No Fish Stew

[Amphibious]

great thread! how did I miss this? we don;t hunt pigeon here, but have many other upland game birds to hunt in the fall. never been much for airguns, but my single shot .410 does wonders on ruffed grouse:

[Mr. X]

Good looking gun & bag of birds Amphibious. I never come across anyone shooting grouse with a .410 before, sounds fun.

Anybody remember the Webley Jaguar? I knew a guy that had one with a telescopic sight. Small, light .177, neat gun.

[Amphibious]

Originally Posted by Mr. X

Good looking gun & bag of birds Amphibious. I never come across anyone shooting grouse with a .410 before, sounds fun.

gives you the option to shoot them on the wing or on the ground. with a full choke and a small pellet count you can head shoot them when you catch them roosting or hiding in the tall grass, but still knock them out of the air when they flush (if your skill is there)

[Mr. X]

Originally Posted by Amphibious

gives you the option to shoot them on the wing or on the ground. with a full choke and a small pellet count you can head shoot them when you catch them roosting or hiding in the tall grass, but still knock them out of the air when they flush (if your skill is there)

I think it is considered bad form to shoot sitting birds over here but with a .410 I figured you'd probably need to keep your options open.

BTW they had an amazing range of airguns & equipment at the CLA Gamefair last year. Didn't have time to look at much of it though -- too much else to see.

[Amphibious]

here most people shoot them on the ground with .22lr, simmilar to a rabbit hunt as they run more then they flush. theyre usually found in the timber, so wingshooting isn't much of an option, as you end up connecting barrel to bark on your upswing

[Oldsarge]

Part o' the reason that the British developed the sport of shootin' flyin' is that British game birds are sportin' gents themselves and will flush t'either the drivers or the dog and give yer a fair blast at 'em. The colonial b*st*rds, on th' other hand, are a skulkin' bunch, don'tcherknow. They'll slip off t' hide behind a tree and make rude gestures when yer ain't lookin'!

[wet]

Thence the saying "flip the bird" for the 1 fingered salute...

[Mr. X]

Originally Posted by Oldsarge

Part o' the reason that the British developed the sport of shootin' flyin' is that British game birds are sportin' gents themselves and will flush t'either the drivers or the dog and give yer a fair blast at 'em. The colonial b*st*rds, on th' other hand, are a skulkin' bunch, don'tcherknow. They'll slip off t' hide behind a tree and make rude gestures when yer ain't lookin'!

Yup. I wasn't being judgemental. There are quite a lot of pheasant and partridge round here that are most reluctant to fly - probably natural selection, the flyers tend to get shot.

[podge]

Originally Posted by Oldsarge

Part o' the reason that the British developed the sport of shootin' flyin' is that British game birds are sportin' gents themselves and will flush t'either the drivers or the dog and give yer a fair blast at 'em. The colonial b*st*rds, on th' other hand, are a skulkin' bunch, don'tcherknow. They'll slip off t' hide behind a tree and make rude gestures when yer ain't lookin'!

I say old chap rather un sporting of you boys to slay the game on the ground you know, (all said with a dirty great plum in my mouth)
UUUMMM game pie..
Amphibious nice 2 brace of birds their mate.

[naiad]

Originally Posted by Mr. X

There are quite a lot of pheasant and partridge round here that are most reluctant to fly - probably natural selection, the flyers tend to get shot.

I'm surprised that we don't have flightless pheasants!

[Mr. X]

Originally Posted by naiad

I'm surprised that we don't have flightless pheasants!

I think we already have -- those wings are mere vestages!

Itching to get back in the sea. This winter has been really loooong. Haven't got any scallops yet this winter -- should probably make the effort one weekend. (Lost some of my drive to dive for scallops when I saw a Supermarket - possibly Morrisons - advertising them for just 80p each last year!).

[naiad]

Originally Posted by Mr. X

(Lost some of my drive to dive for scallops when I saw a Supermarket - possibly Morrisons - advertising them for just 80p each last year!)

I saw that - I can only hope that they are sustainably harvested. The price looks a bit suspicious, I hope they haven't discovered some unspoilt scallop beds somewhere and started bottom-trawling them...

[Oldsarge]

Another thought for those far from the sea, Pastor's sermon this morning mentioned that when the Spanish colonists settled into Colombia they found themselves a looooong way from the traditional fishing grounds of the North Sea so in order to conform to the required meatless days during lent they proposed a water-dwelling, web-footed creature that was . . . almost a fish and could they please eat capybara on Friday? One must wonder what the Vatican thought of the request given that it is unlikely that any of the curia had ever heard of, let alone seen one. Hundred pound rodents! That's a lot of bunny rabbit!

[Spiderman]

All this talk of shotguns, rifles and air rifles makes me think that perhaps we need to define which type of gun is sporting for different types of fish bearing in mind their speed of swim.

Here is a suggested starting point for the UK:

Wrasse: may only be caught using bare hands
Pollack: hand held spear
Bass: Standard speargun (Aluminium barrel, bands, value less than £100)
Mackerel: Special spearguns (value over £100, carbon fibre bits, mamba etc)

[spearheads]

Actually i find sometimes Pollock can be a bit jumpy, well that's my excuse.
As for wrasse you can only use your teeth.
I have only had a few mackerel this summer but when you hit one you feel well chuffed.
Congers should be shot with a normal spear gun with an explosives charge .
bass mullet again a normal euro speargun.