Thread: Game bird diary for all

Few pics tonight sitting with my cuddly dog.....none came in.

You dont shoot the same pond every night do you?

Originally Posted by Toby

You dont shoot the same pond every night do you?

No I don't Toby after going to town last night and heading out later than usual to the big pond,get half way there only to see stock in the paddock. Change of plans but the numbers were still nill at our later location.

Tonights effort, Pip was a bit excited at the start never been there with her before but she came right in the end. The 2 parries were awesome. I shot one dad shot 1. I thought I missed mine they were flying past so fast after I shot it looked like it was still moving forward as I followed through about to shoot again before I noticed it dropping down. Didn't help their wings were cupped and they were set on landing behind us. Got another band too which is cool



Fell over in the water we were shooting on in the paddock got a wet ass 2 gum boots filled with water stupid ass cow trots, bung legs and darkness don't make for a enjoyable walk

Stop you bloody whining Toby. Pengy and Scouser will think there is another Pom on the forum.

Got one tonight,quite a strong SW blowing. Also had a dabchick on the pond witch was entertaining as it dived under to resurface elsewhere.

We had our worst night on Saturday with only a few shootable ones coming in but not hitting any, funniest thing was my grandson was more excited about firing 2 shots at them after the single shot .410 the side by side with .410 inserts has him thinking he is king Billy LOL we are waiting for his u/o to arrive so I can cut it down to his size (he is 8years old) but I told him he has to sell his single shot to help pay for the new gun. If you have kids or grandkids wanting to get into duckshooting don't wait its fantastic fun just teaching them.

Continuing with the idea of breaking away from my "here's a photo of a dead thing" here's a short write up.

This morning I headed out at the crack, to a spot an hour or so away. It is largely rolling hills cropped in lucerne, with massive patches of gorse dispersed throughout providing ample cover. I have found it seems to hunt better about mid-morning, as the birds have fed right out into the open, providing excellent running:



There are ample roosting trees, and tons of old man inkweed. This bush under a stand of pines would be over 6 foot tall. Where there's inkweed there's roosters:



We had the wind right from where parked at the farmers shed, so set the dog loose. The lucerne was too low here, so I could see birds getting up and away maybe 50m ahead of the dogs beat. Nothing to do but pick her up and get to the next field where the lucerne would have been about calf height, much better cover.

What a difference a bit of cover makes. on her first cast to my left, she had a find off the bat. Since she is a young dog in her first bird season, I am only shooting to her points to ensure it all sinks in, and maintaining her steadiness to wing and shot... Think whistle in mouth while shooting sort of stuff. I asked her to produce, which she did, and one hen got up. She usually drops to flush , but not today, she remained on point. So I stepped towards her to enforce the drop, and a second hen got away. This time she dropped. Cheeky bitch!

Now where there's girls there's boys. While hens will sit, often their wing beats will send crafty older cocks running as opposed to flying. So how to deal with a crafty running birds? Look for the most likely looking bit of nearby cover, and send the dog downwind of his planned escape route. In this case a stand of gorse alongside a fenceline. I sent Betty left, she got three quarters of the way to the fence, maybe 40m, and locked up. The rest is history, well for this bird anyway. Just when you thought I'd changed, here are the dead thing photos:





Steady to wing and shot, retrieved to hand, I'm very happy with her and there is a quick round of "gooood girls" for Betty. Where do you go from there? When it's going good, it can only go backwards so picked her up and home we went!

Wasn't until I got him home I had a look at him. A young bird, with very small spurs, I'd guess a yearling or thereabouts. Yet he went 28 bars on his tail? Must have been living well in the crops. What the pictures don't convey is his weight, I'd like to find some scales and weigh him. For a small bird, he's heavy. And I certainly can't say that's due to all the lead I put in him

Baz, (aka 'onesie' due to all his loose skin) the new recruit, approves

Originally Posted by Pointer

Continuing with the idea of breaking away from my "here's a photo of a dead thing" here's a short write up.

This morning I headed out at the crack, to a spot an hour or so away. It is largely rolling hills cropped in lucerne, with massive patches of gorse dispersed throughout providing ample cover. I have found it seems to hunt better about mid-morning, as the birds have fed right out into the open, providing excellent running:

Attachment 24547

There are ample roosting trees, and tons of old man inkweed. This bush under a stand of pines would be over 6 foot tall. Where there's inkweed there's roosters:

Attachment 24548

We had the wind right from where parked at the farmers shed, so set the dog loose. The lucerne was too low here, so I could see birds getting up and away maybe 50m ahead of the dogs beat. Nothing to do but pick her up and get to the next field where the lucerne would have been about calf height, much better cover.

What a difference a bit of cover makes. on her first cast to my left, she had a find off the bat. Since she is a young dog in her first bird season, I am only shooting to her points to ensure it all sinks in, and maintaining her steadiness to wing and shot... Think whistle in mouth while shooting sort of stuff. I asked her to produce, which she did, and one hen got up. She usually drops to flush , but not today, she remained on point. So I stepped towards her to enforce the drop, and a second hen got away. This time she dropped. Cheeky bitch!

Now where there's girls there's boys. While hens will sit, often their wing beats will send crafty older cocks running as opposed to flying. So how to deal with a crafty running birds? Look for the most likely looking bit of nearby cover, and send the dog downwind of his planned escape route. In this case a stand of gorse alongside a fenceline. I sent Betty left, she got three quarters of the way to the fence, maybe 40m, and locked up. The rest is history, well for this bird anyway. Just when you thought I'd changed, here are the dead thing photos:

Attachment 24549

Attachment 24550

Steady to wing and shot, retrieved to hand, I'm very happy with her and there is a quick round of "gooood girls" for Betty. Where do you go from there? When it's going good, it can only go backwards so picked her up and home we went!

Wasn't until I got him home I had a look at him. A young bird, with very small spurs, I'd guess a yearling or thereabouts. Yet he went 28 bars on his tail? Must have been living well in the crops. What the pictures don't convey is his weight, I'd like to find some scales and weigh him. For a small bird, he's heavy. And I certainly can't say that's due to all the lead I put in him

Baz, (aka 'onesie' due to all his loose skin) the new recruit, approves

Attachment 24552

I knew it was coming the whole time Great progress with Betty

Brilliant Pointer, found that really interesting as i know F/all about upland bird hunting......

Thanks Scouser, that was kind of the point - to share a story that highlights how both fun and interesting it can be, and hopefully promote the sport to a few more people as upland shooters can be so secretive. All good fun - glad you enjoyed

Nice effort dude and well done Betty! Is that a Miroku you're using?

Thanks Hoon, a keen eye you have Since we last met my trusty old 12g Miroku 3800 fell apart (nearly 5 decades old, a hard 5 decades I think) and wanting to try a sub-gauge I brought a Y-banger in 20g, then thrashed it all last season. While I was impressed with the 20g, I missed the way my Miroku felt, so nabbed this 20g MK70 about 6-7 months ago. A guy at the gun club let me use it on a round of DTL and I shot better with it straight away, better than I was doing with the Y-banger in over a year of use, so couldn't say no!

Good choice! If you bought it local, I wonder if it's JohnD's?

The Scotsman?