Another Inland Season Have Been Put To Bed And Had The Curtains Drawn .I

[marsh man]

I can't imagine it was around a year ago and I was writing a similar thread , when they say when you get older the time go quicker and I can certainly vouch for that , this season I never made a start until the beginning of November , this was when they were removing the livestock off the grazing marshes , we had a few splashes on the marshes from mid October and some of the lads had already made a start on the early Widgeon , they are braver than me to have 40 / 50 horses getting excited and following only a few feet behind while walking over the marsh , I can ill afford to have my dog trampled on so I don't mind leaving it for a few more days until they are either off , or chained up on odd marshes , well I finally made a start and I soon had a few varied duck hanging up in the garage and I did let you know about a night I had when it started to rain hard just as the flight was finishing ( Was It Worth Getting Wet For ? You Bet It Was ) , from then onwards I was out on average at least five times a week , this would be mainly night times with the odd morning and the odd afternoon when I went to walk the dykes up and for the odd long tail , so without counting all the times up, I would say around 20 times a month , so over the three months I recon around 60 times .

So how was it ? , well to be honest it was nothing out of the ordinary , yes there were several duck about but the geese never really used these marshes over our side of the estuary , we had that hard spell just before Christmas and stacks of Teal were using the dykes that were left open but I am at the stage where I shoot how many I want then leave the rest alone , then when the ice thawed out the marshes were saturated and finding the right splash became that little bit harder but I still managed to put a few in the bag .

Touch wood I avoided all the nasty bugs that were going about and very soon we had reached the shortish day and the nights started to pullout , we then had another spell of cold weather and this time all the splashes froze solid and my dog could easily walk over all of them , this was time to go into plan b and I had one or two good flights on the river , before long the end of the season was in sight and if it wasn't raining hard I intended to go every night until the season came to a close.

Last week I went each night and it was getting to the stage of how many duck you would see rather than how many you would shoot as things were getting quiet , the odd one still managed  going in the bag and last Friday night was my last flight on the clubs marsh , it was dead flat calm with the stars out , a rubbish night for fowling and I was rewarded with one Teal and as it turned out it was the only duck I saw.

Then on Saturday we had our last full day game shoot , a long ole day for me , took the dog out first thing to relieve himself , home by eight , out again at eight thirty for a nine o clock start and after a full day I got home again at five thirty , gentle day on Sunday and then a walk round my marshes Monday morning , could have had a shot at some jumping Teal but I had enough game and duck hanging up , then after pottering about all day it was time to head down my marshes for my last flight , another very quiet night but I did drop a good drake Mallard with the only shot I had , so if it was my last duck it would be a good one to bough out on .

So we now come to Tuesday which was the last day , another full day with the estate having it's beaters day , this is always a early start as they sort out the two teams , take your order for the shoots meal and sort out your permit for the next four weeks roost shooting , we all had a excellent day and the keepers wife done us proud by putting on a lovely spread for lunch , as it was a clear day it kept light late and we started our last drive at twenty past four , very soon the last shot was fired and we all made our way back to base to count the bag to see who had won the sweep , my guess at 80 was way out as the final count up was 122 head mainly cock birds and a few duck, a truly cracking day to finish the season on 

So everything is now finished and it will soon be time to renew my clubs membership , like the last five or six years I have said that next season might be my last one , it could well be , but I will most likely be saying exactly the same this time next year so watch this space 

Well that was a rough description of my season so how was yours ?  Hopefully a good one  MM

[7daysinaweek]

What a grand summary of your year MM.

All power to you.

Always enjoy your posts and look forward to the coming season reports.

atb

7diaw

Edited February 1, 2023 by 7daysinaweek

[Ttfjlc]

another enjoyable read marsh man, I had a poor season in one club so I decided to concentrate on another club where I managed to get a few geese, hoping to make use of this moon and get a couple of flights in before the season on the shore draws to a close 👍

[Old Boggy]

What a cracking write up of your past season.

There must be many on here very envious of the shooting you have right on your doorstep.

I too am fortunate for having my shooting all within a five mile radius, but not quite so varied as mine is restricted to pigeon shooting, the occasional inland duck shooting (pretty limited this season) and the odd walk up for a wily marsh pheasant but still so very enjoyable and very much part of my life.
I am sure, having seen you fairly recently John, that you (and hopefully me) have many more seasons to go.

Many thanks for posting.

OB

 

[Morkin]

Thankyou MM.Very interesting read , I've always said I find you write ups very interesting so well done on the season and let's hope we have many more ( all onya ) we had some nice days on the farm but not as big of number as late , but enjoyable , it's still nice to meet up and see people and the new dogs ,and let's all look forward to the next,with a little pigeon shooting in between hopefully .

