Who Still Go On The 1st Of September ??

[marsh man]

We are now only a few days away from the start of a new wildfowling season and as far as I am aware nobody on the forum have mentioned it , every year the subject of starting later come back up above ground after lying dormant since this time last year and there is very little we can do , or want to do about it , so we will leave it as is and talk about this coming season .

How many still get up early to see the new season in ? , by all accounts not that many , a lot will say they will give the first day a miss and will go Saturday , that is now but when the day get here they had forgot they have got to take the kids out or the good lady had arranged to go shopping .

This was never the case and two to three weeks before the season started all the talk in the pub was about who is going where , what was about , what time it get light and so on , no one ever said they can't go as they have got to go to work , we all had to go to work but that still didn't stop you being in position on the marsh at 4.45 , the first shots would ring out around 5 am and as it got a bit lighter the shooting would increase , most if not all would get a shot a two and then from 5.45 it would tail off , the Pigeons would start leaving the woods around six and again the shooting would increase , those who had to go to work would start making there way off the marsh a little before 7 am , time they went the short distance home they could have a bite to eat and a cuppa and still get to work by 8 am . this was how it was every year , then one by one the ole boys got a call from the man above to say your time is up and there shooting days had come to a close , some of us carried on and then the farmers who grew crops had started to find that grazing horses and cattle for the charities could make more money than growing crops so now none of our marshes on the South side of the estuary have got any crops , 100s of horses and cattle , but sadly not a single field of crops , so the early start on the 1st of September is now all but finished on our side , and no doubt a few will still go elsewhere but many more will give it a miss for a few weeks to come until the livestock are off.    MM

[enfieldspares]

When I had my own land with a small pond and island I'd be out "inland flighting" every 1 September evening. Always saw duck but more often couldn't hit them but always went out unless on a Sunday.

[Krico woodcock]

I'll be out marsh man. Water very high round us, but I'll get a few hopefully,  break the season in.. although its slightly depressing this year as our NPWS, ( NATIONAL PARKS AND WILDLIFE SERVICE) have removed four species of duck,  goldeneye,  scaup, pochard, and pintail.  The shooting community are very nervous,  because they blatantly removed them with a stroke of a pen, they are using non factual based data. And they are not going to stop at that.  They are are a biased anti shooting, hunting,  fishing  state body, So any means possible to put a nail in the coffin for shooting. So we are hoping the NARGC,  (NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REGIONAL GAME COUNCILS) equivalent to your BASC,  are going to fight them tooth and nail to get it reversed. Also this is the first year non toxic shot is to be enforced over wetlands,  that's fair enough,  it was always coming, BUT also wetlands that's not actually wetlands,  could  be 5 miles of bog,  Sally, no water!! but if it's in the maps it has to be non toxic shot,  again another ridiculous implementation from npws, that was only announced last Thursday,  a week before season starts. And several other implications to all go along with it that I haven't enough time to be writing here... anyway I'll be looking forward to first pair of mallard silhouettes coming at me Friday morning,  

[old'un]

Perhaps its a generation thing, I think the young shooters of 2023 are totally different to those of 1960/70s, life was so much easier back then, kids spent more time outdoors learning about nature and developing their hunting skills with a catapult and then air rifles, lost count of the number of sparrows and starlings I shot of the neighbouring roof tops.

I shot my first rabbit (sitting) when I was 13 and that was with a .410 that I borrowed without permission from my uncle, that first rabbit was shot on land I did not have permission to be on but thought I could outrun the old farmer if he came across the field, when I got back my uncle was not very happy about it and relieved me of the gun and rabbit and said, next time you want to borrow it, ask.

That first rabbit set the mould for the rest of my life and was never happier than when I was out with an air rifle or shotgun under my arm.

[London Best]

To be fair, I have to say that I pretty much gave up coastal wildfowling about thirty years ago. When I was really keen on it I always went out on the 1st. until some time around 1980/81. Thinking about it, I likely stopped doing the first when the Wildlife and Countryside Act came into force and Curlew were protected.

[Big Mat]

I'll have a wander out, someone's got to feed the mozzies

[Dave at kelton]

Interesting question to which I would once have immediately answered Yes! Now I have mixed feelings and will play it by ear. I have a couple of hundred greylag around and over the house at present. When I walk down onto the Merse I can get to within thirty yards before they fly or swim back across the river. Add a few ducks sitting out at present and there would be a very good chance but my heart isn’t into shooting what are currently semi tame fowl. I am sure come Saturday Morning a few will behave differently.

