Gamekeeping and Stalking

[Buckshot]

I have been asked to do a blog about my gamekeeping and stalking activities. I thought hard over this because sometimes I get carried away with the shooting part of it and I don't want to upset anyone. I know there are people who disagree with shooting and I’m not dissing them in any way – ‘each to their own’ I say.
Having said that I'm proud and privileged of what I do. I also know there are people that do shoot here on BCUK. Those may (or may not) be interested and I suppose it's also a good idea to try to educate non-shooters about our sport generally because a lot of the bad feeling is generated through misunderstanding of what actually goes on. It’s not the blood bath the press would like you to believe. :banghead:


So to set the scene, I’ve been shooting for a very long time and started my working life as a keeper. I then decided I could earn enough money to allow me to shoot at weekends by being an accountant during the week. So that’s what I did. Then I saw a part time job advertised a couple of years ago and went for it. I should have known, who ever heard of a part time gamekeeper ! :arg:

Anyway, I keeper on a 500 acre farm not too far from where I live. There’s a mixture of woodland, thick hedges and fields. A third of the land is subject to flooding because the River Thames marks our boundary on one side. Another third is a large hill which sounds good from a shooting point of view but in fact is too gentle a slope for really high birds as the guns have to stand half way up it. The remaining land is normal farming land.
The farmer is fairly conservation minded and has planted lots of trees since he bought the place about 20 years ago. There are 2 or 3 old woods (beech, oak) and another 5 or 6 much younger ones (broadleaf and coniferous) and also a couple of cover crop strips, mainly maize and kale.
Although the farmer does like his trees it’s not always the case that pheasants will. A wood needs to be warm if it is to hold wildlife. Generally the warmer the wood the more wildlife lives in it, both in terms of density and diversity. This is because they generally have good food sources as well as cover for hiding and warm places to sleep.
Some of our woods are in the ‘cold’ category. That is to say the trees have got too big and are blocking out a lot of light from reaching the ground, creating barren areas. These can be very difficult for the beaters to walk through because the trees are at human level, but if you lie down you can see 100 meters ahead. This makes it cold for the pheasants who are, of course, ground dwelling birds. The birds then vote with thier feet. :aargh4:

So that’s the back ground out of the way, no doubt I’ll keep adding crucial bits of info as I remember them so apologies if something doesn’t make sense. Just ask. Keepering wise it's getting busy now. We've ordered 500 birds, arriving this week. They will be 6-8 weeks old so they're ready to go out to wood in the release pen. That’s basically a half way house (between the complete safety of the rearing field and the dangerous wild wood) where the birds can get ‘street wise’ (or should that be ‘wood wise’?) There they learn things like roosting in the trees rather than jugging on the ground where there are predators, and how to cope with rain. The pen itself is a large open topped enclosure made from chicken wire 6-8 feet high. The birds can fly in and out as they wish and there are also ‘pop holes’ set in the wire. These are one way passages designed to allow birds back into the pen once out but not allow them out in the first place (they have to fly over the top). They also are designed to stop foxes squeezing through.
We like to keep them there for 2-3 months, gradually they'll wander off themselves, hopefully staying on the farm and coming back to feed. By then we will have filled the out lying feeder bins, ours are 45 gallon oil drums with feeding slots cut in the bottom filled with wheat. The theory is the birds will be well spread out by October (the start of the pheasant-shooting season) and old enough to push over the guns. Of course some birds wander off the farm never to be seen again, some die of natural causes or get eaten by, well, anything that takes a fancy to them really and some are used by passing cars as target practice.
Conversely our shoot receives birds from others in the area so hopefully we won’t be too down on the deal.