[marsh man]

Many THANKS for your kind replies and really glad that you have also found some sport , some of you might already have found that you reach a time in life where still being able to take part is more important than the amount of shooting you get , don't get me wrong , when I head off down the marsh my intention is to get something and I will put myself in the best possible position to achieve that , sometimes you get it right and at times you get it wrong , that is part of the attraction as that present a challenge in itself , the difference now is when you do get it right you only take what you want rather than take everything that is offered , when I was in the position to fill my bag up, I looked at it as if it was payback time for all the all the nights I had sat down the marsh getting wet and cold with nothing or very little in the bag to show for my effort , in your mind you knew it would only be a matter of time when the chain of events had all the right links connected and you ended up with the flight of the season , a bit like Pigeon shooting shooting , you will get a lot of poor to decent days then you will drop onto a Red letter day .

After a while I made a self imposed limit of ten duck and four geese , this was more than enough at the time when I was in my 40s and 50s , then you get into the 60s and you find you just lose the desire to shoot that many and half a dozen duck , or three or geese when the odd time present itself is is as much as you want to carry back to your motor , moving on a few years if you are lucky enough you reach the ole allocated time of three score years and ten and you start to enjoy being able to still take part is far more important that the size of the bag .

I will be reaching 76 this year and have now got over 60 years of a lot of shooting behind me and on our beaters day I was the oldest one to carry a gun , we did have one older bloke who was picking up but who wasn't shooting , so yes like Chris ( OB ) was saying I am lucky to have a lot of shooting on my doorstep , but I feel luckier still to be here taking part in it . GOOD LUCK  

 

[Gerry78]

Great write up MM The season does go quick Mine in regards to getting out wasn’t great I only went out one morning due to work/family commitments AND if I’m being Honest I’ve got lazy Any Saturday I was off work I couldn’t get motivated to get up early to go to the lough I’m just realising now what a waste of season In my part But now the season has come to a finish my motivation has came back ahh 😌 we’ll too late Made a promise to myself all being well new season I will be out a lot more Thanks for posting 👍👍👍👍😉Gerry 

[Krico woodcock]

Another very enjoyable write up marsh man.👍 My season started as usual on 1st of September,  and I  did get some good enough sport in month of September and October mainly evening flighting, with a few early floods,  then came serious rain, biblical rain, at end of October so that put the end of the duck shooting for a few weeks, water would then go back a bit get a few flights then more rain and so on, got a bit of  decent shooting in  the frost in mid December ,especially teal, but then more rain.  Where I live there is a series of network of lakes and rivers , so big amounts of rain affect my shooting because the place turns into a sea,  not good.. but I was flat out woodcock shooting from mid November,  and it was a top class season on them.  I was out every Saturday and Sunday,  and had several days holidays to take in December,  all put to good use , AFTER WOODCOCK.. I Also had a couple of good days pheasant shooting down the country,  as in rough ,walked up .. so to sum it up, the duck shooting was not near as good as it should have been, all to do with water levels but the woodcock shooting was ,I would say a record season, serious amounts of woodcock in.. I put  110% into the season,  my dog's worked hard, especially my young bitch she is 2 1/2 and is proving herself to be clinker.  I have a freezer full.  And now that the season is over I am content.. 

[marsh man]

23 hours ago, Krico woodcock said:

Another very enjoyable write up marsh man.👍 My season started as usual on 1st of September,  and I  did get some good enough sport in month of September and October mainly evening flighting, with a few early floods,  then came serious rain, biblical rain, at end of October so that put the end of the duck shooting for a few weeks, water would then go back a bit get a few flights then more rain and so on, got a bit of  decent shooting in  the frost in mid December ,especially teal, but then more rain.  Where I live there is a series of network of lakes and rivers , so big amounts of rain affect my shooting because the place turns into a sea,  not good.. but I was flat out woodcock shooting from mid November,  and it was a top class season on them.  I was out every Saturday and Sunday,  and had several days holidays to take in December,  all put to good use , AFTER WOODCOCK.. I Also had a couple of good days pheasant shooting down the country,  as in rough ,walked up .. so to sum it up, the duck shooting was not near as good as it should have been, all to do with water levels but the woodcock shooting was ,I would say a record season, serious amounts of woodcock in.. I put  110% into the season,  my dog's worked hard, especially my young bitch she is 2 1/2 and is proving herself to be clinker.  I have a freezer full.  And now that the season is over I am content.. 

