My First Time-an interview with old bill

[lakeside1000]

11 AM start,wheat stubble field ,set up 200 yards from a small country lane on the boundary of my permission, decoys out and hide up, I sat waiting for birds but very few came, just 3 by 1 pm and an old crow, back to the van for a short break then back into the hide, the afternoon started slow again but picked up around 4, big black clouds finally put an end to a slow day with just 14 pigeons and a crow, not so bad, I packed away, brought the van up the field , loaded up and headed back towards the farm entrance, Not So Fast !!! two patrol cars pulled across my path and an RSPCA van, I switched off the engine and sat quietly while they all got out of their vehicles and stood across the front of my van, a woman police officer asked me to step out, and questioned me for several minutes, was I shooting 'birds', what with, did I have permission, licence etc., they checked my gun, my licence, my van documents, my equipment and bag of dead birds, "do you have live birds in the van" one asked, the penny dropped, someone on seeing my flappers has reported me for using live bird decoys, I laughed out loud, and explained the concept of the flapper, pulled out my A1 turbo, attached a battery and demonstrated,Mr RSPCA was not amused,especially when I demonstrated impaling a dead bird through the jacksy ,breaking its wings and hooking them onto the flapper arms, but the police officers saw the funny side, apologised for the interrogation and bid me on my way,

I do wonder at the general public though, where do they think we get live wood pigeons from, how do we train them to flap in short bursts and how do the birds keep up the flapping for several hours without tiring.

So I finally arrived home for my dinner almost an hour late,

I now have instructions to phone the 101 number and tell them each time I intend to shoot so they know im out, it wont stop Joe public but it might save the bill having to miss their tea break.

[southeastpete]

For goodness sake. If they had just said from the get go, 'we've had reports you were using live birds as decoys' would have taken 5 minutes.... What a wate of time and money. Glad you came out without too much hassle.

[Kes]

Nice to see the police and the RSPCA are close and as thick as 2 short ones - or maybe a bit frightening, given they seem to be the same ?

[bluesj]

For goodness sake. If they had just said from the get go, 'we've had reports you were using live birds as decoys' would have taken 5 minutes.... What a wate of time and money. Glad you came out without too much hassle.

Have you ever known the police to come strait to the point when asking questions?

[39TDS]

"You know why we stopped you don't you" is usually their first question.

Damned if I would call them every time i go shooting. They do sod all if I call them when I need them.

[matt 205 gti]

"You know why we stopped you don't you" is usually their first question.

Damned if I would call them every time i go shooting. They do sod all if I call them when I need them.

Tottally agree with this one mate, bloody useless , spend all there time in lay bys round here with there feet on dash , like the two out of " the last of the summer wine " showing my age a bit there !

[garden gun]

Of far more concern is the involvement of the RSPCA. Although their top team have all just resigned and thye have announced they will stop going after organised hunts it may be that they will be turning their nasty little spotlights to shooters who they see as easier game. Grauniad reading, sandal wearing tree huggers really are a total nuisance.

[timmytree]

Tell them what they can do with their "instruction" to phone 101.

You don't need to, there is no requirement by law and means nothing except some bird on a switchboard will mention "man with gun" to a colleague and you'll get an ARV instead of plod with a nosey parker in tow.

[Gordon R]

The Police seem to have behaved properly, with the exception of phoning 101 on each visit. :good:

[martyn2233]

The Police seem to have behaved properly, with the exception of phoning 101 on each visit. :good:

+1 here and by the way you don't have to tell RSPCA naff all

[kaunda]

Plod is not a problem around here,they languished in the Red Book of endangered species for years and are now considered extinct.

[Cranfield]

The Police seem to have behaved properly, with the exception of phoning 101 on each visit. :good:

 

I would agree with that and would certainly would not phone 101 if daytime shooting.

 

I have had a woman run shouting at me from a footpath 400 yards away, because she was convinced the hypaflaps on my rotary were live birds.

She did have the good grace to apologise when she saw her mistake.

Apparently she had seen an RSPB video at WI, where they showed French or Italians catching/shooting pigeons using live bird decoys.

 

A Farmers wife also told me she was surprised I didn't pick up the wounded birds, but left them flapping.

That was sorted out after I explained the flapper to her.

 

In all the years I have been shooting, I have never had the police approach me on the field.

I am beginning to feel left out.

[A1Decoy]

That has made everyone in the office laugh!

