stubear

I was out over the weekend down at Langstone with a friend - Managed to bag a widgeon and a woodie!

IMHO from looking at the cover that the various shooting organisations offer BASC is by far superior. I shoot a whole bunch of disciplines (clays, target rifle, wildfowling, deer..) and BASC covers me for them all plus just about any other discipline you can think of! I was having a drink with my old Lt Col last week and he mentioned to me that the BDS cover used to only cover you if you were on an event that they sponsored - So you have to be careful what you are and arent covered for. BASC covers you for; All members of BASC are entitled to insurance cover by virtue of our Members Legal Liability Policies. The policies cover the following BASC recognised recreational activities: wildfowling, clay pigeon, rabbit, pigeon, game, deer, wild bore, vermin, target shooting, airgunning, conservation, hawking, archery, angling and ferreting gundog working & training. The policies cover the following: 1. Employers liability: Limit of indemnity – GBP 10,000,000 any one event. 2. Public Liability: Limit of indemnity – GBP 10,000,000 any one event. 3. Products liability for goods sold or supplied: Limit of indemnity – GBP 10,000,000 any one event and in the aggregate in any one Period of Insurance. The cover also includes Indemnity to Principal. In the event of any claim in respect of which the BASC member would be indemnified under this policy is brought or made against another principal, such as Public or Local Authority or land owner, the policy will indemnify said principal under the same terms of the policy as enjoyed by the BASC member. The policies cover members normally resident in Great Britain, Northern Ireland, Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. Members who are resident outside of these stipulated areas are also covered but only whilst shooting or engaging in conservation activities within Great Britain, Northern Ireland, Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. Plus they have training courses, contacts and so on that you can reach out to if you want to get involved in other shooting sports. I went through a couple of years when I lived in London when I didnt shoot much and I kept the membership up just for the support TBH - They do a huge amount of governement lobbying and working with the Police on licensing, as well as the conservation they do.

Really sorry to hear about that! :( I think its a total shame that people can carry out that sort of attack in public (even if it was late at night) and basically get away with it. And even if they do get caught they arent punished properly IMO.. Sadly I dont know what you can do to prevent it either! Carrying some sort of personal defence is a definite no-go; You'll either end up in trouble for having whatever it is, or even worse it ends up being used on you by your attacker. The other argument I've heard is "well dont walk about with your iPhone and expensive watch on" but my response to that is "why should I curtail my lifestyle just so that some scumbag doesnt attack me?" Otherwise we might as well all just drive around in jalopey's with 150k on the clock, wear £2.99 casio digital watches and have a burner mobile that we bought in a petrol station. Whats the point? Frankly I think about the only thing you can do is get taxis home rather than public transport as at least thats door to door, and maybe take a class in personal defence? The issue with the personal defence class is its effectiveness is diminished if you dont practice (or if you've had a few drinks!), and sadly the way things are is if the police turn up to a fight they'll just nick everyone and sort it out later. And the criminals have nothing to lose! Whereas generally law abiding people have jobs, houses etc that they risk if they get into a scrap.

Its funny you say that, I've read articles in the local rag saying that people shouldnt put their comings and goings on social media full stop! If you're one of these people who tags the location of every post you put up with loads of pictures on it and has an open FB Profile (which is the default setting unless you change it) then your timeline is pretty much Amazon for potential thieves. "Hmm.. Heres a picture of their new car, their new flat screen TV and I can see an iPad, a decent laptop and some musical gear in the pictures they posted of the BBQ the other weekend... All helpfully tagged as 'at home' so I know exactly where they live... Oh, look they've just put another status up showing they are at Gatwick and are away for 2 weeks.. Guess I'll pay them a visit!" Adding pictures of your guns is just another way of increasing the odds that the local scumbag breaks your kitchen window while you're out! Social media is a great tool for organising events and meet ups, but I do all my posting about that sort of thing via closed groups. I have a couple of pics up of me shooting, but all of those are taken in public places (in fact I think all of them have been at Bisley) where anyone could have seen me. I dont have any photos of my security arrangements, guns in the home or anything like that.

Part of the problem with the guidance is just that - Its guidance only, and in the event that you gun is stolen you're going to have your ticket yanked and have to justify to the powers that be that you werent negligent in order to get it back. Its not illegal to leave your gun in your car as long as you take "reasonably practical" precautions to ensure it doesnt get nicked. So chaining it to the car, taking the forestock with you, leaving it covered up etc are all things you should do. TBH if you're planning to regularly leave it in the car I'd be tempted to bolt a breakdown safe in there and use that! Arguably taking it to work to avoid having to pick it up after work is unnecessary if you are a reasonable driving time away from home, but arguably if you take reasonable precautions you're not doing anything wrong. Arguably is the key word though! I wouldnt speak to the FEO about it because you hear stories about people getting licences revoked for all sorts of reasons and frankly I wouldnt want to give them any reason to pull mine, valid or otherwise! I'd ask BASC for their views and see what their firearms team have to say about it for sure, and if its going to be a regular thing then I'd look into a breakdown cabinet in the car. Ultimately its your licence and your risk, so as long as you dont do anything illegal, have taken guidance from a shooting organisation and feel confident in arguing your case with a judge should the worst happen then I guess thats all you can do.

