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why shoot ?


nd16
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Ok, first things first I'm a complete newbie to this site. This is not at all 'off topic' but it seems to be the busiest forum and I didn't think any of the other areas were appropriate for this post ...

 

 

how did you get into shooting in the first place and what keeps you going back for more ?

 

Before you think im a journalist wanting some insight into peoples minds etc im not at all, ive just moved out to the countryside after many years of living in a city, I stumbled upon this site and i'm amazed and pleased to find such a goldmine of knowledge/experience and diversity of people with the same interest and im just interested to know what people enjoy most.

 

i will also add to this that i've never pulled the trigger of a shotgun, i have booked myself in for a clay shoot next weekend and hopefuly this will be the first of many great shooting experiences

oooooooo dear you will be hooked next week :yes::yes: good luck best sport ive ever took up

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Well i do it because I like stalking and shooting things :blink:

Thats the truth! Its a real buzz when you spend half an hour outsmarting your quarry then bag it with a spot on kill shot, then take it home for dinner. There is of course a reason for this, in that the things we shoot are pests and need controlling to protect crops and livestock. Saying that, I also really enjoy just walking my permissions, using my binocs not a gun, watching the 'friendly' wildlife and just enjoying the peace and solitude: you can't beat it after a carp day at work :good::yes:

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Well i do it because I like stalking and shooting things :blink:

Thats the truth! Its a real buzz when you spend half an hour outsmarting your quarry then bag it with a spot on kill shot, then take it home for dinner. There is of course a reason for this, in that the things we shoot are pests and need controlling to protect crops and livestock. Saying that, I also really enjoy just walking my permissions, using my binocs not a gun, watching the 'friendly' wildlife and just enjoying the peace and solitude: you can't beat it after a carp day at work :good::yes:

well put :good:

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I always like guns as a kid, i would save my pocket untill i had 4 Shillings to buy a cowboy cap gun.

Dad bought me an air rifle for christmas when i was 9, at 15 i started shooting 6m air rifle in the local league.

 

In my early twenties i had a go at Clays and loved it so applied for my shotgun certificate but while i was waiting for that to come through on a visit to a local fishing tackle i saw a notice for smallbore and fullbore pistol shooting.

I knew that it was legal to shoot pistols but i did not realise that it could be done at club level.

 

Anyway i went along and was hooked from the start, after a 3 month probationary period i applied for my FAC (never bought a shotgun) and a few weeks later bought my first pistols a Pardini .22 and a S&W 686.

 

At about the same time i started handloading, i used to shoot twice a week and seldom got through less then 100 fullbore and 100 rimfire rounds a week, this was back in 1984 and i carried on shooting pistols right up to the ban but in the meantime i bought a 223 rifle so was already shooting rifle as well when the pistols were banned.

 

I shot targets with centrefire rifles both competively and for fun untill 2004 when after joining a shooting forum got an invite from a local man to come and have a go at rabbit shooting on his families farm (Many thanks Alycidon).

 

I did not know if i could pull the trigger on something live but when i did it did not feel wrong and i realised that i enjoyed this.

Thats all history now, i still shoot on good freind Aly's farm as well as my own permissions, i have open conditions for all my rifles and consider myself an advanced handloader a major part of the hobby for me, which is another storey altogether.

 

TB.

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Why do I shoot - a simple question but one of the best on PW for a long time

 

I don't shoot clays -cannot see the point - and to be honest I don't think I would be very good at it - too public!

 

I enjoy game & vermin shooting. First of all, there is the challenge and the satisfaction - and yes - thrill if you shoot well. By & large you are in the company of like-minded people, which is nice. You get to see some beautiful countryside and as well as the skill of other guns, if you are lucky enough to be on a driven shoot, you can appreciate the skills of the keeper, the beaters, the pickers up and so on.

 

You also have the pleasure of working your own dog - in my case a black lab who is pretty good and then we had a family springer spaniel but she died last year aged 13+ after a wonderful life from which we got a lot of pleasure; we still miss her dreadfully.

 

Finally and although good weather has finally arrived, February is usually a pretty bloody boring month and - if there was no shooting, January, December & November would be just as grim!

