out last night on the rabbits

[John-B]

Decided it was time to get up to my permissions as I hadn't been up there since the beginning of the year (long story but have my reasons) main reason to get up there was to make sure the farmers were still ok with me shooting and ferreting up there with me being absent for so long, to be honest i was expecting being knocked back and told that they have somebody else on but after giving them all a knock they were all happy and pleased to see me back up there and I got all their phone numbers to phone up the day before I plan to go up as in the past they have always just told me I don't need to and just get myself on as they know my van but I would feel happier them knowing I was going up. Talking to some of the farmers on one side they say they have hardly any rabbits there as there is loads and loads of stoats up there this year wiping everything out (great just what I wanted to here) along the other side of the permissions was told that there is plenty of rabbits there and no stoats but the rabbits are disappearing as all the sets have been flooded out.

so got my old faithful and totally battered theoben fenman out and Alan (percypigeonshooter) unzipped his AAs410 at about 4.30pm slung the lamp over my shoulder and decided to go for a mooch.

looking about there seems to be plenty of rabbits but they are sitting tight in the long grass and i'm sure the ******* had their eyes shut lol meaning we were walking right past them. the ones we did see were either out of range or nigh on impossible to stalk as the ground under foot was really really squelchy or shingles from the old mines.

Then it got dark I mean really really dark maximum visibility was a couple of foot at the most meaning it was head torches on everywhere we went as one wrong step up there could be potentially fatal.

drove along to the other side of the permissions where the rabbits where flooded out and the fields were lifting with the ******* however they we sitting in the middle of a field that was probably one and a half foot deep marshland (why they were sat in that field we have no idea) but again trying to stalk them was impossible however towards the end of the night we found out that if we made loads of noise, kept our head torches on laughed, sang songs, burped, ****** shone the lamp full on in their faces etc etc they didn't care and just stood on their back legs looking at us (bad move) we managed 7 bunnies in total all very sweet head shots either 1/2 behind the eye ball or through the eye ball and all big strong healthy rabbits with lots and lots of fat which they need as they are 740 meters above sea level up there.

there was some really strange going on in that field why they were sat in the soaking wet field where they have to walk through streams to get there we don't know, why they were spooked if we stalked then and not spooked if we made loads of noise we don't know and why were they climbing up walls like spiderman instead of running through them or out the gate?

If we hit those fields earlier we could of bagged up big time but we will know that for next week when we go up there again.

On a bit of a sour note one of the 100 acre estates if up for sale in 4 different lots so that might mean I end up losing it but not too much of a worry as there's probably another 300-350 (maybe more) acres to go at

sadly no pictures as santa hasn't been yet with my present but looking forward to going up again soon but this time a bit later at night and hopefully back to the squelchy field with a ghetto blaster and disco lights to bag up

[percypigeonshooter]

yes ,that was some nite that,trying to be quiet was imposible but wot a

laugh,them hills were monsters not the easiest thing iv,e done

might be snow next time we go lol

[Dave-G]

I'd make a guess that central marshy bit was their safest place of refuge, if their warrens are flooded they are homeless with nowhere else to go.