Dont Wear Buttons

First Published in Irish Country Sports and Country Life Magazine, 2009

The Longnet has been in existence since the rabbit came to these shores via the Normans, and has been shrouded in mystery just as long. The skill of longnetting itself is looked upon as a black art, something which, if it really did exist at all was carried out by poachers and mouchers of the Victorian times. This was of course when longnetting was at its peak. It became very popular during the pre myxomatosis era, circa 1940 and for sometime after, but as time went on and less people relied on rabbits as an income and a food source in the United Kingdom and Ireland, the Longnet thusly lost popularity.

It is a great shame the Longnet went this way as it is one of the most effective methods of rabbit control ever known to man. As the saying goes “the simplest ideas are often the best” and this really applies to longnetting. So what is longnetting, how does it work and why is it so effective?

In a most simple explanation, A Longnet is quite simply a “long net” run out in a straight line between feeding rabbits and their warrens during darkness. The longnetter then panics the rabbits into fleeing for the warren and they are caught in the waiting net. There is slightly more to it than that, and I will explain later. But for now, you probably want to know just what a Longnet is. There are 2 types of Longnet, the first is called the traditional method as that’s exactly what it is, the first and original Longnet method. A Longnet can be any length from 25yrds to 200yrds. The net always has double the amount of mesh for the length of the net, so for a 100yrd net there is 200yrds of mesh on the running lines. The reason for this is to create what is know as “kill” in the net, this is what tangles the rabbits as they hit it, (it doesn’t actually kill them hence the name)! A net with insufficient kill will fail to catch rabbits and they will literally bounce off it as they hit it. The mesh of any of today’s Longnets is usually 2 1/4” from knot to knot, or 4 ½” from corner to corner and can be made from hemp or nylon, but the latter is more common as its cheaper and very easy to maintain. Hemp if it is not dried correctly when wet, will rot as opposed to Nylon which takes no looking after. Older Longnets and indeed older Longnetters preferred a smaller mesh of 2” and 4” as opposed to the more modern sizes as it captured even half grown rabbits, at a time when every rabbit counted. The net itself is usually around 15 meshes deep and sits at between 18-22” high when pegged out. For the traditional longnet to operate correctly it needed pegs to allow it to be set along any hedgerow or field and operate correctly. The traditional longnet pegs were made from Hazel, as not only was it readily available in the countryside, but when seasoned for a year and allowed to dry it was extremely strong. The Hazel was usually cut in October when it contained the least amount of sap and left to season for next years net pegs. Iron objects called “End Pins” were used to collect the net up and run it out when required, and these were forged from iron, they were around 12” long with a loop on the end to allow them to be held comfortably. Now the longnetter would have his net collected up onto its end pins and tucked into his jacket along with his seasoned Hazel pegs, ready for a nights work. A lot of netters wore a “Longnetting jacket” and this was usually an old WW2 military jacket. A quiver was stitched down one side on the inside, and a “poacher’s pocket” was sewn along the back on the inside. The poachers pocket held the net, while the quiver held the pegs, and a longnetter could move about the village, or indeed the game estate without anyone knowing what he was up to!  Indeed these were the benefits of the longnet. As it is all carried out in complete darkness, it was very easy for a netter to be in places he perhaps shouldn’t have been, and he never left a trace he ever was. This was very important in a time when the rabbit was the bread and butter of the common man. Another benefit of the net was the fact it didn’t damage the rabbits. Anyone selling rabbits to a game dealer and using nets was always able to fetch a higher price for a good clean netted rabbit, as opposed to one shot, trapped or bruised by a dog. There is some superstition that it is unlucky to kill a black rabbit. And I will be the first to admit that I do let them run free if I catch them. This actually arose from Longnetters. In years gone by on game estates, gamekeepers and estate managers released black rabbits onto their land. The reason for this was that longnetters working by night couldn’t tell a rabbit was black until it was too late, and when a landowner or keeper noticed black rabbits missing he watched his ground more closely. This in turn caused longnetters to be caught and they blamed the “unlucky” black rabbit!

