First day with the Quantock...

A half a mile down the road! We met a local fellow who once hunted actively, but had a bad brain injury. He had walked, in the cold rain, a couple of miles to hunt! We took him on board and carried him around through the day.

This day was “flushing”, that is, according to the Court’s judgment, we’re supposed to push deer toward guns. Here’s how ignorant the court is- how many guns? One for every deer in the woods. Sheesh.

Weather was drippy rain and cold. Very Homehunt like in that we were right in the forest, with no visual contact at all. Still both hounds worked hard. Two hinds were shot, I helped drag one out- backwards, with no rope.

One interesting incident happened at hanged man’s tree,a little forest clearing. We were waiting there, and a couple of little old ladies parked too- one was the bag lady. It’s an irritant to me that "those damned foot people" park their cars in such a way as to partly block the roads, angering and endangering every non hunting voter who comes along.

So anyway, bag lady parked half in the road on a blind curve in the woods. Then suddenly I heard a groaning and moaning- here came a CEMENT TRUCK barreling along. Fortunately he swerved, but it was close. Ah yes, making friends.

The guns are something you wouldn’t see in the U.S. They are break open twelve gauges, but they have some sort of barrel constriction which takes them out of the “shotgun” class and into the “firearm” class. Shotguns are the least regulated class of guns here, requiring far less formality to possess. The barrel is short, less than 24 inches, which puts in in the class of “slaughter weapon”. This means that it can be used near a road. They have open sights and are loaded with buckshot.

Seems like a slug and a dot sight would do better.

Afterward we went back to kennels to watch the carve up of the deer. It’s interesting how little fat there is on an animal compared to even a fit human.