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Lsto

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Posts posted by Lsto

  1. Bit late to the party... I try to get out once a week but my perm is daylight shooting only so it's hard to find time during the week due to work as it's usually dark this time of year when I start and finish. Weekends I try to spend with the family but the last few months I find myself working more and more Saturdays as the cost of everything rises. I'd love to get out a few more evenings but I don't have anywhere to go...

     

     

  2. That's the point though, ask for 19, they will never offer it, you'll hopefully get an offer of 9 or 10% then everyone wins. No one should lose out because the cost of living is ridiculous, no one who works should be in poverty.

    Do pensioners still get the triple lock? So a rise based on inflation or has that been stopped? Surely if all these industries are asking for the same thing then alarm bells must be ringing somewhere. 

  3. Good luck to them, I hope they get a big pay rise. It's easy to criticize but with inflation at 10+%, mortgages going up by about 250+ a month, rent by the same if not more, gas and electric, food and everything else plus Mr Kahns extended ulez so everyone outside central London who drives an old banger because that's all they can afford now has to find thousands to get a compliant car on top of all the above...

    It's nearly 2023 and we have people in full time work relying on food banks to get by... What is wrong with asking for enough to get by? I'd love for an MP to get by doing a nurses job on nurses money. Why do we have 16+ hour waits in a&e? It's because you can earn more stacking shelves in Tesco than training for 3 years to be a nurse.

    I know it's not all black and white but no one wants to strike, most people do simply because they can't make ends meet. I know cos I'm in the same boat.

  4. Nice write up. The farm I shoot is part of a club so unfortunately for me loads of  people have constant access to it which means it's regularly pressured. Many times I have popped there after work and set up for a few hours only to not fire a single round. A double figure bag is a rarity but regardless I try to enjoy a few hours of peace alone with the world. Life these days is chaotic and it's the little things in life that make all the difference. I don't get out half as much as I like so I savour it when I do. I enjoyed the write up, its always interesting to get that little snapshot into another shooters world.  Well done and keep them coming.

  5. On 18/07/2022 at 10:51, Fellside said:

    Sad to hear that Lsto - re shooting permissions. I can’t believe that people are actually paying to carry out vermin control. That transaction seems to be the wrong way around…..?! At least it seems strange where I come from. Is it possible to cast your net further away from  the crazy ‘London effect’? I know that being a dedicated dad is a busy time, but you need to get away from it all occasionally. There’s no better escape that a little bit of old fashioned hunting. Besides, in years to come you might be taking your children. Don’t give up!

    I won't knock it in, sometimes I just feel like it. Soon as my boy is old enough I'll be getting him out with a little 410. 

    Unfortunately as for the 'london effect' I think your exactly right. I live in Essex and I have tried places all from London all the way to the coast. Either they have someone who pays, or want a rediculous amount of money. As I said the shoots I had over the years have either packed up or started asking for more money than I care to pay. I have my club and I dare say sooner or later something will come up again. These days it's all money money money and the pound definitely isn't going as far as it once did.

  6. Shooting just isn't a mainstream sport, it can be expensive and difficult to get into. I'm in my 30's, with a young family and to be perfectly honest I do find it hard and expensive to get out. Firstly it's finding the time between work and keeping the kids busy as well as the million and one jobs that need to be done. When I started I had a number of places to control rabbits as well as a few warehouses as I live near London. Over the years these all dried up. Out went the free shooting, now everywhere you either have to pay an extortionate fee to do the farmer a favour or be part of a club. I can't tell you the amount of knock backs I have had and times I have been dropped because someone is willing to pay to do a service I was doing for free. I currently have one warehouse which I control pigeons for and I'm part of a wildfowl club which has a farm I can shoot pigeons but I still have to pay a premium on top of my club membership to do. I try to go clay shooting but with a young family I find it hard to justify the cost for a few hours of entertainment when it's just for myself. With the prices of carts and fuel going up and up, the imminent threat of a lead ban which would doubly increase the cost for steel, and other types of cartridges as a couple of my guns are not steel proof. It does get to a stage where you start to wonder what's the point. 

  7. I think you can keep hobs alone but I know Jill's need to be mated unless spade or they die if I remember right. I used to keep working ferrets when I was younger but I do think they do best in groups. They do seem to spend 90% of their time asleep all bundled together. The only other thing I always remember is they stink so clean them everyday.

