The hips don't lie!

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COVID last week has left me with a legacy of aches and pains. Every bone including teeth hurt still and it's getting me down, the hips especially hurt! Everything is hard and the drive to get out is waining, especially to go get this season's first pheasants.
Well after a long night out with modern gear on varmints and aching all over for it the next day I decided a gentle waddle into some wild pheasants on my patch with some primitive hardware and no tech was in order!

It's been so long since I've been out with this flintlock I felt naked! No thermal, no optics, no binos, just a knife, flint and black powder!
At first I was rushing and not looking but I soon got back into the rhythm. Slowed down and started to watch more, move less. Then I started to enjoy myself with the simplicity.

Now this ain't no flying bird hunt like most of the UK conduct pheasant hunting, no, it's stalking them only these birds are not stupid, they are wild. All I do is keep the foxes down and they breed. I keep the hens but take the cock birds. I do wing shoot them but occasionally with the flintlock trade gun put the sneak on for a sustainance bird or two.
Well I got me my first two of the year. Considering the rain and damp I did suffer a couple of miss fires but after knapping the flint got fire.
Loads were 4f and #5 shot.
Anyway the pictures oh and my favourite snitzl coming up 😋.View attachment 266051
View attachment 266052
View attachment 266053
Love ya work.
That covid is a bugger isn't it ? It laid me up for 2 weeks exactly one year ago,and took me months to fully recover
 
May you make a full recovery soon @Britsmoothy.
Seem to be ok now. Thank you.


Enjoyed the snitzl yesterday, it was superb.
IMG_20231108_182059.jpg
 
Wonderful day for you and a wonderful post!

Curious about the cover you hunt. I am in a rural, farming area. But the economics of farming here today do not encourage the farmer to leave any cover for small game. Even the Amish plow "right to the edge of the asphalt". The covers that are left are little pockets which are not economical to exploit. Species that adapt well to mankind, eg deer and ground hogs, can do well. Turkeys do OK, but other game birds do not.
The gun club buys farmed pheasants and members set them out on their properties. They are DUMB birds and easy prey not only for us but also for owls, hawks, foxes and coyotes. Hunting them mocks the word hunting. You'd have just as much sport shooting pigeons over peanut bait in a city park.
 
Wonderful day for you and a wonderful post!

Curious about the cover you hunt. I am in a rural, farming area. But the economics of farming here today do not encourage the farmer to leave any cover for small game. Even the Amish plow "right to the edge of the asphalt". The covers that are left are little pockets which are not economical to exploit. Species that adapt well to mankind, eg deer and ground hogs, can do well. Turkeys do OK, but other game birds do not.
The gun club buys farmed pheasants and members set them out on their properties. They are DUMB birds and easy prey not only for us but also for owls, hawks, foxes and coyotes. Hunting them mocks the word hunting. You'd have just as much sport shooting pigeons over peanut bait in a city park.
Yes released birds are dumb.

These have had a few years to learn about predators so wise up and end up very sharp eyed to say the least.
If it wasn't some kind of hunt I wouldn't tell here.
The farm land by me has plenty of scrub land and wooded plots, thick hedges too so if I keep the foxes down some young chicks get reared every year.
I've taken a dozen or more foxes from this patch this year but didn't know how the pheasants had done until the maize came off recently. When I had a bit of a count I thought this will be the spot for the flintlock to start the season off.
 
Released birds may be "dumb" but several times I've watched the state stocking truck release a whole bunch in the middle of a cut cornfield,,, and then watched guys get none or only one or two.

Also, sometimes the bird isn't the important part. I could care less of I shoot another pheasant, wild or pen raised (I hate cleaning the things anyway), but, I truly enjoy watching the dog work. I know the dog enjoys it even though he is getting old and suffers quite a bit afterward (he might just be laying a guilt trip for extra treats and affection). I also enjoy the time with my dad, and at least once a week with my brother, it is one of the only things the 3 of us do together.

The bird isn't the most important part.
 
hi Brit. , want to share the recipe???
Yeah, tenderise the fillets between cling film using a rolling pin as a hammer.
Open cling film and flour the fillets.
Now dip in a beaten egg and return to cling film.
Sprinkle a roast chicken seasoning and bread crumbs onto the egg covered fillets.
Allow to stand for a few minutes.

Place a pan on the stove and get hot with some oil. When hot shallow fry for 3-4 minutes a side.
Get stuck in 😋
 
I noticed about 2009 the ground started getting harder, the hills steeper and winters colder.
Gary Jenkings called it the age of never in his Aztec novel.

You know I never remember this hurting or this so steep ect
I blamed Obama, sorry it got across the pond
This September I bought a camp bed
Oh my
Have you noticed, Tenn, that there’s a lot more chubby people around than when we were kids? My theory is that we’ve so drastically increased the mass of the Earth that gravity has naturally increased as well.
We ain’t gettin’ old and losin’ our wind, it’s all the dang gravity! I blame Isaac Newton- he’s the one who invented it…
Jay
 
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