A lot of my time is spent controlling predators. Foxes are pheasant enemy number 1. I have a lot of respect for foxes, I think they're great, brilliant in fact, at what they do. But that's the problem, they're too good at killing. I'm charged with looking after the pheasants which means keeping the fox population under control
I don’t use traps or snares on the farm, I can’t guarantee to check them every day so I can’t use them by law. That means I have to use a gun. I don’t worry too much about the pigeon and rabbit population, the farmer has other people to sort those out

All keepers rely on a good relationship with the farmer and other people who are on the ground, they’re another pair of eyes and ears. Take last week for example, I had a phone call from one of the syndicate guns.
“Mark, you know you said you hadn’t seen any foxes around this year. Well…”
Damm !
So the next evening I followed his directions and stalked up the hill, it took 2 hours to go about 300 yards. I knew I was doing all right because the background birdsong didn’t change as I past by. I saw 3 Roe does and a hare, all passing within 15 feet of me. When I got to the top it was getting dark – the perfect ambush time.
As soon as I’d eased myself into the hedge a fox popped out into the ride. My rifle has a moderator on it so the bang wasn’t too noisy. I waited there a while longer, foxes often investigate strange noises, and then another one showed himself. That’s two. The gun only saw two but he said they were young, that must mean a family and anyway, one of mine was old so there’s still some more work to be done. Often when the den is disturbed like that the family move to another site. I hope the rest have decided discretion is the better part of valor and moved well away.

I waited until it was too dark to see but nothing else showed. Not that I really expected it to, foxes may be inquisitive but they’re not stupid!

We had a working party yesterday (Sunday). A WP is where the guns should turn up and do some of the jobs to help out. Things like mending the wire on the pen when a branch falls on it :shock: (as has happened twice this year) or cutting rides. That sort of thing.
Only one gun turned up yesterday out of a possibility of nine. Granted only about 4 or 5 actually make a habit of turning up for the WP’s, the others were on holiday somewhere. 8-)
Anyway we got the pen ready, connected the electric fence, put old fluorescent tubes around the pen (connected to the electric fence), put up raptor deterrents (obviously we can’t kill anything with a hooked beak but we can ask them to look elsewhere for dinner :nono: ) and placed the feeders and drinkers on pallets around the pen.
I think we’re ready for the birds now, fingers crossed. Releasing the birds is one of the most stressful times for a keeper because no matter how hard you planned there’s always some birds that don’t read the script and end up doing exactly what you don’t want ! :***:

Stalking wise I went for a quick walk round before the WP. I only saw two Muntjac deer, the first was a yearling buck still in velvet which I shot. When I was gralloching it another kept barking at me, I had a fleeting glimpse of it – a doe 100 yards away– and then it was gone.
It was a nice walk with the dog, it’s the first time I’ve taken him stalking, he’s really a shotgun gundog but I’m going to try to train him partly as a deer dog as well.

This started out as a short intro post setting the scene but it’s not turned out like that.
Thanks for ‘listening’ and sorry for rabbiting on.

I’ll let you know how the release of the birds goes later in the week.

Cheers

Mark

[falling rain]

Nice one Mark, Very interesting stuff, and thanks for taking the time to share it. :super:

[Roving Rich]

Thanks Mark, Interesting stuff. I learned a load from just that post ! So I look forward to reading more.
Cheers
Rich
PS - what are the fluorescent tubes for ? :?:

[Ed]

Stalking wise I went for a quick walk round before the WP. I only saw two Muntjac deer, the first was a yearling buck still in velvet which I shot. When I was gralloching it another kept barking at me, I had a fleeting glimpse of it – a doe 100 yards away– and then it was gone.

Do you get to keep and eat the deer you kill or do they go back to the estate?

Excellent piece by the way. Looking forward to hearing more.

Ed

[Adi007]

I really enjoyed reading that - Thanks Buckshot!

[Buckshot]

Thanks guys - appreciated.

Rich the tubes are to deter foxes, birds of prey and any other night time predator.

The idea is they flash in time with the electric fence as the surge goes through them. It's not much, in fact it's difficult to see anything during the day but at night it should be enough to make any predator feel uneasy. After all, would you like it if a light kept on flashing in your periferal vision ? Especially if you knew it was man made and they're not exactly you're bestest pal. I think I'd look elsewhere for dinner.

That's the plan anyway...

Ed, all the meat I shoot is eaten by myself, family or friends.
I don't shoot huge amounts so it's not a problem, in fact there's a waiting list of hungry people.
I'm sure you know it's not just a case of shooting everything you see, a herd should be managed which means taking out the old, week, ill and some young so the population will strengthen over time.
The muntjac from Sunday is going to a friend who also wants the skin to have a go at tanning.

Cheers

Mark

[Buckshot]

OK the release went as well as could be expected.
The birds arrived on tuesday on time.
I had 3 syndicate guns to help me.
One took the first crate off the trailer, plonked it down in the middle of the ride and started to undo the door.

