Old farrier

Could you be kind enough to enlighten us to what specific birds are ingesting it who conducted the research and a baseline on it would be useful information what size shot ? sub lethal impact? If you mean wounded or pricked birds that happens with any medium if you mean lead poisoning say so I appreciate no data can be accurate or useful in the last few years since the onset of bird flu and the number of deaths caused by it

Sadly we’re a world apart on this any game I shoot I eat what it’s shot with isn’t a issue to me along with a lot of others most of us don’t need to find a outlet for hundreds of pheasants or partridge at the end of the day it’s pretty obvious that the problem is the big shoots don’t have the infrastructure in place to handle process and sell on the quantity that they shoot this occurs because they make the money from the shooting not from the shot game ( a by product of the day) now in the last four years I haven’t noticed any increase in the advertising of game meat or anyone advertising to buy it in any quantity perhaps it’s the area I’m located maybe other members will say different 🤔 now I’m not sure about this but if you hatch a chick rear it and grow it on then kill it for the table it’s farmed not wild doesn't matter if it is a chicken or a pheasant

Of course it’s sustainable the biggest shoots buy in millions of birds eggs chicks poults very few rear there own there hatched in incubator reared under lamps until there big enough to go outside then when they have feathered up ( poults there taken out to the shoots and put in the release pens I would say it’s highly unlikely that they will have even been on ground that has been shot over until that point most driven shooting is feed out and drive the birds back so realistically you shouldn’t be shooting into the pen at the end of the season the game covers that you have shot towards are usually ploughed and re planted in the spring so that shot will be out of reach the big shoots are a commercial entity and this fiasco about selling game meat is really about making it justifiable for the big corporate shoots

Approximately how many cartridges do you think your team of 8/10 fire on a day Id guess 5/600 on a morning clay shooting the same team would shoot 800/1000 where does the most damage to flora and fauna occur the area you shoot game 8 times a year or the area you shoot clay’s just a thought 😊

There’s quite a difference in game shot with lead compared to steel like you I eat all my bag and probably someone else’s also find homes for many more birds I’m very inclined to agree 🙄 however we all know that the profit is in the bag not the game meat on a big commercial shoot

No problem getting rid of it then without wasting it how much more has been sold by the shoots that opted for voluntary transition away from lead and has it affected the market price?

Surely the code of good shooting practice should in part say don’t shoot more game than you can easily dispose of on the day and have a good outlet for any surplus

No thanks it was you that was interested I know what it involves as you could see from my other post farming practice has changed so anything’s a waste of time As for lead I never volunteered for anything so I’ll stick with it thank you for as long as it’s legal or until there’s a affordable alternative for my 410

That’s some great stuff you’re doing there it’s on my list of things to do fortunately have some wet ground that’s appropriate just need a imaganive machine operator and hire a big machine thanks for posting

Go to photo library on your phone (iPhone) select the picture (one ) it should tell you the size and give a option to reduce Or send the picture to someone on watsapp save the watsapp picture it’ll be the right size or go to the next option take a picture and it’ll give the option to use picture or discard sorry about the picture had to do it to make sure it was correct mid you have a different phone sorry for giving you useless information oops see your sorted now 👍

Yea they shot 140 in a day about half of what were talking about 300 poults no total acreage mentioned along with access to massive farm machinery and grants for wildlife management and to be honest they were first out of six entries were (I think) talking about a few like minded individuals who throw in a few £ and a lot of work to get a days shooting a rather different scenario

Me to if they can’t drive to a feed station it’s not done having been there and got some good results and good returns I know how hard it is the better the team the easier it is Bang on I rarely take a gun in daylight my hands are always carrying tools or fence posts feeders drinkers wire or something to repair something 😂

Mine is busy sitting on eggs in her nest in the yard wall

The biggest problem with small shoots is vermin and predator control each of the predators eat 365 days a year there is massive pressure on the 500 poults from the casual rambler blackberry pickers dog Walker the weather and predation on not only the poults but also on the feed in the cover crops along with the supplementary feeding that’s eaten by deer badgers squirrels and rats Just my thoughts to anyone going down this path be prepared for hard work and long days 😊