Excellent report and I am glad your season went well , we had big numbers of Woodcock come in to our place when we had the first spell of hard weather , now we only shoot very small numbers and they are shot for whoever want to take them home , last Tuesday we had our beaters day and to be honest we saw Woodcock all day , I was picking up at the end of one our woods and there must had been more than 20 came past the gun in front of me and we were told no Woodcock on our pep talk in the morning as the owner is not that keen seeing many hanging up , still that didn't take away any enjoyment out of the day as we had plenty of game left over .

Glad your young dog is during well    MM

[SuperGoose75]

Another very quite season due to some health issues. (That said I find myself more and more going for long walks on the shore and just grab the wading staff and binoculars rather than the gun as each year passes) 

I had a few early season forays after a grey or two, but if truth be told Im not that keen on shooting too many. (Then I never really did) 

I had a bit of a nostalgic flight on the last day of the season with an old girl that for various reasons will be her last. I was bought this gun for my 21st by my parents and I have shot evertything from Jack Snipe to Canada geese with it. 28 1/2 " tightly choked barrels it was an ideal fowling gun and despite the fact it had only 2 3/4 inch chambers it accounted for all legal species of geese on the coast and most soecies of legal ducks with the exception of Pintail. I shot my first Pinkfoot (a rare goose here) many years ago with it and I was elated that morning after my long gone buddy retrieved it back to me. A gun worth very little but all the memmories are safely stored in the upstairs bank.

PS I was rewarded with a brilliant and gutsy retrieve of the cock teal in the photo. Anyone that has seen the famous long retrieve vidoe on youtube, then this was similar. Maybe just not as good and it wasnt professionally recorded, but I have it on my phone and may upload it one day.

Edited February 6, 2023 by SuperGoose75

[Gerry78]

1 hour ago, SuperGoose75 said:

Another very quite season due to some health issues. (That said I find myself more and more going for long walks on the shore and just grab the wading staff and binoculars rather than the gun as each year passes) 

I had a few early season forays after a grey or two, but if truth be told Im not that keen on shooting too many. (Then I never really did) 

I had a bit of a nostalgic flight on the last day of the season with an old girl that for various reasons will be her last. I was bought this gun for my 21st by my parents and I have shot evertything from Jack Snipe to Canada geese with it. 28 1/2 " tightly choked barrels it was an ideal fowling gun and despite the fact it had only 2 3/4 inch chambers it accounted for all legal species of geese on the coast and most soecies of legal ducks with the exception of Pintail. I shot my first Pinkfoot (a rare goose here) many years ago with it and I was elated that morning after my long gone buddy retrieved it back to me. A gun worth very little but all the memmories are safely stored in the upstairs bank.

PS I was rewarded with a brilliant and gutsy retrieve of the cock teal in the photo. Anyone that has seen the famous long retrieve vidoe on youtube, then this was similar. Maybe just not as good and it wasnt professionally recorded, but I have it on my phone and may upload it one day.

Fantastic write up 👍As you said the gun might not be worth much financially but is priceless for your memories that’s what Wildfowling all about My old Aya no3 magnum something similar not worth much but I absolutely love bringing the old gun out When I can get off my boney **** 

[marsh man]

9 hours ago, SuperGoose75 said:

Another very quite season due to some health issues. (That said I find myself more and more going for long walks on the shore and just grab the wading staff and binoculars rather than the gun as each year passes) 

I had a few early season forays after a grey or two, but if truth be told Im not that keen on shooting too many. (Then I never really did) 

I had a bit of a nostalgic flight on the last day of the season with an old girl that for various reasons will be her last. I was bought this gun for my 21st by my parents and I have shot evertything from Jack Snipe to Canada geese with it. 28 1/2 " tightly choked barrels it was an ideal fowling gun and despite the fact it had only 2 3/4 inch chambers it accounted for all legal species of geese on the coast and most soecies of legal ducks with the exception of Pintail. I shot my first Pinkfoot (a rare goose here) many years ago with it and I was elated that morning after my long gone buddy retrieved it back to me. A gun worth very little but all the memmories are safely stored in the upstairs bank.

PS I was rewarded with a brilliant and gutsy retrieve of the cock teal in the photo. Anyone that has seen the famous long retrieve vidoe on youtube, then this was similar. Maybe just not as good and it wasnt professionally recorded, but I have it on my phone and may upload it one day.

Great account of your season S G , For a lot of people it is a case of how many hurdles you have to go over before you are even down the marsh , Work , distance , Family commitments , health issues and a number of other reasons .

Traveling a fair distance on a rare day off , feeling a bit grim with heavy rain forecasted is not every one's idea of an afternoons sport , I have never known really anything different with having the marshes on my doorstep , only had one child ( who have now got two daughters of her own who are in the mid 20s ) a very understanding wife and jobs where I have managed to get down the marsh sometimes before work , after work and at times when I should had been at work , but we won't go into that for now in fine detail .