NOOOOOOOO :banghead:
That's exactly what they did last year and over half the birds took to thier wings and flew straight over the wire to the great wild beyond.

So I had to explain that the technique is to try to stress the birds as little as possible, they're stressed enough considering they've just had a car journey stuffed into a crate.
The key is to put all the crates out onto the ground with the doors against some cover (bushes etc.) . then one person calmly starting at the furthest crate, undo the door and back off to the next. Work your way back to the gate of the pen (remembering to close it on the way out !).
Then have a cup of tea and allow the birds come out on thier own accord. Placing the crates next to cover gives the birds somewhere safe to go and, hopefully, stops them flying, because even if they want to, they can't because they have a load of sticks and branches above them. Sometimes the birds decide not to go into the cover you've so carefully placed right infront of them but dash off to the side and out into the open, whereupon they get scared and fly off :***:

[Buckshot]

Oppps, don't know what happened there, I wrote some more but it hasn't come out so I'll try again.

We lost about a dozen birds over the wire.
When I went round the pen I managed to get about half of them back in.

I will visit the pen every day to make sure all is well over the next few weeks. I'm fortunate in that the guns do all the feeding for me so what would be my biggest job is taken away :super:
That frees me up to do other things like vermin control. I'll still go over to the pen everyday, even though I don't really need to ( although if something did happen to the birds I would probably be blamed for it), as I've already explained the guns, well, thier heart is in the right place...

That's all for now, more later.

Cheers

Mark

[Oakleaf]

Mark

Two purposes -

1. Got your email - not vanished! Will get in touch next week after D & C have visited. Hopefully with tales to make you jealous! :nana:

2. Great thread - we are all conscious of the sensibilities ( intended in a respectful way ) around firearms and issue of taking life. That said, critical that we do not hide from public view or be ashamed of something that is very valid and worthwhile. Putting down the facts - as you have done - is I think one of the best ways to educate.


Chose word Educate carefully - not intended to seem holier than thou etc. Meant in sense of presenting facts. If someone has considered facts and then draws a conclusion, you cant help but respect that - regardless of whether their conclusion accords with yours.

I stalk and do a bit with pheasants on a local syndicate ( our birds arrived last weekend ). I try to talk matter of factly to anyone interested and not ram views down throat to those who arent. Trouble is that those of us passionate about a thing tend to have a hard time being moderate about something so wonderful! :wink:

A lot of the vitriol that fieldsports get and shooters get seems to stem from misconceptions and false ideas of what happens. In addition, the actions of the idiot few - which exist in every aspect of life - do feed the adverse images.

Keep up ( again no pun! ) the good work.

Andy

[Buckshot]

Chers Andy,

I agree, the education part was the main reason I started this thread, that and the 'proud and priviladged' bit.

I went to the Gamefair yesterday. It covers an amazing amount of acreage.
We were there all day and only saw about half of it, and that's not including the clay shooting or dog trials ! :biggthump
We went away from there with much more on our backs but with much less in our pockets :yikes:
One of the things I bought was a feeder for the pen. Two of ours are well past there sell by date. I wanted to replace both but the store only had one and I wasn't going to walk all the way back to the other place at the end of a tiring day.

Anyway, I'll put that in the pen ASAP

Cheers

Mark

[dtalbot]

Really good post and interesting reading. Looking forward to lots more.
This perfectly illustrates what I've thought for years about what might be described as 'countryman' and 'bushcraft' skills respectivly. And that is that by and large they are the same thing! When they do differ there are pleny of places where each can learn from the other, one may shoot the rabbit, the other trap it but we all prep cook and eat it!
Cheers
David

[eraaij]

Very interesting read indeed! Looking forward to reading more.

-Emile

[Jamie]

Thanks for all that Mark...really interesting especially as I have been asked to be 'part-time' keeper for my small local shoot (in return for a half gun) and we are getting our birds next Wednesday.

I really enjoy it (even having to re-site the new pen) and the excuse it gives me to get outside. I am really looking forward to doing this for the firt time and putting into practice some tips and tricks that I learnt on a game farm which I worked on for about 6 months.