I'm a business analyst and I basically design and deploy IT architecture for a bank in London.

Welcome from another Hampshire-ite! I'm in Alton myself so not too far from you - If you fancy meeting up for some shooting some time let me know!

Sounds like your typical chap with his head so far up his **** the lump in his throat is his nose! I'm kinda unsurprised to be honest, this does seem to be the norm for some well heeled individuals - When something is going to benefit them they are all over it like a rash and follow up daily, when they need to give a little back they're too busy (unless its going to result in more good stuff coming their way in the future). I used to live in Fulham and had a neighbour exactly like that. Everything had to be done her way and right now, but nothing came back the other way. Kudos to you and the mechanic for doing the right thing, and no doubt that karma will find a way to reward you both Generally good begets good and all that!

Well done, you have definitely done the right thing! I can completely understand the fears anyone might have about saying something in this sort of situation, but I agree with other posters - If you can prevent this sort of thing happening again then it will all be worth it. I hope this all works out for you and the victim involved, and it certainly should do if theres any justice and fairness in this world!

I've heard great things about .270 with 130grn for just about everything. Just throwing it out there as I've not seen it mentioned in the thread so far! Thats what I'm planning to apply for.

I love Rules! Been a couple of times over the years for various celebrations and have always had fantastic food and service, plus its a proper old school restaurant. Definitely one of my favourites! Last time I went I had a wood pigeon salad to start which had caremelized walnuts in it, divine!

Nothing like some up to date news, thats what I always say! Totally missed that date, just thought it was a good article hehe! Nice to see some sense being talked for once!

Say what you like about Nigel Farage, I completely agree with him that the handgun ban was a total overreaction. And frankly has made little to no difference to gun crime in the UK, other than ensuring that only criminals can have handguns! http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/ukip/10595087/Hand-guns-should-be-legalised-and-licensed-Nigel-Farage-has-said.html Interesting that the poll results are also 72% in favour of removing the ban, which is great to see. I'm also glad that the Telegraph is the paper running the poll - They're generally a solid bastion of journalism and dont tend towards hysterical headlines and sensationalism, unlike many other publications. I was also mildly amused by what Farage said and what the so called "experts" interpreted. Farage; "people who kept hand guns responsibility locked up and had were willing to get an official licence should absolutely be allowed them." “I would not like us to go to the American System which strikes me as being absolutely crazy that you can go and buy automatic repeating rifles down at a local gun shop that looks more like a supermarket. He added: “Proper gun licensing is something we have done in this country responsibly and well and I think the knee jerk legislation that Blair brought in that meant that the British Olympic pistol team have to go to France to practice was jut cracker – if you criminalise handguns then only the criminals carry the guns. Asked what Ukip’s official policy was on gun control he said: “We need a proper gun licensing system to which we already have, and I think the ban on handguns is ludicrous.” Experts interpretation; Experts have said his comments were “stupid” and encourage an American-style idea that you and your home are only safe if you are armed. Peter Squires, professor of criminology at Brighton University and a member of Association of Police Officer’s advisory group on the criminal use of fire arms said that Mr Farage’s comments were "irresponsible". He said: “If public safety is a consideration then it’s a particularly stupid thing to say. It opens up the problem that we have almost dealt with successfully."It will generate a demand, it will generate illegal traffic around that demand – the problem with hand guns is that they are small and concealable and they are already the weapon of choice of gangs members and criminals.” So Farage specifically states that he DOESNT want to move to an American style system where we should all be armed for defence and that he would require people to keep their handguns locked up. Experts interpret this as encouraging an American style idea that we should all be armed for defence... Oh and my favourite part, that "we" (whoever "we" is..) have almost dealt with gun crime sucessfully. Really?!? So theres less gun crime now that 20 years ago? No problems with armed gangs shooting at each other and at innocent by-standers in the east end of London? No problems with eastern European gangs smuggling illegal Glocks into the country? No problems with ISIS supporting fanatics getting hold of AK47's? All of which have been headlines in the last 6 months! Yeah, that handgun ban has done a great job at preventing all those things happening... Heres hoping that the results are listened to by the powers that be! FWIW I polled yes, potentially unsurprisingly!

