I won't shoot that!

[TONY R]

Shoot hares because i like to eat them, in do not shoot every hare on sight but take one when i need one. i have some good hare land and they are always around.

Jays? Why dont people shoot jays? I do not understand that one. Not being critical just asking why not. ?

Edited March 26, 2016 by TONY R

[bruno22rf]

Jays but don't really know why.....or any Gamebird.

[team tractor]

I leave hares normally , jays I love to watch and as said already the moorhen . It's a little duck/bird that does nothing but entertain while fishing.

Collared doves are left on most farms by order of the farmer.

 

I have to leave the foxes alone on one farm too.

Edited March 26, 2016 by team tractor

[rimfire4969]

An old fellah once told me you need short arms to shoot hares.

Nows theres a fact.

[mr smith]

Jays for me too mainly because there aren't many of them about around here just like magpie,if the numbers pick up then it would be time for a little thinning.Hares again numbers aren't big so they get left.

[kent]

Yes.

And also no depends they occupy both slots in law

[kent]

Confused on the stoats thing. Although they van do some good on rodents they are real major predators of ground nesting birds

They will also take hares so if you want more hares and don't kill stoats you might be on a looser. You might not think a stoat can do a Hare but it certainly can I have seen it right here on my own lawn

[Hendrix's rifle]

Confused on the stoats thing. Although they van do some good on rodents they are real major predators of ground nesting birds

They will also take hares so if you want more hares and don't kill stoats you might be on a looser. You might not think a stoat can do a Hare but it certainly can I have seen it right here on my own lawn

I know the damage stoats can cause however there aren't many stoats round here either. Mink on the other hand are a target all year by any means necessary! My old floating raft trap worked wonders when I was a fish farmer next to the Dane

[kent]

Shoot hares because i like to eat them, in do not shoot every hare on sight but take one when i need one. i have some good hare land and they are always around.

Jays? Why dont people shoot jays? I do not understand that one. Not being critical just asking why not. ?

Jays is a local thing in many areas there are non or very few. In others loads n loads

[TONY R]

And also no depends they occupy both slots in law

Are they game on un enclosed moorland something like that ? Remember something like that.

[anser2]

Freddy moorhens can be very good to eat, skin them , remove the breasts and grill them. True they do not usually give very sporting shots , but they can be a little testing at times. As a teenager where I used to shoot a number of dykes with narrow belts of scrub along the banks ran out onto grass fields for several hundred yards. We would walk the moorhens along the banks into the grass fields until the scrub ended. Idealy into the wind. When we got to the end of the scrub the moorhens were loathe to leave the cover and cross the fields. Instead they would rise up into the wind and then break back back over our heads 20 - 30 yards up providing driven shots that could be quite hard at times.They seemed to be flying towards you , but were in fact drifting sideways in the wind. On a good afternoon we might get 15 or 20 , then home and cook the breasts and eat on toast.

 

A few moorhens do not do a lot of harm, but when in numbers they can eat a lot of corn around fed flight ponds , will graze sprouting corn and take duck\ game bird eggs. I used to know an old keeper who killed dozens in cage traps baited with eggs. I have not shot one for years and do not have the need to , but I would not want to lose the right to do so .

 

A friend was given a very expensive labrador who failed to make the grade. It retrieved game ok , but always dropped the bird rather than deliver it into the hand. Its owner told the trainer to get rid of the dog and it passed into my mates hands for the cost of a sack of dog food. We cured the problem in one afternoon. We caught a moorhen ( my old dog was always pegging them ) cut the flight feathers on one wing so it could not fly and tossed the bird out for my mates new dog. It retrieved the moorhen and of course dropped it short. However as soon as it was dropped the moorhen legged it across the grass and the dog had to catch it again. The dog only dropped the moorhen twice and then learnt to hang onto a bird until delivered into masters hand. At the end of the lesson the moorhen was released unharmed and would be able to fly again as soon as it grew new flight feathers and my mate had a great gun dog for a fraction of its true value.

Edited March 26, 2016 by anser2

[hoggysreels]

Do not shoot .. Hares - Moorhen - Foxes .. wouldn't be overly keen shooting Snipe or Woodcock.