I'll let you know how I get on on Wednesday and imagine I will probably be PMin gyou for advice :wink:

Thanks again

[Buckshot]

Jamie - don't believe them. They may sell it as part time but it's most definately not ! :yikes:
Give me a shout any time, are you going to the Wales meet at all, perhaps we can say hello then ?

I'll give an update soon covering the losses so far, natural or otherwise.


Cheers

Mark

[Jamie]

i know what you mean mate.....the workload is piled on :shock:

and thanks for the offer of help and I will most definitely be there in Wales so will have to look out for each other (I'll be the bloke in green with a rucksack on my back.......................... .................perhaps this is the only time a copy of the FT under your arm is the best way to go!!!!!)

[Buckshot]

i know what you mean mate.....the workload is piled on :shock:

and thanks for the offer of help and I will most definitely be there in Wales so will have to look out for each other (I'll be the bloke in green with a rucksack on my back.......................... .................perhaps this is the only time a copy of the FT under your arm is the best way to go!!!!!)

:rolmao: :rolmao: :rolmao:

I was thinking perhaps people should have flags with thier login name attached to thier tent/ basha so we all know who everyone is.

Cheers

Mark

[Buckshot]

So far things have been pretty good really, all things considered. It’s early days yet though so, although my pheasants have hatched, I wont count them yet. :wink:

After the round up of birds from the initial release few have made it over the wire. Non, in fact, until Friday when 5 were outside and then another 2 the following morning.
This is fairly normal because the birds are not roosting much at the moment so don’t fly higher than the fence.
As the birds grow they’ll start to get up to the normal 15-20 feet high, then when they fly down in the morning it can be a lottery as to whether they end up inside or outside of the wire. This is especially true with our pen because we have some nice roosting height hazel trees just outside the pen which I’m going to coppice next year, hopefully Roving Rich will show me the ropes on that one… :yikes:

The only downer this week has been the owl strike found on Friday. The birds are particularly venerable at the moment being so naive. So an owl would make short work of dispatching an unwary pheasant poult.
I know it was an owl because of the way the carcass was plucked and the feathers laid around. And there was an owl feather a couple of feet away !
It did confuse me a little at first though because, pheasants being pheasants, had ‘investigated’ the carcass after the kill. So it was moved and ripped up a bit just to confuse, which it did.
Even with this we’ve only lost a handful so far.

Because birds of prey can’t be killed one of the tricks is to hang a plastic bag with a big pair of eyes drawn onto it from a tree. I’m told birds of prey work on the size of eyes and so if there’s another pair bigger than their own they move off. I’m sure some of the bird experts will know more than me on this subject, I’m not totally convinced on this myself and I think it may have more to do with the unusual sight of the plastic bag flapping in the wind rather than what’s drawn on it. But hey, it seams to work, so I’ll not knock it. :?:

I’m a little worried about our electric fence. It’s not really man enough for the job. It was only just powerful enough last year and this year I’ve put the florescent tubes on it as well and it'’ severely lacking in punch now.
One of the problems working on a small shoot is money. A new unit costs about £100 and there’s no way we can afford that this year. So I’ll have to ask the farmers I know if they’ve got one propping a door open somewhere I can borrow – unless anyone reading this has a spare unit….

OK that’s me done for today. I’ll post some pictures when I can. It might help to understand what I’m rabbiting on about.

Cheers

Mark

[Buckshot]

I knew I shouldn’t have said anything last time about it all going smoothly !

At the weekend the farmer was tragically killed in a farming accident. Of course all thoughts are to the family at this sad time. We (the syndicate) are carrying on as normal – we can’t stop feeding the birds, but no-one knows what’s going to happen to the farm as he was on his own. We shall just have to wait and see.

Then yesterday in the thunder storms moving through our region we had two trees, count them two, fall on the wire. I managed to cut them up and move them away to fix the fence. It’s not brilliant but it should hold for this year. One of the trees fell right next to a corner post, breaking it in the process. Another job for me then. :roll: It will have to be a quick fix because I don’t want to disturb the birds any more than I have to.

The electric fence is very lacking in power now. I hope it’s because the rain has shorted some of the charge. I covered the battery over again so hopefully it will recover to it’s normal, mediocre, power. :?:

Ho humm.....What else can go wrong – opps I shouldn’t have said that…

Cheers

Mark

[Buckshot]

A stalking entry this time.

