Jonty

Nice looking gun

Hi Les, I've got some heavy duty steel wire that I've cut into short lengths that does the same job as skewers mate.

Nice one mate - great when they play ball isn't it?

I'm really new to decoying, and being in sheep country, we don't have that many pigeon round here so I'm trying to get some sport out of the corvids. I'd read some advive on PW the other day (Hedd-Wyn/Steve B??) about getting set up early so I was out before sunrise to get set up. I've roosted the nearby wood and have seen birds both using a flight line of sorts and feeding in other parts of the field, but with hindsight, where I set up was too close to the security of the wood, so not a great deal of birds came into the decoys - also, I'm sure my pattern wasn't brilliant either. Anyway, I did bag a few that either committed to the deeks or copped it as they came past for a look - truth be told, I was shooting like a donkey and the number of empties for birds on the ground was shameful!! I also had a walk into the woods and picked up some branchers and birds that were flighting so all in all a good morning with 20 in the bag, plenty of rooks a few crows and a jackdaw. I know I've got plenty to learn and ther is some great info on here lads, thanks Here's some from the woods

Penfolio, struggling to email the pictures because of their size so here goes Tried to get close ups of dings/flaws here - this is straight out of the cabinet, I've not tried to hide anything

I got it from here mate Click Here

Hi Penfolio, I've got an S410 carbine .177 in good nick - the odd mark here and there as it's been used for hunting but overall very good. It's got a 10 shot mag, silencer, Tasco Golden Antler 3-9x40 scope and Stirrup pump. I'm in Skipton but have a job on in your neck of the woods over the next couple of weeks so could meet up if you're interested. Cheers, Jonty.

Those are rooks in the picture mate.

It really isn't that difficult mate - I know that's easier said than done, but it is all factory made fittings, a bit of measuring and some very careful cutting. Also, I would like to stress that nothing I'm doing is original - I'm just copying the same set up that plenty of people have done before me. Whilst I'm on, I pretty much finished the mash tun tonight by plumbing in the bottom drain... Cut away the outer skin and the insulation to fit the pipe work (insulation will be re-instated) here's how it looks with the tap from the outside Here's the central drain (plug hole) from the inside

I nipped out for a couple of hours tonight after the kids went to bed. I ended up with 21 at the end of the night, this pic was taken after about the first hour - it was bloody good fun.

Rabbit shooting to Ferrets by William Thomas. 1979 hardback edition in very good condition. £10.00 posted

There's nothing wrong with basic mate, if it ain't broke don't fix it I reckon. If you want a cold smoke, you can't go far wrong with one of these Cold Smoke Generator they're the best invention for smoking I've seen in years. You fill it with wood dust, get it smouledrring with a t light and then let it smoulder - the box says approx 9 hours but I regularly get over 15 hours from 100g of saw dust. It doesn't produce any heat so you can use virtually anything as the smoke box, even a cardboard box if you wanted. I use a food grade oil drum (£8.00) with a couple of vents in the sides, you can see the smoke generator in action here Definately the best £30 I've spent on smoking stuff ever.

I'm in the middle of building a new brewing setup at the moment. It's taken me a longer tan I wanted but I'm slowly getting theere. It will comprise of 1 off 100l hot liquuor tank 1 off 100l boiler and 1 off 50l mash tun. All the vessels are stainless steel and can be bought relatively cheaply from a cetering suppliers in franve via ebay. I made a new false bottom for the mash tun the other night, basically it keeps the grain away from the drain hole in the bottom of the tun. I used 2mm stainless steel sheet whicg has 1.5mm perforations. Marked the sheet up Bit of very careful cutting The beer line round the outside acts as a seal against the side of the tun Jeesus - it fits!! (You can just see the drain hole in the middle of the base of the tun as well) It needs a handle fitting as it's a very snug fit but it's almost there

Definately upstream fishing, the fish will be true wily wild browns, so stealth is definately of the essence. I fish a small beck which varies from 3ft to 10ft and the little pools produce great sport. Fish as light a rod as you can 7 - 7 1/2 ft 3wt and a fairly short leader (otherwise the fly spends more time on the bank than in the water). I find that small spiders are particulary good and you can't go wrong with a partridge and orange. Obviously, if you can spot a hatch, or see what they may be eating in the water, your best bet is to 'match the hatch' so to speak. I know it's individual choice, but personally, lures and streamers just don't seem right for wild fish on a natural stretch of water. You can't beat fooling a truly wild fish through good fieldcraft, reading the water, fly selection and presentation. Have fun!!

What sort of smoker do you have pavman? Hot or cold?