Best of luck with the sale 😊👍 sadly nothing amongst it for me 👍

I sent a pair of guns off to have the chokes done and regulated for my chosen cartridge when I went to collect them the gunsmith produced the pattern sheets which were good and what I wanted he then proceeded to get out more sheets and tell me that the guns shot good patterns however the number 2 gun shot even better with 5 shot than the 6 that I requested but not the number 1 gun

Neither do I problem was the eggs came before the partridge before the interview 😂😂

Thank you 😊 It won’t happen again farming practice has changed in my are every bit of spare ground is growing for a bio plant to make gas in excess of two thousand acres all harvested before it’s ripe the gas produced co2 is used in fizzy drinks 🤔

would you be chatting as a private member of the forum ? or as a member of the Basc team who avoided answering my questions earlier on this thread just saying 🙄 I disagree the weather was fine I had good results with the pheasant and red legs the problem was the raptors Im not inclined to put the time effort or money in as I’ll probably get some do Gooder telling me I can’t shoot them because there rare or I’m using the wrong gun cartridges wads or dog im well aware of the habitat required for their nesting and success in breeding and am grateful for the help received from members of the game conservancy council along with the time spent on the project along with the cooperation of the farmer and his staff and the kind landowners In Cambridge and Lincolnshire that spend their time giving me advice and support when i reared the first 200 it cost £80 a hundred in electricity to incubate the eggs brood them under lamps ready to go outside with a shelter with gas heaters add in the gas chick crumbs pellets ect and the cost spiral not counting the cost of the pens and release pens the whole thing is a expensive way to get a healthy population of peregrine falcons note I also reared many broods under bantams

Awesome 👏 back to English partridge I quite like them as there are virtually none in my area I made enquiries regarding the possibility of reintroducing them to my area with positive responses dually sourced eggs and incubated and hatched 200 chicks made pens and with landowners permission and encouragement we slowly released them into suitable areas around the 2000 acres of his farm appropriate covers suitable crops with high feed value and supplementary feeding stations we also drilled the corn with a wider setting on the rows and straight line planting no zig zags I mowed the south facing slopes of the grass down land ten meter wide strips every ten metres across it ( contour mowing) to leave long grass for nesting and cover for any birds short grass for chicks if any I installed a massive amount of tunnel traps to keep rats and other predators at bay along with strong fox control measures we did this for 3 years total reared and released 600 none were shot in this period of time most-fell to predators the biggest culprit was the peregrine falcon as the English partridge is a little smaller than the red leg that’s to heavy for the peregrine to take five years on there’s probably five left pretty sure none died from ingesting lead shot

A good solution and working well however it’s with a tps wad so that’s the next thing to overcome I doubt that a mere 2.5 million cartridges would make it viable for the manufacturer to go down the biowads route would 45 tons of lead annually and nationally with a fibre wad make much difference would the fibre outweigh the plastic impact on the ground remember the HSE are only looking at lead not plastic wads it’s BASC that’s asking for both id go for lead and fibre over non lead and plastic wad but that’s just me 😊

All choke is bored regulated to throw a specific pattern at a specific distance currently done with lead if you are future proofing your gun for the use of steel you may well find that you need them more open to get a similar pattern

There manufactured in 410 but cost and availability is a issue plastic wad though

Well after many questions with no answer I have formed a opinion game birds shot with lead are toxic however venison shot with lead isn’t 🤔 lead shot at game birds damages the flora and fauna but lead shot at clay pigeon doesn’t 🤔 spent shot kills wee baby partridge but only on a game shoot not a clay ground 🤔 game shot with steel will sell better and be worth more than the cost of the cartridge there will be no surplus 🤔 bio wads are good and disappear if you pick them up and put them in a commercial composter🤔 but it’s not important to use them at a clay ground plastic wads that you don’t really need are ok the major organisations want you to use a lead alternative but haven’t thought about what to do with the existing lead cartridges 🤔 the voluntary transition has rendered thousands of guns obsolete and devalued many more 🙄 probably missed a few points here but it’s a start 🙄