Every year, for as long as man can remember, hundreds of thousands of Pinkfooted geese (Pinks or Pinkfeet) arrive from Iceland, Greenland and the Islands of Svalbard and Spitzbergen on our shores from September/October. 

Numbering approximately 350,000 they arrive in Scotland on Strathbeg Loch and the Montrose Basin, many flying onwards to historical sanctuaries on Moercombe Bay in Lancashire and the Wash in Lincolnshire/Norfolk.

I had only ever seen 'Pinks' twice before - once on a business trip outside of Edinburgh and then at Easter over in Galloway near Stranraer as they prepared to migrate North. Smaller than our Greylags and feral Canada geese these gregarious and characterful birds are much loved and admired by Wildfowlers and many will travel through night and day upon receipt of an invite or book B&Bs, guides and passes with loved ones to get an opportunity under them.

I was just so lucky back in October when a sporting journalist kindly invited myself and our club chairman to shoot a Southerly marsh on Morecombe bay in the hope of bagging my first Pinkfoot.
So, travelling up from Gloucester the evening before we arrived late evening with a 4.30am start ahead - I went to a troubled sleep dreaming of what might occur in a few hours time.

Still fuzzy from a short night  we arrived in the dark, a keen wind blowing off the bay and carrying with it the unmistakable "wink wink" of thousands of geese settled on the mudflats and sand spars. So we walked a short distance and crossed the sea wall over into the merse and muddy creeks heading for a junction between three streams that drain the marsh upon each tide and settling down in some lovely wet, thick and sticky marsh mud amongst the sea purslane and samphire.

Light started to creep in from the peaks overlooking the Lake District to the East and the geese, every few minutes, would have a fit of calling as they prepared to flight in to feed on the fields a few miles inland. It made you smile, it sent adrenalin coursing and a surreal sense of anticipation of witnessing something truly magical.

As day broke all of a sudden there was a crescendo of calls from the main flock of birds half a mile out to our left and the entire roost, numbering 20,000 birds rose in a black cloud and started circling - I was awestruck and felt lucky to be alive and in this moment (search you tube or google to get an idea of the clamour). They settled soon enough but a magical spell was cast.

There were more birds, closer, off to our right who had walked to the edge of the saltings who also started to call. A small skein of Greylags crossed, tempted by our calling but not to within range. Whooper swans trumpeted from behind startling me with their call initially sounding like Canada geese. Curlew began piping their plaintive whistle and then it happened - the first Pinks lifted.

They didn't come over us but in a long, ever sinewing skein made safe height and crossed into the sunrise behind us.

Somewhat out of the blue a solitary goose rose a quarter of a mile out and crossed low across the marsh, making a bee-line for the muddy bend in which I was hiding. Responding to our calls it came ever closer but my legs had gone to sleep in kneeling for two hours. Crouching I slipped one leg behind me and down into the gutter to steady myself as the moment, that moment arrived. At 35 yards I raised the gun and pulled through it's dark form. The 1 1/2 oz of No.2 hevi density (non toxic) shot found it's mark and the goose spiralled towards us, landing in the gutter water just a couple of metres away. 

Pressure off, elation, satisfaction, disbelief - joyous feelings as the dog had one of its easiest retrieves to deliver my first Pinkfoot to hand. A beautiful young bird, gratefully taken and due the highest honour at the table at Christmas.

No other chances came that flight, a shame for my club colleague with his beautiful double 8 bore. So we sat and watched spellbound as skein after skein of these magnificent birds flighted inland in numbers from 10 to 200 for hour upon hour.

We had two more flights on this short trip - one under the full moon which didn't fulfill its promise but was an eerily beautiful scene. And the following morning flight which gave us the most magical, "Avatar"-esque experience with bio-luminescent algae as we walked on but only to miss our two chances as dawn broke.

It took me two nights at home to rid my ears of that wonderful noise but I'll never forget this experience - the wonder and sheer magnitude of witnessing and harvesting from one of natures spectacles on our doorstep.

