When red grouse fly in packed coveys before the waiting guns, it would seem like the natural culmination of moorland management; a season’s hard work released in one wild flurry of birds. It is a natural progression to think that, by August, the keeper’s work is put in and that the rest will Continue reading

Now that the ferrets are up and about, I got a little carried away with spending money on them. The first, and in my opinion, most important acquisition was a ferret detector. Deben seem to have cornered the market for manufacturing ferret locators, but since I bought a gunlight from then ten years ago and Continue reading

A week after the muted success of killing a mixy rabbit, the ferrets have struck again. Having bought a ferret locator, I finally felt confident enough to give the boys another tour of duty on my parents’ farm down on the Solway coast. It was a grim afternoon, with heavy showers blowing out of the Continue reading

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The time is fast approaching when these ferrets of mine will start to pull their weight. I would say that they are eating me out of house and home, but the fact is that while they do put away tremendous quantities of meat, it is all leftover scraps and game, neither of which I would Continue reading

Anyone who has ever tried to buy decoys will readily agree that they are exorbitantly expensive. With whole body ‘pigeons at around £4.50 a shot and wild ducks starting at £6.00 (apart from mallard drakes, which they sell at the garden centre for £3.99 as “pond decoration”), there is clearly a tremendous amount of money Continue reading

My ferrets are quite the most charming little beasts I have ever come across. Perhaps it is the same defensive pride a parent feels as their yowling child tears down a curtain and jabs a plastic knife into a passing teacher, but as far as I am concerned, they can do no wrong. One thing Continue reading

Having recently moved house (to a new place less than twenty minutes from the old), I have been doing a little research into my new neighbourhood. One of the most striking bonuses to the new house is the fact that it is now less than six miles to the Chayne, whereas before the twenty five Continue reading

Despite the fact that grouse numbers on the Chayne are still too low to sustain shooting in any respectable form, it seemed like a good idea to commemorate the glorious twelfth on Saturday (14th) with an experimental walked up day designed to give my friend Richard, who shoots with an 1858 military pattern Enfield muzzle Continue reading

I have now owned my ferrets for around five days. Each time I get them out of their box for a ramble, they appear to have become more nimble, speedy and fun. When I first bought them, they were just fluffy maggots, writhing around in an insensible mess. Now that they have had their first Continue reading