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Barney’s first day out game shooting.


JDog
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My invitation to shoot in the Scottish Borders was an opportunity to take Barney out game shooting for the first time. He is eighteen months old and I felt it was the right time. Not wanting matters to be complicated by having two dogs out I chose to leave Jasper at home in front of the fire with my wife.

New experiences even before we got to the first drive were meeting lots of other people and dogs and travelling in the back of a strange car with another dog.

For the first two drives he stayed on a lead pegged down by my thumb stick though he was so steady the stick wasn’t really necessary. At the end of those drives he stayed put whilst other dogs picked birds around us. After the third drive when I was sure there was nothing to pick I let him off the lead and he busied himself finding the falls of pheasants already picked.

On the fourth drive I was back gun. The picker up collected most of the birds but I asked him to leave a dead hen in my view. Once he had moved off I sent Barney out to find and retrieve it. He was soon onto it and he dragged it back to me by one wing. There is work to do there. Thinking that there were no more to pick I encouraged Barney to use his nose and search around which he did until he came across a cock with a broken wing but very much alive. It was bigger than him. He pounced on it and held it there until I took it from him. This was slightly more than I wanted at this stage.

The last drive was in a field containing fifty very wild and vocal cows and calves. Taking a dog would have been madness so I left him in the back of another vehicle.

On the long journey home today he slept all of the way. He was greeted with hugs and kisses from my wife. I wasn’t offered the same so I mucked out the car. It was ever thus.

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excellent....................when my sprockers were hesitant to pick a bird up firmly..........i let them on to pricked birds.....a bit of a risk but it worked....my proudest moment was on their 2nd shoot ...was watching them come back to me over the brow of a hill with a fine cock each ...side by side......

a great day to be remembered for Barnyard rocket after all the angst with him.......................told yer so :lol:

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5 hours ago, JDog said:

My invitation to shoot in the Scottish Borders was an opportunity to take Barney out game shooting for the first time. He is eighteen months old and I felt it was the right time. Not wanting matters to be complicated by having two dogs out I chose to leave Jasper at home in front of the fire with my wife.

New experiences even before we got to the first drive were meeting lots of other people and dogs and travelling in the back of a strange car with another dog.

For the first two drives he stayed on a lead pegged down by my thumb stick though he was so steady the stick wasn’t really necessary. At the end of those drives he stayed put whilst other dogs picked birds around us. After the third drive when I was sure there was nothing to pick I let him off the lead and he busied himself finding the falls of pheasants already picked.

On the fourth drive I was back gun. The picker up collected most of the birds but I asked him to leave a dead hen in my view. Once he had moved off I sent Barney out to find and retrieve it. He was soon onto it and he dragged it back to me by one wing. There is work to do there. Thinking that there were no more to pick I encouraged Barney to use his nose and search around which he did until he came across a cock with a broken wing but very much alive. It was bigger than him. He pounced on it and held it there until I took it from him. This was slightly more than I wanted at this stage.

The last drive was in a field containing fifty very wild and vocal cows and calves. Taking a dog would have been madness so I left him in the back of another vehicle.

On the long journey home today he slept all of the way. He was greeted with hugs and kisses from my wife. I wasn’t offered the same so I mucked out the car. It was ever thus.

Excellent report on Barney's first ( proper ) shoot , by all accounts he done well and his welcome homecoming was well deserved , I know how you feel ,as my return from a days shoot with hugs and kisses were that far back the gun licence was still 10 bob :yes:

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 03/11/2019 at 16:38, ditchman said:

excellent....................when my sprockers were hesitant to pick a bird up firmly..........i let them on to pricked birds.....a bit of a risk but it worked....my proudest moment was on their 2nd shoot ...was watching them come back to me over the brow of a hill with a fine cock each ...side by side......

a great day to be remembered for Barnyard rocket after all the angst with him.......................told yer so 

IF ONLY WE COULD GO BACK AND HAVE THEM TIMES AGAIN

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