Friday, January 20, 2012

Lovely Highland Spices

Worth tracking down at a good delicatessen near you. Hand blended in the Highlands and has a list of additional ingredients required and the method on the other side.


Shotgun, Hide, Decoy

Well I got a good deal on an old shotgun. Its a Francais D'Armes Robust No26.
Any information you have on above gun would be appreciated as there's not much out there in interweb land.


It's pictured here with a BSA Sportsman 5 .22lr rimfire rifle which was thrown in with the shotgun ! I told you it was a good deal !
Theres a piece missing from the shotgun butt which used to be a cheekpiece, I fixed this with a piece from an old BSA walnut stock given to me by John Macrae of Tain Rifle and Pistol Club.

So it went from this:
 To this :

It's had some more sanding and oiling since then too.

So, I bought some FUD pigeon decoys and a hide and set off on some trials, setting up in a stubble field at first and bagging a bird that actually landed.


We moved to an Oil Seed Rape Field


Yes kids, those pigeons are Fold Up Decoys and should not be shot and eaten.

This is the view back to the hide


Here are my decoys being attacked by a Buzzard !


and here is the first pigeon I have shot on the wing when I moved the setup into the adjacent stubble field.


If you haven't tried Wood pigeon and know where you can get one, then try it.

Pigeons

I like pigeon. Not the feral pigeons that hang around the distilleries munching on all the grain and making a mess by crapping everywhere. These I don't eat I just shoot.


The Wood Pigeon on the other hand is a much better bag. Now I'll try to eat anything within reason and so I have cooked some feral pigeon to see what they taste like, and the breast meat has a texture I don't like similar to liver.
Wood pigeon breast fried is lovely, more like a good steak than poultry.


 I had managed to shoot a few 'Woodies' with the BSA Ultra but got a good deal on an old shotgun and decided to have a go with it.



Shotgun story to follow...