Post
by shooter » Wed Jun 09, 2010 1:25 am
Thanks for the comments friends.
Vikram has already answered most questions. A lot depends on ones contacts. For a newbie who doesnt know anybody but has his own gun and can shoot safely (some shoots prefer a 'safe shot' certificate but many dont), :
1 It is almost mandatory for one to have insurance And most shoots can get you one or one can get it himself. Costs £86 a year. This money is spent on conservation.
2To shoot, ones guns and ammo (of course), a place to shoot and animals.
2a If one is not a landowner, one can approach a landowner to give permission.
Else shooting rights can also be leased or bought. (Wont go into more details as it will be OT).
Sometimes a group of people/friends will pool in money to buy shooting rights. Or a few people buy it and sublet it to others. This is the rough idea of a syndicate.
3 One can depend on the natural population of animals to shoot (for example deer, all waterfowl, rabbits, pigeon etc). In rough shoot, this may be done for phesants and partridges too.
However in driven shooting where in Edwardian days there were bags sometimes almost reached 4000 phesants/day (Plus other birds), one cant/shouldnt depend on just the existing population of phesants/partridges (most commonly).
So these are also reared and released into the wild to supplement existing numbers. How many to release, existing numbers (approx), nomber to shoot, loss to predators, loss by other causes etc are just some factors that make one judge the numbers etc. It is almost a science and many agriculture colleges offer gamekeeping courses.
ALl this makes driven shooting expensive and the cost works out to £27/bird approx. I was talking to a gamekeeper who invited me to his shoot and they shoot 125000 (thats right) birds/year. The membership costs were approx £14000 per member per year.
Now a days its very difficuly to get free rabbit and pigeon shooting for newbies despite them being pests for farmers. A days pest shooting may cost £50. But in a syndicate one can shoot it for as little as £150/year.
Deer here are wild but one can shoot them at deer farms just like ranch shooting in the usa. Just for comparison, i enquired an owner about a trophy sika on a deer farm (almost like a canned hunt). It was £1000 "for you; usually £1300.
The deer staliking course, safe shot course etc are not mandatory but now many owners of estates ask for them to ascertain ones capabilities.
Wildfowling is the last remaining truly "wild" hunting in the UK. Wildfowling clubs buy land and leave it 'untamed' and members can shoot geese, ducks etc. on that land.
There are millions of wildfowl in the uk and tens of thousands shot evry year.
The common ones are:
Canada goose
Pinkfoot goose
Greylag goose
Ive never shot white fronted goose.
We call geese by decoys, calls, calling by mouth (im not that talanted though). Electronic calls arent allowed.
All this info is more for ways for a newbie to get shooting and there are many other ways and means to go shooting/hunting.
You want more gun control? Use both hands!
God made man and God made woman, but Samuel Colt made them equal.
One does not hunt in order to kill; on the contrary, one kills in order to have hunted. by Jose Gasset.
