Ferret Master Posted December 28, 2007 Report Share Posted December 28, 2007 Hi, I was woken up at stupid o'clock this morning by my Dad as we were driving down to Hampshire to meet Beatingisbest to do a spot of ferreting on his permission. We met him in a pub car park at 10AM and he jumped in to give us directions to the land. After arriving at the land and parking BIB showed me his pride and joy. An early Webley B/A .410. We taped up the MK3 Ferret Finder collars to prevent them becoming detatched underground or getting mud and water in them and set off to the first bury. The first bury was a large long warren in a bank with brambles and hawthorn blocking many of the holes. We started netting up the easy holes before it became apparent that the 30 nets I had brought was not going to be anywhere near enough. In order to make the best out of a tricky situation we took up the nets on the easy holes on the hillside and put them to better use covering the bolt holes in the thick undergrowth. We would then have someone on the top of the raised bank to try and pot the bolting rabbits with the .410 I collared up Grace one of my polecats and entered her. Now it seems 'try' was the word for it. We had one rabbit escape along the hedge into a big houses garden where they were safe because we were unable to ferret it. We then had another 2 bolt together and run down the warren back to ground in the empty holes. I then saw a rabbit belting along for the other hedge so I raised the .410 swung and after a 'pop' I was greeted with the site of a missed rabbit legging it for safety. My defence is it's the first time I have used a .410 and was unfamiliar with the gun. We then had a bolt in some brambles and I dived in and pulled the rabbit out. After a period of inactivity I got the ferret finder out and located Grace 3ft down near a couple of holes. I then noticed a taught drawstring of a net that had back-netted a bunny that had gone to ground. The bunny was lodged firm underground so a dig was on the cards as Grace was hanging on the other end. BIB held onto the drawstring to stop the rabbit going anywhere and I fetched the spade. My Dad the 'supervisor' followed the tunnel along digging carefully to avoid hitting Grace before he finally broke through by the rabbit. I pulled it up and handed it to Dad to neck it. I then gave Grace a rest and collared up Nippy my sandy jill. A couple of minutes after entering her we had a text book bolt by mine and BIB's feet and I quickly removed this from the net and necked it. We then moved onto the next burrow on the bank. The dig to Grace. This burrow was a 7 holer that looked quite simple. Looks can be decieving. We entered Nippy and after a short while she bolted a rabbit which erupted in a shower of leaves from a hole further down the bank that the supervisor had missed! We did watch it go to ground in a 6 hole bury further down though. Cursing our luck we established there was nothing left in this warren and tried a 2 holder which didn't hold. We decided to leave the nets down on these buries before netting up the 6 holder so that if any bunnies escaped they would hopefully back-net themselves. After netting up we let Nippy work again. She bolted a big old buck into the mouth of a hole but it turned around as it saw me and the ferret wasn't directly behind it to drive it out. She bolted it soon after though. We then had another hidden bolt hole due to leaves allow a rabbit to escape but this went into the next bury down so we would catch it later. Then Nippy appeared to stay in the same place 4ft down for at least 10 mins. We broke out the spade and I dug a couple of foot before the supervisor took over. Before we broke through into the tube we had another bolt into a net and this rabbit was dispatched. I thought this would be our lot for this burrow and got Nippy out and tried to take a picture but she wasn't having any of it. She ran 10m on her own accord and re-entered herself for the third time on this burrow. A good 10 mins passed before a rabbit pushed a net aside by a tree trunk and ran into the big first bury. Not one to give up however Nippy bolted another 5 seconds later which ran along the fence and I shouted to BIB 'Shoot the ******!' Before he got the chance to mount his gun it back-netted itself in the nets we left out for that purpose. I then stopped working Nippy for the day as she was tired and the fluffy mittens and the fact her coat had turned a different colour from the soil meant she had done enough. Digging to Nippy. 'Sod this boss, I'm going back in catch you later!' It's dirty work but someone's got to do it! Dad then went to the car to get some stuff for us to eat while I backfilled the hole and we took the nets up. After a bite to eat we walked along to a burrow in a bank with holes the opposite side of a pig wire fence and in the bank itself as well as in some brambles in the hedge further down. We netted up what we could and I decided to collar up and enter Echo my old polecat jill. She can be a bit shy when coming to hand at the mouths of the holes but works hard. We entered her and my worst fears were confirmed. The burrow stretched right along the hedge and there were holes in the thick impenertrable brambles which was made obvious by a rabbit making it's bid for freedom. After another 10 minutes passed we had a bolt by