I prefer to wait until I hear the haunting call of the pinks. That is usually between 12th and 14th of September and usually when I am out picking up on the partridge and the geese are heading over the Galloway hills to the Solway. Then the hairs on the back of my neck will prickle and I then will anticipate a cold dawn on the Solway mud.

[marsh man]

Some very interesting replys and good luck to those who are going to see the new season in.

Old'un was right with what he was saying that the youth of today have got far to many more important things in life without getting up at that time in the morning as some of them wouldn't even be back home from a night out .

I noticed the decline a good 15 years or so when the local club I was in at the time started to change the marsh marking day , at one time whoever wanted to go on the first day had to attend a work party on a Sunday morning to freshen up the markings on the gates of the various blocks of marshes the club hired , you would normally get 3 / 4 on every block of marsh which added all of them up would be 30 plus , this was for the first day only and those who didn't attend could go from the 2nd onwards , as time wore on the numbers dropped to just the odd one or two and then down to no one , so they changed the ruleing from the first day to the first week , this only created a slight difference as very few were interested in the early season , so again it was changed to the last week and this did make a bit of difference , and as far as I know it might be the same now .

With more and more people only interested in the geese the season to them don't start till at least October and even then a lot of livestock are still on the marshes , I have always kept a diary until four or five years ago and I didn't bother to keep putting in the odd times I went shooting  , it only consisted a couple of lines and the other night I flicked through it and came across the new season in 1994 / 95.

I normally went on the river the 1st morning as it was near to where I worked and the overnight forecast wasn't that good , heavy rain showers with thunder and lightening and strong winds , so I was going to go whatever the weather was ,  my plan was staying on the river till about 7 am and then time I packed up and drove all around to the other side of the river to where the road bridge is it would be getting on towards 8 am , well I had been out in a lot of wet mornings and this one must be towards the top of the list , it chucked it down and the thunder sounded like it was only a few feet above me , a bit scary at times , still I shot a few duck and made my way back in the heavy rain , my plan was to show my face and then go and get some building materials from the merchants after going home to feed me and my dog first , I looked after all the building work so nobody would miss me for a couple of hours , as soon as I pulled into the farm the farm manager came running over and said John can you stop the rain water running into the barn that was full up with grain , I never even knew they had grain in that barn as it is normally kept for spuds , still I went and had a look and ended up getting a digger bucket of sand and put a dam around the bottom of the door , by now I was cold , wet and hungry and at long last I was on my way home , the egg and bacon rolls had never tasted better and I was already looking forward to see what the night flight would bring , Happy days .

Here is part of the diary page for that morning .

[Old Boggy]

Thanks for sharing that John and what has got to be a very full game book and obviously a very understanding wife.

That`s the beauty of keeping a diary to look back on and no doubt remember every single outing.

I only started my diary 22 years ago, but wished I`d started with my first .410  63 years ago. Mainly rabbits in those days and the last rabbit I shot much more recently was on 8th.October 2016.

60  years ago I was getting 5 or 6 rabbits a week, sold to the local butcher to subsidise more cartridges and also sold to my senior school for dissection in biology for which they paid me 3 shillings or 3 shillings and 6 pence if it had a tapeworm as the latter was more interesting to the class (15p & 17 1/2p respectively to the younger members on here).

After that, it was `shooting flying` at the pigeons, walked up grey partridges on the stubbles and all the waders then on the quarry list along the foreshore with a single twelve and the need to load my own using a hand rolled turnover machine, de & recapper and very basic measurements for powder and shot. 

I think everyone should keep a diary of their shooting exploits as we never know when we will be unable to venture forth into the field, but can look back on days and recall all the good times that they cannot take away, within the scribblings in our diaries.

OB

[marsh man]

2 hours ago, Old Boggy said:

Thanks for sharing that John and what has got to be a very full game book and obviously a very understanding wife.

That`s the beauty of keeping a diary to look back on and no doubt remember every single outing.

I only started my diary 22 years ago, but wished I`d started with my first .410  63 years ago. Mainly rabbits in those days and the last rabbit I shot much more recently was on 8th.October 2016.

