buying or requesting full permission of shooting rights

[Mike525steel]

I saw an article recently whilst reading a shooting magazine im bought from the airport on my way on holiday

 

it was an article written by mark gilchrist about deer stalking and also he mentioned that he would always offer to keep the rabbits down in exchange for the exclusve rights to the pigeon shooting....... in some articles i have heard of people paying for this privilage.

 

I personally think that this is wrong as it might be ok for mr gilchrist with all his contacts and celebrity status in the world of country sport and food industry to go around requesting the exclusive rights to land all over the place and think that a good land owner should share out the shooting to those who he feels can be trusted with not abusing it but what is this doing for the people who enjoy shooting pigeons and rabbits for "great sport and good honest food for the table" ( the whole point of a lot of mark gilchrists articles)

 

ill tell you where i see it going...... i think that acts such as this are going to result in people having to pay for there sport even more than they have to now with the hiked prices of everything shooting related. There i plenty of shooting why not share

 

lets keep the bank managers paying through the nose for standing in a line pointing at the pheasants during the game season and not buying up the shooting rights for pest control.

 

im not pointing at mark gilchrist in particular but i do feel like articles such as this could start to create a trend and the celebs in the shooting world should really think about putting ideas like this out there.

Edited May 20, 2011 by Mike525steel

[dead eye alan]

yes mate dead right lets all shear it out and no exclusivety.

[MK38]

Although i can see what your saying, there is nothing new in buying shooting rights ,even for pigeon shooting.

 

I started shooting over forty years ago , and the neighbouring farm was run by a sydicate... there was only pigeon, rabbit and a few partridges and they put no game down... it was still jealously guarded and places rarely came up.

 

Not many farmers are happy with just anyone on there land, they like to know who's about and learn to trust them, in fact some farmers will only let known or recomended people shoot on the land.

Doing the farmer some good turns, fixing fences, clearing trees or helping out around the farm should earn you the right to sole shooting rights.... in fact i'd expect it.

And though it might be hard to get a foot in the door, the effort has to be worth it.

 

I don't see the problem of offering rabbit control in exchange for Pigeon shooting.....

 

The other thing to consider about a farm with many shooters on it, is that you may well have scoped the pigeons on a field and planned a day on them ony to find someone else has shot it the day before.... or worse, done damage , left litter etc. and then you come along .... who's to say you hadn't done it .

 

I went to shoot at a farm some years ago, he'd advertised for pigeon shooters and after talking to him i got the impression i would be alone on the fields, when i turned up there were so many people popping out of hedge rows and lurking under trees that in my opinion it was downright dangerous.... i left without taking the gun from the slip.

 

Finding Pigeon shooting can be hard, and often the best results come from personal recomendations from shooting friends or even chance meetings... the farmer i get my straw from, offered me Pigeon shooting when he requires it, as did the farmer i buy my chickens from.

 

As for paying for it, It's the law of supply and demand... if a farmer wants to charge for shooting , and people are willing to pay it... why shouldn't he ? it's just another source of income for him.

 

The 'trend' has allways been there ,just maybe a bit more now with the current climate.

 

Dave

[motty]

Unfortunately, money talks. At christmas i found out that i had lost permission to shoot on a couple of hundred acres of land. The reason was that the other bloke that had permission, didn't like me shooting there - even though he had only seen me there once in nearly 5 years!

The other bloke has a lot of money and bought the rights from the farmer.

I lost out on some cracking duck shooting. Sadly, that's life!

[Highlander]

I don't understand why people expect shooting to come for free. What sport can you enjoy today that you don't have to pay for? Even watching it on tv's not free!

 

Landowners/Farmers are not stoopid in fact most are pretty canny and if they don't shoot the land themselves they know it's worth a bob or two to someone.

 

The other problem is so called pest control, it isn't!

 

Most 'blue moon' shooters will never give farmer what he wants where pest control is concerned.

[ack-ack]

Probably not the right thing to say but if an opportunity to aquire a modest bit of ground for a modest sort of price arose I would scrape together my brass and go all out for it. If I could offer my time and services in exchange all the better. Sharing land works if all the guns are singing from the same song sheet. As soon as there are folk leaving litter, dead and causing damage the finger pointing starts and it all goes off. Why should I loose my sport because some pilchard cant be bothered to clear up his empties or leaves his pie wrappers in the hedge?

[Mike525steel]

Although i can see what your saying, there is nothing new in buying shooting rights ,even for pigeon shooting.

 

I started shooting over forty years ago , and the neighbouring farm was run by a sydicate... there was only pigeon, rabbit and a few partridges and they put no game down... it was still jealously guarded and places rarely came up.

