20yrs today & shooting

[blackbird]

I am nearing 60 now & was thinking to myself with today’s society & lack of youngsters interested in our sport do you think shooting will be a thing of the past, I shoot with my mate @ a local clay shooting club & 99% of the shooters are middle aged or old timers, it’s a bit like club rugby/football the youngsters just got no interest.

Edited February 13, 2021 by blackbird

[old'un]

I would think that in 20 years time if we are still allowed to have guns and kill things it will be very different from today or times gone by.

[wisdom]

13 minutes ago, old'un said:

I would think that in 20 years time if we are still allowed to have guns and kill things it will be very different from today or times gone by.

I feel very much the same.Luckily my lad is following me into shooting.I am 60 now and have been shooting since I was 15.Its changed dramatically nothing for the better in my opinion.

[marsh man]

The rate our countryside is shrinking you are going to have a lot less land to shoot over than you have now .

Lead will be phased out .

The General Licence is going to keep coming up for fresh air .

Wildfowling clubs could join forces to increase membership 

Game shooting could have restricted bag numbers .

 These are only guesses but I am pretty sure there will be more changes over the next twenty years than we have seen over the last 20.  

[MirokuMK70]

Its not surprising theres an increasing lack of interest. Clay shooting is an expensive hobby and where live quarry is concerned it comes down to cost and access. Game shooting is cripplingly expensive so unless you are born into it, no chance, and most shooters with careers and a young family do not have the spare time required for diy syndicates. Likewise pigeon or vermin shooting, all the permission is sewn up - usually by the old boys (who have the time available to put the hours in admittedly) who then moan that theres a lack of youngsters interested in the sport...

Edited February 13, 2021 by MirokuMK70

[wisdom]

11 minutes ago, MirokuMK70 said:

Its not surprising theres an increasing lack of interest. Clay shooting is an expensive hobby and where live quarry is concerned it comes down to cost and access. Game shooting is cripplingly expensive so unless you are born into it, no chance, and most shooters with careers and a young family do not have the spare time required for diy syndicates. Likewise pigeon or vermin shooting, all the permission is sewn up - usually by the old boys (who have the time available to put the hours in admittedly) who then moan that theres a lack of youngsters interested in the sport...

Bang on the money there.All of the places I used to roam over,are now houses.

[old'un]

19 minutes ago, MirokuMK70 said:

Its not surprising theres an increasing lack of interest. Clay shooting is an expensive hobby and where live quarry is concerned it comes down to cost and access. Game shooting is cripplingly expensive so unless you are born into it, no chance, and most shooters with careers and a young family do not have the spare time required for diy syndicates. Likewise pigeon or vermin shooting, all the permission is sewn up - usually by the old boys (who have the time available to put the hours in admittedly) who then moan that theres a lack of youngsters interested in the sport...

I think shooting as always been the same, its something you have to work at, but I would think there's a lot of youngsters who have been introduced to shooting by us old boys.

Believe it or not, it was harder to get onto some shooting some 40-50 years ago, the old farmers were very weary of any youngster with a gun on their land.

Edited February 13, 2021 by old'un

[bruno22rf]

Interesting debate, when I grew up in the 70's loads of lads in the village had guns and shot Rabbits etc (not legally most often), but nowadays I dont see anything like the interest in shooting or indeed the outdoors in the local youngsters - most can kill the enemy with a Barrett 50 cal as long as there's a screen in front of them but it makes me smile when I see kids being dragged outside for a walk by their parents, if looks could kill.

[marsh man]

9 minutes ago, MirokuMK70 said:

Its not surprising theres an increasing lack of interest. Clay shooting is an expensive hobby and where live quarry is concerned it comes down to cost and access. Game shooting is cripplingly expensive so unless you are born into it, no chance, and most shooters with careers and a young family do not have the spare time required for diy syndicates. Likewise pigeon or vermin shooting, all the permission is sewn up - usually by the old boys (who have the time available to put the hours in admittedly) who then moan that theres a lack of youngsters interested in the sport...

Two things I have noticed over the last few years where youngsters are concerned is ,very few are now interested to join the beating line on a regular basis , an ideal way to get your foot on the ladder for pigeon shooting and meeting like minded people .

And the second one is the lack of younger members who are now    no longer interested in joining a wildfowling club , this is a fairly cheap way for a youngster to learn about , wildfowling , working dogs , clay shooting and now a lot of clubs have got access to pigeon shooting.

