Shooting Update 19th September 2011 Nelson Farm

Another quick update,arrived at the farm 7.0 pm had a reccy around the buildings using our new nightvision, my mate bought a Yukon Spotter and I bought a Yukon Tracker pair of NV binoculars with a head mount,I quickly found that the head mount was a right pain to use especially trying to alter it in the dark so I just took the binoculars after a quick scan around there were rats everywhere especially under the feed troughs in the cow shed.

After a cuppa we zeroed our scopes and took our positions my mate covered a container in the yard where there were signs of activity,I climbed a small builders type platform ladder that meant I was about eight foot above the cow pens and a cracking vantage point, the binoculars worked very well as a spotter as you had a much wider field of vision compared with my Newton monocular which although better at distance has a lesser field of vision,As I was looking down on the rats as opposed to my normal shooting position which is looking more or less directly at the rat they were less spooked,as I had zeroed my dedicated NV to fifteen yards I was more than confident shooting amongst the cattle who were happily feeding as some of the shots taken were no more than two feet from the cattle, after a four hour shoot we accounted for eighteen rats shot, as the bodies were lying amongst the cattle they unfortunately had to stay there as there is no way I was going to chance picking them up as them horns looked very sharp, anyway the farmer is not really bothered whether or not we pick them up or not as they normally disappear by the morning.

Shooting Update 1st October (Cant Believe Our Luck)

Well we arrived at the farm and yes we couldn't believe our luck it hadent stopped raining all day the heaviest rain we had seen for weeks and with no proper shelter and no waterproofs taken we had a reccy around the small barns and outbuildings there were plenty of signs of the scaly tails but after two hours we were dripping wet so we called it a day or in this case night,we are now waiting for a break in the weather preferably a cold night and I think we have plenty of them to come.

More updates to come.

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Shooting Update 1st October (Cant Believe Our Luck)

Talk about being in the right place at the right time this week has given us some hopefully cracking new shooting venues,after talking to the farmer at the Nelson Farm last week he has a friend who has a pig farm not too far away and would be more than happy for us to shoot his rats, also during a conversation I had this week with an elderly family member and and her support worker it appears she has a farm also not too far away that has a number of rats she would also like cleared, is this some very very good luck or what !!!.

We already have five local farms all of which have had problems with rats over the last four years, we tend to shoot each one every week until we reduce the numbers significantly then move on to the next and by the time we finish the last one its time to start all over again, any problematic areas like close to the house we also use traps as well.

Shooting Update 28/9/11 Nelson Farm

Better start to this weeks update,arrived at the farm 7pm only to find our best ratting area was now full of horses,thinking we were in for a bad night we put down some extra bait in the corners of the barn hoping they would make their way there so we could get some good shots off.

Well as if by fate the farmer had been doing some electrical work above the pens and had left his small builders ladder platform alongside the pens this was only about six foot high but when I stood on the top platform I was looking way over the top of the pens down over the feeding troughs what a difference this made there were little bright eyes everywhere as I could now see exactly where the horses were and it was safe to shoot,after a very very hectic four hours the tally was 28 less scaly tails scavenging the horse food