Branchers

[ladyjack]

Anyone been shooting branchers yet

[Scully]

No, not sure I’m even going to bother this year unless I’m asked. 

[Dave at kelton]

I only did this once, decades ago, and really did not enjoy it so have never repeated the experience. I recognise it can be an essential cull but it’s not for me.

[craig1982]

Went out last Saturday to one of my better sites but most of the young ones have flown the nest, got a couple but most of the nests were empty.

[bruno22rf]

Difficult to justify it in my eyes - used to do it every year but when I read somewhere that Rooks can be beneficial by eating bugs I stopped.

[mossy835]

i have a farm full of them ,2018 , i shot 150,in one day, last year we could not shoot because of packham. this year im out after them,loads of them up one farm i shoot,

[johnphilip]

3 hours ago, bruno22rf said:

Difficult to justify it in my eyes - used to do it every year but when I read somewhere that Rooks can be beneficial by eating bugs I stopped.

The old farmers liked them , they used to say because they went after the Leather Jackets.

[NatureBoy]

They have been ripping up beans big time this year.They also eat eggs and young. Especially in dry Springs. Been/are a real pain on farms with free range hens, out door pig units along with jackdaws to. Getting loads in ladder traps.They clobbered some ducklings last month. 3 rooks done the whole brood in minutes. Wasn't the 12th always traditionally rook day and always so looked forward to by most country folk and shooters. Kept them moving and the best and easiest time to really knock numbers back. Some of the old boi's and gals also used to say brancher's the best meat ever. Hense 4 and 20 black birds baked in a pie! My ol dad loved em! Very tasty. Weren't that the idea of scarecrows and lads in the fields with rattles/rook rifles years ago/. . . Perhaps we should just all pack in pest control, roll over to WJ's new challenges and take up clay "target" Shooting!?       NB 

[GingerCat]

I've got 4 nests at the back of the garden, the wind all but destroyed them. Soon rebuilt. They have only recently hatched and I've yet to see a brancher this year. I imagine another week here at least. 

[mossy835]

im up after them tomorrow.loads of them, had a call from the farmer today,

[oowee]

I have shot over a 100 this week and the farm I went to today has well over 1000 birds causing havock in the barns and buildings, all over the maize shoots. They will easily cause cattle to fall over, excrement in the food, pecking at livestock in numbers they are a nightmare. They need to be controled. I would have no hesitation taking them on the roost where the numbers can be more easily thinned, but it's a bit late now. 

[JDog]

I've forgotten who it was, possibly Archie Coats, who said that young Rooks mix in with young Carrion Crows and acquire some of their very bad habits. I would have no hesitation in shooting one should the chance occur.

[Jacko3275]

4 hours ago, JDog said:

I've forgotten who it was, possibly Archie Coats, who said that young Rooks mix in with young Carrion Crows and acquire some of their very bad habits. I would have no hesitation in shooting one should the chance occur.

I believe it was mr coats just read his book 

[Blackpowder]

Dont think its allowed in Scotland now.

 

Blackpowder

 

[grahamch]

An outdated and cruel practice which if more widely known about would do shooting sports more harm than good

[enfieldspares]

Haven't done it for thirty years but regret it. Nothing tastier than a rook pie. Lovely.

[JDog]

41 minutes ago, grahamch said:

An outdated and cruel practice which if more widely known about would do shooting sports more harm than good

What exactly is cruel about it if the branchers are killed cleanly?

The word cruel indicates a deliberate attempt to cause pain and suffering.

 

[Scully]

48 minutes ago, grahamch said:

An outdated and cruel practice which if more widely known about would do shooting sports more harm than good

Why? 

[ClemFandango]

1 hour ago, grahamch said:

An outdated and cruel practice which if more widely known about would do shooting sports more harm than good

********. 

 

[andrewluke]

1 hour ago, grahamch said:

An outdated and cruel practice which if more widely known about would do shooting sports more harm than good

i could not do it myself

[bruno22rf]

Shooting chicks the minute they leave the nest, if you cannot see the lack of empathy involved in such a practice then that's a real shame, they can barely, if at all, fly. I used to do hundreds every year but I lost the taste as I grew up and realised that shooting is not all about killing and certainly not about numbers. I think that Rooks get confused with Crows and are tarred with the same brush. If they really are a problem then shoot the nests out in January.

[marsh man]

15 minutes ago, bruno22rf said:

Shooting chicks the minute they leave the nest, if you cannot see the lack of empathy involved in such a practice then that's a real shame, they can barely, if at all, fly. I used to do hundreds every year but I lost the taste as I grew up and realised that shooting is not all about killing and certainly not about numbers. I think that Rooks get confused with Crows and are tarred with the same brush. If they really are a problem then shoot the nests out in January.

Another one of these move on so called sports with old age , I was the same when I was younger , every year around the second week in May me and my brother went in a wood every night for a week when the young rooks were sitting on a branch like fair ground targets , by the end of the week the wood started to smell with dead young Rooks that were getting covered up with nettles , we thought at the time we were doing a good job , the truth is we were hungry to kill just about anything on the shooting list .

Now 50 odd years later I couldn't bring myself to shoot young Rooks just for the sake of it . I don't condemn those who want to shoot ( Branchers ) but no longer for me .

 

[Scully]

If they’re regarded as a pest then it’s pest control; no different than shooting fox cubs or young rabbits. 

[enfieldspares]

They are shot as branchers as that, with a gun, is the only way to actually shoot them in the numbers needed to control them. The alternative used to be sending a lad to climb the tree to take them. There is nothing cruel about it. What does it say in the Bible? Let those without sin cast the first stone? For those that shoot woodpigeons should realise this. That if you want to say what is cruel it is be careful what you wish for - as shooting pigeons over decoys in late Spring and early Summer knowing fully well that in doing so you may likely leave orphaned young birds in the nest that then starve to death is what?

[Hamster]

 It’s one of those situations when you can sympathise with either party’s point.