60  years ago I was getting 5 or 6 rabbits a week, sold to the local butcher to subsidise more cartridges and also sold to my senior school for dissection in biology for which they paid me 3 shillings or 3 shillings and 6 pence if it had a tapeworm as the latter was more interesting to the class (15p & 17 1/2p respectively to the younger members on here).

After that, it was `shooting flying` at the pigeons, walked up grey partridges on the stubbles and all the waders then on the quarry list along the foreshore with a single twelve and the need to load my own using a hand rolled turnover machine, de & recapper and very basic measurements for powder and shot. 

I think everyone should keep a diary of their shooting exploits as we never know when we will be unable to venture forth into the field, but can look back on days and recall all the good times that they cannot take away, within the scribblings in our diaries.

OB

Evening Chris .... Yes I agree , anyone who is in it for the long haul then a diary is a must , I forget a lot of things that have happened in my life time but when I look at my diarys I can often remember the occasion as if it was yesterday , I am not sure what you mean by a understanding wife   she would now find it difficult if I spent most of the Winter at home , many a time I have left my house in the dark and then got back home in the dark , which is easily done in the height of the Winter , then for good meausure if the moon was out I would go out again , part of the problem , if you can call it a problem was I lived to close to the wildfowling grounds , add that to someone who was addicted to the sport then if you didn't have a understanding wife then yes you are dead right it could cause friction .

You would never get very rich by selling the fowl and game you got , although I eat a few duck and some long tails I did sell everything I didn't want for myself , the game dealer was only a few miles down the road and they had whatever I got , even Coots , before I was married I took them to Pettits in Reedham on my little Honda 50 on a Saturday morning , no one was in the office and the chap used to give me a receipt and the cheque would come through the letter box later on the following week , I would keep them till Christmas and after cashing them in would but all the festive meat for my mother , this carried on till I was married and them I would buy mine with the proceeds and my parents would come to Christmas dinner every year until both of them had passed away . in those early days all types of game made decent money and even our ole game keeper once got £5 for a Fox skin when a fiver was good money , I also once got a fiver for good Hares , £3 for young English Partridges , £5 for a brace of Pheasants and £2 for full grown Mallard , now it would cost you more for the petrol used than what you would get for the stuff you sold , in those days the game dealers could only get game off the odd estate and a few that were poached , now adays in Norfolk there must be 100s of small shoots and a good number of commercial shoots so the supply of game is far greater than the demand ,  the days where you could get good returns on the sale of game are now long gone and I very much doubt those days will ever return . 

[Keith 66]

I used to like going out on the first but havent been for some years. Used to go out over a big farm locally our club rented & the first few days of the season were always good for a goose until they got wise. But a few members always hogged it & shot loads or tried shooting at geese 100 yards up.  That farm went last year so only option now is the saltmarsh, Only trouble is these days there are so many dog walkers, twitchers & paddleboarders on the creek that its at the point where it would be foolish to chance it at the start of the season. I will wait until the weather turns before i go out!

[Aled]

Nice reads all. Reminds me of my angling peak when i would be out on opening day and would fish regularly until closing day. I won't be out on the marsh on te 1st, i will however be out at some point during the first week, work and family allowing. 

[Poor Shot]

I'll be going out. I have booked the day off work and changed my gym schedule around to accommodate so at least this Friday the early alarm won't be for an hour and a half of lifting weights.  

I took a walk around the marsh on Monday evening and there was a plenty of mallard, hundreds of Canada geese and even a few smaller ducks which my pound shop binoculars couldn't quite make out from the sea wall. I suspect they were teal.. Surprisingly no dog walkers present on the last sunny bank holiday of the year and I hope this continues through the season. 

I'm relatively late to the shooting game having re-found my passion for the countryside at 30 but I'm determined to make a trip out on the first and last day of the season a yearly tradition. 

Last years first day was bright sunshine and 20 degree heat which is the polar opposite to this years forecast of wind, drizzle and 14 degrees. 

[harrycatcat1]

On 29/08/2023 at 10:29, Big Mat said:

I'll have a wander out, someone's got to feed the mozzies

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣👍👍👍

In my younger days I'd set off from Chesterfield at 10pm to arrive at the marsh car park at 00.30 on the 1st with a McDonald's n coffee. Get my head down in the car till the headlights wake me up with cars arriving at 02.30. Have a laugh and a joke with folks you'd not seen for a while and set off. When I think about this particular car park I remember Ayano3 who is sadly not here with us anymore 😢 

In fact in 2014 I was the only person to shoot a mallard on that marsh that morning which was more luck than judgement 😅 good job that a chap retrieved it as my previous dog (ping pong) would have made a meal of it. 

