missing completely. Coupled with this is the two lead approach, I done this to stop the initial running away as soon as the lead was taken off. So have a long lead, I made my own with some wide strapping material, place that AND the dogs standard lead on it, when you let them off the lead make quite a show so the dog thinks it's free, if he bolts give him a few yards then bowl him over with the long lead. But when they get back to your side sitting you can then make a fuss of them I was amazed how quick that put manners into my dog.

The organised team sport exemption will have the anti's choking on their soya milk latte's with their screaming haha Gun bus shouldn't be a problem, they allow people on public transport with masks on and really the transport for the guns is no different apart from not using public roads as such. Maybe a few guns would be happy to use their own 4x4s to get around if required. The shoots I've beat on didn't really have any transport worth talking about for the beaters apart from a few lucky ones who hopped on the game cart, the only other exception was a spud trailer with a couple of benches, took your life in your hands getting on it though. But in the majority it was walking

Even in a beating line if you are spaced out and maybe change a few drives I don't see it as any different to walking down the street passing people and going shopping. Wear a face covering and bring a packed lunch instead of the communal scran session at lunchtime and it should be all good.

Doubt it because the people are spread out further than 2 meters apart. If they can still put 30 players on a rugby pitch then I think driven shooting will be fine

One of my permissions has a good few about. Took a walk through yesterday but they aren't that big, but some on the branches are starting to shrivel. I reckon I'll be picking tomorrow or Friday. A few rosehips around too

I was just thinking that if this happened in northern ireland the people leaking information of firearms holders would possibly find themselves investigated under the terrorist act as it literally tells the still active terrorist organisations which houses to target to obtain guns and ammunition, over here we are advised not to put pictures of ourselves enjoying our lawful activities with firearms on social media in the event that it could lead to our house being identified by organisations looking to acquire guns. If someone finds their house broken into and guns taken that is on this list then I would hope that the people in these organisations will be hunted sown by the police and imprisoned as an accessory to the crime

If you are with him at all times then I don't see a problem. On his own then no

Just hope this doesn't result in another screaming match in parliament wanting to put further restrictions on guns, especially if it turns out that some idiot let their son get access to his firearms.

I bet all the usual £50 guns will go up in price because there will be people wanting to try steel through something else before trying their expensive guns. There are already Danish guys bashing lead through Damascus barrels without any trouble

From what I've seen if you have so much as a puddle or standing water in your fields from rain you cannot use lead shot. The only reason this ticks me off so much is it's another EU over reach (funny it is called the reach comittee) into countries domestic affairs. Maybe the shooting orgs seen this coming and decided a 5 year transition would be better than the possibility of the british government just accepting this and having our hand forced in a rushed manner.

So the EU has decided that by 2023 lead shot cannot be used within 100m of a body of water. This will affect almost every shoot in the land well before BASC and the other orgs wanted the voluntary switch to non toxic to happen. What do we reckon? Will we take on this with other EU laws after brexit or tell them to eff off?

I still remember the days of cycling down to the local lakes to fish when I was young in the early to mid 90s, rods taped to the frame of the bike. Most farmers of the days then didn't mind people fishing the old farm lakes for pike perch, tench and rudd etc. so long as you didn't leave a mess or light fires. Gone are those days sadly as the youth and general public now cannot be trusted to be responsible for themselves

Very interesting topic to start in the current climate. I think even more pertinent at present is to develop an easy to make card or paper type wad to contain steel shot so it does hand a real advantage to home loaders rather than spend a fortune on the current market offerings for a bio wad. Everyone knows that will be the next stick we will get beaten with after lead shot.

I think gulls should just be under General licence like crows and any other avian pest

Absolutely beautiful, functional and artistic at the same time. One to be proud of.

Lovely pic and great to see. I'll never forget seeing my first one on the river I fish, blue and yellow flash as it zipped by me. Also seen a pine marten about a mile upstream from there. You daren't tell the media you have seen them or every twitcher and their dad will be down to hog the banks looking for them.

I remember being told not to pick then until the first frost. I suppose waiting that long risks the birds getting there first

Dangerous times that. I read of a guy in one of the shooting publications a load of years ago who had the same thing. When he knew it was beyond repair he put his guns into a dealer and got a dated receipt. A few days later he served his wife notice to sling her hook. Next thing the police arrived to arrest him after she called to say he had just threatened her with a gun. They arrested him on the spot, took his keys and went to seize his guns to only find the receipt. Wife was arrested immediately! Karma and revenge in one fell swoop

Lucky you, I wish mine would just sod off. I try my best to ignore him as I think that annoys him more. He's one of those guys who will copy you or try and involve himself in your business. go wash your car...He rushes out to do his, mow your lawn? You can bet your backside he will be out to do his too, hiw lawn is about 5metres long and about 3 wide and he uses a huge petrol mower and strimmer. A friend across the street had his house all replastered. Within days this guy was out with a hock and trowel trying to look like the bees knees touching up render that didn't need touched up. I wouldn't say I'm completely anti social but I would be happy if nobody lived within half a mile of me haha

A bigger contributory factor to suicides would have been the antics his priests and associated nuns have been getting up to for years with children

On the subject of the hide... about 16 years ago I worked with a real animal rights lunatic and hyper born again christian who told me that while he was out birdwatching around the Lough (and probably tresspassing) he came across these "hides them shooters use to murder the wildlife" and he admitted to kicking them down when he found one. I informed him that there's a good chance he was trespassing and committing criminal damage if they were on a landowners property. He didn't care one bit. The same idiot tried to let some wild feral cats out of the traps that were set in our factory to catch them, minging old things that near cut the hands off him with their claws but he was adamant they would go free. Some people....

Loved that. Great shooting and retrieving, the owner of one of my permissions is digging out a bit of a pond as part of the drainage channels in the small marsh at the bottom of his ground so I'm hoping for a few ducks this year. A former permission on the far side of it yielded my first ever Mallard and first Teal so im being hopeful. Are there many people shooting Lough neagh these days?

Look for kitchen fitters and cabinet makers in your local area, a friend of mine does some high end kitchen work and has done some work with walnut. Next time I see him I'm thinking of asking for some off cuts to play with. Might be worth asking them to see if they have an off cut you could have for a few beer tokens.

For the days when it may be hard to get birds to decoy and being fast and instinctive counts I think the side by side is hard to beat! I really rate the lyalvale pigeon power 29gram 6s, a lovely cartridge through my side by side yeoman. Handsome spaniel you have there.