 

Not many farmers are happy with just anyone on there land, they like to know who's about and learn to trust them, in fact some farmers will only let known or recomended people shoot on the land.

Doing the farmer some good turns, fixing fences, clearing trees or helping out around the farm should earn you the right to sole shooting rights.... in fact i'd expect it.

And though it might be hard to get a foot in the door, the effort has to be worth it.

 

I don't see the problem of offering rabbit control in exchange for Pigeon shooting.....

 

The other thing to consider about a farm with many shooters on it, is that you may well have scoped the pigeons on a field and planned a day on them ony to find someone else has shot it the day before.... or worse, done damage , left litter etc. and then you come along .... who's to say you hadn't done it .

 

I went to shoot at a farm some years ago, he'd advertised for pigeon shooters and after talking to him i got the impression i would be alone on the fields, when i turned up there were so many people popping out of hedge rows and lurking under trees that in my opinion it was downright dangerous.... i left without taking the gun from the slip.

 

Finding Pigeon shooting can be hard, and often the best results come from personal recomendations from shooting friends or even chance meetings... the farmer i get my straw from, offered me Pigeon shooting when he requires it, as did the farmer i buy my chickens from.

 

As for paying for it, It's the law of supply and demand... if a farmer wants to charge for shooting , and people are willing to pay it... why shouldn't he ? it's just another source of income for him.

 

The 'trend' has allways been there ,just maybe a bit more now with the current climate.

 

Dave

some ecellent points but i do believe that farmers should be able to manage shootng properly and i also agree that they shouldnt just let anyone that turns up and asks nicely to shoot pigeons on there land.

 

i shoot on an estate shoot and pigeon shooting is either a bit of roost shooting when the pheasant season ends and shooting them over the corn for limited time in the summer so as not to upset the poults too much. there is about 4 of us that share the shooting out and it works quite well as the land ownwer will share the shooting equally.

[Mike525steel]

I don't understand why people expect shooting to come for free. What sport can you enjoy today that you don't have to pay for? Even watching it on tv's not free!

 

Landowners/Farmers are not stoopid in fact most are pretty canny and if they don't shoot the land themselves they know it's worth a bob or two to someone.

 

The other problem is so called pest control, it isn't!

 

Most 'blue moon' shooters will never give farmer what he wants where pest control is concerned.

i know that everything has a price but if paying becomes the norm then shooting becomes like golf ~(clubs full of **** heads with the best of evrything being snapped up by the **** head with the most money, this does nothing for the future of the sport just closes the door on the sport for the average person)

 

nothing against golfers just an example of when money starts to talk what can happen

[stace1g]

I wouldnt worry too much. I have a game shooter come to my place of work quite often as he is one of our suppliers. He's a nice enough chap and has quite a bit of money. He prefers to pay for his shooting (driven game)so that he is gauranteed some 'sport'. He once tried pigeon shooting but couldnt be doing with its 'chancy' nature. I would imagine a lot of game shooters share this opinion. People with money often have little time so what time they do have they want to spend on gaurantted sport not standing in a field behind a hide waiting for the 'red letter day'

 

Gaz

Edited May 24, 2011 by stace1g

[Nial]

but i do believe that farmers should be able to manage shootng properly

 

 

You seem to have forgotten that farmers are business men who have to pay the mortgage.

 

 

How would you like if someone who gets fringe benefits from your job started telling you

what you should be doing so they could enjoy it more?

 

Also Mark Gilchrist is in a different position from most of us. He needs a steady

supply or game for his cooking so will probably do what he has to do to guarantee that.

 

 

Nial.

[Tug]

I've spent many hours on a small farm putting in hard graft to get on top of rabbit and rat problems, spending a full winter and spring across heavy clay at all hours of the day and night. Come the summer harvest I've rocked up on a weekend to find that three retired fellas have been shooting pigeon for the past two days and have pushed the birds off.

 

In many circles the sporting rights (which is what deer usually fall under) are paid for or leased, with the farmer being able to convey vermin shooting permission to somebody else. I shoot over a lot of keepered or syndicate land and I wouldn't expect them to "share" the pheasant or partridge with me.

 

Look at it from the point of view of MG. If he's been out and put in the time, ammo and fuel to control rabbits and prevent the farmer from financial loss then why shouldn't he be able to request that if he commits a day to pigeon shooting he won't be sharing the field with a bunch of people that haven't made the same effort?

