Gamekeeping and Stalking

[Buckshot]

The management of deer is exactly that – management. Not indiscriminate killing.

The current deer population should be assessed and the target level of numbers determined. There are loads of factors that can affect it. Condition of ground, fertility of soil, amount and type of woodland, general condition of the local deer population, prevailing weather conditions, competition from other animals are just a few.

Once the number has been set a cull plan can be made up. This stipulates how many and what type of deer will be culled. More females are culled than males and more young deer are culled than older ones. This is to keep a balance within the local deer population.

So to answer your question, I didn’t identify this specific deer individually but I did identify the need to cull a deer in that category.

Hope this answers your question

Cheers

Mark

 

[Buckshot]

The birds are getting out of the pen on a regular basis now, last night we put about a dozen back in. :shock: That’s good because it means the birds are getting stronger and roosting much higher (when I walked round the pen last night I saw droppings below a branch 25 feet high).
It’s also bad because when the birds get out they expose themselves to many more threats and it’s much more difficult to protect them.
But leave they must and soon they will ‘fly the nest’ or rather be seen running flat out along the nearest hedge.
It’s possible to loose a great many birds when they decide to go ‘walk about’. It’s not uncommon to see 50 or so birds running along a road or hedge one after the other. :yikes:
That’s why dogging in is important. The aim is to push the birds back towards the centre of the shoot where the release pen is and stop them running off your ground.
I digress a little, the birds are a little off that stage yet. I will soon start to introduce wheat into their diet, they are currently on pellets. Gradually the % content of wheat increases until it’s 100%. This needs to happen at least two weeks before the first shoot because the pellets taint the flavour of the meat.
In fact ours will be on wheat well before the first shoot so it wont be a problem. They also need grit to be able to break up the wheat in their crop, people sometimes wonder why their birds wonder onto roads only to get squashed. Apart from the normal suicidal tendencies of pheasants it could be they are trying to get some grit to be able to digest the food they’ve been given.
Away from the pen now is the time to get all the outlying feeders ready, mend any broken and replace those that can’t be fixed.
These are normally the large oil drums with slits/ holes cut in the bottom to allow the pheasants to peck the wheat out, I’m sure many have seen these things in your local woods and alongside hedgerows.
They provide a very useful means of feeding the birds, holding them in a particular area and assessing numbers in the areas by how quickly the wheat is consumed.
The next working party is on the weekend of the Gathering so they’ll have to do without me for that one, rest assured I will check everything they’ve done whist I was away when I get back…

Cheers

Mark

 

[Buckshot]

Well, it’s been a couple of weeks since I last posted something here so I thought I’d better write something.

I’ve been spending time at the farm making sure the birds are OK, they’re aren’t many left in the pen now which is kind of a good thing. They’re old enough to be a bit more switched on when it comes to dangers in the wood, and they’re a lot bigger and stronger so can get out of trouble more easily. They’re roosting sooo high now too.
The buzzards and kites are still flying around but they’re less of a problem now. It’s unlikely any of my birds will be taken by a buzzard or kite now because they’re too switched on and big, and anyway they’re mostly scavengers unless an easy meal presents itself. In the early days that would have been the young pheasants, but not now. At the moment it’s more a case of scaring the pheasants away because of this huge scary thing above them – well I guess they see it like that anyway.

We’ve changed over to feeding mostly wheat now from the pellets they were on before, and provided grit for them to be able to digest it. Don’t forget the grit or the birds will walk to find it themselves – normally onto the nearest road. :shock:

I spent last Saturday making sure all the outlying feeders were in good order and sited correctly. These are normally the forty-gallon drums on legs (or an old car tyre) that are often seen around the countryside. We’ve ordered four more this year but they haven’t arrived yet, perhaps we’ll sort them out this weekend… The farm hand is going to keep them filled during the season for us as this was a duty that the ex-farmer did, so we don’t have to worry about that. I’ve spread some straw round some of the closer (to the pen) feeders as they’re already being used. The straw keeps the birds active and interested looking for food rather than having all laid out on a plate (or on the floor) in front of them. We have four tonnes of feed wheat, which should just about see us through until we stop feeding in March/ April next year.
While I was out I also cut a couple of beating sticks (sticks for people to use in the beating line that forget their own, not sticks to beat people with), then I decided to try to split a hazel wand with the billhook I bought off Jack at the Wilderness Gathering. My hand is healing very well considering it’s only 5 days after the injury and it was down to the bone. :yikes: Be warned, when hazel splits, it splits REALLY quickly. :shock: I shan’t be so silly next time…

We have our pre season clay shoot this weekend where all the guns come over and try to get their ‘eye in’ ready for the season proper. We have teams but it’s a relaxed affair, and I get to take my gun as well. It’s one of the few times I get to shoot formally. :biggthump

On the subject of a ‘keepers shooting ability I find that a bit of a paradox. Generally ‘keepers are expected to be good shots, however because we’re working all the time we rarely get chance to practice. OK, we may take a gun around with us sometimes but it ends up getting in the way more often than not when there are specific jobs to do, so gets left behind (securely of course), either at home or in the car. And it’s not like we’re shooting something every 10 yards or anything, you might not have a shot for a week or more, and that’s a lot of metal to carry day in, day out for the odd shot. :?:
It puts a lot of pressure on the ‘keepers and, of course, we can’t win. If we’re having a bad day then it’s a case of ‘call him a keeper, he’s cr@p’ or if things are being hit then it’s ‘well he should be good, he carries a gun all day’.