I went out stalking last weekend, not to the farm but to another area only a couple of miles from my house.

I was out in the field by about 5.30 – 5.45 am :yikes: . There are a couple of fields I know are good for holding deer. They’re the sort of scrubby grass deer love so that’s where I headed.
The mist was very thick with visibility down to 50 meters most of the time. This makes shooting with a rifle more difficult because you can’t see if there’s a suitable back stop behind the animal to stop the bullet travelling for a couple of miles (which it could easily do if unchecked). Safety is obviously the single most important thing when handling a gun, any gun. If you’re not 110% sure it’s safe the shot should not be taken.
The mist also makes stalking itself that much more ‘interesting’. On the one hand it can be easier to get across open areas, on the other sound carries better in fog and mist. :?:
It’s currently the Roe rut (therefore right in the middle of the buck season) and I’ve just got a caller I wanted to try out. I walked into the field and immediately saw a buck and a doe at the limit of my vision, unfortunately they saw me at the same time and ran off. I waited a few minuets and then tried the decoy caller, within a minuet or so they were back – amazing. :super:
The problem was they weren’t in a shootable position so I had to wait.
I spent next two hours watching the buck and doe running around the field, lying down and grazing while I only moved about 100 meters along the hedgerow.
In the end both deer ran straight at me, the doe followed by the buck, only realising I was there when they were 15 feet away from me. :biggthump Both turned and ran, the doe went 50 meters but the buck only went 20 meters away from me and then stopped, broad side on. It was now or never, even though the bullet went through the heart, destroying it, he still ran about 50 meters. Believe it or not, this is normal and can be the reason a deer is lost if it’s in dense cover. A 100 meter diameter circle is a lot of area to hide in.
I have a Labrador dog, which is pretty much trained as a hunter/ retriever.
I have decided I would like to widen this to incorporate deer location as well to try to lessen the risk of loosing a deer. This is only the second time I’ve taken him out when stalking but he stayed at heel the whole time, even when the deer ran so close he didn’t move. Only when I released him and told him to follow the trail did he move. I knew where the deer was, it fell in the field, but it’s good practice for the dog and I can tell if he’s off track at all. He was proud as punch when he located the buck. :nana:
It was then a case of doing the grallock and getting the Landy to pick it up. Then back home for breakfast.
That was a long day, In the afternoon I went on a friends stag do :uu: . The downer is the wedding’s on the weekend of the Wilderness Gathering. :tw:

Cheers

Mark

[eraaij]

Thanks for the report. One question: what were your motivations for taking this buck out of the population? Was the population too big, or did it not look healthy enough?

-Emile

[Buckshot]

The management of deer is exactly that – management. Not indiscriminate killing.

The current deer population should be assessed and the target level of numbers determined. There are loads of factors that can affect it. Condition of ground, fertility of soil, amount and type of woodland, general condition of the local deer population, prevailing weather conditions, competition from other animals are just a few.

Once the number has been set a cull plan can be made up. This stipulates how many and what type of deer will be culled. More females are culled than males and more young deer are culled than older ones. This is to keep a balance within the local deer population.

So to answer your question, I didn’t identify this specific deer individually but I did identify the need to cull a deer in that category.

Hope this answers your question

Cheers

Mark

[Buckshot]

The birds are getting out of the pen on a regular basis now, last night we put about a dozen back in. :shock: That’s good because it means the birds are getting stronger and roosting much higher (when I walked round the pen last night I saw droppings below a branch 25 feet high).
It’s also bad because when the birds get out they expose themselves to many more threats and it’s much more difficult to protect them.
But leave they must and soon they will ‘fly the nest’ or rather be seen running flat out along the nearest hedge.
It’s possible to loose a great many birds when they decide to go ‘walk about’. It’s not uncommon to see 50 or so birds running along a road or hedge one after the other. :yikes:
That’s why dogging in is important. The aim is to push the birds back towards the centre of the shoot where the release pen is and stop them running off your ground.
I digress a little, the birds are a little off that stage yet. I will soon start to introduce wheat into their diet, they are currently on pellets. Gradually the % content of wheat increases until it’s 100%. This needs to happen at least two weeks before the first shoot because the pellets taint the flavour of the meat.
In fact ours will be on wheat well before the first shoot so it wont be a problem. They also need grit to be able to break up the wheat in their crop, people sometimes wonder why their birds wonder onto roads only to get squashed. Apart from the normal suicidal tendencies of pheasants :wink: it could be they are trying to get some grit to be able to digest the food they’ve been given.
Away from the pen now is the time to get all the outlying feeders ready, mend any broken and replace those that can’t be fixed.
These are normally the large oil drums with slits/ holes cut in the bottom to allow the pheasants to peck the wheat out, I’m sure many have seen these things in your local woods and alongside hedgerows.
They provide a very useful means of feeding the birds, holding them in a particular area and assessing numbers in the areas by how quickly the wheat is consumed.
The next working party is on the weekend of the Gathering so they’ll have to do without me for that one, rest assured I will check everything they’ve done whist I was away when I get back…

