Ferreting

[Scully]

Had a couple of hours out this morning  with my hob and a Mossberg pump. 
He’s a grafter is this lad; a big silver hob who doesn’t mess about. A couple of weeks ago he stayed down a hole for what seemed ages, and then suddenly exploded from a hole with rabbit attached! Needless to say I couldn’t shoot for fear of killing him, but he did the full rodeo routine down the hedgerow until thrown or knocked off, but he wasn’t for letting go! 
Anyhow, was on my own this morning at one of my old haunts and soon got to work after a chat to the landowner. 
First hole was a single and although I knew it was probably a nest I pointed him in the right direction and off he went. He was down for a long time and each time he had fur in his claws, so was obviously facing a blocked run by a determined doe. No joy.
Moved a few yards away and bolted one very quickly. It ran straight away from me but I was hindered by a fence line, but I hit it twice before it disappeared into the railway banking about 40 yds away. Not recovered despite being able to track its path by the tufts of fur in the grass. 
The second did the same but managed to nail this one just as it made the fence; they need hitting hard when shooting them from the rear.
I was using some old mixed steel loads by various makers that I’ve had knocking about for some time, and this time I managed to kill this one cleanly. 
Nothing more from this part so walked the old railway to a big set I’d seen during one of our rough shoot days.

A rabbit bolted as soon as the hob went down, and again I found myself shooting DTL as it made for the banking. It was stopped just as it made the fence but needed another to finish it off. Bolted a few more in the next hour or so, killed another just as it dropped into a hole, which I couldn’t reach, and let another get away because I had the safety on! So so annoying! 
Anyhow, called it a day when rabbits kept bobbing up just to disappear down another hole, over and over again. Too big a set for one rabbit, so will come back with a mate a more ferrets, or visit with my .22. 
Am really impressed with this hob, and I gave him a back leg for his lunch as a reward for all his work. 
Talking to the landowners brother on way back to vehicle, he told me some lads had had a day out on his farm around Christmas, with several ferrets and long nets, and killed 90 rabbits! Impressive bag. 

 

Edited April 6, 2023 by Scully

[old'un]

well done Scully, sounds like you had a good day, as you say on a big warren you need a couple of ferrets or even 3, good luck on your next visit.

Funny how some areas seem to have plenty of rabbits but other have very few if any, when I used to do a lot of ferreting I always packed up come the 1 Feb.

[mossy835]

well done very good ferrets are hard to come by.

[Scully]

Thankyou. Yeah, I’d much rather have gone out in the past couple of months but with one thing and another it just hasn’t happened. 
A few of the other lads have been out but we can’t seem to coincide free time currently. 

 

2 minutes ago, mossy835 said:

well done very good ferrets are hard to come by.

Thankyou. Yes, he’s certainly a good one. 
I contemplated back netting a few holes on the big set, but he’s too big for the mesh! 🙂

[Centrepin]

Nice to read. I've not been out with ferrets since the early 70s. I remember the excitement. Mostly Hares on my perm, not seen a rabbit in ages.

[wisdom]

Not pinching the thread just curious .As you say you used steel and a couple were not clean kills could steel shot be a contributing factor?

[Scully]

2 hours ago, wisdom said:

Not pinching the thread just curious .As you say you used steel and a couple were not clean kills could steel shot be a contributing factor?

I couldn’t say for definite really. I’ve shot going away rabbits before with lead and killed them, but at closer range and with tighter chokes. I was using a gun fixed choke at cylinder today, with steel, but have shot bolting rabbits stone dead at distance with 3/4 choke and steel. Who knows? 🤷‍♂️
I doubt it was the steel, more than likely a combination of range and pilot error. 

[Scully]

19 hours ago, Centrepin said:

Nice to read. I've not been out with ferrets since the early 70s. I remember the excitement. Mostly Hares on my perm, not seen a rabbit in ages.

Thanks. Strange isn’t it; we don’t have hares now since the sheep moved back in. We once had hare drives on this land as there were so many. 

[Mice!]

On 06/04/2023 at 15:29, Scully said:

Thankyou. Yes, he’s certainly a good one. 
I contemplated back netting a few holes on the big set, but he’s too big for the mesh! 🙂

I used to find that with my big hob, especially wearing a collar, he was very comical the way he'd just hang there caught up in the net, so gentle and easy to handle, but an absolute trooper 😁

[Scully]

4 hours ago, Mice! said:

I used to find that with my big hob, especially wearing a collar, he was very comical the way he'd just hang there caught up in the net, so gentle and easy to handle, but an absolute trooper 😁

Ha! Yes, funny how they just hang there totally relaxed! 👍