 

All of you who criticise him for his "celebrity" contacts etc need to remember this: Mark is a bloody keen shooter but he's also an ardent promoter for game as a foodstuff. Many of the sporting associations see the wider consumption of game by the public as an integral part of shootings future. He probably does a damn sight more for the future of our sport than you do.

 

I've met Mark at a number of game fairs and can say that he's very straight talking and a passionate countryman - I'm pretty sure he'd rather be shooting than in his words "burning his b*ll*cks on a stove". I'd rather see arrangements like he mentioned in sporting shooter than for some sporting agent to jump in and just sell days to whoever rings up and books. Agents don't do much for the sport, and they can take a lot of shooting away from the ordinary man in the field.

 

As for "sharing the shooting", I don't want to share my permissions with anyone if possible. I'm a responsible, safe and courteous shooter with a tremendous amount of respect for my quarry. I pick my shots and know my own limitations. I don't want to be judged if somebody else comes on and litters the place with carts, pricks birds and takes unsafe shots.

Edited June 10, 2011 by Tug

[Mike525steel]

I've spent many hours on a small farm putting in hard graft to get on top of rabbit and rat problems, spending a full winter and spring across heavy clay at all hours of the day and night. Come the summer harvest I've rocked up on a weekend to find that three retired fellas have been shooting pigeon for the past two days and have pushed the birds off.

 

In many circles the sporting rights (which is what deer usually fall under) are paid for or leased, with the farmer being able to convey vermin shooting permission to somebody else. I shoot over a lot of keepered or syndicate land and I wouldn't expect them to "share" the pheasant or partridge with me.

 

Look at it from the point of view of MG. If he's been out and put in the time, ammo and fuel to control rabbits and prevent the farmer from financial loss then why shouldn't he be able to request that if he commits a day to pigeon shooting he won't be sharing the field with a bunch of people that haven't made the same effort?

 

All of you who criticise him for his "celebrity" contacts etc need to remember this: Mark is a bloody keen shooter but he's also an ardent promoter for game as a foodstuff. Many of the sporting associations see the wider consumption of game by the public as an integral part of shootings future. He probably does a damn sight more for the future of our sport than you do.

 

I've met Mark at a number of game fairs and can say that he's very straight talking and a passionate countryman - I'm pretty sure he'd rather be shooting than in his words "burning his b*ll*cks on a stove". I'd rather see arrangements like he mentioned in sporting shooter than for some sporting agent to jump in and just sell days to whoever rings up and books. Agents don't do much for the sport, and they can take a lot of shooting away from the ordinary man in the field.

 

As for "sharing the shooting", I don't want to share my permissions with anyone if possible. I'm a responsible, safe and courteous shooter with a tremendous amount of respect for my quarry. I pick my shots and know my own limitations. I don't want to be judged if somebody else comes on and litters the place with carts, pricks birds and takes unsafe shots.

 

Some very good points i suppose there is no harm in requesting the sole rights to the shooting if it has been paid for in hard work but im still against the bloke who just out and out turns up and pays for it

[Dr D]

I saw an article recently whilst reading a shooting magazine im bought from the airport on my way on holiday

 

it was an article written by mark gilchrist about deer stalking and also he mentioned that he would always offer to keep the rabbits down in exchange for the exclusve rights to the pigeon shooting....... in some articles i have heard of people paying for this privilage.

 

I personally think that this is wrong as it might be ok for mr gilchrist with all his contacts and celebrity status in the world of country sport and food industry to go around requesting the exclusive rights to land all over the place and think that a good land owner should share out the shooting to those who he feels can be trusted with not abusing it but what is this doing for the people who enjoy shooting pigeons and rabbits for "great sport and good honest food for the table" ( the whole point of a lot of mark gilchrists articles)

 

ill tell you where i see it going...... i think that acts such as this are going to result in people having to pay for there sport even more than they have to now with the hiked prices of everything shooting related. There i plenty of shooting why not share

 

lets keep the bank managers paying through the nose for standing in a line pointing at the pheasants during the game season and not buying up the shooting rights for pest control.

 

im not pointing at mark gilchrist in particular but i do feel like articles such as this could start to create a trend and the celebs in the shooting world should really think about putting ideas like this out there.

 

totally agree with this sentiment. Personally, I have never tried to get the land I shoot closed to others. The farmers have sometimes taken a different view, but it has never been my doing. I find getting it and keeping it is all down to doing exactly what you said you would when the landowner first said yes (i.e. vermin control). None of this once in a blue moon stuff, and turning up for couple of hours. I just get stuck in and make sure that the farmer is happy with the number of whatever I am shooting have noticeable reduced before moving on to next farm.