Welcome to Country Pursuits TV
Home of YouTube's Malc Barnard AKA The Ghost Maker.
Here you will find everything from Airgun "How to" tutorials and Airgun Hunting tips to Dog training, Fishing and Horse riding.
Please enter your email below for updates and notification of new content including blog only competitions
Well yet again Christmas is almost upon us and things at CPTV towers have been really hard.
To help pay the bills I was going to sell my beloved John Bowkett Custom Hornet complete with GINB Custom Stock and a scope, it was suggested by some of the CPTV followers that I should raffle it, so here it is.
One lucky person now has the chance to win a truly unique rifle on Christmas Day!
Click the link above for the website where you will find all the details to enter this fantastic competition.
In this video I am invited out to do some feral pigeon control at a local multi story car park with my beloved Air Arms TX200hc. On arrival it is clear that there are quite a number of feral's at this location. About an hour in and the population wise up and disappear but not before the TX200hc and BSA Scorpion account for 27 birds. Hunting feral pigeon (or rock doves to give them their correct name) with airguns can be really good sport. However it does require some restraint when shooting them in such a busy urban environment. Take care to make sure there is always something behind the bird to stop the pellet, concrete blocks and brickwork are fine as the pellet will just drop after hitting these straight on. Avoid shooting at armco (metal barriers) or anything else that the pellet can ricochet off of. If you are shooting with a partner have him/her watch for pedestrians while you concentrate on your shot. If you get an opportunity to take two birds down (and you will) synchronise your shooting by agreeing a method designed to time you both right. I usually count " three two one go" and shoot on go. This will not always work but does 99% of the time and will help you shoot larger numbers.
If you can approach birds at night with the use of a night vision unit (NiteSite NS50/200 perfect for this) you can get good numbers that way too. If you done have NV you can use a lamp/gun light, try to use as little light as is necessary as this will help to avoid spooking the birds.
Take anti bacterial hand cleanser, disposable gloves or a littler picker for picking the birds up. You don't want to be handling the birds by hand as they can be riddled with germs like salmonella. Feral pigeon cause 100,000 of thousand of pounds of damage every year. They also spread disease and can infect humans with potentially life threatening conditions. If you do a good job and don't damage any of the property while you are there you will get invited back again. Getting on this kind of permission can take time and patients but once you have your foot in the door you will find that your services are required in some really cool places.
Good luck, safe and happy airgun shooting.
Malc Country Pursuits TV
So you have a rat problem what do you do? Poison? Trap? Or shoot them?
Poison will work but I have never been comfortable with the use of poison in or around animal feed.
Also dead rats found in the fields surrounding the area can be fatal to unsuspecting birds of prey looking for a quick and easy meal.
Trapping is an option that can work but it is not as a effective as a lead pellet injection and if you look at the permission in the videos below you will see that you would need a bloody huge bag of traps too.
The Air Rifle is the perfect tool for quick and effective control of this less than savoury visitor.
Breeding
Rattus Norvegicus (the Brown Rat) is a tenacious tenant and once established is almost impossible to completely eradicate. In addition to his incredible ability to survive he is a prolific breeder. The female of the species comes in to heat every 4-5 days and will have up to 7 litters per year. Each litter will have an average of 7 in it but this number can be as high as 14. These young will reach sexual maturity in just 5 weeks!
So just imagine.... a female has 4 female young and just five weeks later they are able to breed, with a gestation period of just 21 days you could have 20 or more female young. If you do the figures on this it is easy to see just how a colony can grow to thousands in a very short time if unchecked.
Diseases
Similar to other rodents, brown rats may carry a number of pathogens, which can result in disease, including Weil's disease, rat bite fever, cryptosoridiosis, viral hemorrhagic fever, Q fever, hantavirus pulmonary syndrome. Many of these can be very unpleasant and in lots of cases every year fatal.
Creating a safe working environment
It is important to control the numbers of rats and if you have a population in your work place or home you are at risk of disease. Prevention is the best form of attack but in some cases that is no longer an option.
In this series of videos I share with you tips I use to shoot these vermin with Air Rifles.
I will run you through the gear I use and the bait I make to help dictate where I shoot the rat.
I recently got this question from one of the Country Pursuits TV subscribers
Malc got a doubt I mounted a scope with spirit level and a string with a weight for the vertical line evrything was aligned properly but whn I kept the gun on the shoulder it's tilted to the right n rechecked again on a rest with spirit level n string but it spot on the line. Y is it different whn I hold the gun. Will that make changes in accuracy ? Thx
Here is the answer I gave....
Hi Matthew this is a common fault. Perceived correct gun alignment and actual correct gun alignment are hard to spot unless you know how. Often a correctly aligned scope will feel wrong when shouldered. It is very important that you learn to shoot with it upright though or you will get "cant error"
I used to use a scope level to watch out for "cant" when shooting. I was surprised just how often I would be canting the rifle. When it felt wrong it was mainly right and visa versa. I hope this helps.
In this clip I am sharing some of the content shot at the recent fundraiser and fun shoot sponsored by Ronnie Sunshines. Please click on the thumbnails to navigate to the videos. When you have finished watching the clip click the return to hub link and the end of the video and you will return here to select your next video. I hope you all enjoy watching as much as we did shooting them.
The video Caravan Carnage can be found below
We decided to do some fun videos for Dave's (Ronnie Sunshines owner) channel a while back. This is just the first in a series of cool videos involving grown men with shotguns having fun. The videos are shot with trained professionals using all the relevant safety equipment and procedures. The camera used to film these cool clips was the awesome Sony FS700 which we rented from Hire-A-Camera http://www.hireacamera.com
We have some real cool ideas for videos in the New Year so don't forget to subscribe to Country Pursuits TV and Ronnie Sunshines YouTube pages for more cool slow motion carnage.
As CPTV subscribers will know I am currently looking for a 4x4 vehicle. I have looked at the Dacia Duster and will be looking at the Suzuki Jimny and some other budget and compact 4x4's. Next on the list and a welcome return is the Fiat Panda 4x4. I was quite surprised just how good this little car really is. Comfortable and fun to drive the Panda could well be the car I was looking for. I am not going to make up my mind until I have seen all the possibles. But for now the Panda is firmly through to the next round.
