Last weekend, my three friends and I returned to the Midlands for what it the highlight of our sporting calendar: a day’s roughshooting with Unicorn71 and his Merry Men in the shadow of the Power Station. It’s made particularly special by the fact that for the past four years, it has been the only fixture in our sporting calendar, following the loss of G’s shoot. I mean, I have my own personal mainly improvised stalking diary, but it doesn’t involve the other three, so this is something special to us.
The format was a bit different this year as usually, after an evening in the pub on the Friday, I head out before dawn with Unicorn71 to look for a muntjac. But this year, there has been an excess population of hares in the area, and since I have never shot a hare (I’ve failed on two occasions though, but they’re fast!) and rarely have a chance to take out the CZ .22 Stutzen, I gladly took up the offer.
And so just after 9pm on Friday I found myself in a 4x4 driving slowly around the estate, and looking for the first time through a thermal monocular if that’s what it’s called, which was in itself a revelation. Apart from the many sheep, I spotted a muntjac, ducks on the pond we’d be shooting the next day, rabbits, even mice, and finally, a hare! The lamp came on, found the hare, I placed it in the crosshairs, and SNAP! Missed! Or rather, I hit its’ front foot. Luckily, it stopped running after a few metres, and the second shot found its mark: my first hare!
IMAG3557 by pinemarten, on Flickr
Three more duff shots (operator error, the rifle is fine…) followed before the evening was interrupted by a serious case of being stuck in the mud. Eventually I returned to the pub at 1am, where my friends who had been sampling the special Burns Night menu and all that entails were already fast asleep.
In the morning, for the first time, I actually had breakfast before the shoot as I wasn’t out chasing muntjac, which set me up well for the day. We convened outside the church with the other guns/beaters/dogs (roles are interchangeable on this shoot, as they should be) and the plan of attack was explained: the usual series of walk and stand “drives” and as it was the last day of the season, everything was on the menu, particularly as I hadn’t made much of a dent in the hare cull the evening before.
A first walk through a field resulted in four pheasant flying over us, amply saluted but with only one falling to M’s 16 bore, the rest of us whippersnappers being too useless to worry the birds much. On the second manoeuver, I was placed at the corner of two hedges in a patch of scrubland. Just as I arrived, a blur of grey vanished into the hedge: damn, a rabbit! As I mulled over the missed opportunity, it happened again and within half a second I had mounted and fired, and didn’t really know whether I’d hit the rabbit or not, but I went to have a look. No sign of the rabbit, but a clear tunnel in the grass heading into the impenetrable hedge. Just as I was thinking I’d have to ask for a dog to go and have a look, I heard a high-pitched squeal coming from the hedge ten metres away: there was the rabbit, lying on its’ side, and stone dead by the time I managed to extract it from the wall of thorns. An unusual sort of shot follow-up, but I was delighted! One lovely young rabbit in the gamebag!
IMAG3569 by pinemarten, on Flickr
There were a couple more drives before lunch. During the first, a single cock pheasant took off in front of me and obligingly flew directly in line with G’s had at the edge of the scrub, so that one flew away. On the next one, I was placed down the line from G on the crest of a ridge overlooking a small fir wood, exactly where I’d missed a hare the previous year. Nothing came out, and as we broke our guns and turned to walk away, a hare appeared, hesitated, for a second, and took off through the gap between G and I. I closed the gun, waited for it to pass G’s legs and tumbled it in a flurry of legs right on the edge of the wood it was heading for. My second hare! That was it, already a red letter day, I was happy.
IMG_4178-20180129-093911758 by pinemarten, on Flickr
After lunch, a small duck drive yielded a mallard for me, another for A, which he followed up with a right and left at tufted duck, and another gun down the line brought down a shoveller. How’s that for variety! Finally, we ended the day with the usual duck flight but because of the flooding, the ducks were spread out all over the area, so it wasn’t the anatid bonanza it sometimes is. Nevertheless, I had the chance to worsen my cartridge to kill ratio, A. added another mallard to the bag, as dig Unicorn71 with a beautiful snap shot through the trees!
As always, we ended the day by lining up all the game in the wall outside the church in what I sometimes think of as the quarry’s funeral and is a nice touch. All of it was taken by the participants according to their tastes, which means I went home with two hares (I offered, but no-one apart from R. wanted any!) and a rabbit, A. with some ducks, others with pigeons. No incineration here!
IMAG3597 by pinemarten, on Flickr
Huge thanks from all four of us to Unicorn71 and his friends who make this possible out of their generosity. This sort of shoot is something we can be proud of.
