Update Nelson Farm 22/12/11

Tried the Nelson Farm again this week,close to home as the weather didn't look too good,not that this matters much normally as we shoot indoors but once the mist and fog comes down it really buggers up the night vision even inside the barns,after a quick recce and putting down some bait where we saw some scaly tails last week we waited until the action started.

Well wait we did as it was a very slow start and even when they did come out they were a bit skitty when near the bait my mate had put down even though his laser and scope were set spot on the little buggers did not even give him a shot, where i was in the stable block I was lucky enough to shoot three with two bodies retrieved the other managed to get back into a small drain, after a quick photo shoot we were packed up and away.

have a look at the Christmas photo in the gallery section it wont be hard to see.

Update Nelson Farm 15/12/11

Well we have returned to the Nelson farm after two weeks shooting at a mates farm to clear some of his scaly tails,as you may have read in the previous post the first week was quite productive with eleven shot but the second was a disaster , well the Nelson farm has been very productive since starting to shoot there about eleven weeks ago.

When we arrived at the gate to the farm yard a huge rat ran in front of us which is always a good sign,driving into the big barn (we don't like getting wet) setting up our folding camping table,couple of chairs,electric kettle and table lamp (yes you are reading this right) after weeks of having to warm up the gas cannister to our stove before we try to boil the kettle as the temperature was dropping dramatically every week we had a brainwave there was an electricity supply to the barns so why struggle with gas ?

As we were setting up we had a quick reccy around the yard with our Night Vision units and found there were several around the dog kennel and also by the duck pens,after a zeroing session we set about thinning out the population, I shot four in the cow shed and my mate was not so lucky his silencer adapter was damaged and the pellets must have been slightly clipping the end  he didn't manage to shoot anything even at close quarters,my claim to fame was a clean kill at 24.75 yds (measured with a laser range finder), hopefully we will have our last shoot before Christmas next Thursday.

Update New Ratting Job 1/12/11

Following on from last weeks shooting we were quite exited that we were again going to have a cracking nights shooting,same routine pick up my mate travel to the farm and zero our scopes, then the farmer mentioned that he had put sheep in the barn and had filled in the hole in the floor where we had shot last week,well we are here now so have to make the most of it well we didn't see any sign of a scaly tail all night it just goes to show that the smallest disturbance in any are that is normally good shooting will literally send them to ground we will have to give them a couple of weeks to settle again.

Next week back to the Nelson Farm we haven't shot this for three weeks now so we are hoping for a good nights shooting,update next week

Update New ratting Job 24/11/2011

Well it was due to a bit of luck,I took my Son out to one of my local rat farms to do a bit of day time target shooting as the ratting there had all been shot out, we bumped into the farmer who said he had seen loads of scaly tails running around the barn where a hole had appeared in the floor,we didn't need to be asked twice we arranged to go there the same night.

Picked my mate up at 6.30 pm arrived at the farm at 6.45 pm,I love these local shoots.After a quick chat with the farmer who showed us where he had seen them we brewed up a quick cuppa,zeroed our scopes and took up positions in the barn,my mate set up approx. 15 yds from the hole that had appeared,I set up alongside him looking in the direction of some water troughs that had a load of droppings all around it,it didn't take long before them little bright eyes were lighting up our Night Vision scopes they were so quick running from the one hole to the other it took a while for them to settle enough for us to start getting some shots off , after three hours we accounted for eleven shot with three bodies retrieved the rest had managed to either get into the hole or run behind the big bales of hay,quick cuppa and home to bed we will try again next week.