All new "sage words" truth, tosh, tommyrot thread...

enfieldspares

Well-Known Member
I posted a reply to a thread in the Deer Stalking General part of our Forum on "sage words" from an old stalker. But I promised that I'd start a thread in Off Topic for other "sage words" that I hope won't be ridiculous but supposedly believed to be true and based on fact. In the hope that other members might say "Yes it's true" or "No that's tosh". And also contribute their own "sage words".

Here's my four:

1) If you shoot a pheasant (or duck or goose) "in the beak" the head and neck would be knocked back and the body would fly on. So killing the bird, in mid-air, by in fact breaking its neck. In all my years I never picked a pheasant that on landing had its neck so broken. So myth or is it truth?

2) If you shoot a (high) pheasant the shot stuns it, as it were, in mid-air and in fact it is the fall and subsequent impact with the ground that kills it. Well, that's what I believe. More myth or based on fact as Payne-Gallwey believed? I think it holds true for other feathered game too. Any opinions?

3) Never run over a snake in a open topped car. My Aunt Dorothy told me this based on her experiences in South Africa. The risk is that the wheels flip it up and it into the cockpit of the car and the snake isn't very happy about it. My Nigerian wife adds don't do it on a bicycle or motorcycle either for same reasons.

4) Never fight a boxing kangaroo. Another Aunt Dorothy advice. They actually don't box you but kick, at you abdomen, with their lower legs and that can disembowel you or at least cause quite bad injury to your stomach area.

So, 1), 2), 3), and 4). Truth, tosh or tommyrot? And what have you in "sage words"? Gun related, stalking related, game related, life related? Not cut and pasted from the 'net but from personal or family lore...
 
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Three is true. We were always taught that if you were going to run over a snake lock up the wheels just before impact to prevent this (No ABS in those days). Once saw one end up in the back of an open 3 tonner and all the people in the back expressed an urgent desire to get off.

David.
 
.....my Dad used to tell me "Don't sniff back when you have a cold - the snot will settle around your brain like the jelly in a pork pie".

Not a trace of tosh in there is there? Rock solid fact.......
 
"Don't sniff back when you have a cold - the snot will settle around your brain like the jelly in a pork pie".

LOL! :rofl: Nearly spilt my coffee on reading that. Lovely. Exactly what I hope we'll get posted here. Fantastic. Thank you!
 
Snakes - in any car, get out the other side and check from safe distance that they are not wrapped around something - if still alive they may be in a bad mood.

Locust migration - wash the accumulated green slime spray off the car before the sun bakes it on. Its a right b'stard to remove. Unless you have a green slime coloured car.

Avoid facial plastic surgery, when you have an erection - there is not enough skin left on your body to allow you to blink.

Don't wear scotch-tape reflectors on your clothing in the tropics - the flashing attracts the 'cuda and sharks.

If you see a solitary magpie it is bad luck. Unless you speak to it nicely. Then the bad luck mysteriously evaporates.

Woodcock like low light conditions and are short sighted - that's why they fly backwards. If they hit a tree they don't break their necks.

To be fair, I'm not so sure about the last one.
 
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Correct about the `roo. They lay back on their tail and give your guts and jewels a severe raking.

My input

"If you listen to 90% of the wafflers on websites online you are listening to the wrong lot"
 
"you can only kill a pheasant if you shoot it in the beak" old keeper trying to stop me tailing them. "Don't pull faces for if the wind changes you'll stay like that" Granny. If you fart , sneeze and hiccup at the same time you die" received wisdom at school.
 
Placing used rifle cases on a beast will stop the ravens and eagles touching it if you have to leave it lying for a while.
 
I KNOW YOU HAVE MORE CHANCE OF GETTING PREGNANT IF AFTER SEX YOU STAY ON YOUR BACK WITH YOUR LEGS IN THE AIR,I TRIED IT ONCE IT DOESN,T BLOODY WORK!!!:eek:
 
I was once told by my mum that if i picked my nose too much my head would cave in...Hugh...ps..its not true is it ?? Lol...
 
My old dad used to say hot water cools faster than cold water - ?
Make a horrible face and the wind changes you'll be like that for life.
The more sleep you have, the more you need.
You can't drive pheasants in fog, they cant find their way home.
 
Placing used rifle cases on a beast will stop the ravens and eagles touching it if you have to leave it lying for a while.

This one is true though not 100% fool proof.

Stops foxes too

Does it have any effect on lesser animals like flies? Or only the animals that could associate the case with man?


I have a few useful ones to help save your backs:-

Sit tall. Stand tall. Don't slump.

when lifting heavy objects...

Make a place to put it down, before you pick it up (trying to kick stuff out of the way whilst standing on one leg holding a heavy weight is not good news)

Feet apart at shoulder width, bend your knees and not your back.


From my favourite Great Aunty Maude...

If you don't eat your bread crusts you hair will go curly.

You must always crush your boiled egg shells. If you don't, the witches can use them as boats and row out to sea and sink all the ships.

Alan
 
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