Now as with everything, we are always upgrading and moving forward and longnetting hasn’t been left behind in the modern world! The more recently designed quickset longnet has caused a small resurgence in longnetting, most likely down to its sheer simplicity and ease of use for the layman. Created by a man called Glen Waters, the quickset method is where by the longnets pegs or poles are permanently attached to the actual net, these days the pegs or poles are more likely to be light weight and outrageously strong carbon fibre or glass fibre. It is simplicity itself to work this type of net and one has to wonder why it was never thought of before! Following on from Glen’s quickset method, another gentleman by the name of Brian Brinded created the quickset basket. The quickset basket made the quickset method a lot faster and the combined methods made for an outstanding method of longnetting! Its very easy for anyone with little knowledge of nets to run out a 100yrd quickset net in under 2 minutes with little practice whatsoever. Compare that to the effort and time it takes with the traditional method and you can see why its so popular! But it’s not only night time netting that the quickset or indeed the traditional method can be used for. Ferreting has now been made a lot faster and enjoyable through the use of the quickset method. Anyone who has ferreted to any degree with purse nets will understand the pain staking work that goes into netting a large warren. I have done this myself and quite regularly carried a large bag of over 100+ purse nets and at times spent over an hour netting individual warrens. Those days are long gone and I can now net those same warrens in less than two minutes with a quickset. Admittedly I will miss the odd rabbit here or there, but the advantages make up for it. What makes the longnet even greater for me is watching either of my dogs work with it. My eldest bitch Ruby is quite a master and will jump and skip her way through the netted warren to a rabbit and hold it nicely until I manage to catch up with her. Ferreting with longnets and whippets is most definitely some of the best sport I have ever had. Now getting back to night time netting, what exactly is required? Well weather conditions play a major role in netting and as the late Harold Wyman quoted to close his outstanding book, The Art of Longnetting “The wind is the longnetters ally”. This is one of the most important factors in Longnetting, as without the wind we have nothing. The wind is essential is it acts not only as a sound barrier, but it keeps our scent away from the rabbits while we run out the net. As long as the wind is blowing in the right direction of course! Assuming we had a field where the rabbit warren is to the right along a hedge. When the rabbits move out to feed under the cover of darkness, they would move out to the left. We would then hope for a wind that was blowing from the left and onto the warren, hereby blowing our scent away from the feeding rabbits as well as hopefully masking any sounds we made. While the rabbits feed we run out our net, be it traditional or quickset along the full length of the warren. Professional Longnetters usually worked in teams of two, with a traditional longnet. One person run out the net and was known as “the runner”, while the other followed behind and placed the pegs in the ground and set on the net, he was known as “the pegger”. Now all is left to do is to drive the rabbit’s home, a term known as “Banting” the field. Now in previous times a “Bant Cord” was used. The Bant cord was simply a reel of cord or twine, which was drawn out the width of the field and dragged between two netters in order to push every rabbit towards the net. The reason it was used was simple, professional netters simply did not want to miss a rabbit, a missed rabbit was a missed sale and the bant cord ensured this didn’t happen. If we bant a field without a cord the rabbits will sometimes “squat” a term that anyone who lamps rabbits with a dog will be familiar with. It is the rabbit’s first instinct to lay flat and hope to remain unseen, and if one moves too quickly while banting the field, it is very easy to miss these rabbits that squat. I don’t employ the use of a bant cord myself, and instead I will take my hat off and simply slap it on my leg as I walk in a zig zag motion across the field towards the net. Other netters I know will use a box of matches or simply slap their leg with their hand. Whatever your chosen method, it takes very little noise to send the rabbits fleeing for home! After Banting the field we reach the net. If you have made a considerable catch of rabbits, the headline of the net will usually be bouncing as an indication of many struggling conies that are “hanked” up in the kill of the net. We walk along, swiftly and humanely dispatching rabbits whilst leaving them belly up for collection while gathering the net in. By leaving these rabbits belly up, we are ensuring none are left behind; a rabbit is bright white underneath and is very easily spotted even in complete darkness. All is left to do is pack up the net, and move to the next field. While demonstrating longnetting at the great game fairs of Ireland this summer I met many people who were very interested in Longnetting and many asked for advice on trying Longnetting and any tips I had. I always tell people the best piece of advice I ever had given to me was “Don’t wear anything with buttons” for it is the devils work to free your jacket from a net in black darkness in a howling wind…Have a good season.

Steven McGonigal