The Game Fair 2022
The Tale Of The Squirrel and Rabbits
The Game Fair
First we head off to The Game fair Ragley 2022, I and my entire team were so excited to be here this year, we also had joining us on our stand as our guests the UK & Ireland Squirrels Group, The Grey Area.
I headed up a day earlier than everyone else as I wanted to unload the van, build the van as my camper van for the weekend and set the marquee up and show ring before the rest of the team descended on me and chaos broke out.
I must admit our stand and show ring really looked amazing this year, I would go so far as to say one of the best on the entire show.
The first day of the show (Friday) started off really slowly, I thought to myself blimey there are next to no show goers in the morning, this lulled us into a false sense of security, by the afternoon our stand was rammed, I could hardly get out to get to the show ring to do my demos, this first day my best demo of the day was my game calling demo, people flocked like moths to a flame to listen and learn how to call a multitude of game calls and more, also to talk to me and ask my advice about field craft and of course my funny stories too, this was when a bright spark went off in my head, why not start a series of game calling and field craft/water craft work shops and lessons, obviously this wont be free, but will be invaluable to making your time in the fields etc successful even if you never fire a shot, drop me a line via the calling page on my website.
First we head off to The Game fair Ragley 2022, I and my entire team were so excited to be here this year, we also had joining us on our stand as our guests the UK & Ireland Squirrels Group, The Grey Area.
I headed up a day earlier than everyone else as I wanted to unload the van, build the van as my camper van for the weekend and set the marquee up and show ring before the rest of the team descended on me and chaos broke out.
I must admit our stand and show ring really looked amazing this year, I would go so far as to say one of the best on the entire show.
The first day of the show (Friday) started off really slowly, I thought to myself blimey there are next to no show goers in the morning, this lulled us into a false sense of security, by the afternoon our stand was rammed, I could hardly get out to get to the show ring to do my demos, this first day my best demo of the day was my game calling demo, people flocked like moths to a flame to listen and learn how to call a multitude of game calls and more, also to talk to me and ask my advice about field craft and of course my funny stories too, this was when a bright spark went off in my head, why not start a series of game calling and field craft/water craft work shops and lessons, obviously this wont be free, but will be invaluable to making your time in the fields etc successful even if you never fire a shot, drop me a line via the calling page on my website.
Day 2 started of quiet too, but again by mid morning we were packed out like sheep in a pen it was so busy, again my pigeon shooting/crow shooting/wildfowling decoying demos along with the game calls drew a huge audience at each demo, one particular one in the late afternoon was really packed out with onlookers 4 to 5 people thick all the way round the show ring, the more I called the more kids joined me in my show ring, Charlie Jacoby of The field Sports Channel calls me The Pied Piper of Country Sports, this makes me chuckle, I started off with 6 kids but finished off with a great many more, a funny thing happened here, there's a first time for everything though, the kids flying around the ring as my pigeons, crows, ducks, and geese were told to drop to the shot as if I had shot them with the blanks black powder from the hammer gun as the flash, bang and all the feathers flew out the gun firing straight up in the air of course, I blew the duck call and they all dropped stone dead, much to the laughter of the audience, so up they got flew around some more and I told the story of the fore shore, shot fired, now the other kids who are my gun dogs have to retrieve them, several of the kids did not want to be retrieved which caused more hysterical laughter and cheering, never work with kids or animals especially at a game fair, watch the video that is at the bottom of this article but have a box of tissues with you and no drink in hand or you might spill it from hysterical laughter.
Day 3, again started off quiet but yet again by mid morning it was busy, my demos were so busy all day, the kids would not leave the show ring they wanted more, one kid saying this is the best part of the game fair, so we did an impromptu story time with The Ole Hedge Creeper outside of the stand, this was a huge hit, with each story, giggles and laughter drew more kids and their families, the last show of the day I dragged Brendan in the show ring to do a talk on The Grey Area Squirrel Group and what their mission is, they are trying to eradicate the grey squirrel a non native invader, at the same time protecting our Native Red Squirrels, he did a great job too, I was quickly running out of energy as I was book signing all weekend, so much so we sold out of all of my books, the day finished and we all headed home after packing up the stand and show ring, tired but happy after a fantastic weekend spent with friends at a wonderful show and meeting so many old friends and making new ones.