Ho hum – a ‘keepers life and all that. :roll:

With the help of Falling Rain (cheers FR :super: ), we put some barley and wheat tailings in our flight ponds the other day, hopefully we’ll get a couple of wild duck coming in, not for the syndicate, they’re aren’t enough for that, I’m hoping to be able to get one or two for the hunter course DG’s running in a couple of weeks (see ‘Hunter Course’ thread)

We also seem to have a problem around the buildings with rats. Last year the pen was alive with them but this year it’s definitely the buildings. I think Rich needs to try out his new go-faster gun…if he’s up for it (I’ve emailed you).

OK that’s about all I want to rant on about at the moment, I’ll let you know how things go at the clay shoot and our first pheasant day which is only just over a week away.

Cheers

Mark

 

[Buckshot]

It’s been a couple of weeks since I last posted anything on this thread so it’s about time I posted something.

Thanks to Kim for the kind words. :super:

We had our pre-season clay shoot a couple of weeks ago. The weather was fine. The guns all turned up, some with streaming colds and I managed to shoot 64 clays out of a total of 75 shots.Not bad I thought. We had planned to put out the shooting pegs in the afternoon. These are the numbered posts put out so the guns know where to stand. The problem was it started tipping it down, I didn’t have a waterproof coat with me and the other gun who was going to help decided he wanted to stay dry as well. He organised it so 4 guns turned up when I was on the Hunter course and put out all the pegs for me – top man! :You_Rock_

Our first shoot happened a fortnight ago. The weather was sunny and warm, a normal shoot day for early October. We just went round the boundaries, mainly along the riverbank. One of the syndicate guns couldn’t go so asked if I wanted to take my gun with me – doh yeah ! It was a pleasant walk, although we saw quite a few birds most of them were young and therefore not suitable to shoot. The guns had to select their targets carefully. Falling Rain and his son came for their first time beating – they said they enjoyed it anyway.
One bad thing (from my point of view anyway), on one of the drives we saw a fox slinking away between the beaters, just past FR actually – another job for me then. :roll:

I fed the flight pond again and was pleased to see several duck fly off when I got there.
On the Thursday before the hunter course I took the afternoon off to see if I could get some items on the shopping list.
I managed to get a couple of pigeons whilst decoying, then went over to the pond. I crept over to the pond and saw about a dozen duck on it. Then a swan joined them. I managed to get two duck there, all swans are owned by the queen (hence the tradition of ‘Swan-upping’) and therefore are definitely not on the shopping list. You can eat them, but not kill them – if that makes sense… :?:
Along the way a couple of pheasants and a rabbit joined the bag so that’s sorted the first lesson anyway.

I wont go into the Hunter course itself because that’s been covered on another thread. Suffice to say I really enjoyed it and spent the next week at work recovering. Dave and Feathers :You_Rock_

Last weekend was our second shoot of the season. This was our first proper day. We had 15 guns all together, 9 syndicate and 6 guests. Not all of them shoot at the same time. Only 9 guns shoot at any one time, they take it in turns on a rota system. Those that aren’t shooting boost the beating line, they put their guns away and pick up a stick for that drive.
We ended up with 36 pheasants and 2 pigeons, about a normal day for us. It meant we had enough for all the guns to have a brace along with the farmer, the farm hand and finally me. I think this is a good number, everyone goes away with something without scraping around to find enough or having too many and looking for someone to have them.

I noticed a fox scat on a small log the other day. So it's still there. Foxes always mark territory with scat as well as urine. They mark in a prominent way, usually as high as they can get it off the floor, on a clump of grass, fallen log etc. Along with the shape and smell of the scat the location is another giveaway.

We still have quite a few deer around as well. Roe and Muntjac. Roe doe season starts soon so I’ll get to work thinning that lot. You have to be careful in the early doe season to make sure you pick females that don’t have dependant kids (Roe young are called kids not fawns) in tow. Later on in the season (Jan and Feb) the kids are weaned so are not so much of a problem but before Christmas the stalker has to make doubly sure.

I’m sure I’ve forgotten something but I’ll leave it there for now.

:biggthump

Cheers

Mark

 

[Womble]

Brilliant Blog Mark - really informative!