Enjoy the morning whoever is out 👍👍

[marsh man]

55 minutes ago, harrycatcat1 said:

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣👍👍👍

In my younger days I'd set off from Chesterfield at 10pm to arrive at the marsh car park at 00.30 on the 1st with a McDonald's n coffee. Get my head down in the car till the headlights wake me up with cars arriving at 02.30. Have a laugh and a joke with folks you'd not seen for a while and set off. When I think about this particular car park I remember Ayano3 who is sadly not here with us anymore 😢 

In fact in 2014 I was the only person to shoot a mallard on that marsh that morning which was more luck than judgement 😅 good job that a chap retrieved it as my previous dog (ping pong) would have made a meal of it. 

Enjoy the morning whoever is out 👍👍

That was dedication at the highest level Harry and only real men could drive that far and then have the strength and courage to drink a Mc Donald coffee , sadly I am not one of them , living that far away from the shooting grounds give you very little chance in weighing up the various marshes before you go out for real , like Pigeon shooting a lot of the time is spent looking and I used to enjoy the build up leading upto the first morning , the grain fields on the marsh were the last ones cut to finish that years harvest , if the weather was kind then the last of the fields would be all done and dusted by mid August and a good guide was everything finished by the Bank holiday , some years we had a wet spell and the crop would lay there until it was dry enough to cut , one year it ran into September and the local duck population were having a field day , and so were the lucky fowlers , like myself who had the right to be able to shoot these fields , once the crop was off you kept an eye open for any splashes of water , if you were again lucky enough to have a decent bit of water you were onto a bag filler , Mallard would come into the deeper parts and Teal used to love the shallow bits where they could up end and feed off the bottom , as more rain fell it would wash any grain left around the sides into the flooded bits and it ended up like a fed flight pond , now with a change in the farming income with grazing livestock rather than growing crops it is very unlikely we will ever see the likes again , unlikely yes , but who knows ?     MM

[Big Mat]

1 hour ago, harrycatcat1 said:

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣👍👍👍

In my younger days I'd set off from Chesterfield at 10pm to arrive at the marsh car park at 00.30 on the 1st with a McDonald's n coffee. Get my head down in the car till the headlights wake me up with cars arriving at 02.30. Have a laugh and a joke with folks you'd not seen for a while and set off. When I think about this particular car park I remember Ayano3 who is sadly not here with us anymore 😢 

In fact in 2014 I was the only person to shoot a mallard on that marsh that morning which was more luck than judgement 😅 good job that a chap retrieved it as my previous dog (ping pong) would have made a meal of it. 

Enjoy the morning whoever is out 👍👍

I seem to recall you were shooting a sawn off back then? 

[Gerry78]

On 28/08/2023 at 20:44, marsh man said:

We are now only a few days away from the start of a new wildfowling season and as far as I am aware nobody on the forum have mentioned it , every year the subject of starting later come back up above ground after lying dormant since this time last year and there is very little we can do , or want to do about it , so we will leave it as is and talk about this coming season .

How many still get up early to see the new season in ? , by all accounts not that many , a lot will say they will give the first day a miss and will go Saturday , that is now but when the day get here they had forgot they have got to take the kids out or the good lady had arranged to go shopping .

This was never the case and two to three weeks before the season started all the talk in the pub was about who is going where , what was about , what time it get light and so on , no one ever said they can't go as they have got to go to work , we all had to go to work but that still didn't stop you being in position on the marsh at 4.45 , the first shots would ring out around 5 am and as it got a bit lighter the shooting would increase , most if not all would get a shot a two and then from 5.45 it would tail off , the Pigeons would start leaving the woods around six and again the shooting would increase , those who had to go to work would start making there way off the marsh a little before 7 am , time they went the short distance home they could have a bite to eat and a cuppa and still get to work by 8 am . this was how it was every year , then one by one the ole boys got a call from the man above to say your time is up and there shooting days had come to a close , some of us carried on and then the farmers who grew crops had started to find that grazing horses and cattle for the charities could make more money than growing crops so now none of our marshes on the South side of the estuary have got any crops , 100s of horses and cattle , but sadly not a single field of crops , so the early start on the 1st of September is now all but finished on our side , and no doubt a few will still go elsewhere but many more will give it a miss for a few weeks to come until the livestock are off.    MM

