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.

Shooting Update (Again) 24/11/11 Nelson Farm

Boring update this week we turned up at the farm as usual,right in front of us was a great big scaly tail clambering up a pile of sawdust dumped in a corner of the barn, well my mate tried to whack the rat with a shovel and guess what !!!!!!!!! he went **se over *it hit the wall and cracked a rib,after a very painful journey home has spent the rest of the week in bed.

Hopefully (if hes well enough) we may try again next week

Shooting Update (Again) 17/11/2011 Nelson Farm

OK, another update at "The Nelson Farm", there are plenty of rats left to shoot at this farm otherwise we would have moved on to another problem area,normal routine arrived at the Farm at 7pm made a cuppa,zeroed our scopes and away to go.

I again took to climbing the builders trestle as it is a great vantage point as it overlooks the cattle pens, my mate took to stalking the duck shed, after around 5 mins. or so the rats started to go about their business mooching about around the feet of the cattle and horses probably around 15 metres or so away, as my scope was spot on at that distance I quickly took out three in a quick time,my mate started off very slowly with the odd sighting or two before they started to stop for a split second this was all he needed and accounted for five in as many minutes, time for another cuppa and discuss tactics now refreshed we spent another three hours and accounted for a total of 16 shot bringing the total at this farm to 123 shot in Eight Weeks

Shooting Update 10/11/11 Nelson Farm

Ok another update decided to visit the Nelson Farm this week on a Thursday night instead of our regular Wednesday night as we have for the last seven weeks hoping to catch them sleeping, as usual we called to the house to pick up the keys for the gates and barns and parked the Landy inside the big barn nice and dry to brew a cuppa before we started, after a quick reccy with the hand held Nightvision  to see where the action was we set about taking up position I made for the ladder platform as in previous weeks my mate decided to try sitting in the yard about fifteen yards from the duck shed where he had seen a lot of action the week before.

It was probably ten minutes or so before the action started in my area although the scaly tails seemed to keep at the maximum distance away I was scoped up for around 15 - 20 metres and with stock in the pens as well the shots were very challenging (although safe) my body count after four hours was five shot, my mate started very slow in the yard as the scaly tail was playing peeb bo through a small hole in the bottom of the door but after putting down a small amount of cat food as bait he finally managed to shoot four.

The number shot this week was nine this was down in number compared to previous weeks but as we have been shooting this Farm every week for the last eight weeks and having good numbers shot including this week the total is now 105 less scaly tails, there are a lot more there but we will have to work a lot harder to get them.