Todays shoot

Today Pete and i went to Stainsby as we haven't been for a month or two, just to have a look if the rabbits have returned ...and they have in small numbers...so we will be keeping an eye on things there. As we arrived we spotted a Woodie eating some dropped cattle feed just behind a tractor so i jumped into action...grabbing the rifle from the boot and walking very quietly and slowly so i got him in full view and squeezed off a bisley super field stopping him in his tracks...DVS 1 - PIGEON 0

Pete zeroing his rifle for todays shoot

Building a hide.

How many times have you been out and tried to find bits of wood and sticks to build your hide...well i guess you can go and spend the best part of £50.00 on hide poles or you can go down to your local hardware shop or supermarket and spend £5.00 on two washing poles. I managed to get two poles in green with black inner poles so it was just a case of putting some realtree tape on the outer one and hammering the end to a point. If you want you can cut the poles down a bit but i have found that if you leave them long,you then have four poles with which to make your hide.





The tank net i use was purchased from eBay and is 5mtr x 2.75mtr and is ideal as a base on which to add grass and leaves to make it blend in with the surrounding trees and bushes. I can assure you this type of hide/blind does work very well as i use it for pigeon shooting and i find it extremely effective.

The art of range finding

Did you know most airguns and shotguns have an effective killing range of about 35-40 metres, and research shows that up to 25 metres is the furthest that most new/inexperienced shooters are really accurate? Doesn’t sound very far does it? Shoot at quarry further away than this and you increase the risk of only wounding it, so all responsible shooters need to learn how to judge range effectively… Not only will you become a more successful shot, but it’s really simple too!

Here’s how you do it…
· Choose a noticeable starting point - a tree, lamppost, parked car etc.
· With a tape measure, mark out a distance of exactly 25 metres from your starting point.
· Look back to your starting point and try to memorize just what 25 metres looks like.
· Pace back to the starting point, counting how many same size steps it takes, and remember this too.
· Do this two or three times to make sure you get the same result each time.

Now whenever you’re out and about in the field or your own garden, try to guess whether objects are within your 25 metre shooting range, then pace up to them to check. You’ll find that in no time at all you’ll be really good at range judging!

To help make things more realistic try placing a life-sized decoy of, say, a pigeon or crow at 25 metres so you get a really good idea of how big birds will appear to be when they come into range.

Make sure you try your range finding in a variety of conditions because 25 metres can look very different in an open field or thick woodland, looking uphill or downhill, and especially when the light is poor at dawn and dusk.
Always be honest with yourself about your level of skill - only take shots when you can ensure a clean kill, make sure that you retrieve all shot quarry quickly and put it to good use – game meat is really tasty!

Pot a rabbit

The ancient hunting instinct is deep in all of us, and eventually everybody who shoots feels the urge to go and bag something for the pot.

For most of us the rabbit is the obvious quarry. If you are going to shoot live animals you must ask yourself two questions. Can I eat it, or is it a pest? If an animal doesn’t fall into one of those categories you should never shoot it. Unluckily for the rabbit, he falls into both.

Rabbits taste delicious. They are also very easy to cook and just about the healthiest meat you can eat. But they also do enormous damage to farm crops, which is good news if you shoot. While a farmer or landowner would probably have a fit if you asked to shoot his pheasants there is a good chance that he might let you shoot rabbits, provided he is happy that

• You are absolutely safe with a gun

• You will always behave responsibly

• You are a reasonably accurate shot

• You will shoot rabbits and nothing else

It may not be easy to convince someone that this is the case, but if you can find and contact the person who shoots the land and prove yourself to them , you will be well on the way.

The great thing about rabbits is that there are so many ways you can shoot them. For many people stalking with an air rifle is absolutely the best sport. You will have to learn how to use cover, to move silently, how to avoid alarming other creatures that might betray your presence, and how to stalk upwind so the rabbit doesn’t catch your scent. In fact learning your fieldcraft is half the fun. And with an air rifle you must get very close to your quarry to guarantee killing it cleanly.

You will also find that books will tell you about the life and ways of the rabbit - when it feeds, how weather conditions affect it, how it behaves. To be a hunter you have to be a naturalist, and like any predator, you must understand your prey.

We hunt the rabbit because it is a test of skill, because it is an agricultural pest, but best of all, because it tastes delicious – if you haven’t had barbecued bunny you haven’t lived.

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Targets for you to use

I have been looking through the target collection i have and i thought that i should add some to the blog. If you have any problems with opening any of them then email me and i will send them to you that way.

If you want any of the pdf targets that i have on file then email me and i will send them to you that way. REMEMBER TO TAKE YOUR TARGETS AWAY FROM YOUR SHOOT WITH YOU AND DONT LITTER . Thanks for looking