Squirrel Control
As many know I am a Game Keeper/Deer Manager and full time Pest Controller these are just some of the hats I wear, now the estate I look after is surrounded by National Trust woodlands etc, they say they carry out squirrel control etc, by the state of their trees and lack of song birds and ground nesting birds etc, I would presume who they have doing their squirrel control is not doing such a great job, for my Estate is plagued with those dastardly Grey Squirrel invaders, it seems every time I shoot or trap one 10 come to its funeral, I police my woodlands well, but I know I cause a vacuum pulling in the squirrels from outside the estate as soon as I clear my ones, thus my thoughts ere the NT pest controllers are not doing a very good job at all, I have an abundant array of song birds and ground nesting birds here because I keep a tight control on the Grey Squirrels.
Recently seeing an upturn in squirrel activity on one of my wild bird feeders, Goose my Cocker Spaniel and I decided to sit behind a tree watching this feeder armed with the awes Air Arms S510T (Tactical) mounted on my Gen 3 Primos Trigger Sticks, we sat quietly 25 yards away, the squirrels came one after the other, I didn't get a shot on one of them as it kept moving, so I had him with the shot gun the next day whilst filling the feeders, touch wood I have not seen any more squirrels there, or on the trail camera since, its only a matter of time before they return though we all know that, I will say this S510T is a tac driver, pin point accurate with a deadly strike on target, again look at the you tube video that is with this article to see this gun in action.
As many know I am a Game Keeper/Deer Manager and full time Pest Controller these are just some of the hats I wear, now the estate I look after is surrounded by National Trust woodlands etc, they say they carry out squirrel control etc, by the state of their trees and lack of song birds and ground nesting birds etc, I would presume who they have doing their squirrel control is not doing such a great job, for my Estate is plagued with those dastardly Grey Squirrel invaders, it seems every time I shoot or trap one 10 come to its funeral, I police my woodlands well, but I know I cause a vacuum pulling in the squirrels from outside the estate as soon as I clear my ones, thus my thoughts ere the NT pest controllers are not doing a very good job at all, I have an abundant array of song birds and ground nesting birds here because I keep a tight control on the Grey Squirrels.
Recently seeing an upturn in squirrel activity on one of my wild bird feeders, Goose my Cocker Spaniel and I decided to sit behind a tree watching this feeder armed with the awes Air Arms S510T (Tactical) mounted on my Gen 3 Primos Trigger Sticks, we sat quietly 25 yards away, the squirrels came one after the other, I didn't get a shot on one of them as it kept moving, so I had him with the shot gun the next day whilst filling the feeders, touch wood I have not seen any more squirrels there, or on the trail camera since, its only a matter of time before they return though we all know that, I will say this S510T is a tac driver, pin point accurate with a deadly strike on target, again look at the you tube video that is with this article to see this gun in action.
Rabbit Control
A very dear friend and land owner is back here in the UK from New Zealand (NZ), I call him my Somersetshire Kiwi, we grew up together here, went to school together etc, he decided a few years ago to move his family to NZ and buy a farm there and set up a farm shop and butchery shop, very successful it is too, his farm here that he still owns but rents out, it needed some work doing so he flew back to oversee said works etc, the people who rent the farm are a little bunny huggery to say the least, as soon as my old friend arrived his exact words were what are all these rabbits doing here, that's far too many for this area, I am going to call the resolver in, that's me in case you didn't know, he started calling me this over 30 years ago and now several farmers call me this, they say its because all they have to do is call me in and the pest problems or deer control is resolved quickly and quietly, no fuss everything just gets resolved and they have their balance back, its jolly nice to thought so highly of I must say.
Back to my friends place from NZ, I rocked up and its like we had only been chatting yesterday, not 6 months ago when he was last in the UK, look at all these rabbits in my horse paddocks, they are destroying the place and eating everything, sort them out for me will you, the last time he was over he saw me shooting rats at another friends farm using the Air Arms S510 Ultimate Sporter, mounted on my Primos Gen 3 Primos Trigger Sticks, with the wonderful Night Pearl Seer 50 Plus scope and the Night Pearl Thermal Spotter the Scops Max III, he loved that gear and said I hope you brought that thermal stuff you had up Fred’s that night, I laughed and said yes I have the spotter but I have something brand NEW on my ole 22lr, I have a new dedicated scope from Night Pearl, its Called the Marten, I could get all technical here but no go over to www.reallywildadventures.co.uk its all written there for your full perusal in The Out Post Shop, what I will say is this scope just makes it all too easy, just as good high quality as the spotters I might add, straight away my old friend was amazed whilst spotting through The Night Pear scops MaxIII thermal spotter, there is one there and two there, blimey there's a glut of them there start shooting, I laughed and said calm down lets stalk in a bit, I got into a nice central position, all the undulating hilly ground around me gave a wonderful back stop for almost every shot angel, I loaded up my Eley Subsonic hunting ammunition into my old 22lr, switched on the Marten scope and whilst my friend spotted with The Scops Max III thermal spotter I shot using the ole 22lr and the NEW Marten dedicated thermal scope from Night Pearl.
