Sunny side up
Is it harder to shoot crows when it is sunny? I’ve heard they can see barrels and decoys shining.
Tom says: The sun can be a problem, but it can also be used to your advantage. I will often set the hide with the sun behind me, which makes it harder for the birds to spot my movement, but you must have a good backing to hide your silhouette. If you can’t avoid having the sun in your face, build a decent hide with plenty of cover to break up the shine on your face and keep movement to
Marc says: It will give good early season cover but it is highly susceptible to cold weather and hence is prone to melt away too soon to be used as a mid/late a minimum, only springing to action when the birds are committed to the spread. Face veils and caps can be great accessories to keep bare skin from shining. Some decoys can shine in the sun. Velvety or flocked decoys have no shine, making them ideal for sunny days. season shooting crop. It works well with other late sown crops like our Utopia as it helps to nurse the brassica element and produces good early season feed to help hold birds. Its feed value and early plant mortality can make it a good for ‘blanking in’ areas or leak points where wandering birds can cause issues
Neil says: Yes, stop what you are doing. You are probably making the situation worse. We need to go back to the beginning. Ear problems start because of some initiating factor. This could be ear mites, allergy, foreign body (grass seed), other skin issues such as hypothyroidism or seborrhoea, swimming (as water dries the ear out), ear structure (hairy ears, ear flaps, narrowed canal), inappropriate owner interference, or polyps. Some breeds, such as spaniels, are predisposed because the earflaps prevent air circulating.
As a result of the primary problem, secondary infections with bacteria and yeasts rapidly occur. These cause more inflammation, pain, head shaking and scratching, so that the ear canals become narrowed, the wax glands go mad and produce an excess of wax and the ear’s selfcleaning mechanism breaks down.
At this point, simply cleaning the ear won’t help and may, indeed, exacerbate the condition, depending on what you are using and how you are using it. Do not use water or alcohol-based products in the ear.
You must go to your vet and try to get the primary problem identified and treated, if possible.
Then, cytology or culture of the ear can be very helpful to identify the organisms involved, although we know that 70-90% will be a mix of the bacterium Staphyloccocus pseudintermedius and the yeast, Malassezia pachydermatis. Very moist, smelly ears can be infected with Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which is difficult and frustrating to get on top of.
Treatment should then be aimed at killing these bugs, reducing inflammation in the ear and restoring the normal balance, in much the same way as you might treat athlete’s foot in humans.
There are a couple of new medications that, after proper cleaning of the ear, can remedy the acute phase with only one or two applications. Where appropriate, these can be useful when treatment compliance is difficult. You must do something about your dog’s ears to avoid chronic damage and unnecessary discomfort.
Fran says: There are no hard and fast rules about this but traditionally we always walk our gundogs to our left as most of us carry our guns in our right hand. You can, of course, train your dog to walk on the right if you are left-handed. It also depends on the breed of gundog. Labradors, for example, should be trained to walk tight to heel, whereas most spaniel handlers are happy provided the dog walks next to them a bit looser but under control. If you have more than one dog, they could well find their own position when walking in a group.
Ian says: As a general rule I would not recommend that shooters take their guns apart, because, unless you have absolute confidence in your ability, you can do more harm than good. Browning ejector work differs from that of a Beretta as the springs are housed in the fore-end rather than the barrels. Removing the ejectors on a Browning requires the use of a well-fitted turn screw. My advice would be to pull the Browning ejectors forward and scrub with paraffin and a nylon brush, followed by drying and applying a very light coat of oil. This will remove general dirt and grease.
Peter says: Paul and I have been able to carry on with essential crop protection throughout the lockdown. Pigeons have responded well to rotary decoys, probably because they are not being regularly exposed to them by recreational decoyers. What has been noticeable is how many birds are still turning up to ravage our farmer’s peas. In a normal year we can generally whittle down the local population, keeping damage to a minimum. This year, we have killed more than 500 birds from one large field of peas, even though we have never seen more than 400 at once. Only time will tell if the lockdown has had any effect on overall populations.
David says: In theory there is no provision in the Firearms Act for trophies of war to be inherited. However, it is possible to apply to the Home Office for permission to inherit the pistol and have it on your certificate as a trophy of war, but success is not guaranteed.
Ian says: My advice would be to approach your local gun shop first, to see if they have a working relationship with the importer of Bernardelli shotguns and whether they could order this part for you on a trade account. Failing that, I would contact your local gunmaker or gunsmith as they may be able to quote for making the rod, once they had seen the gun.
Robert says: Browning started building date codes into the serial numbers of their shotguns in late 1960. For the decade of 1960-1969, Browning used the letter ‘S’ (standing for ‘sixty’) followed by a single digit for the year, so in the case of your gun ‘S7’ stands for 1967. Most ‘A’ grade guns were sold in the year they were made. Some high-grade guns not made to specific order could remain on hand for a few years before they were sold.
The dating code carried on into the 1970s using the same letter ‘S’ but with two digits following; the first being a ‘7’, the second being the year of the decade, so ‘S74’ would be 1974. Around 1977 Browning changed the system as dealers complained it was confusing and each number from ‘0’ to ‘9’ was allocated its own letter with 1=Z, 2=Y, 3=X, 4=W, 5=V, 6=T, 7=R, 8=P, 9=N and 0=M. So now most Browning firearms feature two letters in the serial number, for example ‘12345PY‘ would indicate manufacture in 1982. Another thing to be aware of is that most hand-built B25 Brownings made from the mid 1970s onwards also have another three number and letter combination before the date code (for example ‘8H3’). This is a configuration code and can tell the initiated whether the gun was a trap, skeet, game or sporting model and in some cases, even the rib type and barrel length.