Irish Hunting Forum

Sean · Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2007 1:55 pm Post subject: First night out this season

well went it to check on rolf last night, expecting to find him about an ounce overweight, and just leave him back with no food for the night. but when he stepped on the scales he was 1lb 5.6! it must have been flyign in the wind and rain on sunday, even tho he got a decent crop. so i thought about it, and decided to go for the first nights lamping of the season. went in and foned a mate, who thankfully hadnt fed his bird yet either. his bird hadnt been entered on the lamp yet, it had only been out the once, and that was late last season. so anyway,,,, we hit the road for the farm. we went to a farm of his, that wasnt too far from home. flipped a coin and his bird was up first. into first field, and a rabbit was along a hedge, the bird chased but the rabbit just passed through the hedge. went on down the field and spotted another, the rabbit went down on the squat, were positioned ourselves, and then thumped the ground to get the rabbit to flush, the bird was off, and stuck it about 10 feet from its seat, but didnt hold, again it got up and followed the rbabit, to crash into a bush after it, but no catch. the bird was well keen considering it was its only 2nd night ever lamping. couldnt see any more rabbits in the field so headed into next. the fields had very very long grass, and im sure we were missing a lot of rabbits hiding it the grass, as well as this, we were very noisey walkign through it. a few more flights, most resulting in near missed or else the bird hitting but not holding. so was about to cross into new field, and had a quick scan, their wasa rabbbit about 20 yards out from cover and near teh gate that we needed to cross. we were quiet as we could crossing it, and was hoping it would stay out. then we lit her up, and it was still there! bird was off, hit it and yet again didnt hold it! but she got up and nailed it just at the hedge a good 20 yards away. first rabbit on the lamp for leela. she was then given a very good feed up as a reward and we headed back to the car for rolf. off we went, first field we done, we didnt see a single rabbit, could be due to the logn grass, or by this stage it was slightly slightly starting get get a little frosty(wooo). next field we walked up the brow up a hill, expecting to see a rabbit butnothing, then rolf bated, i clumsely slipped him, but it turned out he had seen a rabbit,. and i lit it up for him, but it broke down the side of the hill and out of the beam, i defintly think the birds have better night vision than us! so anyway, we on through the field, had another slip, but again it got away from the beam due to another hill. then came along a small bunch of wind bushes and spotted a rabbit about 10 feet from them, we headed round the back of the bush, as to flush the rabbit over the field and into the other cover, the plan worked well, and rolf hit it at the cover, heard teh rabbit, and thought he had it, untill i got in and seen him empty handed. had another few flights, some he msised, some he got kicked off. anyway, next field we seen a rabbit about 50 yards from cover, kept the beamslightly to the left of it, so to still light up the yes, but to make sure it didnt legit. we coudl see it slightly hunch down and move closer to the hedge, eventuually it went into a sprint and i slipped rolf, he smacked it about 20 yards from the hedge, but didnt get a good hold it, the rabbit dragged him right up into the hedge, and i managed to get in and secure it. done well to hold it, when i got there he only had the one leg on it. first rabbit at night the season, so gave him a bigreward for it and headed home. will be going for another 2 or 3 single kills on lamp below going on to multiple kills.

heres a few pics of us with our birds

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Sean · Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2007 10:46 am Post subject:

headed out again last night,rolf weighed 1lb 5.8. arrived at farm at 11:30 and it was very windy and a little bit of rain. wouldnt have headed out if it was predicted, but drive 60 brought a mate, who had no field craft what soever, and kept lighting up ciggys while walking about with trainers lol! first few fields we done only getting 1 or 2 rabbits, and gettign bad flights at them in the wind. eventually got down to lower ground where it wasnt too windy, had a few flights, with rolf hiting a few, but again, he just struggled to hold anyway. got to abotu 1 oclock and i had enough, wasnt that many rabbits and my mate was spoking whatever there was. got upto the road and started to walk to he car, car was parked about half a mile down the road. as we walked up had alittle scan in a field ive never really tried before, seen a rabbit along a ditch not too far from road, so told my mate to stay at the road and watch from a distance, i climbed teh fench, andthankfully rabbit was still there. he broke fast tho, and rolf took on a fairly long slip, he hit it, but didnt hold, it headed for the ditch, he hit it again! but didnt hold again, it decidedto headup along to the ditch and rolf caught it, this tiem around the shoulder and head, it wasnt goign anywhere. so 2nd kill on lamp of the season and another good feed up. good ending to a crap night lol.

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DitchShitter · Posted: Sun Sep 23, 2007 5:05 am Post subject:

Mental, you bird blokes are! But every time I read of ye exploits, I Learn a bit more!

What next? Lazer guided Gyr Falcons?!