[Shotgun57]

made me laugh. good write up , one farm I shoot on insists I call 101,paul

[yickdaz]

only had one visit and one phone call from them in 28 years, the visit was last year they told us to carry on after checking licence details, and permission, farmer was in the yard to verify it in person

this year had a phone call from the firearms dept saying we have had a call from a woman walking down the footpath your shooting near, I told them its at least 200 yards away and shooting away from it saying your gunshots have startled her

then went on to say we have sent officers to the area to check your location and car reg and did a check on the national database to find your issuing police force and everything has come out fine and your ok to carry on shooting but next time ring 101 and let us know when you are shooting, so can't complain about that they didn't even come across the field to see me

I rang 101 after that when shooting in the same location and got some woman on the other end telling me the duty officer isn,t available so told her where I was shooting etc etc, that's the one and only time I have notified them

[lakeside1000]

Oh yes , I forgot to say, when they had finished questioning me, I asked why they had attended and not the armed lot who normally check out gun toting strangers, apparently there had been an attempted armed robbery in a bank in Holt, Norfolk, in the morning and they were all up there trying to earn their wages.

So a big thank you to the old bank robber who saved me having to get a change of underwear after looking down the barrels of a load of gun toting strangers dressed in black , I don't care who's holding the gun, if its pointing at me I scare real easy.

Edited August 22, 2014 by lakeside1000

[The Juicer]

"You know why we stopped you don't you" is usually their first question.

Damned if I would call them every time i go shooting. They do sod all if I call them when I need them.

That's to get you to incriminate yourself and make their task easier. Sorry I was speeding versus no what have I done that you can prove.

[39TDS]

Just say something along the lines of "is it because of the three dead women in my boot?"

[yickdaz]

Just say something along the lines of "is it because of the three dead women in my boot?"

[pigeon controller]

You mean I can't use my twelve tame pigeons as decoys???????

The man In Greece said it was OK ???

Edited August 23, 2014 by pigeon controller

[JDog]

For the very first time I found myself some shooting near a town this spring. I shot there last Friday on a field next to the town by pass and I was careful to set up in such a way that all of my shots were directed away from the road from my position 100m from the same road.

 

However I was nervous being so close to the masses of vehicles on the road. Normally I never see a car or a person on my outings and it did run through my mind that at some stage I would get a visit from the police. When the first siren went off I was alarmed but the car drove on by. An hour later a second siren sounded and I felt sure that they would 'come for me' this time but no it was an ambulance. It was at that stage that I started to rehearse my opening gambit - in fact there were two of them. One was 'good afternoon officers what can I do for you?'. The second was rather more blunt and was something to the effect that I was carrying out a perfectly legitimate activity on land that I had consent to be on and why were they wasting valuable police time on me?

 

The third siren was another police car and I saw it slow right down at the entrance to the field and I thought that my time was up. Only after a minute or so could I see that the police car was at the end of a long queue for the roundabout. By this time my nerves were shot to shreds.

[jam1e]

I fail to see where the Police acted badly, or wrongly here???

But as usual this forum has its usual bunch of ignorant plums............

Edited August 23, 2014 by jam1e

[pigeon controller]

You mean I can't use my twelve tame pigeons as decoys???????

The man I Greece said it was OK ???

We have been checked over a few times , on one the female officer said she had never shot a shotgun , so we put a empty cartridge box out in the field and let her have a shot. It had about three pellet hole in it and she was amazed as she thought it would have blown to pieces. On most occasions we have had a good banter with them only one was officious , so be kept stum.

[Dr D]

Oh yes , I forgot to say, when they had finished questioning me, I asked why they had attended and not the armed lot who normally check out gun toting strangers, apparently there had been an attempted armed robbery in a bank in Holt, Norfolk, in the morning and they were all up there trying to earn their wages.

So a big thank you to the old bank robber who saved me having to get a change of underwear after looking down the barrels of a load of gun toting strangers dressed in black , I don't care who's holding the gun, if its pointing at me I scare real easy.

 

Think yourselves lucky then. In days gonebye it wasnt the gentlemen and ladies in blue here. It was a chopper dropping into your field and then a platoon of camoflaged dudes fanning out across the field, pointing their weapons at your bunker, errrrr hide. lol.

Edited August 23, 2014 by Dr D

[kenholland]

were are posh in my area we have cctv vans instead kenbo