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finding a shoot


jimmy
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Either

Get out and knock on doors of farms and ask politely. Leave the gun firmly in your car boot unless the farmer asks to see it. Have your BASC insurance to hand as few farmers will let you shoot without insurance. If you are a member of any other shooting clubs/organisations then say so too and show your memberships. It may sway the farmer if he thinks your serious about your sport. Be prepared for many NO answers and still remain polite.

Or

Write a couple of hundred letters to landowners offering your services. List all the clubs/organisations you belong to to show your committment. Be prepared to be interviewed if contacted. Last time I wrote letters I got 1 reply to 75 letters!. It got me 250 acres to shoot over though for which I am greatful.

 

If either approach sounds like a lot of work - it is.

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There is space dedicated to this on the home page of PW boys, also in the great John Batley book all about pigeon shooting he dedicates quite a few pages to this topic.

 

It is difficult, like all things once you got your foot in the door it becomes easier as your face is known etc. You should also give thought to how you'd both go about keeping it once you got it. I don't mean to teach anybody how to suck eggs etc but if you follow a few simple rules you'll be quids in. Don't under any circumstances leave any litter, if you are going to leave what you shoot on the land, be discreet and hide it well from visitors and or the farmer taking into consideration he will probably be driving a tractor so his view will be different...... you know the score. Take note of vehicles parked on his land and let him know the details etc, always book in and out unless told otherwise. MOST IMPORTANT don't forget the bottle of spirits for him and a small bunch of flowers and choccy's for her at Xmas.

 

Good luck

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:lol: Some very sound advice there from ColPol and not much to be added. A very good point he makes is, once established on a farm it gets easier and easier to get more land. Nothing seems to work better when approaching a fresh farm and saying that you have been shooting on farmer Jones,s land for X number of years and farmer Browns land for Y years. They all know each other for miles around and word would soon travel fast if you had a bad record and they are only a phone call apart to confirm you have a good reputation.

A last tip that we have found that can give a good days shooting, is when a large number of pigeons are feeding undisturbed on a farm that is not one of ours but when we ask we are told that they have shooters already. We don,t just walk away but say in a friendly way that the resident shooters are not there at the moment but the pigeons are and this has resulted in several one off days of excellent shooting.Also as a last point if we do have a good day on a farm , whether one of our own or a one day job like i have just mentioned, we always follow it up with a phone call to the farmer in the evening to say how well we have done and find that this is appreciated and pays dividends for future requests to shoot.

Best of luck in your search for some shooting.

:lol:

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Having just re-read my post one point I make could be read in a manner that I do not support.

 

So for clarity here goes, when I discussed leaving what you have shot on the land, I was refering strictly to pest species e.g. crows, rats, magpies etc and not edible game. If you have not got a table for your produce then you should not shoot it.

 

Apologies if I created any confusion.

 

Happy hunting

 

Col Pol

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I find a very good way to increase your shooting ground is to get some ferrets :lol: .The phonecall to the farmer next to "your"land goes as follows,Hello mr x,i will be ferreting at mr y's farm at the weekend and was wondering if it would be ok if i did some of the boundery hedges?99% of the time they say carry on and i've even had some say while your around with the ferrets can you have look at a particular spot for them.The important thing is they know mr y lets you shoot his land and most farmers know one another well enough to trust each others judgment on such things,once you have this initial foot in the door and he hs a brace of rabbits under his belt a follow up phone call and visit are much easier :lol:

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi Jimmy

 

I think the guys have really said it all, i recently got a farm to shoot on that i had approached several times, this time i was welcomed with open arms and was out that day shooting.

 

It took over a year but i guess the message is polite persistance, i door knocked and then followed this up with a letter confirming insurance, fibre wads, litter etc etc, and eventuay it paid off when i door knocked again this year, he still had my letter from last year!

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