 

Spring is round the corner [we hope] then summer, we will use the time to prepare for next season and before I know it, I will be out again with gun & dog, optimistically hoping that I will shoot just that little bit better than last season!

 

I hope you will get as much fun & pleasure & memories to savour from shooting as I have. I am getting to an age when I am beginning to realise that my shooting days will not go on for ever.....

 

Take care & be safe

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In my opinion whats so attractive and addicitve about shooting is the vast array of things you can be doing, theres something good to be doing all year rounnd. From September too Janruary its all about game hunting(Ducks, snipe, woodcock, pheasants etc..) February too June its all about vermin control(Crow shooting, pigeon shooting, trapping (magpies+Greycrows)). June to september its all about the rearing and fedding of the pheasants etc.. and throughout the year you can be conrtolling Foxes, rabbits not to forget ferreting. The countryisde and shooting/conservation go hand in hand theres always something to be enjoyed. What other sport gives you that?

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In my opinion whats so attractive and addicitve about shooting is the vast array of things you can be doing, theres something good to be doing all year rounnd. From September too Janruary its all about game hunting(Ducks, snipe, woodcock, pheasants etc..) February too June its all about vermin control(Crow shooting, pigeon shooting, trapping (magpies+Greycrows)). June to september its all about the rearing and fedding of the pheasants etc.. and throughout the year you can be conrtolling Foxes, rabbits not to forget ferreting. The countryisde and shooting/conservation go hand in hand theres always something to be enjoyed. What other sport gives you that?

 

 

Bother - wish I had thought of your name for P/W - I bet the Election is not quite as exciting as the extent of your shooting! Just been watching the first results on RTE

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Bother - wish I had thought of your name for P/W - I bet the Election is not quite as exciting as the extent of your shooting! Just been watching the first results on RTE

 

 

Like the name do you :lol::lol: You can say that again, I've giving up looking at the results to be honest, looks like Fine gael have it cant say I'm pleased there not going to be any different to Finna Fail, pity Sin fein diidnt get in not that I really expected them too but still would have been something different. The countrys dead anyway!

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I grew up either on military bases abroad, surrounded by guns, or with family in a totally rural part of Dorset. My uncle/cousins all shot, not always legally, but mainly rabbits and occasional pheasant for the pot and the local farmers ignored them. Air rifles etc in the Boy Scouts (before PC), then at about 20, a friend had a permission on his cousin's farm for vermin shooting using an old 12-bore Greener and I joined in - hooked. Long period of working/bringing up kids/not shooting, 30 years on, now retired through illness and BORED !! Saw a local clay shoot and had a 'have a go' lesson - remembered how good it felt - hooked again. Really enjoy clay shooting, my health isn't up to trudging across fields and I am not sure I would enjoy pulling the trigger on live game now (But respect those who do !)

Welcome to the madhouse, I hope you enjoy yourself! :good:

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I shoot for many of the same reasons as theother posters, it is also as said by others in my blood, my dad (although not anymore) was always a keen shot, 2 of his brothers are gamekeepers and my dads side of the family is or was always connected to farming in some way. I started of like most as a youngster with an air rifle, but have progressed on to a shotgun, I also love beating and count the days until the game season starts again. I do like the solitude and peace of the pigeon hide, and again echoing the other posts you see a lot when you sit quietly in a field, we have a lot of kites around our way + buzzards and I always see hares muntjacks and fallow deer + lots of songbirds that will virtually land on you in the hedge wrens, robins, blackbirds. Taking a few pigeons and the odd rabbit or two for the table is what its all about though and unfortunatly my wife will not eat any of it, kids on the other hand love pigeon and always say Daddy you will have to shoot more, they have more of an understanding of where food comes from than most drones in todays world and they are 3 and 5. Talking about peoples ideas about shooting I have never met any hostility from anyone when I mention than I shoot, I think it makes people respect you if anything when they understand whats involved. Anyway enough of my ramblings welcome and I hope the bug bites as I sure it will, although I must say I have only ever shot clays a couple of times.

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