Your first go at fowling.

[Grandalf]

The other day my mate's wife gave me a large bundle of his old Shooting Times.

In one I read an article by Petrel (Peter Whittaker).

He was discussing fog on marshes and finished with the following:

 

'At Ongar Hill on the Wash, one morning thick fog was a double blessing. A pea-souper hung over the saltings as I lounged against the bank with a seasoned gunner on my left and his nephew, new to the game, on my right. In front, the geese were gabbling on the edge of the ebb and a crescendo signaled they had lifted. There followed silence until wing beats signalled a confrontation. The old hand and I downed three and two more skeins passed while we gathered the fallen. The flight seemed over until a shout sounded from the nephew telling me that he had got one too. I sent my Labrador, but she climbed out of a creek with an embarrassed look on her face and in her mouth a shelduck. It happens to all of us. The fog shrouded the luckless bird's furtive burial in the mud of a convenient gutter'.

 

Thus was born my wildfowling career of over fifty years - I was that nephew.

 

How did you get started? What can you remember of your very first flight?

Edited April 7, 2013 by Grandalf

[mudpatten]

My first flight`s bag consisted of a redshank, a bar tailed godwit, a whimbrel and a curlew.

 

All perfectly legal in those far of days.

 

You`d get put inside for a bag like that today!

[ayano3]

My first ever flight as a member was on sheps. I went with the guy who got me into the sport. It was the evening flight of the first day and we went to 'the hilton' between the two horseshoes. Its long gone now, it dates back to the days before the bank was built in front of the horseshoes and before the burrow pits were dug. Before you all say it I must be old. I remember seeing lots of duck but none I judged as shootable. So typically I went home with an empty bag. Incidentally the bag I mention was made by the prison service and is still used to date.

[Chad63]

First experience for me was a punting trip with father when I was aged 7. The only thing shot was a couple of cormorants, that was early September 1970. Have been fowling every season since, shot my first duck (a teal) with a .410 when I was 12.

[anser2]

My first foreshore flight was on the east side of the Wash. As I walked along the sea wall a pair of mallard got out of the inland side dyke and somehow in the dim pre dawn light i managed to get both of them. It was early October and the weather was very warm and i worked up a real muck sweat trudging out across the saltings to hide on the edge of the green. A bigish tide came up shortly after sunrise , but with no wind the few duck i saw were well out on the tide. I had made sure not to jump and creeks on the way out so had no peoblem walking back to the sea wall at the top of the tide. I can remember sitting on top of the wall as the waves laped the wall . Out across the sea quite a few duck started to move with a few curlew and redshank , but I never had another shot but that morning the magic of the foreshore washed over me and its never left me 50 years on.

Edited April 7, 2013 by anser2

[motty]

I can't remember my first flight on the marsh, but it was more than likely at Ongar Hill. That's the place i shot my best haul of duck of last season (before a thick fog came down, one morning) and also where i shot my highest ever goose.

[jonnybgood]

i was taken on the ribble estuary, evening flight, when i was around 13 years old, hell it was cold!! and we seemed to walk for ages.i killed two wigeon, but witnessed a flight of many thousands. And have been a keen fowler ever since.