 

[Buckshot]

Thanks Womble - I have wondered in the past if anyone bothers to read this thread. :?:
The odd comment back shows people do.

Cheers

Mark

 

[C_Claycomb]

Just found and read. Really enjoyed it!!! Thanks Mark! :super:

 

[Womble]

There's a lot of information in those posts of yours, and the nice thing is, there's a context for all of it, as well as an interesting narrative.

In other words:- it's a great, informative read. Cheers!

 

[MartiniDave]

Good to hear it from a Keeper's perspective. I see plenty from the beating line, but its nice to hear the other side of the story.

Between drives on our shoot I find myself being asked to do firelighting demos - especially when its tipping down!

Last weekend my 12 year old stepson, who also beats, found me after one drive. He had a dead partridge in one pocket and a bundle of tinder in the other! That's my boy!

At the end of the day I found him and one of the other lads comparing what they had in their possibles bags too.

Keep the updates coming, please Mark.

Dave

 

[Ed]

Its really good to see how things work from a gamekeepers perspective, and these posts of yours Mark are highly valued sources of infomation. Alot of the books out there on gamekeeping seem to have been written along time ago, and its nice to see how the profession has changed... or rather changed little... over the years.
Keep up the post... we all enjoy the read :biggthmup

Ed

 

[Buckshot]

Thanks guys, I wasn't after a big hug - honest ):

I forgot to mention on the last post I went down to the pond to feed it on the Sunday after our shoot and 25 duck (Mallard) got up from it.
This may not be a huge amount for a large pond but ours is no more than 20 feet across :shock: I can see duck on the menu again, Lady Buckshot's looking forward to it...

Thanks again.

Cheers

Mark

 

[bushwacker bob]

Just serves to make me jelous.(She made me stop shooting things about 15 years ago )I miss the odd day over decoys with the 20ga.
Brilliant narative tho Mark,its very interesting to read your year unfolding and reminds me of 'the parting shot' inside the back cover of the shooting times

 

[Buckshot]

Just serves to make me jelous.(She made me stop shooting things about 15 years ago )I miss the odd day over decoys with the 20ga.
Brilliant narative tho Mark,its very interesting to read your year unfolding and reminds me of 'the parting shot' inside the back cover of the shooting times

My wife comes from a shooting/ farming family so I have no problem there. ): Some of her early memories are of her parents plucking chickens, or of half a pig laid on the chicken table awaiting jointing by her dad.

I don't think I'm on a par with Shooting Times yet but thanks for the compliment. :biggthump
Cheers

Mark

 

[nevetsjc80]

Just a quick comment, i also help out and beat with the shoot on a estate i work for. I have the privilege of stalking on the 5000 acres too, and i think your thread is very good our sport and livelihood needs and much surports as they can get. Education is the key, good work!
Steve :biggthump

 

[Buckshot]

Just a quick comment, i also help out and beat with the shoot on a estate i work for. I have the privilege of stalking on the 5000 acres too, and i think your thread is very good our sport and livelihood needs and much surports as they can get. Education is the key, good work!
Steve :biggthump

You don't need a hand with the stalking do you????

Thanks for your support

Cheers

Mark

 

[nevetsjc80]

There a bit funny about shooting on the estate, as i have a few people id love to take stalking but i cant, shame really im all for acompanied stalking. Its mainly a Pheasant and partridge shoot with bought days.
But, as im on the forestry side we have problems with the Muntjac chewing our new woods! Its wired that the Roe dont seem to come down form the Chilterns really. Sounds good where you are though and not far from here either. I guess we are lucky its part of our jobs or i dont think id have time for work, stalking and bushcraft!!
Steve

 

[falcon]

Only just found this post and have really enjoyed it Buckshot. I've done quite a bit of amateur keepering including rearing from day-old, feeding, dog training, beating as well as "taking a tithe" for the table and much of your diary really strikes a cord. The whole shoot management process provides an outlet for many bushcraft skills, certainly at the small end of the scale. Perhaps those who haven't tried it should give it a try ? Keep us updated !

 

[Kath]

It's a really enjoyable read, Buckshot. :biggthump Wouldn't miss it! Keep it up!!

 

[Buckshot]

I guess we are lucky its part of our jobs or i dont think id have time for work, stalking and bushcraft!!
Steve

I agree entirely. As I said on my first post I feel very priviledged to be able to go out and do this sort of thing. I definately feel time is of a premium, what with 2 jobs, shooting and bushcraft. My only regret is that I can't do more of it - but then I suppose that's the case for all of us...

Falcon - or anyone else who may have alternative ways/ ideas. Please feel free to air them. I'm always open to new suggestions - I'm no expert, I've just done it before !!!

Thanks Kath, your thoughts are appreciated. How are you now - feeling better?

Cheers

Mark