farmboy

I can add to that being shorn. Had a ram a few years back do this. Was fine before and during being shorn. Went around the corner and was found dead 10 or 15 minutes later. I think he did it out of spite!

2 more this evening. 454

Got the same problem with 3 of my old man's fields. They're by the local river and the times dog walkers have needed moving on is ridiculous. He's had cattle that use the fields condemned at slaughter thanks to them due to parasites in dog mess. None of them even have a footpath through them

Just had one walk in on a zeroing session with the airsporter, first for a fair few years with that one. 435

Another yesterday 432

Two more with the excalibre this afternoon. 427

2 jackdaws in the last couple of days. 968

Two yesterday and one this morning. First time out properly in a few years 409

A dying PSU will cause a Mac just as much trouble as a PC. All a mac is nowadays is a PC with a different kind of BIOS in any case, If you want a more secure OS you could give linux a go. Far more choice than both the windows and apple route and not to mention free. I've been using linux for about a year now and am yet to look back. I started with ubuntu and have now settled on PCLinuxOS 2008 minime. Its very stable and extremely fast. You never know, it may suite you and you could save yourself a load of cash if it does. I'll also hazard a guess that replacing a PC's PSU would be cheaper than replacing the same component for a mac. Knowing apple they use proprietary connectors. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. Gareth.

Blackpool air rifles (www.airgunbuyer.com) are pretty good. I've not dealt with uttings or JSR for a while but they were both good a few years back. Gareth

Probably not. It shouldn't be necessary anyway. If it is chip creep or similar, just re-seating the component(s) should do the job. By far the most important thing is to take proper anti stactic measures. Either attach yourself to the PC chassis with an ESD strap or at least touch a metal part of the case regularly when working. One little zap can cause a lot of trouble. If you have an air duster, it may be worth giving the case a quick blow out. Its amazing how much dust they will pick up without filters. I forgot to mention that the chip creep problem is highly unlikely to affect the processor. I'd leave it and its cooling fan alone. Gareth

It sounds to me like chip creep. Temperature fluctuations can cause things like RAM or expansion cards to shift slightly over time, as the name implies it can also happen to individual chips although as I understand that is quite rare now. When the component is heated it expands slightly, when it cools off it will contract again. This contraction can often be enough to break a connection If this is the problem, it should be sortable just by unplugging and re-seating suspect components. If you have a memory failure the system speaker will usually beep very rapidly or just emit a continuous tone. Just remember to take proper anti static precautions when playing with the internals of your pc. Gareth

Nice bag, Much better than I could manage today. I cant wait until I can get a shotgun and get proficient with one of course Gareth

I went out for a quick walkabout just as it was getting dark earlier. I had intended to go out at dawn, but I had a bad night and overslept instead , not sure if I missed much though as the weather was pretty horrible out until the afternoon when the wind dropped to a more airgun friendly level. Anyway, I grabbed my kit at about 3.15 and just took a walk up a wooded lane that runs about a quarter of a mile from the farm, giving access to 7 different fields. Despite being very narrow and only having cover on one side for most of it's length, it lends itself to a heck of a lot of shooting opportunities. Most of today's walk was pretty uneventful, normally a lot of pigeons use it as roost but today there was a good bit of shooting going on next door and they had decided to find somewhere quieter, I only saw a dozen or so as opposed to the 100+ which is normal for this time of year. A shame for me as I enjoy the challenge of getting close enough to the regularly used roost trees without getting spotted. With the top of the lane well in sight and the light failing fast it was beginning to look like a very uneventful hunt. Somehow, within 70 yards of me getting to the top gate a crow pitched in to one of the top trees without spotting me. At about 50 yards a squirrel showed itself so had two potential targets within 10 yards of each other. I closed the gap a touch further but got spotted by the crow, hardly surprising as there was very little cover for me. The squirrel had made itself comfy and I suspect it was also watching me. I got the range down to 30 yards without any trouble and was able to take the shot, lying prone on a mound of earth. The impact made a real pop sound which didn't sound a bit right for a head shot, but the squirrel just rolled off its branch and didn't even twitch when it hit the ground. The walk back down was very uneventful, but my chances of spotting anything were next to nothing as it was gone 4.30 by this time. In the end I was only out for about 90 minutes, but it was a decent walk and I didn't get rained on which was a definite bonus. Gareth

I saw that a few days back. I wander how much practice it took to get that good?