Disgusting

[ips]

4 hours ago, scotslad said:

To be honest driven shooting doesn't stand much of a chance when by this thread many fellow shooters are against it never mind the anti's.

 

IN Usa/Canada/nz an many parts of Europe too the land is oftn owned by the government or shooting rights by the local community, driven shooting does happn on some private estates just as it does here, but an awful lot of the shootin is free.

 

I don't think some on here really appreciate how much the benefits of driven shooting filters down to all other aspects of shooting.

Even ur very basic 20-30 birds diy syndicate type shoot would be far far more expensive to run if it wasn't for the big commercial estates, game farms, feed companies, poultry medicine producers etc probably wouldn't bother producing products or licencing them for game or would be a lot more expensive.

 

Even when u go down to smaller scale shooting many of the benefits of shooting decrease as they don't have a FT keeper or the cash to plant new woods, dig ponds or plant cover crops.

 

The anti's don't give a stuff about big bags, 1 bird is too many, they would happily see us fall over ourself's to set self imposed bag limits and then make them legally binding before screwing them own.

 

Thoose that are against these 'big' bags, have u ever been to a big bag day??

I mind the estate I started work on as a YT keeper, I can remember in the old days shooting 100, then 150 and on a big day almost 200 bird days and they were quality birds.

I left the area for uni/work etc change of shoot captain to newer ideas bags went steadily up to as high as 700 a day, I thought the same as many on here initially, but when u went bak to the shoot the birds are still the same quality it's just the. drives last longer

 

We really have to stop publishing the fact as we're doing the anti's job, and I must admit I'm with JDog I still even this year have never heard of it or spoke to anyone has  actually seen it 1st hand

 And we have to start supporting all types of shooting, I would (or couldn't ever justify) spending that sort of money on 1 days sport but it pays for my dog food and gives me work, same with many beaters/kids.

 

9 minutes ago, CharlieT said:

Well said Scotslad.

People really need to get a grip of exactly what the numbers of birds shot on driven days actually represent.

A 200 bird day is only 3 birds per drive per gun. Correspondingly a 400 bird day is  only 6 birds per gun, which can hardly be described as excessive shooting.

Shooting generates £2bn into the economy, couple this with the huge benefits it brings to the environment, employment and businesses and one starts to appreciate just how important driven shooting is.

Both the CA and BASC have spent much time and effort over the past few years promoting the eating of game, couple this with the effort put in by shoots and the wider  industry as a whole and I'm sure, in the end, we will convince the wider public to eat game meat. It's starting to happen, it just needs to happen quicker. 

Be positive gentlemen. 

both excellent posts ?

 

 

[motty]

7 hours ago, ips said:

 

both excellent posts ?

 

 

I agree.

[matgriff]

Not read the whole thread, but couple of mates I go clay shooting with are keen shooters... dropped me off two pheasants and 4 ducks the other night, cut the breasts out and prepped them up, they're now in my freezer ready to be cooked. I'll generally use a few pigeon breasts when I shoot them.

They told me when they went shooting pheasants they couldn't give them away on the day :-(    They take their own kills and use them, it was generally quite a few people didn't.

I'll never turn down free birds.... we have 4 kids to feed :-)   Who doesn't like crispy duck breast ?

 

Seems a waste to me, after all breasting a duck or pheasant takes two minutes with a sharp knife.

 

 

 

Edited November 22, 2017 by matgriff

[aga man]

One of the most amazing things is that this thread has almost made 7 pages without being locked, despite opinions differing. Surely a first for Pigeon watch. Well done Gents.

[Stonepark]

Something which we need to consider and which is easy to fall into is 'group think' i.e. the fact you surround yourself with people who think like you and before you know it the 'group' loses contact with planet earth.

I have no issues with the amount of birds an individual shoots (personally i like to hunt, rather than driven and don't look for big bags unless protecting crops) but i think we are on very shaky ground when it comes to the disposal of perfectly edible birds when they are not being directed into the food chain in some way.

Similarly, I can see government bodies (NE, SNH, SEPA, EA etc) as they always are, looking to pay more attention to shooting should a large part of the sustainability argument fall with the destruction of the end product as waste which is incinerated or buried and i fear that any expansion of regulatory burden will not only affect commercial shoots but all shooting.

Whilst we all stand together to protect shooting, you have to consider what are you defending and in the case of large commercial shoots shooting often multiple times per week they have the moral responsibilty to dispose of their birds in a responsible manner, in my opinion into the food chain, even at a cost (which is a small price to pay compared to the cost of the day) , to maintain the moral high ground and if they fail to do so should not be supported.

[ehb102]

Heard some good speakers on this issue at S&CBC conference. The process for getting food into the supermarkets is so rigorous that it's very hard to comply. But as Me Glenser said, if we can't get what we shoot into the food chain we lose our justification for shooting it. 

How about BASC do a game sharing app? Set your radius of travel and it will ping you if someone says they have something that day. You could message through the app to make contact. Get people getting meat from the source. 

[scotslad]

I totally agree with the last 2 posts also, but I should say I still do not 100% believe this is happening yet.

I do believe estates may have put incenerators in but not purely for the birds, more likely to save on fallen stock and there grading there own birds before selling the better 1's, as this rumour has circulated for years/decades even when the price of game was half decent.

 

Really game dealers have dropped the ball massively (and the larger shoots should of seen this coming) and they should of been developing breaking new markets in the UK, in th past I think game dealers have kept the price high to make it seem more exclusive an elite so making the market tiny.

I would imagine it should be fairly easy to knock birds out for £2 a bird with both the plucker/dresser and butcher/shop taking £1 each wich is not a bad profit margin.

 

Must admit this issue could stop/restrict shooting more than anything else in the near future, or the lack of beaters and esp pickers up, over the last 4 yrs I've never turned down so many days.

[Dekers]

10 hours ago, ehb102 said:

Heard some good speakers on this issue at S&CBC conference. The process for getting food into the supermarkets is so rigorous that it's very hard to comply. But as Me Glenser said, if we can't get what we shoot into the food chain we lose our justification for shooting it. 

How about BASC do a game sharing app? Set your radius of travel and it will ping you if someone says they have something that day. You could message through the app to make contact. Get people getting meat from the source. 

There are a lot of different views on this thread but I'm struggling to recall any justification that was ever made for sizeable charging shoots because they were putting food on the table!

It is done for money, end of, there may be a tenuous suggestion that a bi product gets a bit of bird on the table, but if anyone thinks Game Shooting exists for the purpose of feeding people with the birds they at deluded!

Edited November 23, 2017 by Dekers