Here Endeth the 2017-2018 Season.
The format was a bit different this year as usually, after an evening in the pub on the Friday, I head out before dawn with Unicorn71 to look for a muntjac. But this year, there has been an excess population of hares in the area, and since I have never shot a hare (I’ve failed on two occasions though, but they’re fast!) and rarely have a chance to take out the CZ .22 Stutzen, I gladly took up the offer.
And so just after 9pm on Friday I found myself in a 4x4 driving slowly around the estate, and looking for the first time through a thermal monocular if that’s what it’s called, which was in itself a revelation. Apart from the many sheep, I spotted a muntjac, ducks on the pond we’d be shooting the next day, rabbits, even mice, and finally, a hare! The lamp came on, found the hare, I placed it in the crosshairs, and SNAP! Missed! Or rather, I hit its’ front foot. Luckily, it stopped running after a few metres, and the second shot found its mark: my first hare!
IMAG3557 by pinemarten, on FlickrThree more duff shots (operator error, the rifle is fine…) followed before the evening was interrupted by a serious case of being stuck in the mud. Eventually I returned to the pub at 1am, where my friends who had been sampling the special Burns Night menu and all that entails were already fast asleep.
In the morning, for the first time, I actually had breakfast before the shoot as I wasn’t out chasing muntjac, which set me up well for the day. We convened outside the church with the other guns/beaters/dogs (roles are interchangeable on this shoot, as they should be) and the plan of attack was explained: the usual series of walk and stand “drives” and as it was the last day of the season, everything was on the menu, particularly as I hadn’t made much of a dent in the hare cull the evening before.
A first walk through a field resulted in four pheasant flying over us, amply saluted but with only one falling to M’s 16 bore, the rest of us whippersnappers being too useless to worry the birds much. On the second manoeuver, I was placed at the corner of two hedges in a patch of scrubland. Just as I arrived, a blur of grey vanished into the hedge: damn, a rabbit! As I mulled over the missed opportunity, it happened again and within half a second I had mounted and fired, and didn’t really know whether I’d hit the rabbit or not, but I went to have a look. No sign of the rabbit, but a clear tunnel in the grass heading into the impenetrable hedge. Just as I was thinking I’d have to ask for a dog to go and have a look, I heard a high-pitched squeal coming from the hedge ten metres away: there was the rabbit, lying on its’ side, and stone dead by the time I managed to extract it from the wall of thorns. An unusual sort of shot follow-up, but I was delighted! One lovely young rabbit in the gamebag!
IMAG3569 by pinemarten, on FlickrThere were a couple more drives before lunch. During the first, a single cock pheasant took off in front of me and obligingly flew directly in line with G’s had at the edge of the scrub, so that one flew away. On the next one, I was placed down the line from G on the crest of a ridge overlooking a small fir wood, exactly where I’d missed a hare the previous year. Nothing came out, and as we broke our guns and turned to walk away, a hare appeared, hesitated, for a second, and took off through the gap between G and I. I closed the gun, waited for it to pass G’s legs and tumbled it in a flurry of legs right on the edge of the wood it was heading for. My second hare! That was it, already a red letter day, I was happy.
IMG_4178-20180129-093911758 by pinemarten, on FlickrAfter lunch, a small duck drive yielded a mallard for me, another for A, which he followed up with a right and left at tufted duck, and another gun down the line brought down a shoveller. How’s that for variety! Finally, we ended the day with the usual duck flight but because of the flooding, the ducks were spread out all over the area, so it wasn’t the anatid bonanza it sometimes is. Nevertheless, I had the chance to worsen my cartridge to kill ratio, A. added another mallard to the bag, as dig Unicorn71 with a beautiful snap shot through the trees!
As always, we ended the day by lining up all the game in the wall outside the church in what I sometimes think of as the quarry’s funeral and is a nice touch. All of it was taken by the participants according to their tastes, which means I went home with two hares (I offered, but no-one apart from R. wanted any!) and a rabbit, A. with some ducks, others with pigeons. No incineration here!
IMAG3597 by pinemarten, on FlickrHuge thanks from all four of us to Unicorn71 and his friends who make this possible out of their generosity. This sort of shoot is something we can be proud of.
Here Endeth the 2017-2018 Season.
I always remember being warning by my Dad - never shoot a Hare early in the day as they get heavier the longer you have to carry them around in the game bag! (or get a "willing" volunteer to carry it/them!).
I doth thy cap to you all