  8. 3 hours ago, pigeon controller said:

    Thanks for your comments, re the costs I think if you ask Fishermen and motor spot enthusiasts they spend more than me. The sale of the shot birds does help with the cartridge costs as long as don’t miss many!! My biggest cost is fuel which I have no control over.

    Thing is as long as you enjoy it and the costs are affordable then the rest doesn't really matter. I feel your pain over fuel. I dare say motor sports cost an awful lot more and I know from experience that a days fishing can soon start to add up also. In the grand scheme of things it's always good to get out. Not to wish life away but I can't wait till my kids are old enough to start joining me out on the field, it'll be a lovely excuse to get out and more importantly spend some time together.

  9. It always amazes me about how much time and how many miles you are prepared to put in to get your results. I honestly don't know how you find the time. Excellent work and excellent photo. You reap what you sow and you definitely deserve the returns you get, plus it is always excellent reading for the rest of us. Although I do find myself wondering how much you spend on cartridges a month, it must be equivalent to a small mortgage...

    Well done as always and I look forward to your next one

  10. 8 hours ago, marsh man said:

    I often forget how difficult it is for the younger members who have to work to pay the bills , run a house , young families to look after and try to fit in some pigeon shooting , when you have only got the odd day to go you don't want to spend most of the day looking around your area trying to find enough for a few shots , this can sometimes work but the odds are stacked against you at this time of the year , take yesterday for example , I dropped my wife off at the garden centre for her weekly two hours out😉 while I go and scan my area which start just across the road , my plan was to find some for today as I drop 25 pigeons off at the pub on a Wednesday which is also on my patch and then have a couple of hours shooting .

    Wherever you looked you could see tractors working , conditions were ideal for working the land and for getting about , my first port of call was the rape field I got 20 odd off Saturday , pulled up to the field and couldn't see a pigeon then a minute or two later a loud bang went off quickly followed by another , disaster , they have finally put a new gas on the field , never mind I will go and look at some more Rape fields , after driving around for a hour and half and walking my dog around three more rape fields I had seen next to nothing , it was now time I had to think about getting back to the garden centre ,  as luck would have it, when I was driving down one of the minor roads I met the keepers wife with her three dogs , I stopped and had a chat and the first thing she said was , are you looking for Pigeons John ? , yea , just been round the rape fields , well she said when she went to see her husband on Monday there were several Pigeons on some fields that were getting ready for drilling up on the other side of the estate , as time was running on I thanked her for the information and said I will go up that way later on today , with that I then started to make my way back to pick the good lady up , so today it is another case of looking around again before the car is loaded up for a few hours shooting .

    I accept for the majority of younger members spending that much time away from home would be very, very hard to say the least . 

    I have to agree with this. I have a young family myself and the only farm I have is part of a syndicate. As such it is always pretty pressured. Going for a recce is just turning up and hoping for the best. I try to go a few afternoons a week if I can after work. In the winter it's hard because I'm only allowed to shoot during daylight and by the time I finish work it's dark and weekends are always full of odd jobs and chores and entertaining the little ones. This time of year I can get out but there is usually not much to see, only a couple of heavily shot rape fields and I don't think people want to hear about my mediocre 3 or 4 birds I manage in the dying hours of the evening if I'm lucky.

    That said I have missed the reports from PC, yourself and JD etc and I hope normal business will resume shortly. I always enjoy having a read while I'm at work.

  11. Two good reads for the price of one, well done boys. I really do envy you lot who are able to get out every day at your convenience. Due to work commitments and family commitments and probably the fact I live in the south east and it seems impossible to find a farm that isn't syndicated, the days I get out are few, the days of blanks are common and the days of double figures are even further apart. Keep up the good work, I do enjoy the reads and the photos. It keeps my enthusiasm going and always gets me chomping at the bit to get out again.

    Well done

  12. Funnily enough I have just been on various HV vehicle courses. We were basically told if a battery pack does ever catch fire just call the fire brigade and get away from it. Once they start burning basically you have to flood the battery pack, not to remove the oxygen, but to cool the chemical reaction, either by constantly flooding it with water or submerging it. I think the best course of action if one does catch fire is to hopefully get it to a reasonable safe place and let it burn itself out.

    Also if anyone does own an EV and charges it at home never plug the charge lead into an extension lead. The charge leads have temperature sensors in them so if your home socket starts overheating it switches the charger off. If you plug the charge lead into an extension lead then it can't monitor the wall socket temperature and if it overheats then there is a risk of fire.

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