Lady luck

Tom Sykes explains that when it comes to pest control, luck plays as much a part as hard work and recon

would like to say that all my success in the field is down to hard work and – although a lot of that is true – I do believe that luck also plays a major part. We typically only see this when luck isn’t on our side. As regular readers will be aware, I have been struggling to shoot good bags of crows on the estate this year. Two years ago I moved a good 25 miles from the estate, which makes reconnaissance difficult, especially with work commitments thrown into the mix. I rely heavily on the people on the ground, such as keepers and farmers, to keep me

Iinformed on when a problem area arises because I don’t have my shooting area on my doorstep anymore. Last year seemed to work well, but most of my attempts this summer have fallen flat in comparison with previous years.

A few weeks ago I had the call from the shepherd. The crows had once again made his sheep feeders their next source of food and I was asked to see if I could move them on because the numbers had been increasing over a few days and were beginning to cost him serious money.

I arranged to shoot on the Wednesday and would call in on my way past the day before to work out a plan.

Reconnaissance

I like to have a look at the ground prior to shooting because it helps me decide on the gear I need for the job and allows me to run through and visualise the hide and decoy layout, which helps a speedy setup when it comes time to shoot. The following morning, I got there around

10am and saw good numbers of birds in the area scattered over two or three fields, both on the sheep feeders and generally