Its All Quiet On The Hush Power

Its All Quiet On The Hush Power
​ Its A Month Of Sound Moderators

Has it really been a month since my last humble scribbles? I just don't know where the time goes, blimey I am starting to sound like my Pappy (Grandfather) or my Dad, this has been a busy month with all my pest control work getting very busy indeed.

I have taken on some pretty big contracts in my time and some very high profile ones too, indeed this latest set of contracts has me run ragged indeed, I have several fellows who work for me professionally with a long line of competent amateurs who volunteer for me too. But a contract like this want the organ grinder not the monkeys as they say.

I have taken on a very large pest control contract for a set of Agricultural Visitor Centres, they have four main sites over four different counties, with several other smaller sites linked with each, the people they had doing these sites didn't do the work to a satisfactory standard even though they were paid very well, an old client of mine who is now the site manager of one of these sites called me in, the general manager and I hit it off straight away and the contract was mine before I had even drank my coffee.​

I will be as brief as I can as this might get to be a very long article otherwise.

I will only tell you of a few visits as there have been many this month, well one of the first visits have me keeping avian pests off the feed clamps during the day, then rodents in the evening.​

Well being as its a visitor centre I had to be as quiet as possible, so I have been using the Air Arms Air Rifles with moderators to great effect, but I will say the best tool for the job on these flying pests have been the Mossberg Hush Power 410 shotgun, I see my ole mucker Dan Thor liking my social media posts and has now copied me on Field Sports Britain doing exactly the same as me, we will have to arrange a day out together for a giggle and a shoot over decoys soon.
The Mossberg Hush Power 410 shotgun matches perfectly with the Eley Hawk Cartridges, they really are quiet and pack one heck of a humane stopping power, I have had some brilliant days controlling vermin with these combos.

Along side these jobs I have to deal with rabbits hitting in the horse paddocks, as we know horses and rabbits don't mix, these horses are worth many thousands of mounds each, one has torn his back right tendon between its fetloc and hefloc, I had this with one of my horses once due to the same thing getting its foot caught in a rabbit burrow, it was 18 months before she could be ridden gain and she was lucky.​

Again I used a variety of guns here, Air Arms Air Rifles, S510 Ultimate Sporter, S200, S410 Fac, and the Air Arms TDR with the new day night NV scope The Fellis from Night Pearl, all damn fine bits of kit I telle.

I also used a Reximex air rifle, I stock them in the shop so wanted to field test them before selling them to clients, WOW what a bit of kit that is for the money, you get a lot of rifle for the money I telle, very impressed indeed, so much so I kept this one for myself, I have also been field testing the Konus Optics line before I stock them, by golly very impressed, so much so I have put the scopes on my stalking rifles and kept a set of binoculars for myself too, if you would like some or to see the line drop me a line via my shop www.reallywildadventures.co.uk this is some seriously good kit that does what it says on the tin where the metal, meets the meat.

I have also been putting to good use on some of these professional rabbit control rabbit job, the ole .22LR using Eley Subsonic Ammunition, this ammo packs one hell of a humane punch on target, whisper quiet and accurate too, I know you expect me to say this as I am The Eley International Out Doors Ambassador, but no I have been using this ammo for over 40 years since Uncle Dave taught me how to shoot rifle, he still to this day wont use anything else but Eley, so if its good enough for uncle Dave, its damn well good enough for me, I got to admit its actually quite nostalgic using it too as so many memories come back from boyhood watching Uncle Dave Shoot and me being the retriever, Ole Goose my cocker spaniel does I for me and he loves it too, we make a great team that wonderful little dog and me.

I have been having to deal with fox control jobs on a very prestigious estate too, these are old clients of mine, the general manager calls me in if the tenant farmers or tenants of the estate cottages get any problems, one lady had been getting hit by foxes on her rare breed ornamental fowl, she had tried everything to keep them away, they even found ways around her electric fencing, so I was called in to deal with them.

Now as stated in my first article on this subject Out Foxing Charlie, I only deal with foxes that attack live stock etc, I don't shoot foxes just because its a fox, this if its red its dead attitude really annoys me, to me a fox is one of gods most beautiful creatures, to watch them hunt naturally for voles etc is one of the most wonderful sights you will ever see in nature, I also never take any pleasure what so ever in killing, the hunt yes, pitting my skills and field craft up against a worthy quarry yes, but killing no, but unfortunately it is part of the job when dealing with things like foxes attacking livestock.​

There were 5 foxes only 2 presented a safe shot, so I have to go back, again I wont take a shot unless its 101% something else I have seen others not do, but then again my good reputation goes before me and why I get to shoot, work and indeed get paid to be places others can only dream of.

