17 Nov 2012 - A day to remember for Henry

I was really tempted to get up early and head to Haddiscoe after the pinks again, but Wendy was working nights and both Henry and me we tired so I went for the easy option of staying in bed ;-)

Feeling pretty fresh after my lay in, me and my man headed over to Lowestoft to pick up the dive bottle for my new air rifle.  I've had it for 2 weeks now but havent been able to fire a shot due to a broken valve. 

Got home, fill her up and had my first few shots.  She's a nice gun to hold, but its a bit noisier than my old Webley and why Air arms but the bolt right where your nose is, is any ones guess.  You have to take the gun down to cock it, which defeats the object of having 10 shots.  The Webley is a far better set up with a side bolt so you can keep the gun in situ and on target while you reload.  Having said that, its a good quality bit of kit and i'm sure i will get used to using it.

Setting up the sights took a bit longer than expected, due to the fact that for some reason the cross hairs go out of focus after 5 seconds of you looking down the scope.  I have no idea why, so will have to research this.  but being as i was trying to set it up on he mill dots, it was hard going, but managed some good groups.

All excited we headed down to Rorys in hope of a pigeon or squirrel, we had seen plenty about and thought they would be in the wood after acorns, but we didnt see a thing !  Gutted not to get a shot with my new weapon we headed home to get changed and head out after a duck

My new S410 - brought from my Dads mate Mike

We had been to fritton earlier in the day to see if there was any sign of duck on the splash, but there was no sign of ducks what so ever.  We couldnt believe how much they have taken out of the wood, and the whole place was like 'crazy kevs' off-road centre.  It was mad, i'm not sure if we did any damage to the car, but we went over a stump at full pelt and we heard it run the whole length of the underside of the motor..

Given the lack of ducks over there, we decided to go for the easy option of heading to Davids, no chance of anyone else being down there other than my mate Sean and the walk from the car is only a couple of hundred yards

Henry in his hide down Davids - you can see our truck in the distance

We set up, threw a few decoys out onto a wet patch and crossed our fingers.

As usual we saw a few mallard heading into a pit in the distance, but none came our way.  Then the geese (greys) came out of Hardley a bunch at a time, calling loudly over in the distance and heading out to Cantley to feed somewhere.

Water on the marsh with a few Mallard coys

Then, for some reason a bunch flew out the other side of the floods and headed roughly in our direction.  Knowing that they were more likely to go fly over the car than us, I shouted to Hery to move to the bottom end.  Gun unloaded, I think he would have given Usane Bolt a run for his money, this while blowing full pelt on his Grey call..  I was laughing to myself, thinking of all the times I would have done the same and wishing i had the energy, but it takes more than the thought of a goose to get me to run these days.

Two skeins came just wide of him but out of range, so he headed back up the marsh to his hide.  some 20 minutes later it was dark enough to come out of our hides without being seen and knowing that the teal sometimes fly the opposite dyke i told him to go and stand over there for the last 30 minutes of the flight.

Just as he got settled,  I heard the faint sound of gun fire in Cantley direction, shortly followed by the calling of Grey Geese. I too started calling and soon saw a solitary greylag heading our way! I shouted Henry and got low in my hide, calling all the time.

The Grey was heading wide, but then swung our way 300 yards away, he passed me 45 yards out but was on a direct line for Henry, sure enough it flew straight over his head ! Kabooom (or should i say Parrp) his little 20 went,  but the goose didnt move an inch..  Kaparrp he went again, and to my amazement the big ole fella tumbled out of the sky and smack into the ground 50 yards behind him! Ben was quickly dispatched to pick it up and it was smiles all around. you can see  by the picture how dark things were getting at this time.

Henry and his second Greylag ever. shot with 24grm no 5 steel

I put the grey out with the mallard decoys in the water just in case another one saw it and got tempted to come our way....

The next thing we saw was some pinks, they came to the call but swung wide at about 500 yards and off into the distance,  a few moments later we heard more 'Wink Wink' in the distance and started calling, in the near darkness we saw a skein heading our way of around 20 birds.  I kept calling them and they kept responding, then there wings hit the MoBot style glide position and they headed straight for Henry.  I was hoping that he was going to leave them, as i was sure they would swing and come in to land, but as i watched he raised his gun and if I had of shouted they would have heard me for sure.

The birds were still moving fast and up there about 45 yards as Henry let fire his first shot, I was pleased to hear the crack of pinion feathers as his pellets struck home, thinking to myself "at least he hit one" then in slow motion and totally to my amazement a bird from the front of the pack tumbled out and splashed into the dyke!  I couldnt help but shout, totally forgetting the boy had another shot to go which understandably missed its target.



Henry's 1st Pink foot goose - those suckers have evil eyes..

 Ben was once again put into action and Henry proudly claimed his 1st Pink


















I never really thought there would be a day when my boy stood on a marsh with 2 geese and I went home empty handed:



Boy did good..