It's something you just have to witness for yourself...

The Blade was cast by Neil Burridge, it was then finished by Anton my 78 year old mate. He also put the handle on it, carved out of white oak. It's a direct copy of a 3000 year old find. Cast & forged in the original methods out of 90% Copper and 10% Tin and then plunged into cold water. It's very hard. Quite amazing for primitive technology.

http://youtu.be/eEWIuyeNp2k

After reloading, I personally would never go back to buying factory ammunition.

Accuracy is the most important factor to me when using my rifles, to ensure clean and ethical kills, when I am hunting.

All of my rifle are significantly more accurate since I have tailored my ammunition to suit each rifle. It's also dramatically reduces the cost of each round.

All factory ammunition is made short to ensure that they will fit all available rifles. If you compare my home loads to factory rounds, the difference in length is visibly noticeable.

The bullets are seated deeper inro the case in factory ammunition. The result of this is that there is a jump between the the bullet leaving the case and it engaging the rifleing. This creates a level of ossilation that continues as the bullet travels down the barrel. This affects the accuracy.

As the powder loads are carefully measure when I make my rounds, the powder loads are also more constant than those that can be achieved by the mass production of ammunition. This reduces the ft/s variation between shots. This again increases the accuracy.

The net result is a dramatic increase in the accuracy of all of my rifles, compared to factory ammuition. This has the effect of increasing my confidence in my equipment.

From my experience factory ammunition normally groups between 1.5 and 2.5 inches at 100m. All of my rifles will group at 1.0 inches or less.

I recently achieved a 0.375 inch group shooting 5 shots at 100m. This was out of a £615 Browning X-Bolt .308. This was using 130gr Soft Point Hornady bullets (which are not premium bullets) and standard primers. This is quite remarkable for a cheap rifle. It does take me some time to settle down to shoot Groups like this.

If you are planning in trying home loading, I would recommend getting someone with experience to show you how to do it.

I have a friend that made a mistake and added too much powder to each case. The excessive pressure blew the primer out of the back of the rifle, which peppered his face. It didn't hurt him luckily, but it jammed the rifle bolt in the gun.

Having said that, if someone who is an experienced homeloader shows you how to do it, it really isn't difficult. the rewards for doing so are well worth the effort.

The first gun is my Webley FX2000 pneumatic airgun in .22 calibre. Using Airarms Field Pellets 16gr (5.52mm). It's running at around 30ft/lbs and 950ft/s. This gun is very accurate to around 60/70 yards and had a pretty flat trajectory to around 60 yards. It's a far safer gun for shooting pigeons and squirrels out of trees. Pellets are stablished using their shuttlecock shape and not completely by the spin, like a bullet. So when they lose speed, they start to tumble and lose their energy. They then fall safely to the ground. Bullets maintain a ballistic trajectory and can be lethal when they return to the ground. So you can never shoot a firearm into a tree. I get around 60 full power shots from this gun and so it's good on air, as well. I paid £275 for this gun in mint condition.

The second gun is a CZ452 in 22LR. It's got a 20 inch barrel to ensure that all the powder is burnt before the bullet leaves the barrel. I had a moderator made for this by John Bowkett. This was the quietest moderator in the shooting times test. Used will Eley Subsonics, this gun is extremely quiet. As quiet as a moderated pneumatic airgun. It's ideal for night time rabbit work or close range fox control (50yards). It's running at around 100ft/lbs and is the quietest firearm that I have seen to date. I paid £250 for it in mint condition.

The final gun is a Baikal .410. I test 10 different cartridges in this gun (see my test) and I only found one that was truly quiet. These were Eley Fourlongs. Using this combination you can hear the hammer click and the shot hit the bird. It's a great gun for roost shooting pigeons, shooting squirrels and rabbits. It's not as quiet as the first two guns, but very quiet for a shotgun. I paid £250 for this gun. 

All of these guns are great, if noise could possibly be an issue. The FX and CZ can be used, without others knowing you are actually hunting nearby.