Ajarrett

What!? Why would we stump up more money when there is probably in excess of £6 million in the bank doing nothing!

Kent continues to expand its shooting offer. Every expectation of an even better offer for next season! Now open for membership application for 2019/2020 at www.kentwildfowlers.co.uk We finished the season with a record 750 members, with applications already coming in. Apply now

Open for membership again at www.kentwildfowlers.co.uk. Great value for money membership package We finished last season with a record 750 members, and already applications are coming thick and fast.

Membership opens 1st April. Plenty of opportunity for airgunning in our fields and woods, plus our target range open every second Sunday of the month. There is also the opportunity to upgrade to Full membership (shotguns), which some members take advantage of each year. www.kentwildfowlers.co.uk

We have enhanced our Associate membership package to include a single day's shooting in with the price, under the Try Wildfowling scheme. Excellent package available as set out below. Renewals and new applications open from 1st April. There are already several members upgrading from Associate to Full. www.kentwildfowlers.co.uk 2019/20 Membership Available now! Yes, you can join Britain's largest wildfowling club for just £30 Our Associate membership offers you: • Fast track to Full Membership • Membership card carrying proof of membership and insurance • Try Wildfowling Opportunity • Access to maps of our shooting grounds • Annual gundog tests • Availability of Guest Permits for inland duck shooting (additional fee) • Regular newsletters • Guided Summer visits to our marshes to show you around • Coarse fishing (additional fee) • Sportscover Insurance including: (See the Key Facts) £10,000,000 Public Liability £10,000,000 Employers Liability £10,000,000 Products Liability £50,000 Personal Accident £50,000 Legal Expenses • Basic dog training lessons during the summer months • Regular updates via email • Join in with conservation work on our reserves • Wildfowl identification days • Access to the KWCA website including full access to the 'Members Only' section Membership expires 31 March 2020

Whether members are BASC in their own right, is up to them. We don't know. All we do know is that we offer an excellent membership package, and the numbers speak for themselves. Yes, it does include LOSWA, and far from leaving the JV things have never been better. Very sunny indeed with new purchases and shooting rights on an annual basis.

As of yesterday's Committee meeting KWCA total membership stands at 746. Doubt we'll get many more now, as renewals will be due on 1st April

That's very true, and what's left is not currently likely to be available at an affordable price. This new area is not in Kent

Going to view some potential new ground this weekend. Finger's crossed it is suitable and affordable!

Not at all! All shooting is by permit only. We now have approaching 80 permits areas, plus 6 inland freshmarsh areas let out to club syndicates. Permits numbers are determined by the size of the land: i.e Swale (8 kilometres of coast on both banks) no limit on numbers and availability, allowing members to go when they want subject to a permit return each month); at the other extreme small island with only 2 permits. We have several of these large in essence unlimited areas. This works well, meaning members can invariable shoot when they want providing they are organised and book in advance. Most areas are running well below capacity, and with a handful of exceptions permit uptake to most areas runs at below 30%. It still surprises me how seldom most members actually go out! Controlling permit availability also means the quality of shooting is maximised

Just got a new pair of Drake Refuge gloves - not cheap but hopefully worth the outlay

We have just brought 2 new members on to the committee, and have a 3rd lined up. Increasingly the use of modern technology is making things more doable, and certainly quicker. We realised long ago ( and changed the Rules to allow it) that eventually we will have to employ at least an administrator. We already pay for external professional advice - accountants; lawyers; land agency, and will pay for what ever else comes along that we cannot do from amongst the membership. The sky's the limit as the demand for membership will only continue to grow as we continue to expand and diversify. We get so many people come to us with little or no shooting, and are therefore providing an important service in a busy and crowded part of the UK. As I said in a previous post: more members = more money = more shooting rights = more members .....

Upbeat committee meeting yesterday evening. A further 24 new members in the last month - which is really excellent considering we are now well into the shooting season. Disaffiliation from BASC has had no detrimental effect at all, as we now offer a lower subscription rate and an excellent membership package. We have the club's record level of membership. Membership approaching 750, with more coming through. We also agreed some changes to the package for Associates which will come into effect immediately, and will make it even more attractive to potential new members. We have scrapped our Try Wildfowling scheme and incorporated that into the Associate membership package. Also offering facilities for non-shooters who work gundogs, again through the Associate membership package.

More new airgun hunting members reported at committe this week, giving us a record number to date with more in the pipeline.

Had some of the Browning Grand Passage coats on test. Their Grand Passage parka is a superb wildfowling coat and does not soak up water as some others do. It has superseded my Rivers West Kentdale parka as my favourite coat. Alan

Good reaction to the recent additions to our airgun hunting offer with several new members joining in the last week.

Its all relative - RSPB still a powerful organisation. But they are apparently more focused strategically, and it will be worse for them after Brexit (and the rest of us landowners, but not to their scale hopeffully) All we can do is keep going

Rabbit shooting available now, and now access to another 250 acres of pigeon shooting

KWCA has just acquired a further significant area of foreshore shooting in Kent. As well as the purchase with CWA as the reason for this thread, Kent in the last month has acquired new rabbit shooting on the Isle of Sheppey for our airgunners, an additional 250 acres of pigeon shooting, and now this large foreshore area. More members = more cash = more shooting = more members. Onwards and upwards!

Yep! Love to see those black feathers fly!

Hmm! I shot 82 Saturday and 121 today - all shot with 32g 6s Fiocchi. Clear pigeon just as good. Decoying; wide of the decoys; high overhead - all the same. Average over the two trips 1.61:1

Richard, if if you want questions answered submit a Freedom of Information request. No point in asking them here! Alan

Yes Richard - If NE think it a good idea, its likely to be bad for us!

..and your point is?