Kes, I'm not sure if this link will work, but this is a fantastic rock mark on the Lleyn peninsula. It's a bit of a scramble but well worth it. If the mackerel are about, you'll certainly catch from here too. Just zoom out to get an idea where it is. Clicky You can walk there in about 5-10 minutes from this camp site, it's basic but very nice Campsite

Zapp, my usual brew lengths with that setup are about 23-25l. To get that the mash is usually 4-5kg grain and 10-12 litres of strike water. I'd say the tun is two thirds full with that, you could maybe manage another kg or so of grain for a stonger brew. The new set up is half way through being built 2 off 100l stainless pots for the HLT & Boiler as below and 1 off 50l insulated thermo pot for the mash tun

Zapp, here's some pictures of that false bottom - I know I'm going to get the p*** taken because it's dusty and there's a dead fly on it, but that's what gives my beer it's unique flavour. It's basically a tank connector through the mash tun wall to a ball valve, a tank connector through the plate with a 90 degree fitting and some short lengths of 15mm copper and then a piece of 1/2" beer line to connect the two firrings together. As long as you utilise the syphon effect by attaching a shorth length of pipe to the outlet tap to make sure it is below the actual base of the tun it pretty much drains out.

It is mate, very easy to do, apart from drilling all the holes which is a bit dull, I'll take the tun apart later and get a few pictures. No problem, I'll bear you in mind!! The beer was a Golden Pippin clone so I wanted a tenuous reference in the name

Yes mate, I'd only done kits till I found out about Jims, then what I thought was a black art and had discounted as impossible seemed quite achievable. I made a compilation of pictures to show the whole process to show it's not that complicated and really, anyone could have a bash. Don't be put off by the false bottom, it leaves less than half a litre of liquid, which is easilty accountable for in your pre-brew calculations. Would be happy to send you some more detailed pics if you wannted.

Here's a 'how to' guide I posted e week or two back on a mates forum, I'm currently building a new 100l stainless set up so the kit shown here will be up for sale for a cheap price in the very near future. I'm in the middle of building a new set up so this is a series of pics from my old kit - but it's suitably heath robinson to show how you can do it on a budget. A typical all grain breweery requires 3 vessels, shown here top to bottom, Hot Liquor Tank (HLT) Mash Tun and Boiler. This is a simple gravity fed system which avoids the need for pumps. The HLT is effectively a kettle, it's only job is to heat water to the required temperature for two stages of the brewing process. The Mash Tun is pretty much a heavily insulated bucket, it's job is to hold a load of grain and hot water at a constant temperature for 90 minutes. The boiler is... well a boiler, needed to boil the wort (unfermented beer) for 60-90 minutes. My HLT is a fermenting bucket with a ball valve tap and an element taken from a tesco value £5 kettle. The foam is insulation to reduce heat loss. The mash tun is another fermenting bucket with a perforated false bottom (to act as a filter to stop grain coming through the tap), a ball valve tap and a lot of insulation. I used foam matting, some people use camping mats, or rather than a bucket, use a camping cool box. The boiler just needs to be able to hold a boil for 60-90 minutes depending on the recipe. They can range from a bucket with kettle/immersion heater elements to stock pots on gas rings to electric tea urns. Mine is a mango chutney barrel blagged from my local takeaway, fitted with 2xteco kettle elements and a ball valve tap. The copper pipe in the bottom is a manifold with holes drilled in the underside to act as a filter to stop hops getting through the tap. I added the 2nd element later by the way. So, making beer.......... You need grains (malted barley/wheat/speciality grains), hops, water and yeast The first stage is the mash - you mix your grain with hot water to form a porridge in the mash tun, get the temp to a steady 66 degrees and then close the lid and leave to mash for 90 minutes. This mash brings the sugars out of the grains and into the water, the sugars are the fermentables which makes the beer alcoholic, also, the mix of grain gives the beer it's underlying flavour. The mash gets the bulk of the good stuff out of the grain, but not all of it. So once you've drained the liquid out of the masth tun, you then sprinkle more hot water over the grains to get the rest of the goodness out. This is called sparging, you can do this with a rotating fancy arm, a jug, a shower head or a watering can if you like. I made this copper head to disperse the water - it's important not to disturb the grain bed if possible. As everything is gravity fed, you've got water coing in from the HLT, draining through the mash tun and been collected in the boiler. Once you've got your required quantity in the boiler, its time to... well, boil it. The wort that you've collected is sweet malty water and needs hops to be added to provide bitterness and flavour/aroma. The reason the boil has to last at least an hour or so is to get the bitterness out of the hops and into the wort, I suppose a bit like a well mashed pot of tea. So you put bittering hops in the wort and start to boil Depending on the recipe, you add different types of hops at diffenet times during the boil, but it's usual to add some towards the end of the boil to provide aroma and flavour without the astringency. After the boil, it's common to crash cool the wort to yeast temperature to reduce the risk of any infection, my budget set up didn't include a chiller so I just decant into fermenter, leave over night and then pitch the yeast the next day when it's colooled down Add your yeast and wait... Bottle Barrel and Serve

Pretty much hit the nail on the head there Zap!! I do mine slightly differently as I fly sparge but the end results and the basic process are the same. It does sound difficult or complicated on paper, but is really straightforward in practice, I'd be happy to give anyone in the North a hands on brew day if they were interested. If you can knock hides together, follow game recipes and fettle your shooting kit, you can definatelt make good beer too.

I'm an all grain brewer too, and happy to pitch in any advice or help can. When I get 5 minutes I'll dredge up some pictures showing how you can cobble together a basic set up to make great beer for very little capital expense.

No problem

Typical - I've knocked 8 on the head in the last two weeks