I stopped going out MM On the 1st been a right few seasons since the last time Due to the weather and not much duck about I usually wait now till October Reports from were I hunt lot of fowlers aren’t gonna bother due to the weather being too hot Last year same fowlers we’re sitting in there T-shirts 1st morning Could bring up the old debate of moving the season but will never happen 👍👍

[Gerry78]

Forgot to mention lough neagh here in Northern Ireland full of blue green algae bad news for dogs 🐕 

[harrycatcat1]

2 hours ago, Big Mat said:

I seem to recall you were shooting a sawn off back then? 

Sorry Matt thought I'd replied, yes it's an sx2 with 6" sawn off, Graham had the chokes. Still use it 😉😉👍👍👍

2 hours ago, marsh man said:

That was dedication at the highest level Harry and only real men could drive that far and then have the strength and courage to drink a Mc Donald coffee , sadly I am not one of them , living that far away from the shooting grounds give you very little chance in weighing up the various marshes before you go out for real , like Pigeon shooting a lot of the time is spent looking and I used to enjoy the build up leading upto the first morning , the grain fields on the marsh were the last ones cut to finish that years harvest , if the weather was kind then the last of the fields would be all done and dusted by mid August and a good guide was everything finished by the Bank holiday , some years we had a wet spell and the crop would lay there until it was dry enough to cut , one year it ran into September and the local duck population were having a field day , and so were the lucky fowlers , like myself who had the right to be able to shoot these fields , once the crop was off you kept an eye open for any splashes of water , if you were again lucky enough to have a decent bit of water you were onto a bag filler , Mallard would come into the deeper parts and Teal used to love the shallow bits where they could up end and feed off the bottom , as more rain fell it would wash any grain left around the sides into the flooded bits and it ended up like a fed flight pond , now with a change in the farming income with grazing livestock rather than growing crops it is very unlikely we will ever see the likes again , unlikely yes , but who knows ?     MM

That's the difficulty of being a distance fowler,  I don't think I could live any further away from my nearest marsh, 2 hours minimum. Then comfort breaks and calling in McDonald's 😉😉🤣🤣

[marsh man]

2 hours ago, Big Mat said:

I seem to recall you were shooting a sawn off back then? 

Hi Mat    Are you saying Harry had the advantage of using a sawn off scatter gun ? , that could had been one very unlucky Mallard to be flying within the fumes of a carton of Mac Donalds strong coffee and a riot shotgun .😄

P S  Have you still got your dog Frank ?

[Big Mat]

14 minutes ago, marsh man said:

Hi Mat    Are you saying Harry had the advantage of using a sawn off scatter gun ? , that could had been one very unlucky Mallard to be flying within the fumes of a carton of Mac Donalds strong coffee and a riot shotgun .😄

P S  Have you still got your dog Frank ?

I seem to recall he hadn't shot a duck on the shore until he had the barrel sawn off, it gave us all a good laugh! 

 

Yes I've still got Frank, he's 9 now,  he'll be out on the 1st with the young chesapeake by his side

[marsh man]

35 minutes ago, Big Mat said:

I seem to recall he hadn't shot a duck on the shore until he had the barrel sawn off, it gave us all a good laugh! 

 

Yes I've still got Frank, he's 9 now,  he'll be out on the 1st with the young chesapeake by his side

My, how time fly,  mine is a few months younger , a lovely dog with a temperment to match , I use him all the year round and after a full days work when he is used for picking up he is now showing signs of stiffness setting in , my last dog was exactly the same and he was the youngest dog I have ever put down , he was a few weeks over 10 , all my others that came off keepers ect lived into double figures with the oldest one being over 14.

At the moment I am not looking for another puppy but by the end of this coming season I could well be on the lookout for a older dog that I could start using without all the puppy training  . it's a case now of wait and see .

[Sweet11-87]

I was out this morning. Nowt on like, tide,moon and weather was all wrong. But it’s the 1st, and it’s a tradition at this point. Few teal and wigeon flying about but none presenting a shot. Listening to the seals was worth the trip so I’m happy.