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I want to go shooting over my ferrets!
I intend to have a shooting expedition over my ferrets and have invited some friends along. Do you have any tips that I can pass on for the day ahead?
FERRETS
Simon Whitehead
I used to do a great deal of shooting over ferrets, but nowadays I rarely pick up a gun.
I would rather let some good friends do the shooting so that I can concentrate fully on my ferrets.
My top tip would be to pick your Guns carefully, as few things will excite a normally steady shooter like bolting rabbits.
Use white ferrets to help with identification, and give a talk beforehand to set the parameters of what is, and what is not, acceptable.
Get the safe arcs of fire established and make sure the rabbits have a chance to bolt well clear before any shooting begins.
Always ensure wounded rabbits are retrieved quickly and despatched humanely.
Many Guns underestimate the testing shot offered by a rabbit, and there is a considerable drain on the Guns, who have to be in a constant state of alertness.
About the author
Simon Whitehead
A Suffolk-based professional ferreter and rabbit controller, author and Shooting Times contributor, Simon is known widely as The Ferret Man and acknowledged as the last full-time warrener operating in Britain. Born in Middlesbrough in 1968, he moved with his parents to Suffolk in 1984 after the collapse of Cleveland's steel industry, and turned a boyhood fascination into a business in 2001, demonstrating ferreting at country shows nationwide through the summer and controlling rabbits in rural and urban East Anglia through the winter. Simon has become ferreting's premier demonstrator in the UK, sits on the Shooting Times expert panel and writes regularly for the magazine. He is the author of four books, including Ferreting: An Essential Guide, published by Crowood, and Ahead of the Game, celebrating wild rabbit as food, and has appeared in television programmes on rabbit management.
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