The 50 ft. Rule.

[Cranfield]

I was having a quite productive afternoon on some wheat stubble this afternoon, when the action was interupted by a ladies voice , seemingly ,out of mid air.

 

I had set up my hide in a wide hedgerow/tree line, between the stubble and a half harvested bean field (not my farmers).

The pigeons were moving between the two fields and the wind was making things very interesting.

 

Back to the "voice from above".

 

The lady was behind me,on the other side of the hedge and was drawing my attention to the fact she was stood on a bridleway.

I unloaded my gun and left the hide.

We couldn,t see each other through the hedge,stinging nettles and elder bushes.

I put my empty gun in the hide and worked my way through the undergrowth until I emerged on her side.

 

The "bridleway" was an overgrown single lane path at the edge of the field.

The lady said that she walked her dog along the path every day and did not think I should be shooting so close to the path.

I very politely said that I was shooting away from the path and in fact my hide was 50ft away from the path, which is the minimum distance required by law.

 

I also pointed out that if I had been able to see her coming, despite the 50ft rule, I wouldn,t have fired my gun until she was past me.

Unfortunately , the hedge stopped us seeing each other, which is why, when I fired she jumped a mile.

I told her that when I shot this field, my car would always be parked near the gate.

If she saw it there it would pre-warn her.

She said that she didn,t know about the 50ft rule, but was pleased that I had been "understanding" and she would look out for my car.

 

We parted on friendly terms and at no time was there raised voices or any bad language.

 

When I got home I had to check my little book.

I honestly couldn,t remember if it was 50ft or 50yds.

[Malc]

I think it is actually 50ft from the centre of a public highway, unless you have reasonable excuse. Public footpaths, bridleways, etc, only allow the user to pass and re-pass. The paths themselves are private property and belong to the landowner. All that said, I think you handled it correctly. There's no point causing conflict and encouraging anti shooting feeling.

I was a walking gun on a pheasant drive one day, when a lady and her dog decided to stop and stare at the advancing guns coming through the wood towards her. We in turn, stopped the drive to wait for her to continue along the public footpath on which she stood. She didn't and words were exchanged. Very annoying situation.

[BigDave15]

I'v had a lot of that in the past and beeing younger makes it worse I norrmally have to explane that I am old enough to be out on my own with my air rifle. And that I am allowed to shoot here and finealy as we get a lot of people using the footpaths who are out in the country for the day that just because it's not a phesant pen or dosent have a private sign up dosent mean that they can walk through it.

 

P.S Quick story=

This happend a couple of years ago on the phesant shoot were I was part of the merry beating team. We were swiching bettween drives when before the guns had moved to there pegs abot 15 #### birds broke cover from the maze. None of us knew what had put the birds un till an old dog trotted out of the end of the drive, the gamekeeper whent bright red and I was half expecting him to grab one of the guns and shoot the dog!  A couple of us grabed it and took it up to one of the big Estate houses were we thought it had came from the owner of the dog came running out and we told him what the dog had dun " Oh sorry he likes to go out on his morning run" he said and gave us £20 and sweets to share out bettween the guns to say sorry. This man runs and tells the gamekeeper what to do yet he lets his dog out to runn on a shoot day still the sweets were nice.        

[sutty]

There is a public footpath that runs through one of our fields.

it has been closed most of the summer for work on a pipeline cutting accross it.

But do the greenwelly brigade care ,fraid not,they just ignore the posters warning them and plod through,

ah well

[Malc]

I had a pair of green wellies once!  :but:  :but:

 

By gum I was full.    

[Guest Keith]

The head lines in my local newspaper this morning are "Italian tourist killed by  friend in shooting incident" It appears that the two Italians were sharing a hide and his friends gun went off killing him instantly. We get alot of foreign shooting parties in this area and their gun safety is not very good.

 

 

Keith

[Deako]

tell me about it!..............

[BigDave15]

Makes you think

I was shooting in a hide with 3 people less than a week ago but The one whoes turn it was to shoot sat forward.

The blokes I was shooting with said that they had been shooting together for years so the had a Ruff Idea of what the outher one was gonna do  so they could take a couple of birds at a time  "Yours is the left mines the right" they would wisper  and stuff like that. But as I was new I had to sit back While the it did it, It worked really well but I suppose something bad can happen.   :what:

[Cranfield]

Any sort of "team" shooting only works well, if it is properly organised and everyone understands, what to do and when.

 

Classic example is driven days. The drives either work like clockwork or (as happened to me once) all the guns are facing one way and the beaters are driving the birds towards their backs. :0

 

I would not shoot in the same hide as anyone else.

I don,t even like being in a hide with anyone, wether I,m shooting or not.

 

Over the years I have shot over large fields with good friends (I emphasise "good friends") and we have worked well together.Letting the birds get in to the field and then, usually, every one gets a shot as they try to land or are exiting the field.

Takes some working out and a bit of experience.

[Cranfield]

Another potentially frustrating day, due to the close proximity of footpaths, both official and un-official,or houses,  around fields with pigeons on them.

 

I must try to find somewhere to shoot where there are no houses or footpaths.

 

I ended up on a recently sown rape field and shot 12 pigeons, had I been able to go where the birds were, I would have done a lot better.

My farmer friend is going to have to put birdscarers in those fields for the Autumn and Winter period.