Foreigner wondering

FinnHunter

Hello everybody,

I'm hunter from Turku, Finland, age 24.
I read today from Jahti (Hunt) -magazine that there is even more hunters in Ireland than Finland. So I thought it would be easy to found Irish Online hunting/shooting store or forum where ask about.

I spent something like half an hour searching intensively by Google and the only result was this forum Could you people help and pass some links wherefrom it is possible to order online? I have no need for cartridge or weapon. What Iäm looking is like: hunting accesories, calls, clothing, maeby some special bullets, decoys and stuff. Larger Irish hunting/shooting forums interests also!

BTW, there were a huge number of fishing online stores. I've heard you have terrific, very fishy rivers and coast. I could even be a bit jealous No wonder that the first lure factory of Rapala outside Finland was found in Ireland.

I was quite amazed about your guns, Sako, Tikka, CZ and Baikal, just like in FInland

Grizzly 45

Hi Finn,welcome to the Irish side of things.:)

Well, you did find near enough the only chat board that is established now.Am amazed that your magazine described us as having more hunters than Finland.:eek:.Seeing that you have the bigger pouplation and all.Not to mind better gun ownership laws,up to and beyond Full auto and artillery pieces.[obviously not for hunting?]
We mostly import our stuff,clothing ammo,etc from either the EU or the USA.So anything for sale here is usually for sale in the EU[and at cheaper prices too:rolleyes:]

We might have an advantage on fishing mind.:D.But still it was better once than it is now.Pollution is hitting us both in shooting and fishing here as well.:(

V Bull

Welcome Finn Hunter,

For hunting supplies and accessories my preference are the following Shooting & Fishing outlets.

In the West of Ireland, I usually go to Brian Duffy who is situated in Galway City, nice guy, nice shop & most of all, nice prices, everything you need for shooting & fishing. (www.shoot.ie).

In the Midlands (centre of Ireland) my preference is The Tackle Shop, in Rahan, Tullamore, Co. Offaly run by Jim Griffin. (grif@eircom.net).

There is also another guy, mainly fishing, but also has a lot of hunting gear, David O’Malley in Mullingar, Co. Westmeath. Don’t have a link for him, maybe some one else will fill in the blanks.

You might try out some of these other Links

http://www.garda.ie/forms/nonresfirearmsform.pdf As a non-resident, you will have to apply for a Visitors Firearms Certificate.

www.nargc.ie

www.ipscireland.org

www.nrai.ie

Hope this has helped you a bit

V Bull

cavan shooter

I have bought from the following

www.lractive.com (good for general stuff)
www.sinclairintl.com
www.opticswarehouse.co.uk

Sparks

I'll add http://www.targetshootingireland.org to the list of links to try.

FinnHunter

Grizzly 45 wrote: »

Hi Finn,welcome to the Irish side of things.:)

Well, you did find near enough the only chat board that is established now.Am amazed that your magazine described us as having more hunters than Finland.:eek:.Seeing that you have the bigger pouplation and all.Not to mind better gun ownership laws,up to and beyond Full auto and artillery pieces.[obviously not for hunting?]
We mostly import our stuff,clothing ammo,etc from either the EU or the USA.So anything for sale here is usually for sale in the EU[and at cheaper prices too:rolleyes:]

We might have an advantage on fishing mind.:D.But still it was better once than it is now.Pollution is hitting us both in shooting and fishing here as well.:(

Yes, according to "Jahti" there is 350 000 hunters in Ireland, is that correct?

Well, owning weapon in Finland is definitely not axiomatical what it is for example in the USA. Police authority control agreeing the permissions. Full auto weapons and explosives have been always almost impossible to get, but for acceptable reason, like hunting or shooting, a citizen without rap sheet can usually get permission for shotgun of rifle. For pistol and revolver, the first gun in most cases got to be rimfire.

In the beginning of this month, our new "standardisation of the precepts for accepting of gun permission" -act. This act makes much more harder to get weapons in Finland! Very bad kickback for all weapon owners of Finland: hunters, active reservists of Finnish Defence Forces, shooters...

The Baltic Sea has suffered much in last decades... First there were forestry industry in the 60's, the too much fertilizers in 1970-90, and all the time St. Petersburg... Russian people don't prefer purifying waste water, so they dumb their sh*t straight to nature. And there is a new threat, warty comb jelly http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mnemiopsis_leidyi . Won't look good

FinnHunter

Thak you for everyone for these links! I'm checking them at the time.

Grizzly 45

I think Finn,it would be more like 350,000 gunowners,or registerd firearms in Ireland.:).Doesnt make us all hunters tho.:eek:.
funnily enough,i was reading a german mag last month on Finland and it made out that it is compared to most of the EU a pretty liberal place to own firearms.But then again there is nothing like having 1st hand info from a place to counter what folks write:cool:

Sparks

350,000 hunters would be a neat trick with only 225,000 or so firearms!