For a couple of hours we had a lot of fun and jovial banter between two old friends, I shot 7 rabbits for 9 shots, only retrieved 6 as one was right down a bank in a ditch, I said lets get that in daylight for safety reasons, which we did first thing the next morning, now I did miss twice, I shot over the head of two of the rabbits, the reason for this is it can look further away than it is on thermal, when actually its much closer, but I rectified that sharpish and put those rabbits in the bag, I will do better next time as I will know the ground better, I only stayed a short while really as this night was just a recce night, I will be back, this Night Pearl Thermal stuff is fantastic, if you want any scopes or spotters or more, pop over to my shop The Out Post Shop on www,reallywildadventures.co.uk there you will find my personal discount code and save yourself some money, again watch the videos attached they will show you this gear in action.
A very dear friend and land owner is back here in the UK from New Zealand (NZ), I call him my Somersetshire Kiwi, we grew up together here, went to school together etc, he decided a few years ago to move his family to NZ and buy a farm there and set up a farm shop and butchery shop, very successful it is too, his farm here that he still owns but rents out, it needed some work doing so he flew back to oversee said works etc, the people who rent the farm are a little bunny huggery to say the least, as soon as my old friend arrived his exact words were what are all these rabbits doing here, that's far too many for this area, I am going to call the resolver in, that's me in case you didn't know, he started calling me this over 30 years ago and now several farmers call me this, they say its because all they have to do is call me in and the pest problems or deer control is resolved quickly and quietly, no fuss everything just gets resolved and they have their balance back, its jolly nice to thought so highly of I must say.
Back to my friends place from NZ, I rocked up and its like we had only been chatting yesterday, not 6 months ago when he was last in the UK, look at all these rabbits in my horse paddocks, they are destroying the place and eating everything, sort them out for me will you, the last time he was over he saw me shooting rats at another friends farm using the Air Arms S510 Ultimate Sporter, mounted on my Primos Gen 3 Primos Trigger Sticks, with the wonderful Night Pearl Seer 50 Plus scope and the Night Pearl Thermal Spotter the Scops Max III, he loved that gear and said I hope you brought that thermal stuff you had up Fred’s that night, I laughed and said yes I have the spotter but I have something brand NEW on my ole 22lr, I have a new dedicated scope from Night Pearl, its Called the Marten, I could get all technical here but no go over to www.reallywildadventures.co.uk its all written there for your full perusal in The Out Post Shop, what I will say is this scope just makes it all too easy, just as good high quality as the spotters I might add, straight away my old friend was amazed whilst spotting through The Night Pear scops MaxIII thermal spotter, there is one there and two there, blimey there's a glut of them there start shooting, I laughed and said calm down lets stalk in a bit, I got into a nice central position, all the undulating hilly ground around me gave a wonderful back stop for almost every shot angel, I loaded up my Eley Subsonic hunting ammunition into my old 22lr, switched on the Marten scope and whilst my friend spotted with The Scops Max III thermal spotter I shot using the ole 22lr and the NEW Marten dedicated thermal scope from Night Pearl.
For a couple of hours we had a lot of fun and jovial banter between two old friends, I shot 7 rabbits for 9 shots, only retrieved 6 as one was right down a bank in a ditch, I said lets get that in daylight for safety reasons, which we did first thing the next morning, now I did miss twice, I shot over the head of two of the rabbits, the reason for this is it can look further away than it is on thermal, when actually its much closer, but I rectified that sharpish and put those rabbits in the bag, I will do better next time as I will know the ground better, I only stayed a short while really as this night was just a recce night, I will be back, this Night Pearl Thermal stuff is fantastic, if you want any scopes or spotters or more, pop over to my shop The Out Post Shop on www,reallywildadventures.co.uk there you will find my personal discount code and save yourself some money, again watch the videos attached they will show you this gear in action.
I hope you have enjoyed my latest humble scribbles as much as I have enjoyed writing them, well until next time I wish you all to stay safe and well muckers.
By The Ole Hedge Creeper
www.theolehedgecreeper.co.uk
By The Ole Hedge Creeper
www.theolehedgecreeper.co.uk
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