I'd heard that you need 12ft/lbs to do the job, so as long as your rifle is throwing pellets with that amount of energy you should be ok. It doesnt sound unreasonable that if you can go through a tin can at 25 yards you have enough whack to humanely kill a rabbit, but its just sounds a bit variable! Sorta reminds me of that old army approach that if you could penetrate a 1" pine board with a rifle then that would reasonably be considered enough to kill a person. Cant think of any rifle rounds that wouldnt pass that test (even a .22LR would do that, easy) but I wouldnt say that a .22LR is a good round to humanely kill a person. But then the counter-argument is "yeah, but with the right bullet placement it could", so this would also be a consideration here.

There seems to be a heck of a lot of backlogs all over the place at the moment! It took Hampshire 5 months to grant my SGC and I've read of a lot of other forces taking similar amounts of time and longer in some cases. Its frustrating on both sides TBH, because they are doing their best and all the folks I dealt with in Hampshire were great and very helpful. Its just they're overworked and understaffed, and renewals take priority (apparently anyway) over applications and variations. But to the end user it seems an inordinate amount of time is needed for even the simplest request, and its double irritating when they've just stuck all the fees up ostensibly to improve the process! I asked the Hampshire team for a date of when I should hear by and then followed up on that date when I hadnt, and then did the same thing with the next date and so on until my licence arrived. But I stuck the application in with them in February and it was granted in July... Definitely a long wait! No point in badgering them because they'll just stick you at the bottom of the pile or something, and getting BASC or someone else involved might get you a result but also might mean you end up staying at the bottom of the pile a bit longer next time round! Sadly we are a bit beholden to the whole process and I'd rather have them go "Oh yeah, I remember him, he was always polite and didnt badger us" when I stick my FAC application in next year, rather than "Oh god, him again.." hehe!

Its battered it down in London all day, just clearing up now. And we've had some thunder and lightning too. Ahh the great British Summer! Hopefully its heading out to sea and not your way..!

Corbyn is just taking Labour right back to the 1983 election manifesto, and we all know how that worked out for them. Total drubbing in the polls and Thatcher winning in a landslide! TBH I'm fine with Labour backing Corbyn - I didnt want Millibands government and I dont want Corbyns, and even if a load of champagne socialist intellectuals in London think he's the next Messiah it seems pretty apparent that the electorate dont! Say what you like about the Tories but at least they can do maths and know how to balance a budget, and realise that less government intervention is better than more. This is just a typical Labour response to the electorate not backing them; Rather than looking at what they're doing wrong and trying to change they just lurch to the Left and think that we're all in the wrong.

This is a fantastic project and the results so far look amazing! I also think its great that you've made it out of wood rather than steel. I think wooden boats generally have way more character and personality that metal ones. Cant wait to see the finished punt!

The first target "rifle" I used to shoot (inverte commas deliberate) was the cadet version of the army's SA80, which was called the L98. For anyone who remembers these, or used them, the sights were appalling and had no calibration. You just stuck a little key into a racheted wheel and hoicked the sights round a few clicks to get an approximate zero. We used to shoot these at 200, 300 and 500 yards using NATO 5.56mm ammo and there was no concept of "Right I've moved back 300 yards, better up my elevation 8.25 minutes". And as the sights on mine particular rifle were so useless I ended up with the windage over left as far as it would go just to keep me roughly central on the target. So in the end I just set the thing up for 300 yards and then just used to aim higher or lower as the range changed, and left or right more with the wind speed. The last year we shot the Ashburton my team came 5th nationally. So even though its a bit rough and ready if you can get used to the rifle and used to the ammo you use, and used to shooting it under various weather conditions, you can just tweak things around to suit you on the day and make sure you're still on target. Just lots of practice really! Which, for me at least, is always welcome because it means I have an excuse to go down the range more often hehe!

Looks like a fantastic day out! Thanks for sharing the pictures!

Hahaha! Thats brilliant I've heard of sneaking out for a quiet smoke or pint, never for a cheeky shoot!

Thanks for sharing that, great vid! For some reason the sections that you filmed on the head mounted Go-Pro reminded me of that computer game DOOM hehe!

Gamebore Black Gold Game - 28g #6. And then for every day clay bashing its Gamebore Velocity 28g 7.5's. Work great and do the job for a pretty reasonable price!

Welcome! I'm a long time clay pigeon shooter but new to woodys et al and I've found this forum to be hugely interesting and helpful!

Just bumping this one up a bit. Was out having a walk at the weekend and may potentially have a lead to follow up on but still looking otherwise! If anyone knows anyone or has any leads, or is after a shooting partner please do let me know