FinnHunter

I'm very happy to see that you have your own NRA in Ireland! We did get our own in 2006 and the attitude to Finnish media and police is revolutionary critical. I tell you, those guys really sniff all the injustices against gun owners. Normally nobody does open polices act to question what I found extraordinary in civilized western democraty! Our NRA is growing all the time, and I'll join also when I'll finnish my studying (beeing a member cost like a 100 € / year, too much for student).

Last May we had again big calumniate against gun owners. In Vantaa (part of Helsinki, capital) on a normal beautiful spring nighht ash cup of a smoker cathed fire. So, police was going to warn about it. This innocent fellow opened door, of course. Policeman saw few guns on the floor, so they put handcuffs and left him to lay on the floor. Policeman saw more guns in the house and called reinforce mans. For the next three days, whole Finnish media was telling about the case next "facts":
- More than 100 illegal guns
- Man is a hunter
- Stolen explosives and material from Finnish defence forces (FDF for this on)
- Childrens day care and few apartments evacuated, a danger of explosion

Why only 3 days of mediastorm? Because when police realized, that man really did had permissions for ALL of the stuff, he hasn't done anything wrong. Polices didin't understant that the tail of a mortar round won't explode, and FDF sells them in public auctions. Rest of the explosives were legal smokeless powder made by Vihtavuori for reloading. So, innocent man was three days under arrest, police told everything for media all the time, even the law says NOT to do that. And the imago loss was huge, no magazine or tv news bothered to tell the truth when it was covered. That is why we need associations like NRA.

Sparks wrote: »

350,000 hunters would be a neat trick with only 225,000 or so firearms!

Okay, then there is just a simple mistake

Sorry about the bad grammar of mine, I haven't wrote in English for few years now:o

FinnHunter

I were very suprised for the price level in Ireland! Like Baikal izh-27, it costs like 450 € in Finland and people are swearing how much it is more expencive in novadays. I remember in early 90's the same shotgun cost 900 Finnish marks, which would be like 150 euros But it explains everything that you have much less hunters than we.

What are the common huntable animals in Ireland? Waterflow, pigeon and fox I guess?

thelurcher

FinnHunter - is it all shooting you do? People on this forum sometimes forget that there's a lot more to hunting than guns
Hunting with dogs is extremely popular - we use beagles, foxhounds, harriers, lurchers and terriers to hunt hare and fox mainly but also some others.
So I'd say the 350000 figure could be very close to the mark.

Most rural areas here are still on dial-up so there's not too many from the hunting community regularly on the net - a lot of the UK forums have a strong Irish following -
thehuntinglife
This covers just about everything - also there's a few Scandinavian lads on there that post from time to time.

FinnHunter

thelurcher wrote: »

FinnHunter - is it all shooting you do? People on this forum sometimes forget that there's a lot more to hunting than guns
Hunting with dogs is extremely popular - we use beagles, foxhounds, harriers, lurchers and terriers to hunt hare and fox mainly but also some others.
So I'd say the 350000 figure could be very close to the mark.

Most rural areas here are still on dial-up so there's not too many from the hunting community regularly on the net - a lot of the UK forums have a strong Irish following -
thehuntinglife
This covers just about everything - also there's a few Scandinavian lads on there that post from time to time.

Absolutelu not, trapping is a popular hunting method for raccoon dog, mink, badger, polecat (? not sure, Martes martes) and fox, althought it is extremely hard to success in fox-trapping. Beaver is also trapped sometimes, but most prefer active hunting methods for it.

Are the dogs meaned to kill the target also? Hunting with dog is very popular in Finland also, but almost always only one dog per animal and hiding hunters are supposed to shoot the animal; usually hare, fox. Roe deer, white tailed deer and moose are also often hunted with chasing dog(s), but the law says that the wither stature of the dog after deer-animal must be under 28 cm (about 11") wich means mostly dachshunds. With other animals popular chasing breeds are beagle, dreever and Finnish hound. I'm one of these proud beagle-owners too

We have quite many breeds in large-scale use for huntig including many other chasing ones, spitz-types, labrador retriever, terriers etc. Harrier is still unknown for me

Thanks for the link!

thelurcher

Sounds interesting.

Get onto the hunting life - there's a whole section on snaring and trapping.
You'll get a good idea of the various ways we hunt from there.

fat-tony

This belongs in the Hunting sub-forum perhaps?

IRLConor

Good point. Moved.

FinnHunter: Tervetuloa*.

* 25% of my Finnish right there.

bavarianbrit

Hello Finnhunter,
Was in Uusikaupunki for 6 months with Valmet 1996 nice country.
Good whitetail levels there now?
Kidos

FinnHunter

fat-tny: Sorry, my mistake..!

IRLConor: Kiitos! ("Thank you", if it wasn't a part of your vocabulary )

bavarianbrit: Very good indeed, maybe even "too good". Deer crashes have increased year by year in my hunting area. We've cut bigger and bigger part of deer population every year but it just doesn't help. They're so fertile.

In Finland the hunting season started at 10th day by wood pigeon hunt. Fairly good year but there isn't too many wher I can hunt. Too bad... 20th day begins most of ducks, geese and woodcock hunt. Can't wait, if I just could get one of those greylag geese into my rucksack..!