Shooting in England

Daveyboy · Member Joined: Jan 22, 2006 Posts: 143

I just love reading the stories that you guys post. The photoâ€™s you upload turn me green with envy. You guys in the USA â€“ and those in Australia too â€“ are so lucky to have good hunting.

Why? Because itâ€™s not the same in the UK. Over here weâ€™ve got 6 or 7 types of deer â€“ it all depends on if you count reindeer â€“ and in some places the locals are very accommodating and in other areas, you canâ€™t shoot anything. I live in one of those â€˜otherâ€™ areas.

The geography of the UK is a bit weird. In England you cannot be more than 73 miles away from the sea. Itâ€™s impossible â€“ weâ€™re a tiny country. It changes from snow capped mountains to flooded lowlands in a matter of 20 â€“ 50 miles. There is, however, a big deer problem. Two problems actually â€“ firstly weâ€™ve never had so many deer and secondly, people (mainly townies) donâ€™t like them being shot.

The big sport in England is pheasant shooting with some of the shoots (a small estate) taking upto 2000 birds a day. There is a big movement in the shooting world to go with smaller bags. The shoot that I beat and pick up on (walking about with my dog finding birds for other people to shoot) shoots about 12 times per year and takes about 20 birds a day.

As for the deer â€“ no hope. We have got herds of 60+ Fallow (third biggest deer in the UK â€“ about 150/200lbs for a big buck, depending on which part of the country you are in) deer on my doorstep and the farmers/landowners wonâ€™t allow anybody to shoot them. Apparently the â€˜look niceâ€™ and â€˜nature will take care of themâ€™. Iâ€™ve tried to have the chat about nature being full of disease, feast and famine, poachers and the like but all to no avail. This isnâ€™t â€˜wildâ€™ land that they live on either â€“ itâ€™s crops! Most of it is used for agriculture of some description so the bill for what these deer eat must be enormous.

Typically, people drive for miles to go to their bit of land. Hardly anybody has any shooting on their own doorstep and if they do, theyâ€™re not sharing it. Worse than that, people change when you talk about stalking. The most mild mannered vicar will turn into the devil himself â€“ horns, tail and trident included â€“ if you ask â€œCould I come with you one day?â€

So to you guys that bring down grizzlyâ€™s with your automagâ€™s (Wasnâ€™t that impressive?!), those of you who do 400 yard dawg shooting and especially those of you who take long range deer with neck shots â€“ I salute you. You lucky, lucky buggers.

Oh â€“ nearly forgot. If any of the readers are in the UK and want to take a fellow shooter out (.308 or 6.5x55 â€“ take your pick) then Iâ€™ll swap it for some rabbit clearance on the local golf course. Iâ€™ll even supply the .17hmr! I live on the south side of Hitchin. Look me up on the satellite!

Daveyboy

shrpshtrjoe · Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2006 4:13 pm Post subject: Re: Shooting in England

Howdy Daveyboy. Welcome to the HuntingNut I hope you enjoy your stay.
Joe

delboy · Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2006 5:16 pm Post subject: Re: Shooting in England

Daveyboy, looked you up - found Hitchin (well, knew where that was anyway) but couldn't see you, were you looking down when the satellite went over? Wouldn't mind some rabbit stew, I must admit! I have my own 18.5mm rifle (that's not a misprint!) for bunnies that makes them easy to skin! As to deer, I'll mention it to a likeminded person on this site that I know personally - maybe the three of us can get together. Hope you enjoy the site, they're a really good bunch here except for Delboy. Watch out for that one, he'll take the p**s in a heartbeat!
Del.

kbis · Posted: Fri Feb 24, 2006 1:00 am Post subject: Re: Shooting in England

Daveyboy- Welcome to the site. If you ever make it over to this side of the pond look us up, maybe we can get you a deer.
Ken

Daveyboy · Member Joined: Jan 22, 2006 Posts: 143

Hi Kbis

I've been on this site for a while but reading, not posting. I get over there about once a year but I've never been to texas. My brother-in-law has a gun manufacturing plant in Tennessee though.

Thanks for the offer. When I next get over there I shall post my arrival and hopefully someone will take me out.

Keep well

D

Bushmaster · Posted: Sat Feb 25, 2006 2:00 pm Post subject: Re: Shooting in England

And to think not too long ago the deer belonged to the King...Welcome aboard Daveyboy....

Daveyboy · Member Joined: Jan 22, 2006 Posts: 143

Property of the king - not anymore!

Deer in England are considered to be wild animals and as such, are the responsibility of the owner of the land that they are standing on. No one owns them but they seem to think that they do.

My master plan is to tempt them into my garden and deal with them there. The local farmer who owns most of what surrounds my house won't have them shot - won't even talk about it. When you look at the herd you see loads of mature bucks and they wouldn't miss one or two. He doesn't appreciate that to thin them out a little will promote growth. Even talked about managing the herd to inprove the quality but he won't have it.

"Nature will sort them out" is what he says so famine, disease and being hit by cars it is! If the government decide that we've got another outbreak of foot and mouth then they could all be shot and no one to protect them.

Honestly, in the UK they've gone all wooley. Sorry for sounding annoyed about this but as I said at the start, you guys in Aus and the US have got it soooooo good.

On the upside, does anyone have an idea as to how I can get into this guy?

D

Bushmaster · Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2006 7:01 pm Post subject: Re: Shooting in England

Here in the states we have preditors that help to keep the herds thinned and healthy. At least in the wild and wooley West, anyway. Without the preditors to take down the weak, the weak are allowed to breed hence a weak and poor gene pool of animals...Hunters are not as selective,but do help in the long run. We, as hunters, tend to take what ever comes our way or look for the trophy animal and kill off the good genes in the process. This is the only argument I can give you at this time...

yotebuster · Member Joined: Oct 16, 2005 Posts: 216 Location: Georgia

Daveyboy, you got my curiosity up. What gun Mfg. plant in Tennessee does your Brother in Law have?
I guess we do have it pretty good over here when it comes to opportunities. Just today I had a discussion with a friend about an opening in a hunting club. This club has 20,000 acres and parts of it are within a 25 minute drive of my house. I also have 1200 acres of prime riverbottom land to hunt within 5 minutes of my home. It does make it very convenient.
Cheers,
Yotebuster

Daveyboy · Member Joined: Jan 22, 2006 Posts: 143

Ever heard of Sabre Defence? My geography of the USA is not pin-point but I believe that he is in Tennessee. Not far from the Gibson guitars factory.

D