Tollerman Posted November 23, 2015 Report Share Posted November 23, 2015 My pigeon clubs chairman was a founder member of the club in the early 1950's.He tells me that accredited shots would meet at the local NFU office early on a Saturday morning.They would be given a map of the farms to shoot and a chit to take to the nearest police station.They would exchange the chit for a slab of cartridges and off they would go.Post war food was still in short supply and farmers were only too happy to receive assistance with pest control.They club then shot from the outskirts of London up to Colchester and the Suffolk border.Oh happy days all the shooting you could want for and free ammo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katzenjammer Posted November 23, 2015 Report Share Posted November 23, 2015 Aye, nostalgia isn't what it used to be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodp Posted November 23, 2015 Report Share Posted November 23, 2015 Trouble was, they couldn't walk very far because of rickets so never shot many Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
la bala Posted November 23, 2015 Report Share Posted November 23, 2015 I cant remember if it was late 50s or early 60s, Pigeon shooters would take pigeon feet to the local NFU branch and exchange them for cartridges. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matone Posted November 23, 2015 Report Share Posted November 23, 2015 Were these the AEC Pest Control cartridges that you still see odd ones of ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subsonicnat Posted November 23, 2015 Report Share Posted November 23, 2015 (edited) Free Marsh shooting Springs to mind.. Till people started to take them over, and introduce every rule in the book. Not half as romantic now, all the old boys have gone or very nearly so.. Always some body with a bigger check book, or influence... Edited November 23, 2015 by subsonicnat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vince Green Posted November 23, 2015 Report Share Posted November 23, 2015 My uncle seemed to have a casual permission to shoot on all the farms in the area whenever he wanted to. That was Warwickshire in the 60s. He just used to knock and ask, it was never a problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subsonicnat Posted November 23, 2015 Report Share Posted November 23, 2015 My uncle seemed to have a casual permission to shoot on all the farms in the area whenever he wanted to. That was Warwickshire in the 60s. He just used to knock and ask, it was never a problem. 50p.. 10 shillings at the Post Office licence.. It did not create crime then, its the mentality today Probably.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prime18 Posted November 23, 2015 Report Share Posted November 23, 2015 Wish I was alive back in the good old days. I hear plenty of old timer stories full of laughter and shifty characters. Can't get enough of them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subsonicnat Posted November 23, 2015 Report Share Posted November 23, 2015 Wish I was alive back in the good old days. I hear plenty of old timer stories full of laughter and shifty characters. Can't get enough of them. Used to be more shot in the pub at night, With banter about missed shots. Drink Drive Laws killed that, But better that than somebody dead.. Cars would only do 70 flat out down hill, or you could pedal faster..lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aled Posted November 24, 2015 Report Share Posted November 24, 2015 Know the feeling when I was a boy, nobody ever blinked an eye at seeing a person walking through the village carrying a gun (usually in a slip, of course the slip was often a big bin bag!) with a dog on a lead. There would be armed response unit out now! Cheers Aled Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackpowder Posted November 24, 2015 Report Share Posted November 24, 2015 Late 50s the local NFU reps supplied half price Eley Grand Prix with few questions asked. Blackpowder Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
longspoon Posted November 24, 2015 Report Share Posted November 24, 2015 (edited) Used to buy old shotguns from our local junk shop in Uxbridge for a couple of pounds then away to shoot pigeons on the fields around Northolt......happy memories ! never had a gun slip, just carried them broken....no probs. Edited November 24, 2015 by longspoon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
misser Posted November 24, 2015 Report Share Posted November 24, 2015 old boy I know shot the west lancashire marshes, used to go to the pub with waders on and stand gun against fireplace...its a bistro gourmet pub now...imagine if he did it now.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Good shot? Posted November 24, 2015 Report Share Posted November 24, 2015 (edited) In the 50's a a die hard poacher living across the street from me called me over one day and had me holding the tails of a litter of Jack Russell terriers so he could dock the tails of them with a razor blade, one at a time.I would have been about eight at the time..He was a miner and would be out at all hours for food for the table. In the sixties 3 or 4 of us lads could walk through the streets with guns and dogs, on our way to whichever land we had chosen to shoot and no one would blink an eye. Shotguns and air rifles were swapped and sold all around and I do not remember any crime with their use being reported. Edited November 24, 2015 by Good shot? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaunda Posted November 24, 2015 Report Share Posted November 24, 2015 Buy a box of Grand Prix or Impax 5s from the local ironmongers (that's all they had)and he would give you a Shooters Yearbook (which now cost GBP4.00 ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matone Posted November 24, 2015 Report Share Posted November 24, 2015 Used to buy old shotguns from our local junk shop in Uxbridge for a couple of pounds then away to shoot pigeons on the fields around Northolt......happy memories ! never had a gun slip, just carried them broken....no probs. Yes,and what was wrong with it ! People have been brainwashed by the media nowadays into a state of non tolerance of anyone doing the slightly unusual. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prime18 Posted November 24, 2015 Report Share Posted November 24, 2015 Used to be more shot in the pub at night, With banter about missed shots. Drink Drive Laws killed that, But better that than somebody dead.. Cars would only do 70 flat out down hill, or you could pedal faster..lol. there seems to be a law to kill most things these days but that's not always a bad thing haha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjimmer Posted November 24, 2015 Report Share Posted November 24, 2015 People getting to the foreshore on foot, or on pushbikes, and only when the weather was right, nowadays it can be a 200+ mile round trip in a car, with the intention of not going home without having a shot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
motty Posted November 24, 2015 Report Share Posted November 24, 2015 Free Marsh shooting Springs to mind.. Till people started to take them over, and introduce every rule in the book. Not half as romantic now, all the old boys have gone or very nearly so.. Always some body with a bigger check book, or influence... You mean, until the decent thing was done and clubs were born which safeguarded wildfowling in this country. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subsonicnat Posted November 24, 2015 Report Share Posted November 24, 2015 You mean, until the decent thing was done and clubs were born which safeguarded wildfowling in this country. Yes, Early 1950`s, Then The bloke on the Bike then got called a poacher:... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katash Posted November 24, 2015 Report Share Posted November 24, 2015 All this talk of walking the streets carrying guns / leaning them up in the pub .... I was doing that in the mid '90's when I was a kid - much more sensible attitude towards country life then, how times have changed. Few weeks ago I read how numerous local schools had gone go into "lock down" when "a vermin hunter or possibly a bird scarer" had been heard. I'm now made to feel like a criminal by participating in my lifetime hobby, each outing expecting armed response visit due to some clueless towney mistaking me for Bin Laden. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clakk Posted November 25, 2015 Report Share Posted November 25, 2015 been there done that ,talked to plod cos man with private stables n biggg haus ,not house but haus didnt expect to see guns in the countryside and i was shooting at planes with a long rifle,<12 g roost shooting pigeons >.Townie buys house in the country and sues chicken farmer as Cockerel dares to crow at first light.Same clown walks dogs off lead and enjoys their playing with sheep running through the gate they left open Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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