Well, We had our first day our for out little syndicate on Saturday. We ended up with a respectable 39head for 5 drives, which were effectively 3 drives due to a fox in the first and a big dogging in exercise on the 4th.

It's great to be out again and contraversially we managed to hold onto our partridges. The problem was that they wer more interested in running up the hedges out of the drives than going over the guns!!!

I've got 2 weeks to work out a plan of attack and hopefully we'll get them up and away!!!

How was everyone elses weekend?

Incedentally the Rut is well under way at ours so I'm out for an intensive weekend on the Fallow bucks followed buy a couple of outings on the roaring reds in Norfolk. Should be fun!!

Rgds,
FB

Sounds good buddy, I am having trouble concentrating at work!
I leave for 4 days in Ireland this weekend, there is an 8pt sika-hybrid with my name written all over him!

Boggy, there is an 8 point Sika with my name on him also. I'll be out Friday pm and all day Saturday if necessary.

Kiri, we cancelled our first day for Saturday past as it was just too warm. It was 17 deg here Friday and Saturday. We thought we would leave it and have a day in January.

Best of luck lads.

Hi,
Does the heat affect the birds?

I have heard reports that the sika rut is heating up a lot down South. I will be in Wicklow, where will you be hunting Claret?

Bog, don't know that the heat particularly effects the birds, but it effects the guns, fat gits that we are. Anyway, our first day is usually a big one, about 200 birds. We just didn't want to shoot and have that number of birds hanging around in the heat. We still have a lot of flies.

I will be hunting Sika in Co Antrim. I was out the weekend before last, but things really hadn't got started for either the Sika or Fallow. Should be going well by now.

I thought I would BTT this as I was looking at the game book over the weekend and wondering where the last 2-3months have gone... Most of this might not make much sence or be particularly interesting to many, but I find it quite nice to jot some thoughts down with no particular purpose!!

Our year on the Syndicate has been of mixed results. At the high end we broke a new record, with a day of 104 head in November, a testament to the work of both part time keepers, and the many hours of their own time they put into looking after the birds.

On the lower side ,(but essentiall inconsequential) bags have varied massively this year due to not having a team regular beaters, and a "range" of shooting abilities betweeen teams. So a couple of days fell a fair bit behind expectations. I seem to be the only one who took any notice of such things though, and I think that providing the venison casserole was there they would be happy to just turn up and eat!!!

To date we have taken a total of 350 head for a about 1750 shots. There is still a day left in the diary, but after last weeks 130 for 8 head I'm not holding out much hope!!

But of course the season isn't about numbers (unless you are looking for new members) Some highlights have been that we put 100 red legs down for an experiment and managed to shoot a handfull of them. Personally I'm just keen to reintroduce some wild stock to the area, as there is nothing quite like a summer evening listening to the coveys cackle.

It's always a pleasure to shoot with freinds, and we had a very enjoyable day with IanF. Unfortunately I can't slander his shooting abilities as I was hoping to... Several respectable birds and a flask of toffee voddies made it a very memorable day, especially as I can claim half of one of his birds due to a great blind retreive by my little spaniel. It's funny the little things that stay in your mind.

My fishing buddy Kevin shot his first ever day at driven pheasants and aquitted himself very well indeed and better than most. He shot an extremely high crow that rivaled many of the pheasants taken all year. A good shot is a good shot regardless of the quarry.

Each year I have a couple of birds or drives, that I think the season would be complete with on their own.

One was at some ducks in early november in a feirce wind. Opening the drive with two consecutive left and rights at some particularly high birds puffed the chest out and added a certain swagger to the shooting style. The following 14 shells left me utterly deflated as my ego fell back down to earth with a thump.... unlike anything I shot at!!

On another occasion I took a couple of speculative shots at the only two pheasants to come into my postcode that day, and they promptly folded at the fiirst barrel leaving me looking for the guy hiding in the bushes shooting my birds!!! Needless to say such anomalies are muliplied in number by the easy misses that left me looking at the ground in front of me!!

I think the most memorable snippets have been from the Ferndog. She's a few things seem to have fallen into place and the number of runners she has picked for me has been a joy. Most of the time completely blind. It's not done much for the steadyness off the dog, but there is something so satisfying about working with a dog as a team and picking a bird that was an outside chance at best.

I'm looking forward to the mopping up day in January with dad and some freinds to repay some favours and then puttting the whole thing to bed for another season.

Well at least untill the work parties start and poults get ordered etc...

rgds,
FB

The bird season is pretty much over here in Finland, but we had a really nice weekend with whitetail deer. On Saturday there were about 40 hunters and 3 teckels - one of them mine - and we managed to pull one decent drive, since the area was quite big. The total bag was 7 whitetails, one calf being the first one for my young dog, which was the most important thing for me. In the evening 9 of us went to high seats for a couple of hours, but surprisingly no one shot a thing and only a couple were seen altogether. This may result from a pack of wolwes, which have recently moved to the area.

On Sunday there were 18 hunters and I had to leave on midday after one drive. The group bagged two whitetail calves for that day.

A really nice weekend and the bag was quite good also. But it felt really strange to be in a green forest in January. No snow whatsoever, whereas normally there would be about 1-1½ feet of it everywhere. I'm still not complaining, this lenghtens my teckel's hunting season quite nicely and also saves on energy expenses

Hi all,

I just thought I would wrap this up for the season as January has proved very memorable indeed.

We had three cosecutive saturdays out, even though the keepers told me I was mad.... (what's new) Either way with the cold weather and the ammount of food we provide in the coverts the birds were there everytime. We had 7-8 guns out each time taking 80 head, 50head and 30 head each week. All for a total of some 600 shots. The last day was a very easy day that could have yeilded more had we have been bothered, but with a sunny closing day we spent more time chatting and laughing than actually trying to go shooting!!

With a total bag including the various of 525 ish for a total release of 1300 birds we have done OK.

Like I mentioned before the real beauty of these dayys out has nothing to do with the bag, shot count or who got what. It's just great to get out with some mates, watch the dogs do their thing and perhaps havve a brace or two for the freezer.

Incidentally our first Woodcoock is still pending. In 5 years we have yet to bag one and The reord is 7 shots at one, (done twice!!)and missed. There have been a few flushed on the last couple of days of the season and I always ike to see them about.

The only regrett I have from this season is that I never took any photo's at all. I kept meaning to and never got round to it so I must try to remember next time round.

I think I'm being given about a week off before the keeper starts telling me things about next year!!

Rgds,
Kiri