how much land do you have permission for

[mpk]

I have a foot square '' in my back garden .......ooohhhhhhhhhhhh yeaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh

[Rizzini]

1 Shooting estate

17 farms and nurseries

All together about 2500 acres

Not bad for a 16 year old

[mossy835]

i have to shoot over 18 farms.

[bobby dazzler]

i have more than enough to go at and not taking any more on now i have turned down 3 farms in the last two weeks and passed them on to others dont want to be greedy and let others with no land have a go

[martin s]

Hi about 450 acres on three farms all next to each other and manage quite well

[Jim Sarakun]

Ummm...I aint saying then, because its a lot. I along with about 7 others shoot for a large farming estates company who have thousands of acres. Due to crop rotation , game rearing etc there are areas that can't /dont need to be shot so we manage to cover it fairly well.

 

I shoot with this man, and what he says is correct. We cover it well.

 

More land to shoot, is always good for you, you will always have a full freezer, but it does have it;s drawbacks.

 

Firstly, if like our landowner, who takes vermin control seriously,when you stand up to the plate, he will expect you to shoot it, all year round, not just on sunny days, or when you feel like it.

 

This means long hours and a lot of cartridges, dawn till dusk in our case. If you don't put the time in, you will lose it to someone who will.

 

Secondly, a recce takes up a lot of time and petrol, but is worth every minute, as it will put you directly into the melle the day you shoot. Fortunately, we have a guy called Bob who helps us here.

 

I have to add though, Pigeons seem to be getting wiser, and are harder to shoot, but the farmer still wants them shot. To combat this, we keep our decoys up to date. That new thing just may be the kit that brings them in, or it may not.

 

If you gain access to a large piece of land to shoot, there will be other guns shooting it too, so you must get to know them and be a good communicator. There is nothing worse than shooting a field that has been hammered by other guns the week before.

 

I glean from your posts that you may be finding it hard to find a place to shoot. To this I advise you seek permission in Autumn, when the birds are flocking and the rape is poking through. This is when the Farmer can see them doing the damage. We have rarely had a NO,at this time of year.

 

If there is a gamekeeper, get to know him. Usually a Gamekeeper will be your best friend, and put you on to the birds, he might be your Bob, but be warned, he may be a complete and utter toss pot, and think it is his land to do with as he wishes. Consult the farmer if this happens but remain polite.

 

So, to sum it up, you need time, money, patience, a guy called Bob and charm, to maintain a large shoot. Now I don't have all of these, but ozzy518 my shooting buddy, does... Good luck!

[Psyxologos]

I glean from your posts that you may be finding it hard to find a place to shoot. To this I advise you seek permission in Autumn, when the birds are flocking and the rape is poking through. This is when the Farmer can see them doing the damage. We have rarely had a NO,at this time of year.

 

If there is a gamekeeper, get to know him. Usually a Gamekeeper will be your best friend, and put you on to the birds, he might be your Bob, but be warned, he may be a complete and utter toss pot, and think it is his land to do with as he wishes. Consult the farmer if this happens but remain polite.

 

So, to sum it up, you need time, money, patience, a guy called Bob and charm, to maintain a large shoot. Now I don't have all of these, but ozzy518 my shooting buddy, does... Good luck!

 

Thank you. I have to admit that you hit the nail on the head. When, after almost three years of asking countless farmers if they would allow me to shoot pigeons on their farm all I hear is 'someone is already shooting' or, 'there is a shooting syndicate that manages' it does make me wonder if there will ever be a day I will hear a 'yes' from a farmer. I just thought that having to effectively cover large areas would take time, and maybe it is easier (or, dare I say better for everyone) if more people were involved. I admire people who have the time (like you said) to conduct reconnaissance of an area that is as large as 1000 acres (in my eyes, anything over 200 acres is large, but I am only new to all this so I can obviously be wrong) and then effectively manage to shoot over it. It must be a whole operation and a huge logistical exercise. All I want is 50 acres that I can shoot whenever I can and/or I am required by the farmer. So you can understand that when I hear people talking about permission in the thousands of acres, I get a weird feeling...

 

Sorry for hijacking the thread.

Edited September 3, 2010 by Psyxologos

[njc110381]

111 acres exactly! To be honest I could have had more though it takes soooo long to get land cleared if you're on a closed ticket. Had the opportunity of another 100 acres not long ago, but the farmer wanted that particular patch sorted pronto, so unfortunately lost it.

 

 

Next time, try your hardest to get the landowner to agree to allow you to bring "a mate that you often shoot with". Then get on here and ask the help of an open FAC holder who you can take out and solve the problem with initially. Use the ground to build a portfolio of why you need an open FAC, or perhaps even get the ground cleared in the long run once the farmer is happy.

