Snow

johngalway

Will it, won't it. It hasn't here yet.

Think of all those tracks :eek:

dicky82

how does snow affect your fox hunting? is it a help or a hindrence?

Glensman

dicky82 wrote: »

how does snow affect your fox hunting? is it a help or a hindrence?

Help!

johngalway

dicky82 wrote: »

how does snow affect your fox hunting? is it a help or a hindrence?

Depends.

If it's at night and starts snowing when you're out with a lamp, go home.

If it's stopped snowing and you're out, should make spotting and tracking them with the lamp much easier. Though I'd imagine it's a lot easier for them to see me too.

If it's snowed over night and you're out early and there's been a half decent fall (never happens here to be honest) then all the previous nights tracks will be on display and that can be a great help.

Eddie B

If there`s snow on the ground, then it`s snare time!!!!:D:D

No6

We are getting lots of the thawed variety of snow here in Mayo also known as Rain!!!:D

johngalway

Yeah, had a bit of that here too, I wasn't much impressed with it, seen it before

endasmail

snow= less food for the foxes ,so they might be extra tempted to come into the caller

Sparks

How are we getting snow in Dublin 1 and you lot aren't getting it up in the hills?

johngalway

These here hills are slap bang on the Atlantic, always that bit warmer/milder/saltier here than the east coast in Winter.

elius

endasmail wrote: »

snow= less food for the foxes ,so they might be extra tempted to come into the caller

I should hopw so with the way things have been this year!

ironsight

Ha you guys want Snow..
Come on over to West Virginia, we have about 3 feet on the ground right now, your welcome to have it, just drop by and collect as much as you like.

Ruined my plan for range day !

jwshooter

i went for a weeks culling last feb the snow was starting monday morning as i arrived on the ground .i shot 6 animals by the time i had the last one down it was getting bad .
tue i shot a few more .
i killed a few out of a group the rest of them went @500 yards and stopped. i stalked into them again loaded up picked a calf just as i set the trigger .

i realized something , i was pushing these animals off there feeding grounds ,further out the hill ,i backed tracked and left them.
snow was a foot or so at that stage , when having breakfast we decided to leave them be .

the snow lasted 3-4 weeks on the hill and kill many animals .

its been a long cold and wet winter so far ,if its going to be as bad as they say .
spare a thought for the birds and animals we all love .

bunny shooter

jwshooter wrote: »

................its been a long cold and wet winter so far ,if its going to be as bad as they say .
spare a thought for the birds and animals we all love .

+1

I was always told 3 x hard nights (frost and/or snow) no hunting until a few days after it breaks

jwshooter

bunny shooter wrote: »

+1

I was always told 3 x hard nights (frost and/or snow) no hunting until a few days after it breaks

very true bunny, were hunters not the S/S

Grizzly 45

Just back from Munich on Friday.It is a lovely minus 12 degrees at night,with minus 21 degrees up in the Bavarian Alps.
Thing is;it is a DRY cold,unlike our damp cold which makes it IMO harder for bird,beast and man to deal with
Snow aplenty which makes for greatdeer and wild boar hunting.Not to mind ducks and pheasents.No one has ever heard of a cold weather ban over there,sensible shooting wont drive the game away,and if you have been feeding them off season they will come back to the feeding areas anyway once you have gone home and left off shooting for a few days .

4gun

No6 wrote: »

We are getting lots of the thawed variety of snow here in Mayo also known as Rain!!!:D

By strange coincidence we get the same stuff down here in Kerry:(

jwshooter

Grizzly 45 wrote: »

Just back from Munich on Friday.It is a lovely minus 12 degrees at night,with minus 21 degrees up in the Bavarian Alps.
Thing is;it is a DRY cold,unlike our damp cold which makes it IMO harder for bird,beast and man to deal with
Snow aplenty which makes for greatdeer and wild boar hunting.Not to mind ducks and pheasents.No one has ever heard of a cold weather ban over there,sensible shooting wont drive the game away,and if you have been feeding them off season they will come back to the feeding areas anyway once you have gone home and left off shooting for a few days .

agree 45 , but our game is not used to that kind of conditions.

also dont drive game away from food when there starving.
but good post

sikastag

We gots the snow this morning here in the west. Makin a few heavy ones now too. Just finished clearing it.