[Walker570]

I think the biggest threat to shooting is the increase in population and concreting over the places we can shoot.  I started shooting at 7yrs of age in 1947 and five years later had my first shotgun and could go down to the paper shop and buy my own cartridges.  The only thing which has changed in the subsequent years has been licensing.

50yrs at the rate we are breeding there will not be a blade of grass on this country to shoot on.

 

[captainhastings]

That is true as a kid I could walk for miles in any direction with the dogs and ferrets and avoid if i wanted seeing any one. Now adays around here nearly every bit of rough ground gets bought up and some eco warrior puts solar panels and a shed up or tent or a caravan. Every one wants there own little bit land to escape too 

[marsh man]

I dare say most of the replies have come from the older generation , we must have several young(ish) members on the forum so how do they see it now , and how can they see it in 20 years time , or how do they hope to see it ?

[Cawdor118]

I was out on the shore last week and run in to 2 other fowlers, all of us under 35. I had never met the other 2 in my life before. 

[jall25]

My syndicate shoot is well blessed with a good cross section of ages and genders

As driven days were out - we threw the place open to the late teen / early twenty somethings to have walked up days - 2 at a time

They come bird counting, logging and feeding with me and the syndicate all the time - they need encouragement and nurturing.

We eat together , drink at the end of the day together.

As a man in his early forties who has been shooting all his life i realise now patience is needed as they sometimes will be late, loud and mess about - but they are the future and i am proud to have them and call them friends

[Benthejockey]

I'm still relatively young, 33, although I don't feel it! I'm from the generation that grew up before computers and the roll out of the web and before mobile phones. Gaming was pretty much Pong in black and white and the advent of channel 5 was a revelation, especially in my teen years when there was a chance of seeing some boobs late at night on a racy channel 5 movie. I've also lived through the rise of the new anti movement. I know previous incarnations lead to the blowing up of scientists cars at huntingdon life sciences and releasing mink into the wild, they were before phones and good quality video footage and violence could happen on both sides and go unseen.

Nowadays there's cameras everywhere, entitled people everywhere, the antis have the ear of the general public and on the whole the media supports them. Game shooting will go the same way as hunting its just a matter of when. Who cares that free range, healthy meat is the product of this past time? Its just rich people slaughtering birds and murdering birds of prey - at least thats the rhetoric forced down peoples throats. Foxes are cute and fluffy, deer are bambi, rabbits are endangered and don't even start on squirrels. And the people in the wrong have the loudest voice and we have apathy. I'm guilty of it myself. If an anti starts a row and 2 seconds in I can see they're belligerent and won't even consider a different point of view I can't be bothered to argue and thats where all country pursuits come undone. That and the fact we'll happily throw each other under the bus. Hunters, shooters and Fishermen alike never mind the deviciveness within the sports themselves.

Id like to see antis banned from interfering with legitimate activities. And treated like the home grown terrorists they are.

Id like to see some support for rural communities and protection in law for the countryside similar to the recently invoked French law - you move to the countryside and you have no right to complain about cocks crowing, cows mooing or le chasse!

Id like to see someone high up get their act together and actually be an advocate for shooting and the like. We have guns, guns are safe, shooters are safe, game shooters and stalkers provide a high quality product that is on the whole disregarded and unknown to the public so why don't we make more use of it?! When cod was going short there was a huge push from high up to use other fish from hake and haddock to Vietnamese bog fish (that maybe an exaggeration). We need someone to push game and get behind it like they have with all this vegan ****. Game is bad and destroying the environment but its OK to eat soya based products imported from across the world!

I think in my lifetime we will see the end of shooting as we know it! Game shooting will be gone, deer stalking will be under license as a pest control exercise, you'll have to be a licensed pest controller to shoot any vermin, air guns will be licensed or illegal and we'll all be forced to eat twigs and leaves like the vegans.

Edited February 14, 2021 by Benthejockey

[mel b3]

That pretty much nailed it Ben 👍. 

