Search the Community

As time passes we as a community/sport must engage with the younger generation in order to maintain our sport/culture. With pressures from Government mounting and new bans/disruptive legislation coming into force (steel) the cost of shooting is only rising, at what point do we blink? 40-45p a clay, £220+ 1000 (lead, fibre, entry level cartridges), £80+ for beginner 1hr coaching (+ cartridges and clays) The sport feels somewhat reserved for those who can afford to pay the fees or for the few who are lucky to carry natural talent and become sponsored. I would like to ask what people's thoughts are on this matter and how they believe as a community we can make shooting more accessible? I personally belive it to be willfully ignorant of us to say "if you can't afford it don't shoot". Thank you in advance.

I’m fairly new to the air gun pest control areas as I have been target shooting in my back yard for a few months now with my mrs . I was wondering if there were any opportunities to gain permission to shoot on on within deeside (North Wales) also don’t know if I’m in the right forum I currently own a SMK PR900W .22 and am shooting superdome pellets to begin with I would like the opportunity for daytime shooting to get used to it .. I would also be willing to tidy any area I have permission on by getting rid of litter as I go many thanks Josh

Hi Guys, I've shot clays a few times and I've decided it's a sport I would like to get into. I'm from North Yorkshire and I was wondering if anyone knew of any clubs in the area (rather than just experience day type venues) I found one in Barwick-in-Elmet which seems excellent (£35 for 50 clays including instructor, gun hire and cartridges). You turn up for 3 of the instructor led sessions and then you can become a member if they think you're competent (I'm not a certificate holder) This is the kind of thing I'm after, and it's a very good option, but I was wondering if there's something very similar a little closer to home that someone on here may know of? In due course, I'd like to become a certificate holder and a club closer to home would mean that it's easier to go down the range on a Sunday if I get board if I do eventually own my own firearm/become a certificate holder. Cheers! Ian

Thankyou for accepting me. My father and i are applying for our shotgun licence and are looking at purchasing a shotgun(each) for clay pigeon and occasional real pigeon but as being new to this we are unsure what one to get iv been looking and the Browning 525 sporter 12g, the beretta silver pigeon one 30" 12g or maybe a miroku does anyone recommend any of these or anything else around about that price range?

Hi all, I wonder if I might ask for a little help with a few decoying issues which I'm having. I'm an experienced shooter but most of my pigeon shooting has always been roost shooting or flight lining and decoying is fairly new to me. I've been shooting pigeons on two fields, one of newly drilled game crop seeds and one of drilled barley. At first the old strip of game crop still ran along the middle of the field and made building a hide near the feeding area easy and I had some good shooting. This has now been ploughed up and the pigeons are still feeding on the seed but there is nowhere nearby to build a hide where it won't stick out like a sore thumb. Does this matter? I remember reading that Archie Coates said it wasn't good to have a hide in open ground but other people seem to say it doesn't matter? The second issue which I'm having is when shooting over the drilled barley. There are always lots of birds on the ground when I arrive, but once I've built my hide and set out the decoys the birds will not come back into the field. It's not that they're seeing the pattern and shying away as if there is something wrong with it, they are just flying over without showing the least sign of interest in the pattern whatsoever. There is conifer wood across the road behind the area where I have to set up and I get occasional shots as they make their way into that, but they will not come back into the field. I only have shell decoys at the moment, which I couple with some dead birds. Would a flapper or a rotary make a big difference in pulling the birds off of their flightpath or might I be doing something fundamentally wrong? Thanks very much for your patience with a beginner! Williegunn88

So at 5.30am on Friday my alarm went off that the day had finally arrived that I was heading over to meet up with Andrew (Elk Hunter on here) for a beginners day in deer stalking. Everything going well until I hit some crappy morning traffic on the M6 but that out the way and managing to make up a little time I was only a couple of minutes late and all was looking good and the rain that I'd seen forecast was no where to be seen with pretty much clear blue skies ... On the way over Andrew gave me an overview of what the day had in store for me and once we arrived kitted up and made our way over to the range giving me the opportunity to check my zeroing out at 100, 150 and 200 yards. Once Andrew was happy we headed over to where the deer were and once they'd started to settle he directed me into the one that I was going to take when the opportunity came. After getting comfy and ready to take the shot (I've no idea how long it was until I took the shot) Andrew gave me the all clear to pull the trigger... Safety off, deep breath, part exhale, point of aim and bang! The deer stumbled a little and Andrew whispered 'reload' - this had completely slipped my mind with all the adrenalin pumping through my body. What a flipping feeling! We waited around 5 minutes and started our approach to the deer. We got there and yep... Definitely dead. After a quick sandwich and a warm drink Andrew talked me through a quick inspection of the deer and what to look for before guiding me through performing the gralloch myself and provided me with no end of useful hints and tips and again talking me through exactly what to look for while doing this. We loaded up the truck and headed down to skin and butcher the carcass - Again Andrew provided me with no end of useful tips and tricks from his huge knowledge on the subject. Once skinned and opened up a little we looked to see where and what had been hit and it was a clean heart shot. He had plenty of patience with me throughout the skinning and butchering All in all a ruddy awesome day and I would definitely recommend Andrew to anyone who is new to shooting deer and even those who are well experienced... We can all learn something new Thanks again to Andrew for getting me hooked on something I'm now going to have to do again and already exploring the options available Iain