BIB's feet and he opened the bolt on the .410 and grabbed the rabbit which was an absolute monster and dispatched. A few minutes later Echo bolted another out of the same section of bank and dived on it after it netted itself but a powerful kick from the bunny actually sent her airborn :o before I dived on the rabbit and dispatched it. BIB setting a net. We then moved on to the final bury of the day where we had seen two rabbits earlier. This was a pain to net up due to brambles and the fence but we covered all the 20+ holes we could find. I entered Echo and after a while we had a rabbit bolt by the supervisor who neglected his supervising duties and actually tried grabbing it for a change. The rabbit was too smart though and escaped and also suceeded in avoiding being backnetted. Fair play to the rabbit! I then was getting a solid mark on Echo at 3 ft. Moments later we had a bolt from an un-netted hole by me and the rabbit ran through the fence followed by the cry of 'SHOOT IT' all of a sudden there was a 'POP' from BIB's .410 and me and Dad both looked at each other as the hedge was too thick to see through. He then called over 'I got it!' We then finished for the day as it was getting dark. BIB with the rabbit he got with the .410. All photo's were taken on my Sony Ericsson K800i but the pictures at the end of the day didn't come out too well as it was quite dark and some of the action shots were blurred. End of the day and it's started to rain. It was a cracking day out with BIB resulting in a final bag of 9 big healthy bunnies and a big thank-you to him for organising it and letting us out on his permission! The only thing that has put a dampener on the day is Grace appears to have broken one of her top canine teeth. Half of it is still in her mouth and I imagine it will be out soon. She doesn't seem overly affected and ate her fair share of hard biscuit food in their carry box and alot of cat food in the kitchen when she got home. I will see how she is tomorrow before deciding whether to take her to the vet as I don't want it to go bad. She is not a young ferret so could it be due to old age? If needed I will dampen her food down every day until it heals so she can eat. Does anyone have any advice? FM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mungler Posted December 29, 2007 Report Share Posted December 29, 2007 Top write up chaps Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
berettaman1 Posted December 29, 2007 Report Share Posted December 29, 2007 Yeah, Well done I enjoyed the story. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mel b3 Posted December 29, 2007 Report Share Posted December 29, 2007 a good days sport , and , one of the best write ups i've seen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grasshopper Posted December 29, 2007 Report Share Posted December 29, 2007 Sounds like you all had a really good time...thanks for sharing May well be worth taking a long net next time,to sorround some of them awkward sets...awful trying to net up and ferret in bramble patches,been there and done it Well done fellas GH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferret Master Posted December 29, 2007 Author Report Share Posted December 29, 2007 I am seriously considering getting a 100m long net to surround the hedges that are a pain to net. It will be much quicker than spending ages grubbing around in the bottom of a hedge looking for holes and then after you think they are all netted all the rabbits escape out of one missed hole. FM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dazza Posted December 29, 2007 Report Share Posted December 29, 2007 well done Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackthorn Posted December 29, 2007 Report Share Posted December 29, 2007 well done Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BSA Shaun Posted December 29, 2007 Report Share Posted December 29, 2007 Well done lads Didn't take the auto then Nick? Good to see a .410 put to use tho Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cranfield Posted December 29, 2007 Report Share Posted December 29, 2007 Good write-up and well done. Think hard about the 100m net, perhaps 2 x 50m nets might suit you better, they are certainly more flexible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferret Master Posted December 29, 2007 Author Report Share Posted December 29, 2007 Good write-up and well done. Think hard about the 100m net, perhaps 2 x 50m nets might suit you better, they are certainly more flexible. True... I suppose if I got 2 shorter nets I wouldnt have the problem of a fenceline getting in the way. Although one big net is just the ticket on some of the land i work where I could surround the entire bush. Thanks for the advice. FM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cole890 Posted December 29, 2007 Report Share Posted December 29, 2007 well done lads, sounds like you had a good day out Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beatingisbest Posted December 29, 2007 Report Share Posted December 29, 2007 Well done lads Didn't take the auto then Nick? Good to see a .410 put to use tho No i didnt take the semi, if i had have done i would have had to have scraped up the rabbit after i shot it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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