[Konnie]

Don't shoot waders that are allowed on foreshore. And no hen pheasants

 

Forgot grey partridge.. dont't even consider them game on my patch any more great bird.

Edited March 26, 2016 by Konnie

[winnie&bezza]

Shoot all corvids and hate them but after reading on here about Jay's burying acorns and then forgetting where they put them which leads to more oak trees, then I will have to re-access my stance on them. Have never seen a hate to shoot as the ****** killed them off around here apparently. It's interesting to see people's stances.

[FatFreddysCat]

Freddy moorhens can be very good to eat, skin them , remove the breasts and grill them. True they do not usually give very sporting shots , but they can be a little testing at times. As a teenager where I used to shoot a number of dykes with narrow belts of scrub along the banks ran out onto grass fields for several hundred yards. We would walk the moorhens along the banks into the grass fields until the scrub ended. Idealy into the wind. When we got to the end of the scrub the moorhens were loathe to leave the cover and cross the fields. Instead they would rise up into the wind and then break back back over our heads 20 - 30 yards up providing driven shots that could be quite hard at times.They seemed to be flying towards you , but were in fact drifting sideways in the wind. On a good afternoon we might get 15 or 20 , then home and cook the breasts and eat on toast.

 

A few moorhens do not do a lot of harm, but when in numbers they can eat a lot of corn around fed flight ponds , will graze sprouting corn and take duck\ game bird eggs. I used to know an old keeper who killed dozens in cage traps baited with eggs. I have not shot one for years and do not have the need to , but I would not want to lose the right to do so .

 

A friend was given a very expensive labrador who failed to make the grade. It retrieved game ok , but always dropped the bird rather than deliver it into the hand. Its owner told the trainer to get rid of the dog and it passed into my mates hands for the cost of a sack of dog food. We cured the problem in one afternoon. We caught a moorhen ( my old dog was always pegging them ) cut the flight feathers on one wing so it could not fly and tossed the bird out for my mates new dog. It retrieved the moorhen and of course dropped it short. However as soon as it was dropped the moorhen legged it across the grass and the dog had to catch it again. The dog only dropped the moorhen twice and then learnt to hang onto a bird until delivered into masters hand. At the end of the lesson the moorhen was released unharmed and would be able to fly again as soon as it grew new flight feathers and my mate had a great gun dog for a fraction of its true value.

Interesting, didn't know they ate eggs. I shoot the occasional coot so maybe I'll try a moorhen next season. Agree about not losing anything from the list as it will be the thin end of the wedge. I make a point of shooting a few golden plover each year just so that they are listed on my returns and the protectionists can't claim that nobody shoots them anyway.

[rjimmer]

I leave the moorhens alone. If they disappear, it could indicate that there are mink about. Not sure if Otters take moorhens.

[bullet1747]

If farmers ask me to shoot ill shoot wot ever they want as long as its on licence ,

[sitsinhedges]

It's funny how I never even considered shooting things like moorhens and collared doves as a question, I mean why would you want to?

 

Having said that the amount of stock doves we have around here, they could do with putting on the general licence. They're a bloody nuisance flicking around your decoys when you're after a few woodies.

Edited March 26, 2016 by sitsinhedges

[bullet1747]

Seagulls should be on licence

[Big Al]

I don't shoot snipe. There's so little meat on them it doesn't seem right. It's simply a personal thing - plenty of my friends shoot them.

[chris1961]

Hares Woodcock snipe are the only things I don't shoot

[winnie&bezza]

Seagulls should be on licence

Agree.

[kent]

Fair point we must keep all on the list

[7daysinaweek]

jays, stopped lifting gun to the poor old hare over a decade ago,for me they are an animal that epitomises the countryside and are just harrassed at every chance around here in and out of season.they are as wonderful animal as you can get, when you get a few feet from one on the squat and that big golden eye peering at you. in me younger days i used to run a dog and it was one dog, one hare with plenty of fair law for strong winter hare. i now choose not to hunt them at all but that is my personal choice.

 

atb

7diaw

[jam1e]

I don't shoot jays, don't see many on my permissions. or hares for the same reason

+1. I don't see enough Hares or Jays to warrant them being a "pest" on my permissions.