Spring outings.

With the warmer weather on its way longer shooting sessions will not be far behind. If you are like me you will getting everything ready for those full day shoots, or like some of us do, weekend shoots. Incorporating our air gun skills with shelter building can lead to a really enjoyable hunting trip. Think back to when we were kids and we headed to the woods to build dens....well this is a skill that can be put to good use in our hide building. If you are roughing it you are doing it wrong ( Ray Mears )....with a little thought you can easily put together a comfortable shooting hide in around 30 minutes using branches, twigs and grass.

Now i have been looking through my long stay hunting bag and i thought i would show you the kind of kit i have. In this post i want to show you what i use to cook on.Its small and compact and most people will have seen one before....

I find this kind of stove is more than enough to boil my water for a hot drink and to heat food whilst in my hide. One solid fuel block burn`s for about 5 minuets and if you use just enough water for your drink, you will have enough time to warm some grub up to.

My fire kit looks like this.... from left to right.....

1. Wax paper : easily takes a spark from the flint striker of a flame from a match. Great tinder.

2. The hexman solid fuel stove. I use it this way round as i find it remains stable. Push it into the ground and you wont loose your fresh boiled water.

3. cotton wool. Again use as tinder for starting your fire. Takes a park easily from the flint striker.

4. Flint striker.

5. Shotgun cartridge match box. Keeps matches dry and you can put tinder into this cartridge and you have a small, compact fire kit that fits in your pocket.

6. windproof lighter.

I also have in my kit a magnifying glass as this is also a very handy tool for fire starting. It also comes in to its own when you have to remove a sting or thorn from your finger.

A useful tip.

When we are out shooting we oftern find spent shotgun cartridges scattered under hedges and trees. These can be put to good use for us air gunners, from pellet carrier to waterproof match box.

Take a USED shotgun cartridge and neatly cut off the open end , removing the crimped area of the plastic.
Now, using a cooks torch/burner heat the brass end of a second cartridge until the plastic melts and falls away (fig 1). You are then left with just the brass cap and a slight lining of plastic (fig2). This lining will provide a waterproof seal when put on top of the trimmed cartridge.

FIG 1.

FIG 2.

FIG 3.

You can then fill with pellets, matches or even a small fire starting kit. One thing i have done is filled one with .177 pellets and use this as a magpie call...trust me it works.

SHOOTING SHOW NEWARK

Hi guys

well the shooting show was alright

walked straight in with my online tickets .Thank god as the queue was really longheaded in to the show and almost immediately saw a great big screen for shotgun simulation shooting so checked that out for five Min's .then realised the guy was still setting it up so had a wonder round

the amount of shotguns and air rifles was like being in a candy shop ..but as a friend said "you could hold and feel them if you were willing to wait for a while" as the place was rammed and every one was wanting a touch of the gun candy,so went over to were i saw the air gunner magazine logo and saw Sir Terry and Matt the eds of airgun world and air gunner was going to askfor a picky but was distracted when i realised the shooting range behind me so watched it for awhile then turned back and terry was gone

there were loads of guns and cammo gear to mooch over if you were there to buy with price tagsa little higher than expected ..for instance i saw a pair of gamekeepers trousers for £209 in some weird dotted shades of green ..lots of people were getting out there cars with empty rifle slips looking to bag a bargain rifle and to me it looked like many did ...went for a plink on the range

£2 per person ... my eldest lad shot the new Brocock Contour witch was a great little gun ...that reminded me of the ultra in that it was about the same size and the pellet probe worked in much the same way...a very nice gun and accurate as he only missed one Target ...i tried out the HW100 to not great effect as i missed a couple more than my boy did..nothing to do with the gun might i add..a super rifle thou did feel a tiny bit heavier than the 410...great side loading action and worked a treat.my youngest boy used the Brocock AimX pistol with a modified grip that made it a thumb hole stock..and he also did great as well knocking a few targets...

there was a shooting dog display witch was cool then i was pointed in the direction of the Bison and venison Burger stall ...to witch i had Bison with Stilton and my other half had the venison but only managed half the burger to my delight .so had some of that too

this ruddy thing nearly knocked me of my feet as i saw it out the corner of my eye at a distance of three inches while talking on my mobile lol lol

overhaul it was good to be there ..and seeing as it was the first one there is room for improvement

Mike S410

Cup of OXO

Hi lads

took myself out today the other day

arrived at the shoot to find quite a nice day really temperature good, wind OK, so figure i wont freeze after my recant outing's . started of by repairing the hide as the wind had damaged it from last time it was repaired ,anyhow did something a little different with the decoys instead of putting them in the one field i was over looking went over the wire and placed three in the horse field

quick zero at around a 30 degree angle upwards as i was looking for the gravity effect and found i needed to have some hold under ,more so at around 70 degree's...so now I'm ready
about half an hour went by with nothing, then all of a sudden while taking a sip from my flask of oxo ,i heard the whisper of wings above ,and sure enough about 10 Woody's landed at once right on top of me but there was nothing i could do as i was at the base of the trunk and it was covered in thick ivy ,one of the reasons why i chose that spot, anyhow my hide stakeout was over looking another tree so i just waited silent,still,with a trigger finger at the ready....it took ten Min's before any other Woody's joined the ones above me and landed in my line of site
got my pigeon after fourty odd Min's and down he came not even a wing flap ..hold under was good very good the kill sent them all batting there wings ,waited a while for them to get out of sight then left the hide to retrieve the bird

cup of oxo and a few thoughts later ..(about twenty Min's)..they were back and i had my second pair of breast's.Now getting a square bum and cold from being motionless for quite some time decided to walk round for a warm up and a bunny within minutes i had spotted my bunny but needed to give it a really wide birth due to the wind not in my favour and no back drop at a certain wide gap in the hedge so backed up 80yrds back the way i came on gave him a big arc to come round behind him using all the cover i could i got to within 60yrds and was more or less stuck for cover till i noticed to my right a lull in the field so backed up again turned right so the lull in the field was between me and him then made my advance to within 40yrds then had to keep really low on all fours .Got another ten yards and had a little breather i was shattered
Slowed every thing down and took the shot over he went with a twitch or two

this is my first effort at a five picture panoramic..... back at the hide from within . you can just see the sitty tree through the top piece of the picture

Thanks guys

Mike S410