My history

cockerdog

Well-Known Member
Sorry guys, introduced myself without letting you know anything about myself.
Anyway I started out as an underkeeper on a large estate in Cumbria where I cut my teeth on deer with a Parker-Hale .243. Used it to shoot everything from crows to Red deer. Part of the job was managing the parkland Fallow deer herd, which put me off deer managment for a time as I was culling large numbers in a short space of time without any of the thrill of stalking.
From there I moved to Canada to start up a Pheasant shoot, bad idea far to cold where I lived for the poor longtails, but I did get to shoot White tail, lots of Coyote's and a Black Bear.
One greedy ex Canadian wife later I returned to blighty and ended up working as far away from the countryside as possible for too many years, until a move to glorious North Yorkshire put me back in the frame for shooting and stalking.
Currently keepering a shoot part-time which gives me lots of fox work on my estate as well as neighbouring ground. I have some small parcels of land for stalking and after this season is over I aim to take up a syndicate rifle again north of the border which I had to give up due to expensive number one son.
The armoury is .22 cz, .222 tikka T3 and a .270 steyr mod m.
My ticket is due for renewal soon and I am planning to put a few more rifles on it.
A kennel full of dogs completes the team including a Cocker with I have been training as a stalking dog, she just needs more work, so anyone in the area ever needs help with a lost beast I may be able to help.
Best of luck guys (and gals)
cockerdog
 
Cockerdog

Welcome on board. Sounds like you've had interesting times.

Always good to have another cocker person on the site - in the character stakes they knock other dogs into the proverbial cocked hat!

Sika.jpg


I'd be interested to hear your experiences using the cocker as a deer dog. I'd not thought of using mine for that, figuring it would be too small, so for the moment sticking with the labrador instead.

willie_gunn
 
Cocker deer dog

willie_gunn

A cocker wasn't my first choice as a tracking dog but I kept two pups back from a litter and as I now have 5 gun dogs I figured that now would be a good time to train one up for deer.
The bitch is a very small type which works like any other cocker, totally nuts!!!. But as soon as we switch to stalking mode she's a very different dog. You can stalk all day and she stays by my side, any game can cross and she won't give chase. Being small she makes very little noise and will sit at the base of a high seat for hours on end.
The drawback is that she wouldn't take a wounded beast, but a mate of mine had a spaniel seriously gashed up by a munty buck so there are the drawbacks to that.

cockerdog
 
cockerdog

And there was me thinking it was only my cocker that was the proverbial "mad spaniel" :lol:

Interesting what you say about your mate and his springer. A friend of mine also has a springer that he uses for stalking. He was using it to follow up a wounded muntjac buck and it severely gored his spaniel. I forget exactly how many stitches, but it was a significant number. Another stalking friend has a teckel, which sort of cancels my concerns about a cocker being too small.

My labrador is pretty good - she sat under the high seat for over an hour yesterday with no complaints and has sat stock still when a roe has been within 10 yards - but at this time of year she gets pretty wound up with all the pheasant poults out there. It's funny how dogs can differentiate between stalking and game shooting. My ideal would be a GWP, but I've more chance of being mugged than of getting one of those in the house :cry:

willie_gunn
 
Welcome aboard
I have 2 spaniels for pheasants, thinking of trying one on the deer but might be a bit long in the tooth for retraining. He's 9, but loves to walk around the garden carrying a couple of roe legs.
Jonathon
 
Look forward to reading you posts cockerdog,
N Yorkshire is a big place I live on the lancs/yorks Border and like 1shot1kill I get over there quite a bit where abouts are you!

Smithy :lol:
 
Good to see that the shooting world still shines as close knit community and new mates can be found.
Anyway I live in the Ripon area of North Yorkshire, not renowned for the largest populations of deer in the country but I guess there are worse!!!
I would be keen to know how close the nearest Muntjac sightings are to me, I have only managed two outings at them down country and am eagerly awaiting their arrival.

Cockerdog
 
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