Trouble with me was wildfowling became more of a obsession than a pastime , to me it was a wasted day if I didn't go at least once , blanks were, and still are a regular occurrence , but they are soon forgot about and on the way home I was already planning out my next venture down the marsh , most of the time I was solo as I like to do my own thing and very often go at very short notice ,now I am weaning myself off from the fowling drug , part of it is ole age is closing in , gone off of early season duck and now only shoot the amount of duck I want and to provide a few for friends , so if the good lord spare me for another year I will give it at least one more season , now I start in November so I cram it all in three months , once it is over it is soon put to bed and partly forgot about , the Pigeon gear is out and ready for the warmer days ahead, then before you know it the livestock are being led off the marshes and the dust is blown off the boxes of steel cartridges and way we go again .

Your gun look better than some of the guns that I had finished off , I say finished off as some of them were in a critical care condition before I became there full time carer , now my guns are safe rather than upmarket ,  its now a good possibility I will make do with what I have got , mind you if one come along with a bit of history to it then I might be sorely tempted 

Hope you are feeling better from your dreaded long covid after effects and the long walks along the coast is better than any medicine you are likely to get .

All the best    MM

[SuperGoose75]

On 06/02/2023 at 12:54, Gerry78 said:

Fantastic write up 👍As you said the gun might not be worth much financially but is priceless for your memories that’s what Wildfowling all about My old Aya no3 magnum something similar not worth much but I absolutely love bringing the old gun out When I can get off my boney **** 

Cheer's!  I've missed my fair share of birds with a modern long barreled, long chambered, gun that probably would not have been missed had I been using the  cheap S/S that I was used too! 

I shot most things from snipe to geese with a single barrel hammer gun before I moved to two barrels. Indeed Wildfowling is about making memmories, with people,dogs,guns and places. Hopefully you can muster up some enthusiasm next seaon and get some more flights in for the memory bank 👍

On 06/02/2023 at 22:05, marsh man said:

Great account of your season S G , For a lot of people it is a case of how many hurdles you have to go over before you are even down the marsh , Work , distance , Family commitments , health issues and a number of other reasons .

Traveling a fair distance on a rare day off , feeling a bit grim with heavy rain forecasted is not every one's idea of an afternoons sport , I have never known really anything different with having the marshes on my doorstep , only had one child ( who have now got two daughters of her own who are in the mid 20s ) a very understanding wife and jobs where I have managed to get down the marsh sometimes before work , after work and at times when I should had been at work , but we won't go into that for now in fine detail .

Trouble with me was wildfowling became more of a obsession than a pastime , to me it was a wasted day if I didn't go at least once , blanks were, and still are a regular occurrence , but they are soon forgot about and on the way home I was already planning out my next venture down the marsh , most of the time I was solo as I like to do my own thing and very often go at very short notice ,now I am weaning myself off from the fowling drug , part of it is ole age is closing in , gone off of early season duck and now only shoot the amount of duck I want and to provide a few for friends , so if the good lord spare me for another year I will give it at least one more season , now I start in November so I cram it all in three months , once it is over it is soon put to bed and partly forgot about , the Pigeon gear is out and ready for the warmer days ahead, then before you know it the livestock are being led off the marshes and the dust is blown off the boxes of steel cartridges and way we go again .

Your gun look better than some of the guns that I had finished off , I say finished off as some of them were in a critical care condition before I became there full time carer , now my guns are safe rather than upmarket ,  its now a good possibility I will make do with what I have got , mind you if one come along with a bit of history to it then I might be sorely tempted 

Hope you are feeling better from your dreaded long covid after effects and the long walks along the coast is better than any medicine you are likely to get .

All the best    MM

Cheers for that MM, I appreciate your kind words.

Believe me when I say I was like yourself, ''and many others I expext'' obsessed for a good portion of years. Wildfowling and Shooting can take over your life. There was a time when there would hardly have been a day passed that wildfowling or shooting wasnt on my mind at some stage of the day.  I wont get too deep and derail your thread and hopefully there will be more accounts of other peoples season.

The coastal walks are part of my daily life and are indeed a tonic for the head. I am hoping to get back into flyfishing for seatrout again this year after letting my interests dip over the the past number of years.

Enjoy your upcoming Pigeon shooting and as you say the year is not long flying around and as long as we are able to get out and enjoy the countryside and outdoors we should make the most of it.

All the very best SG.

 

 

Edited February 8, 2023 by SuperGoose75