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Pushandpull

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Everything posted by Pushandpull

  1. Pushandpull

    Rewilding

    Defending oneself against a deadly attack would be a sufficient defence at "local" level, whether it was against a dangerous animal or a human. The onus would be on you to prove the degree of risk and your fear of death as a result of the attack : as you say, imminent threat to life.
  2. Pushandpull

    Rewilding

    Just a few points from the original post. The DM is not always very strong on EU law or on large mammals. Just read their nonsense on "trophy hunting". The European legislation is about setting and maintaining biodiversity targets. It will not affect U.K. anyway. Brown bears are endemic in Slovakia. Many countries live alongside bear species with few problems, which are usually caused by people attracting them with garbage or deliberate feeding. For example Black bears are found in most U.S. states and are widely hunted and I believe eaten. Human habituated animals are darted and removed or shot. There is no absolute protection anywhere as far as I know. The ECHR has nothing to do with it. Wolves are now widespread in Europe due to natural spread. There are problems with livestock losses but attacks on humans are vanishingly rare and typically associated with rabies. All countries allow culling of troublesome individuals or by numbers at population control level. The only "large" predator which as been seriously considered for reintroduction here is the European Lynx. This is about the size of a spaniel, and very shy and secretive, so hardly a threat to human life. The greatest risk from animal attack in this country is either dogs or cattle, depending on where you live.
  3. Would it not make more sense for them to head south east towards Kazakhstan where there would be a largely Sunni Muslim population.
  4. Christopher Hitchens is (well, was) a great writer who challenges both the reader and himself in all his work. Unlike his brother who is a bit of a hack by comparison. I have just finished Politics on the Edge by Rory Stewart. I suppose he is (was) a One Nation Conservative but that is irrelevant to his demonstration of how politics and government actually function. It's an interesting tale. No doubt oowee knows about this stuff but not the rest of us......
  5. Allegedly, after filming Charlton went behind Arthur's back to the landowner and tried to bid for the shooting. This comes from a friend who knew Cadman very well and indeed provided him with somewhere to live after his house burned down.
  6. I don't propose to reconsider anything I have posted. However nor do I wish to get into an argument with someone who is evidently an expert on wildfowling past and present
  7. Minky, the O.P. is in the USA and is trying to revive an interesting antique. As for your other remarks, please just realise that almost everything that you see on the internet about punting is nonsense.
  8. The current test now includes a close quarter head shot - i.e. a coup de grace.
  9. I quite understand DUNKS. However compared to forty or fifty quid for a reared pheasant ? The real point is that once these old ways to make a living have gone they will be gone forever : eel picking, butt dragging, dredging oysters under sail, catching birds with a bat-fowling net, working a decoy, etc. Most of what you can find on the internet about big guns and their use is nonsense as folk do not realise it is a difficult and tedious stalking operation. Taking the shot if successful is just a small part of what happens.
  10. "The gun will only ever be shot as a demo......" I really hope not. These things were designed and built to use.
  11. Talk to Peter Starley at blackpowder.co.uk. Non-toxic shot : claygame.co.uk. Oakum wadding : classic-marine.co.uk. Do a bit of reading e.g. "Wildfowling" by Christopher Dalgety.
  12. As above. This is an extension of the nonsense of NE consents on SSSIs. If we are going to restrict the take of migratory wild species then the place to start is fed flight ponds, often within a stone's throw of the estuaries where true wildfowling takes place. In the USA it is illegal to "bait" migratory species and you can even go to jail for it ! At the end of the season I was offered a large bag of teal and other species which had been shot but were unwanted. They are now in my freezer, but I would rather they were flying back north to breed.
  13. Hang up those decoys but hang on to them ! The time for fowling will surely come again. I have had little "adventures" in my retirement years which I never expected during the years when constrained by work and family. One day you might be the old man who mentors a youngster. Best wishes for the future.
  14. For historic reasons my SGC and FAC are out of step by about 15 months, which nearly doubles the fuss over renewals. If you know you have reasons for both it would make sense to apply for both at the same time.
  15. There is an opposite problem. By voting for a party's candidate you are deemed to have endorsed anything which is in the manifesto.
  16. A good result. We don't get many wins and the consenting process is being used to slowly destroy wildfowling.
  17. PM sent as I don't want to derail this thread which peaks to many of us.
  18. Within living memory there was wildfowling on the estuary. A chap who lived in the cottage by the bridge (Mr.Joyce ?) wrote occasional letters to the "Shooting Time" in the fifties and claimed to be the oldest punt gunner in England.
  19. Members who can not afford to go anywhere beyond an occasional day out are hardly likely to post on this topic. The sample is a little biased.
  20. I heard that Eric was ill a long while ago, and assumed that we had lost him. However, an article by him about dogs for wildfowling appeared in a recent BASC magazine.
  21. As a sixth form physics student I visited the central Electricity Generating Board labs. To this day I recall the enthusiasm of the chap who told us about nuclear fusion as if it was going to be along in just a few years time, bringing unlimited cheap power. Still waiting. This was in I think 1961 when the biologists were still working out what DNA did.
  22. I changed to life membership many years ago : membership number has 000 prefix and my original four figure embedded within it. I know one other personally who is well into his 80s and still doing a bit.
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