SOMETHING WILL TURN UP!

Phil Hardman takes his hunting opportunities where and when he can find them

We’ve been having some pretty strange weather as of late. Storm Ciara rolled through, followed a week later by Storm Dennis, which didn’t seem to end and left a lot of the country flooded. Not ideal airgun hunting weather, and not least because a lot of the countryside is under water. As bad as the floods are, it’s the heavy winds that really make an airgunner’s life difficult, and lately some of the gales have been so strong that we were better off staying at home. Those of us lucky enough to have ratting permissions in and around buildings could at least still get out there, but I longed for a calm day when I could push the ranges a little, and give both myself, and the Weihrauch HW100BP a proper work-out.

I’ve been watching a turnip field for a few weeks, which has been attracting quite a flock of woodpigeons, but with the wind as strong as it was, I’ve been powerless to do anything. The ranges were simply too great for the conditions, and as frustrating as it’s been, I was forced to wait for a break in the weather. That came eventually, but instead of the sunny spring morning I was hoping for, I woke to snow – a good couple of inches, too. I love hunting in the snow, but on this occasion it wasn’t likely to help me. The area around the turnip field is already pretty thin on cover, and a white blanket would make my life even more difficult, but there was no wind, so I knew it was the day to go for it. I held off until the afternoon because I had noticed that mornings tended to be pretty quiet, the birds arriving in pretty decent numbers after lunch, so I aimed to get there around about noon.

SPOTLIGHT