[telf]

16 hours ago, old'un said:

I would think that in 20 years time if we are still allowed to have guns and kill things it will be very different from today or times gone by

I pity the youngsters now in 20 years time the world will be a very sorry place and the way the world is going now , we will all have guns legal or not and be shooting each other

[Newbie to this]

2 minutes ago, telf said:

I pity the youngsters now in 20 years time the world will be a very sorry place and the way the world is going now , we will all have guns legal or not and be shooting each other

So like today, but on a bigger scale

[telf]

32 minutes ago, Newbie to this said:

So like today, but on a bigger scale

Got it in one 👍

[lakeside1000]

I shoot all around Norfolk, I never meet many under 50 out shooting, I have tried to bring youngsters into the sport including clay's and vermin control, they are interested at first but soon get fed up and move on to something else, 

Both my sons would come out with me when they were just teenagers, the oldest is now 51 and has been keen all his life even became very competitive for a while on the clays, but since a move to the USA he now only gets out a couple of time a year when he visits us in the UK. 

The younger son now 45 very quickly decided he didn't want to  shoot , he now strongly disagrees with using guns to control vermin but I respect his right to choose that path.

I had a young man shoot with me 3 years ago and proved a very good shot but pressure of work stopped him continuing with it, he may come back to it in time.

So its up to us oldies to stick at it for as long as we can still get out there. 

[MWildfowler]

Very interesting thread. I’m 28 and am obsessed with the sport. Although I have to say my interested started due to family members abroad and me being able to accompany them on their hunting trips. One thing that has always prevented me from getting into any type of shooting was basically not knowing how to or the laws around it. The reason for this is I have never known anyone with a sgc or that is into any of these sports. So I strongly believe that unless you’re in the know about how licensing and everything else works you probably won’t get involved much in shooting sports. Since I’ve started shooting I know I’ve encouraged many others to look into the sport and everyone’s response was ‘I didn’t know I could do that here’ and these are all young people. 
 

I guess what I’m trying to say is shooting/hunting seems to be very isolated and if you’re in the circles then great but if you’re not then you miss out. Going forward I think there needs to be more awareness raised amongst the youth that do not have access to these circles about how one can get involved and what sports they can do. As I believe majority of people probably do not know (which is certainly the case in my social circles) 

[kennett]

Don't come on my shoot days then, 10 - 15 kids in the beating line is completely normal and they all have great fun. My circle of friends have all got young children who beat and shoot, and my own two beat and help me with the keepering, legislation and the permanently offended will kill shooting.

[Spr1985]

Finding this thread very interesting, I’m 35 and obsessed with shooting, I’d be out all the time given the choice. most that I shoot with are younger than me barring a couple of older gentlemen. Unfortunately I can’t justify the costs of pheasant days etc and have hit brick walls for the last two years trying to get permissions, everything’s either tied up or the farmers want references from other local farmers so catch 22. My shooting is predominantly clays with the odd invite onto a small pheasant syndicate via an ex work colleague and a bit of pigeon shooting again from two good friends inviting me along. It’s coming to the point of seriously considering paying for the pleasure which just seems wrong to me. My next step is joining a wildfowling club and getting  out with a good mate that’s a long standing member......but it’s still not the pigeon and corvids that I’d prefer to be out on. I don’t think it’s a case of the younger generations not wanting to get involved but more being unable to get a foot in the door. 

[old'un]

A few farmers have made the same comment to me, and that is, weekend shooters are ten a penny, they want someone when they need them, that's where retired people have an advantage, other have told me of young shooters asking to shoot some pigeons on the winter rape, which was given but after a couple of fruitless outing they just did not turn up again, another farmer told me about giving a couple of young lads permission to shoot on some wheat stubble, when he went down the field to where they had been shooting he found over 100 empty cases, pop cans and food wrappings, needles to say they were sent on their way when they came knocking his door the weekend after, another farmer told me of some young lads who tried to drive across his rape field to get to their shooting spot, they got stuck and the farmer had to pull them out, he sent them on their way.

that's just a few instances of farmers having bad experiences when letting someone unknown on their land, and take it from me farmers do talk to other farmers about the problems they have with some shooters, so a lot just say, “sorry, we have already got someone shooting the pigeons, thank you” but I don't believe as some think that all the shooting is tied up by the old boys.

getting shooting permission is not easy, it takes a lot of time and effort, door knocking, mixing with and talking to the right people, putting yourself out there on a regular bases, being in the right places at the right time, and the correct approach.

I do understand that a lot of youngsters have family commitments and only have perhaps one or two days a week to go looking for shooting which makes it harder for them, but putting the hours, days, months and years into finding shooting does pay dividends in the end but it is a lot of time, effort and hard work.

[clangerman]

can’t see the problem with perms i let over 20 go started in a fresh area back to more than i can handle if people cant get one this time of year they are doing something wrong