No6

Theres white fluffy stuff falling from the sky now what is it help!!!:D

johngalway

:mad: Still feeling hard done by here! I was out last night and there was a flurry or three but nothing stuck. Woke up this morning, white patches on the ground, but icy and melting well, not even much on the hills ffs! Saw two nice foxes last night, if I had the rifle instead of the shotgun ye'd see them too

No6

So the snow is here(ish) well it is mayo, its freezing like fu*k and I still have to try out my new wam caller, so do I go out tonight or not!!! I think i will

meathstevie

Unlike Germany Belgium has a moratorium on hunting on open ground when there's snow cover. And if I recall correctly here in Ireland the minister for the environment can suspend the season for game species if the weather gets extremely hard.

Upside is it makes for hungry foxes that respond to callers easier so if you have a population problem now is a good time to sort it.

No6

Time to put the child to bed and done the shooting gear and off I go!! the lads will be here at 9.30 happy days, or nights!!!:D

tikkamark

Seen 3 foxes in the snow while i was out with the springer after pheasants this morn-thats a lot more than id usually see normally...the harder weather definitly pushes them out during the day,hope it sticks round till wednesday when im off for the hols and i might swap the shotgun for .223 on my wander about.:)

Grizzly 45

Should be good too for the woodcock.Got newsfrom the family in Germany .They were out today to go hunting and collect the Xmas tree.It was MINUS 21!!!! degrees in our hunting reserve.[ Nurenberg area]
Thats broken all records in our living memory.:eek::eek:Loads of tracks,no shots..But thats Diana's mood on the day.:) .
Never could understand a cold weather ban.Wild animals and birds fatten up all year for this sort of occurance,been doing that for mileinnia.

No6

Went out last night was sliding around a bit in the car, had just spotted our first fox after an hour and was starting to try to call it in when the socket on the damn lamp melted (again!!) so we skated home and went to bed early!!! Aaarrrgghhh!!!!

sharpshooter86

great weather for woodcock n snipe ,hope it stays like this over the hols with wind to bring the ducks close for flighting thats all i want for christmas:D

johngalway

No6 wrote: »

Went out last night was sliding around a bit in the car, had just spotted our first fox after an hour and was starting to try to call it in when the socket on the damn lamp melted (again!!) so we skated home and went to bed early!!! Aaarrrgghhh!!!!

Replace all sockets with something that actually works

sikastag

Out last night after john fox, set off crunching about in snowy/icy fields. Roads were like bottles! Unexpectedely got four! :D:D More white stuff in store tonight apparently! With a bit of luck not too much.

Glensman

johngalway wrote: »

Replace all sockets with something that actually works

Cigar lighter connections just aren't designed to have that much power goin thru them!

mossfort

this hard weather seems to bring out a lot of wild birds.
was out shooting today and rose 5 woodcock and then went down to the lake where there were about twenty wild geese grazing beside it.
there were plenty of ducks floating about near the waters edge so a good day all round.

jwshooter

some snow shots

sikastag

Hard weather making fox a little bit boisterous! Managed to stop one in its tracks around half three in the afternoon. He was slinking behind my dog pen, presumably en route to my chicken pen. Spotted it coming over the field, dogs did too and dogs naturally raised alarm but fox just completely ignored them. :eek: (Possibly done that before!)
Hens had a rough night a few nights back due to an unexpected visitor. Might just have got the culprit.

Cass

Thought there was a thaw on the cards but since this morning its been snowing heavily and consistantly all day. Now about 3 inches and its still snowing heavily. Not quite as cold as the last weeks but just wondering if its the same elsewhere. I'm in Laois btw.

johngalway

I never did get any snow over here in the wilds. Snow about 1/3rd to 1/2 way down the Twelve Bens alright. It rained, it sleeted, it flurried, did it stick? Did it f.........

I still prefer the cold crystal clear blue sky days we had to the muck here today, belowing wind and pissing rain. Mind you I was out one particularly cold night, think it was Friday night, and my toes were still hurning the next morning :eek:

Back out at it again tomorrow night I 'spose

OldEyes

johngalway wrote: »

Back out at it again tomorrow night I 'spose

Cowboy up!