Cheers

Mark

[Buckshot]

Well, it’s been a couple of weeks since I last posted something here so I thought I’d better write something.

I’ve been spending time at the farm making sure the birds are OK, they’re aren’t many left in the pen now which is kind of a good thing. They’re old enough to be a bit more switched on when it comes to dangers in the wood, and they’re a lot bigger and stronger so can get out of trouble more easily. They’re roosting sooo high now too.
The buzzards and kites are still flying around but they’re less of a problem now. It’s unlikely any of my birds will be taken by a buzzard or kite now because they’re too switched on and big, and anyway they’re mostly scavengers unless an easy meal presents itself. In the early days that would have been the young pheasants, but not now. At the moment it’s more a case of scaring the pheasants away because of this huge scary thing above them – well I guess they see it like that anyway.

We’ve changed over to feeding mostly wheat now from the pellets they were on before, and provided grit for them to be able to digest it. Don’t forget the grit or the birds will walk to find it themselves – normally onto the nearest road. :shock:

I spent last Saturday making sure all the outlying feeders were in good order and sited correctly. These are normally the forty-gallon drums on legs (or an old car tyre) that are often seen around the countryside. We’ve ordered four more this year but they haven’t arrived yet, perhaps we’ll sort them out this weekend… The farm hand is going to keep them filled during the season for us as this was a duty that the ex-farmer did, so we don’t have to worry about that. I’ve spread some straw round some of the closer (to the pen) feeders as they’re already being used. The straw keeps the birds active and interested looking for food rather than having all laid out on a plate (or on the floor) in front of them. We have four tonnes of feed wheat, which should just about see us through until we stop feeding in March/ April next year.
While I was out I also cut a couple of beating sticks (sticks for people to use in the beating line that forget their own, not sticks to beat people with), then I decided to try to split a hazel wand with the billhook I bought off Jack at the Wilderness Gathering. My hand is healing very well considering it’s only 5 days after the injury and it was down to the bone. :yikes: Be warned, when hazel splits, it splits REALLY quickly. :shock: I shan’t be so silly next time… :nono:

We have our pre season clay shoot this weekend where all the guns come over and try to get their ‘eye in’ ready for the season proper. We have teams but it’s a relaxed affair, and I get to take my gun as well. It’s one of the few times I get to shoot formally. :biggthump

On the subject of a ‘keepers shooting ability I find that a bit of a paradox. Generally ‘keepers are expected to be good shots, however because we’re working all the time we rarely get chance to practice. OK, we may take a gun around with us sometimes but it ends up getting in the way more often than not when there are specific jobs to do, so gets left behind (securely of course), either at home or in the car. And it’s not like we’re shooting something every 10 yards or anything, you might not have a shot for a week or more, and that’s a lot of metal to carry day in, day out for the odd shot. :?:
It puts a lot of pressure on the ‘keepers and, of course, we can’t win. If we’re having a bad day then it’s a case of ‘call him a keeper, he’s cr@p’ or if things are being hit then it’s ‘well he should be good, he carries a gun all day’.

Ho hum – a ‘keepers life and all that. :roll:

With the help of Falling Rain (cheers FR :super: ), we put some barley and wheat tailings in our flight ponds the other day, hopefully we’ll get a couple of wild duck coming in, not for the syndicate, they’re aren’t enough for that, I’m hoping to be able to get one or two for the hunter course DG’s running in a couple of weeks (see ‘Hunter Course’ thread)

We also seem to have a problem around the buildings with rats. Last year the pen was alive with them but this year it’s definitely the buildings. I think Rich needs to try out his new go-faster gun…if he’s up for it :wink: (I’ve emailed you).

