Consistent knockbacks

[Scully]

I think much depends on where you live. You’ve made good progress by getting on a shoot; many doors are opened via this route. 
If you knock on a door not knowing whether that land is already shot over, and the landowner says yes, then it’s not your problem if he has already given permission to someone else. Most tell you if they already have someone, whether they have or not is irrelevant, it can sometimes just be their way of saying no. 
I pay to shoot on a local farm, but it’s an absolute paltry sum agreed by us going back donkies years, when we first started ferreting there, as we’ve known each other since we were kids, and is simply my way of keeping others off that land. 
There are many other places I shoot just by verbal agreement, but in all cases, I know well the landowners. 
Like I said, much depends where you live. 

[JDog]

TVPC

It looks as if you are doing most things right. I suspect you have just been unlucky. Keep handing the cards out.

I have been trying to get on a certain Landowner’s farms for five years now and he has always refused me permission. He must have a pile of my cards by now. Last Wednesday I watched a huge number of pigeons going across to one of his rape fields and by luck he was at some buildings watching his man fill a lorry with grain. We shook hands and he said... ‘Yes you can go’, and that was that.

[toontastic]

I'm local to you and there are still opportunities out there. Put yourself about various shoots letting them know you are available for beating and helping out. Socialise with the other beaters as they are likely to know of local opportunities. 

 

 

 

 

 

[marsh man]

We all started off going down the same route , finding a field then knocking on the land owners door , to be honest I wasn't that concerned if they had others people going and I was prepared to go on the day I saw Pigeons during the damage .

I must admit it wasn't that difficult getting the go ahead when we started , the more land you went on in that area the easier it was to gain new land , having a lot of land to go on is good news , the problem by having a big area you cannot be every where at once and in the early days I still had to work longish hours to pay the bills , then on a Friday afternoon when I finished work I would have a ride out to find some for the following day , you might find a good field or a block of fields that are having problems with a lot of Pigeons , like a block of laid Wheat / Barley , these fields might be shot hard for a two or three weeks and then again on the stubble .

This is fine as far as I was concerned but what about all the other land that you are not going on ? , this is where the op might get his foot in the door if the farmer haven't seen you for a few weeks and don't know if you are still shooting ? , this could be the exactly the same circumstances when we first knocked on that farmers door .

Now I only look after one big(ish) area and go any day of the week so in the rare event anyone enquire about Pigeon shooting they will be told truthfully that somebody all ready look after the place . 

GOOD LUCK to the op and don't stop trying , even us oldies can't go on for ever and that is the same throughout the land.

[robbiep]

A lot of good advice on here. A lot of people seem to just rock up at a farm, knock on the door, and ask if they can shoot / do pest control.

Ask yourself how YOU would react in that situation ?

If, on the other hand, the person is "I was walking over by the river yesterday, and noticed that the wheat / barley / whatever was getting hammered by the pigeons. I do a bit of pest control, and wanted to see if the farm had anyone looking after it ? Is it yours, or do you know who's it is ?"

Now the farmer is going to view that approach differently, because :

1. You've identified a crop. Well done. That means you aren't a complete townie

2. You've identified a problem. And offered a potential solution. 

3. You've shown that you have powers of observation. That you're switched on to the world around you. 

If the land is his, then you've at least got him interested. And if the person with the permission isn't doing the job, that now gives him the chance to sack them off, and get you in - or even just to give you a chance on that one field.

Even if the land isn't his, he's now far more likely to say who does own it, and send you that way.

Cold calling - in any situation - has a horribly low hit rate. And you are cold calling, trying to sell something, yourself.

[marsh man]

54 minutes ago, robbiep said:

A lot of good advice on here. A lot of people seem to just rock up at a farm, knock on the door, and ask if they can shoot / do pest control.

Ask yourself how YOU would react in that situation ?

If, on the other hand, the person is "I was walking over by the river yesterday, and noticed that the wheat / barley / whatever was getting hammered by the pigeons. I do a bit of pest control, and wanted to see if the farm had anyone looking after it ? Is it yours, or do you know who's it is ?"

Now the farmer is going to view that approach differently, because :

1. You've identified a crop. Well done. That means you aren't a complete townie

2. You've identified a problem. And offered a potential solution. 

3. You've shown that you have powers of observation. That you're switched on to the world around you. 

If the land is his, then you've at least got him interested. And if the person with the permission isn't doing the job, that now gives him the chance to sack them off, and get you in - or even just to give you a chance on that one field.

Even if the land isn't his, he's now far more likely to say who does own it, and send you that way.

Cold calling - in any situation - has a horribly low hit rate. And you are cold calling, trying to sell something, yourself.

Like one of the members have already mentioned is the area where you live in , living where we do I wouldn't know how hard it is to get the go ahead in a high populated area where several people could be after the same perm at the same time .

In the ideal situation you have got time to go on the day , or very soon after you get the o k , if you have only got Saturday or a short amount of time to go then you are up against it , then you don't want to travel miles just to look at a field , in the ideal world you want your perms fairly near to where you live , so when the days pull out you can have a look when you leave off work so you know within a little what Pigeons are going on the field you are keeping an eye on .

When you do finally get the go ahead , only go on the field you have asked to go on , find out if it is alright to use plastic wads , or if there is livestock on the farm it would be best to use fiber wads only , if you have got a reasonably  well trained dog then that's fine , if the dog is a problem then leave it at home , last but not least is , don't take anyone else until the landowner has said it is alright to do so . do a good job and new perms will soon come your way .

[Lsto]

All good advice and as said before persistence is key. Then again you can also be doing everything perfectly and still get knocked back. A few years ago I shot at a local council country park. We used to control squirrels, rats and bunnies at least 3 nights a week. The manager loved us, it kept the rats away, controlling the squirrels protected the trees and birds and also our presence was a deterrent to local yobos. We shot it for many years, then one day a new manager came along and first thing she said was thanks but no thanks. Since then the park has suffered with rats and squirrel numbers have boomed while songbird numbers crashed. We did everything right but still lost out. I still walk the park regularly and the state of it makes me sad now.

Permissions will always come and go, you sometimes just need to have luck on your side, I have permission on a farm now but it's daylight hours only and this time of year due to work I can't get on it half as much as I'd like to. If the farmer decides to get someone else who enquires and has more time then I can't blame him as he still needs the job done the same way I need to pay the bills. Something will come up, it took me years to find places and even now I always enquire if I'm going past somewhere as you never know when someone will give you a break. Sooner or later a door will open.