Still on this estate I was called in to deal with an RTA with a Roe Buck, alas I could not find him as he limped off into the long grass as the haylage had not been cut yet, the van was a total write off, I was called a week later by the estate owner saying we have seen the Roe Buck limping off in front of the mower as they cut the haylage, I went straight up and Goose and I tracked him down just inside one of the small woodland out crops, I backed off to a safe distance and dispatched him cleanly with one shot from the 243, the poor thing must have been in agony, just look at the picture with its broken leg, he was full of maggot's too eating him alive, poor thing it really was not nice to see a wild animal like this, I was glad to have put him out of his misery, I am a Countryman not a murderer as some would have you believe.

The tenant farmers were complaining of pigeon damage on the pea and barley crops, it was a Sunday and these particular fields were right next to some of the holiday cottages that were all full, I could hear children playing in the distance, the smell of a BBQ.

The estate manager was worried about the noise of the shotgun, they had been using a gas crop gun to scare the birds off and scare crows, after a couple of days the birds got used to the gas gun and just ignored it and smashed into the crop, all the gas gun did then was annoy all the holiday makers in the holiday cottages, thus the complaints, I showed him my Mossberg Hush Power 410 shot gun, loaded in an Eley Hawk Cartridge and fired a shot off, he could not believe how quiet it was, even the Pigeons ignored it, he authorised me to start shooting immediately, I must say and I don't do big bag numbers, I did shoot rather well and shot a bag of pigeons I would be proud to have shot with a 12 bore, actually as I type the farmer and his son who I am about to write about further down this article has turned up, asking can they have a pile of these pigeons from the freezer as they have a farm BBQ this weekend and have promised fresh shot pigeon burgers, I have been invited too, very civilised don't you know and there as much of last seasons home made cider as I want too, well it would be rude not to attend a farm BBQ now would it not.

I have been out on this estate for a few weeks now pushing the birds off the crops, one shoot I remember taking my old 12 bore wildfowling cammo over and under out, more for nostalgic reasons than anything else, but its choked in ¼ and ½ and lovely long 32” barrels, perfect for those long and high birds I knew I was going to have to deal with on this day, match these with some Eley VIPs, no 4s in fibre wads, well all I will say I filled 2 chest freezers up with pigeons, those cartridges, matched with that ole gun and The Ole Hedge Creeper behind the butt, what can I say thats just a winning combination right there, the new Jack Pyke Digi cam jack was lovely and comfy and kept me warm and concealed behind the Jack Pyke stealth netting.

A few days later a call came in from the estate manager, one of the tenant farmers was screaming blue murder abut pigeons on his crops, I arranged to go there the very next day, I could not straight away as I was busy on a pest control job on one of the Agricultural Visitor Centre sites in Devon and was a long way from Somerset.​

I got to the farm yard and banged on the door, the farmers wife said thank god your here Mike has been going mad, go see him he is in the milking parlour. Now I cant write what he said, but lets just say learnt some new swear words in Welsh that day and what to call pigeons, he also said can you take my son with you and teach him how to shoot and decoy pigeons and he will pay for the cartridges, very decent I must say, of course I said yes as you know me if its teaching a Young Sport that's what I am all about, Mike said to James take Rob up to top acre and get those damn birds off my crops.

Now luckily I usually carry my old single barrel BSA 12 bore with me on jobs, so often I have had to deal with humane dispatch and find this old gun perfect for what I need, its choked in half chokes so would be perfect for the boy to learn with, I had some light loads of Eley with me so all was set.

We got to top acre and 300 plus birds lifted off the crop, I knew the flight lines etc as I had shot here since boyhood, I stood and watched for ten minuets with my Konus binoculars, I showed young James what to look for and started teaching him field craft, I got him to choose the hide location and explain to me why here, he is a quick learner and was almost bang on, we moved about 20 yards as the canopy of the tree line was better and I showed him why, we then set up the decoys on long canes to raise the decoys above the crop to make them easier to see by the pigeons, we set the Jack Pyke Decoy pattern exactly 25 yards from the hide, I did not want him to be taking long shots, I talked about decoy patterns, windage, sun etc, again imparting a life time of fieldcraft on the boy.

In the hide I gave him some Jack Pyke ear plugs for him to keep, almost on queue the first pigeons started dropping in, we discussed hide etiquette and gun safety then we were ready to start shooting, James found it difficult to shoot sitting down, so I allowed him to stand for a bit to shoot so he got the hang of it, actually if you watch the video at the bottom of this article you will see him take a pigeon on camera, the day was over far too quickly, but I will say we shot a respectable bag of pigeons, protected the crop, the boy was smiling like a Cheshire Cat when I took him home, he has not shut up since this day, I now have a new right hand man with me often whilst out on the estate.

Actually there is a nice picture of the boy and my Cocker Spaniel Goose, with his using my Air Arms S200 on a Corvid job on the farm that I was doing for his Dad.

I have so many more outings I could write about this month, but I simply don't have the time or energy to write any more, I am dragging around and old rugby injury at the moment so sat here writing this is rather painful, I do hope you have enjoyed my humble scribbles, well until the next time stay safe and well one and all.

Its All Quiet On The Hush Power
Its A Month Of Sound Moderators
By The Ole Hedge Creeper
www.theolehedgecreeper.co.uk ​