[Elby]

I think around 6000 acres spread over several farms.

I have my own 900 acre pheasant shoot.

I'm very lucky because I have land to cover most quarry's, had to work 30 years to get it though.

Most of my land I rent so retain sole shooting rights, the land I don't rent I pay for in work around the farm, always fixing something.

The good thing is that no matter what time of year it is I always have something to shoot.

[miniwizard]

2000 acre's

[Albertan_J]

Absolutely no idea but it's more then enough for me and I'm happy with it

[Redgum]

I think there is a bit of 'penis envy', going on here, how the hell do some of you manage to control 10,000 acres, let along know the ground well enough to control it effectively. To all you new chaps on here who are stuggling to get started do not be dis heartened by all these stories, some will be true and well earned, others will just be a few taps on the key board. Its not the size of your permission its the quality of the shooting you get, give me a 100 acres of mixed woodland with boar, reds, fallow, Roe and munties with a few acres of mixed cerial for the rabbits,pigeons and corvids over 30,000acres of desert, though I'm still searching for that 100acres.

[njc110381]

What Redgum said is really true. You don't need loads of land to have fun and most of us started off with just a small farm. Perhaps I'm lucky? I have quite a few countryside types as contacts so will never be completely without ground. Being in the city can't help as there are far less farms to go around!

 

I think the best shoot I have by far is under 200 acres. It has woodland with Roe, Muntjac, Hares and Squirrels and grassland with Rabbit. Wandering between the two are Pheasants, Pigeons, Foxes and a few Partridge. As long as you don't shoot the life out of it a plot like that will keep you going for a lifetime. If I had to choose, I wouldn't swap that permission for all the other land I have. It's a brilliant place.

 

Just keep at it. I know it's tough because I spent most of my early teenage years trying to get a farm to shoot with my air rifle. Luckily when my shotguns and rifles came along I applied for them with a farm that I already had, so it seemed much easier. I guess you could say I've spent 20 years building up land by getting to know people in the area, I've just only had powder burners for three of those years.

[MM]

250,000 centi-acres Is this not a bit 'My dads bigger...etc..etc'?

[vampire]

I have a good mix of 6000 acres,mostly arable but have 20 acres of woods in total, cattle fields,horse paddocks,60 acres of orchards,6 farms,8 private estates and the best bit is that most of the farms link so i can always get on the pigeons or lamp from farm to farm without ever going on the roads and all this didnt happen by accident,i set out to get all the farms around my main one and i got em,so am well chuffed,its a year this month that i have had my sgc and am out at least twice a week

 

Out of all the above,the best bit of land i have is 11 acres of meadow that is not farmed,it is smoothered in rabbits and i always end the night there as it produces some good bags ,so it is important to get the right bit of land not just quantities of land

[mikee]

I have about half a dozen farms and an estate for vermin control totaling about 8000 acres, i'm not the sole shooter on any of it but the other guys never seem to turn out much so its almost sole permissions

 

mikee

[kyska]

250,000 centi-acres Is this not a bit 'My dads bigger...etc..etc'?

 

Not really, unless people are pishing us, its interestin too see what area people have.

[proTOM1]

I have over 11.000 acres sole permission and another 2.500 with other shooters on but they only shoot over the peas . I cover the sole permissions with my work and i never say no to more land ,hope to have some more by the end of the week

[PaulABF]

When on exercise in Kenya with the army I had the chance to visit a mate who'd moved out there to buy a pea farming estate. We stood on his porch supping Tusker ale looking at the distant mountain ranges in Ethiopia. 'How much land do you have mate?' I asked him.

 

'Pretty much everything out to those mountains' was the reply.

 

We must have been a good 80 miles away from the mountains.

[yickdaz]

i don;t actually know to the exact acre but 7 farms so roughly 2500 acres altogeher spread out in a 25 mile radius;mainly arable with 2 pasture farms for a bit of rabbiting and pigeons on the clover.

[Cookiemonsterandmerlin.]

I think there is a bit of 'penis envy', going on here, how the hell do some of you manage to control 10,000 acres, let along know the ground well enough to control it effectively. To all you new chaps on here who are stuggling to get started do not be dis heartened by all these stories, some will be true and well earned, others will just be a few taps on the key board. Its not the size of your permission its the quality of the shooting you get, give me a 100 acres of mixed woodland with boar, reds, fallow, Roe and munties with a few acres of mixed cerial for the rabbits,pigeons and corvids over 30,000acres of desert, though I'm still searching for that 100acres.