OK that’s about all I want to rant on about at the moment, I’ll let you know how things go at the clay shoot and our first pheasant day which is only just over a week away.

Cheers

Mark

[Buckshot]

It’s been a couple of weeks since I last posted anything on this thread so it’s about time I posted something.

Thanks to Kim for the kind words. :super:

We had our pre-season clay shoot a couple of weeks ago. The weather was fine. The guns all turned up, some with streaming colds and I managed to shoot 64 clays out of a total of 75 shots.Not bad I thought. :lol: We had planned to put out the shooting pegs in the afternoon. These are the numbered posts put out so the guns know where to stand. The problem was it started tipping it down, I didn’t have a waterproof coat with me and the other gun who was going to help decided he wanted to stay dry as well. He organised it so 4 guns turned up when I was on the Hunter course and put out all the pegs for me – top man! :You_Rock_

Our first shoot happened a fortnight ago. The weather was sunny and warm, a normal shoot day for early October. We just went round the boundaries, mainly along the riverbank. One of the syndicate guns couldn’t go so asked if I wanted to take my gun with me – doh yeah ! It was a pleasant walk, although we saw quite a few birds most of them were young and therefore not suitable to shoot. The guns had to select their targets carefully. Falling Rain and his son came for their first time beating – they said they enjoyed it anyway.
One bad thing (from my point of view anyway), on one of the drives we saw a fox slinking away between the beaters, just past FR actually – another job for me then. :roll:

I fed the flight pond again and was pleased to see several duck fly off when I got there.
On the Thursday before the hunter course I took the afternoon off to see if I could get some items on the shopping list.
I managed to get a couple of pigeons whilst decoying, then went over to the pond. I crept over to the pond and saw about a dozen duck on it. Then a swan joined them. I managed to get two duck there, all swans are owned by the queen (hence the tradition of ‘Swan-upping’) and therefore are definitely not on the shopping list. You can eat them, but not kill them – if that makes sense… :?:
Along the way a couple of pheasants and a rabbit joined the bag so that’s sorted the first lesson anyway.

I wont go into the Hunter course itself because that’s been covered on another thread. Suffice to say I really enjoyed it and spent the next week at work recovering. Dave and Feathers :You_Rock_

Last weekend was our second shoot of the season. This was our first proper day. We had 15 guns all together, 9 syndicate and 6 guests. Not all of them shoot at the same time. Only 9 guns shoot at any one time, they take it in turns on a rota system. Those that aren’t shooting boost the beating line, they put their guns away and pick up a stick for that drive.
We ended up with 36 pheasants and 2 pigeons, about a normal day for us. It meant we had enough for all the guns to have a brace along with the farmer, the farm hand and finally me. I think this is a good number, everyone goes away with something without scraping around to find enough or having too many and looking for someone to have them.

I noticed a fox scat on a small log the other day. So it's still there. Foxes always mark territory with scat as well as urine. They mark in a prominent way, usually as high as they can get it off the floor, on a clump of grass, fallen log etc. Along with the shape and smell of the scat the location is another giveaway.

We still have quite a few deer around as well. Roe and Muntjac. Roe doe season starts soon so I’ll get to work thinning that lot. You have to be careful in the early doe season to make sure you pick females that don’t have dependant kids (Roe young are called kids not fawns) in tow. Later on in the season (Jan and Feb) the kids are weaned so are not so much of a problem but before Christmas the stalker has to make doubly sure.

I’m sure I’ve forgotten something but I’ll leave it there for now.

:biggthump

Cheers

Mark

[Womble]

Brilliant Blog Mark - really informative!

[Buckshot]

Thanks Womble - I have wondered in the past if anyone bothers to read this thread. :?:
The odd comment back shows people do.

Cheers

Mark

[C_Claycomb]

Just found and read. Really enjoyed it!!! Thanks Mark! :super:

[Womble]

There's a lot of information in those posts of yours, and the nice thing is, there's a context for all of it, as well as an interesting narrative.

In other words:- it's a great, informative read. Cheers!

[MartiniDave]

Good to hear it from a Keeper's perspective. I see plenty from the beating line, but its nice to hear the other side of the story.

Between drives on our shoot I find myself being asked to do firelighting demos - especially when its tipping down!

Last weekend my 12 year old stepson, who also beats, found me after one drive. He had a dead partridge in one pocket and a bundle of tinder in the other! That's my boy!

At the end of the day I found him and one of the other lads comparing what they had in their possibles bags too.

Keep the updates coming, please Mark.

Dave

[Ed]

Its really good to see how things work from a gamekeepers perspective, and these posts of yours Mark are highly valued sources of infomation. Alot of the books out there on gamekeeping seem to have been written along time ago, and its nice to see how the profession has changed... or rather changed little... over the years.
Keep up the post... we all enjoy the read :biggthmup

Ed

[Buckshot]

Thanks guys, I wasn't after a big hug - honest :o):

I forgot to mention on the last post I went down to the pond to feed it on the Sunday after our shoot and 25 duck (Mallard) got up from it.
This may not be a huge amount for a large pond but ours is no more than 20 feet across :shock: I can see duck on the menu again, Lady Buckshot's looking forward to it...

Thanks again.

Cheers

Mark

[bushwacker bob]

Just serves to make me jelous.(She made me stop shooting things about 15 years ago :nono: )I miss the odd day over decoys with the 20ga.
Brilliant narative tho Mark,its very interesting to read your year unfolding and reminds me of 'the parting shot' inside the back cover of the shooting times :wink:

[Buckshot]

Just serves to make me jelous.(She made me stop shooting things about 15 years ago :nono: )I miss the odd day over decoys with the 20ga.
Brilliant narative tho Mark,its very interesting to read your year unfolding and reminds me of 'the parting shot' inside the back cover of the shooting times :wink:

My wife comes from a shooting/ farming family so I have no problem there. :o): Some of her early memories are of her parents plucking chickens, or of half a pig laid on the chicken table awaiting jointing by her dad.

I don't think I'm on a par with Shooting Times yet but thanks for the compliment. :biggthump
Cheers

Mark

[nevetsjc80]

Just a quick comment, i also help out and beat with the shoot on a estate i work for. I have the privilege of stalking on the 5000 acres too, and i think your thread is very good our sport and livelihood needs and much surports as they can get. Education is the key, good work!
Steve :biggthump

[Buckshot]

Just a quick comment, i also help out and beat with the shoot on a estate i work for. I have the privilege of stalking on the 5000 acres too, and i think your thread is very good our sport and livelihood needs and much surports as they can get. Education is the key, good work!
Steve :biggthump

You don't need a hand with the stalking do you????

Thanks for your support

Cheers

Mark

[nevetsjc80]

There a bit funny about shooting on the estate, as i have a few people id love to take stalking but i cant, shame really im all for acompanied stalking. Its mainly a Pheasant and partridge shoot with bought days.
But, as im on the forestry side we have problems with the Muntjac chewing our new woods! Its wired that the Roe dont seem to come down form the Chilterns really. Sounds good where you are though and not far from here either. I guess we are lucky its part of our jobs or i dont think id have time for work, stalking and bushcraft!!
Steve

[falcon]

Only just found this post and have really enjoyed it Buckshot. I've done quite a bit of amateur keepering including rearing from day-old, feeding, dog training, beating as well as "taking a tithe" for the table and much of your diary really strikes a cord. The whole shoot management process provides an outlet for many bushcraft skills, certainly at the small end of the scale. Perhaps those who haven't tried it should give it a try ? Keep us updated !

[Kath]

It's a really enjoyable read, Buckshot. :biggthump Wouldn't miss it! Keep it up!! :wink:

[Buckshot]

I guess we are lucky its part of our jobs or i dont think id have time for work, stalking and bushcraft!!
Steve

I agree entirely. As I said on my first post I feel very priviledged to be able to go out and do this sort of thing. I definately feel time is of a premium, what with 2 jobs, shooting and bushcraft. My only regret is that I can't do more of it - but then I suppose that's the case for all of us...

Falcon - or anyone else who may have alternative ways/ ideas. Please feel free to air them. I'm always open to new suggestions - I'm no expert, I've just done it before !!!

Thanks Kath, your thoughts are appreciated. How are you now - feeling better?

Cheers

Mark