Shooting holidays

BUNNY BONUS
It was Valentine's Day. So I decided I wanted a night out with the one I love - my .22LR Sako Finnfire. But where to take her on our "special" evening? Sometimes you have to work for an opportunity, sometimes an opportunity comes out of the blue. And that's what happened when I took a call from a friend who told me all about Boundary Farm.

Despite its name, the fields at Boundary Farm haven't been ploughed. Instead, the land is a mix of hedgerow-bordered grassland and woodland. The land is owned by Darren Rogers, whose wife is a keen horsewoman. A fantastic series of jumps has been constructed to offer some exciting cross-country eventing. That's her passion. But Darren's passion is shooting, and Boundary Farm is very much a haven for anyone wanting to shoot pheasants, foxes, or in my case rabbits. I booked myself in for a day's orientation with Darren and his shooting partner Mark Whiting, after which the three of us would go out for a night's lamping. Rabbits were on the menu, and any foxes we might encounter would be an added bonus.

Darren and Mark are two men who love their land - and their sport - and they took great pains to show me round the fields where the rabbits were most likely to appear. Daytime hunting should be fairly easy to achieve, as there is plenty of cover to use when ambushing or stalking. But I was going shooting at night, and first of all that meant a ride around Darren's land on his 4x4. Apart from being great fun - being carted around Boundary Farm on a John Deere Gator is certainly exciting - the trip served three practical purposes.

First of all, it showed me the lie of the land, second, it gave me a good idea of where rabbits were likely to appear and third, it gave me most important lesson of all, where safe shots could be taken with a good backstop. In the end I needn't have worried, because that night Darren drove me to spots he knew to be safe and Mark pointed out the best shots to take, but for my own confidence and peace of mind I was pleased they'd taken me on the daytime recce. Safety always has to come first.

Another thing that was on my mind was how much quarry we'd come across that night. As it happened, rabbits were in abundance, despite my shooting trip being taken in the middle of February. This says a lot about the health of the land in general and Darren's rabbit population in particular.

Because Boundary Farm has been turned over to shooting and cross-country eventing rather than farming, rabbits are less of a pest for Darren than they are for some landowners. As such, Darren's rabbits are allowed to live in more or less happy co-existence with Darren and his family. This is great news for any shooters planning on paying a visit, because it means there will be plenty of quarry.

"You could sit in that hedgerow and shoot rabbits all day long," Darren told me during our familiarisation trip. He was right, too, because the tour round the fields and woods showed plenty of evidence of the rabbits' presence, such as their numerous burrows, droppings and some tree damage. This is one reason why Darren wants his guests to help keep their number down, without annihilating the whole lot.

Foxes are less well liked by either Darren or Mark. The two men have set up a number of infrared video cameras around the pheasant feeders. These have proved invaluable in telling the pair which feeders to target when going out lamping for foxes or setting up a daytime ambush.

The pair showed me a series of videos they'd recorded depicting various nocturnal visits by some opportunistic foxes. "That's old Bent Tail," Mark told me, while pointing out a fox with a distinctive kink in its brush. "He's dead," he added with a smile. Another fox appeared on a different video. "He's dead as well," Mark was quick to point out. A third video and a third fox? Yep, that one's now dead too. In fact Darren and Mark seem to be so successful at ridding the world of foxes, I wondered if I'd even see a fox that night, let alone take a shot at one. Maybe I'd just stick to rabbits and give the foxes a miss.

I was really looking forward to going lamping for rabbits. But when Darren and Mark heard I'd brought my Sako 75 .222 as well as my .22 rimfire, they advised me to bring it with me that night too, "just in case". My fox shooting career has been pretty unremarkable so far. I was happy to shoot rabbits that night, but wasn't really expecting to get a chance at a fox. Still, I thought it only polite to put the .222 in the vehicle just to humour them.

Night had fallen. Darren and Mark pulled up in the Gator and I climbed aboard. The shooter sits on a bench behind the cab, leaning on a purpose-built wooden shooting platform. Mark has added his own touch in the shape of two high-tech shooting bags. The bags - legs cut from an old pair of jeans, filled with grain and tied at both ends - make the perfect rest for your rifle's forend and butt. It's a simple detail that works well in terms of stability. It also provides protection for your rifle's woodwork. I can appreciate the fact that a rifle is a tool for most pest controllers, and as such a few dings and dents are par for the course. My rifles, on the other hand, are treasured possessions, because I shoot for sport.

Mark flashed the lamp around the first field and revealed what I'd been hoping for - plenty of rabbits, their eyes reflecting in the filtered light. As long as the Gator crawled forward slowly, the rabbits remained remarkably unspooked. Mark then lit up the nearest rabbit. Darren, the driver, had done his bit. Mark, the lamp man, had done his. The next part was up to me, and I didn't let myself down, my first shot dropping the quarry with ease.

Having retrieved my prize, we decided to take a look at the next field, and sure enough there were plenty of rabbits feeding there as well. The closest one wasn't quite lined up properly, so Darren coaxed the Gator closer, until Mark was able to light up the perfect rabbit in front of a perfectly safe backstop. And so rabbit No 2 found its way into my game bag.

It would have been easy to harvest the same field for more rabbits, but with such a huge acreage, and with such a fantastically clear night, we thought we'd take a look further on. And that was the right decision, because Mark spotted something skulking along the hedgerow - and it definitely wasn't a rabbit.

The first thing to do was to ready my .222. Mark gave the field another sweep and found the fox had moved, this time lying belly down in the middle of the field. His lamping technique is excellent. Having spotted the quarry, positively identified it and ensured the shot I was about to take was safe, Mark raised the lamp so it wasn't shining directly at the fox.

There was just enough illumination to see the animal so I could get on aim. "Ready?" he asked me. "Ready," I responded, after which he settled the beam of light back onto the fox. Everything had been set up to give me the best chance of a kill, and that's what I did, nailing a large vixen.

I remembered the video clips of the foxes Darren and Mark had shown me earlier in the day on the laptop. "He's dead," had been Mark's catchphrase. Having nabbed that vixen I thought I could now add my own: "She's dead!"