 

I think your comments are really unfair to the geninue shooters who have either put in hard work over years or had the luck meeting the right farmers etc.

 

The main reason some have alot of ground is they spend more time out and about rather than putting pointless nasty jealous comments about others on forums.

 

Sure I agree with you there will be some pork pies but here in oxfordshire and wiltshire its very easy with the average farm 1000 acres it only needs 5 /6 yes and you have alot of ground in one go.

 

Kind regards OTH

[motty]

Thank you. I have to admit that you hit the nail on the head. When, after almost three years of asking countless farmers if they would allow me to shoot pigeons on their farm all I hear is 'someone is already shooting' or, 'there is a shooting syndicate that manages' it does make me wonder if there will ever be a day I will hear a 'yes' from a farmer. I just thought that having to effectively cover large areas would take time, and maybe it is easier (or, dare I say better for everyone) if more people were involved. I admire people who have the time (like you said) to conduct reconnaissance of an area that is as large as 1000 acres (in my eyes, anything over 200 acres is large, but I am only new to all this so I can obviously be wrong) and then effectively manage to shoot over it. It must be a whole operation and a huge logistical exercise. All I want is 50 acres that I can shoot whenever I can and/or I am required by the farmer. So you can understand that when I hear people talking about permission in the thousands of acres, I get a weird feeling...

 

Sorry for hijacking the thread.

 

There is no need to do reconnaissance all year round on all of your land. I am experienced enough to know when pigeons are likely to attack certain crops in certain areas and which farms have most rabbits etc. I have access to over 10000 acres with around 1500 acres of peas per year. I have worked hard to obtain the permission, and would say that the farmers are happy with the job i do.

I personally wouldn't be satisfied with just a few hundred acres as opportunities are going to be slightly limited, especially on the pigeon front.

I have gained 2 more farms to shoot this year, with a large local pigeon population. I am always on the lookout for more land to shoot. This isn't being greedy, but when pigeons aren't on the land that i shoot, i wish i could shoot on someone elses where the pigeons are! Just this week i spotted 1000's of pigeons on some laid wheat on a farm that i used to have permssion to shoot. I'd love to be able to shoot there again, but due to a change in gamekeepers etc, it's doubtful that i will. I'll keep trying though, maybe one day.

There is a slight downside to having a lot of farms to shoot over, it costs a fair bit in whisky every christmas. It's worth it though.

[bothbarrels]

as above i just wondered how much land we have permission to use i have just got some more now making it 355 acres in total

 

500 acres, 350 on the estate I work on and the rest a couple of local livery yards, mainly rabbit and pigeons, looking at the replies there are a lot of lucky peeps one here, with plenty of permissions, so those of you trying to find some. keep looking, as you can see it does happen!

BB.

[Frenchieboy]

I surpose if I totalled it all up my permissions would add up to about 1500 acres or so - and that is without a couple of larger farms outside my "residential area" which would give me another 800 or so acres! I don't get much of a chance to get down south to visit the farks that I have permission on nowadays but at least they are there for whenever I do get the chance - These farms are owned by long standing personal friends who also have one or two other shooters on them so vermin control is not an issue!

As for the permissions in my area - I shoot near enough every day for a couple of hours to try to keep myself active. There is not a lot on them, it's mainly rabbits, corvids, pigeons and foxes (Some times I can go out for 2 hours and only get 2 or 3 rabbits or I might have 2 or 3 lamping sessions for just one shot at a fox but I enjoy myself so that's fine by me - Shooting isn't just about pulling the trigger) Many of them are smallish farms of only about 100 acres or so (Several are smaller than that) but many of them adjoin each other which gives me quite a large area to walk when I want to. Most of these permissions I got through recomendation from farmers that I was already shooting for so there was not too much "footwork" involved, which goes to show that if you do your job (Vermin control) well and keep in with the farmers by offering to help out whenever possible your efforts pay off, especially if the farmer is taken ill, which is the situation I have with 2 of "my farmers" at the moment and is taking quite a lot of my time, but the time and effort has it's own rewards!

[njc110381]

Reading this it seems there are some people who have tried for ages to get land and haven't had any luck. That makes you jealous of the people that have? I've also had a lot of knockbacks, especially at the start. It may well be worth changing your approach and trying different ideas?

 

For anyone who's really desperate and is local to me, drop me a PM and meet me for a drink. If you seem like the sort of person I get on with and can trust I'll take you out now and again on my ground. You'll need an open FAC, or you can put a few rounds down my rifles on the places that allow it. :look: