Foreigner on Grouse Hunt

the_doctor

How hard is it for a Foreigner to go on a Grouse hunt?

I was looking at a website, which did not clear explain.

Do you need a hunting license?

How do you transport and secure your shotgun if you come to Ireland?

Are there any outfits which rent shotguns as part of the Hunt? Does this require a license?

thanks

jwshooter

as far as i know there is no commercial grouse shoot ,north of england or scotland would be your best bet .

BoarHunter

the grouse in Ireland should actually be more protected with a tag system if people really want to carry on shooting them.

like Salmon fishing in fact. I find it very sad that some of them are shot by people who don't even know the impact on the grouse population.

Is there a real sustainable population of grouse to allow hunting in ireland ?

DavyDee

BoarHunter wrote: »

the grouse in Ireland should actually be more protected with a tag system if people really want to carry on shooting them.

like Salmon fishing in fact. I find it very sad that some of them are shot by people who don't even know the impact on the grouse population.

Is there a real sustainable population of grouse to allow hunting in ireland ?

The only good the tagging of salmon has done is cripple our tourist industry! It doesn't work nor will it ever as I'd say 1 in 30 salmon here on the moy are tagged and I'm been generous saying that! Its another one of these systems introduced by bureaucrats who never fished a day in their lives!

The only way to sustain a grouse population would be to burn the vast areas of heather in sections each year as they do in england, scotland and wales. You also need to shoot the old cocks out of the areas as they become infertile and scare away younger fertile males from the breeding hens. It is also essential to keep the number of foxes and grey crows down. It has been proven that not shooting grouse does as much harm as over shooting. In the Yorkshire dales it is not unusual for a driven shoot to produce bags of 200 grouse per day and the number of grouse are at their highest levels for years as the estates are managing their vast areas of heather correctly.

The biggest threat the grouse faced in this country however was the grazing of sheep on heather. The sheep carry a stomach mite in their mouth which can be left behind on the heather. Grouse have a stomach like paper and once they contract the stomach mite it is certain death! I personally have noticed a slight increase in grouse numbers in the areas i hunt over the past few years since the ban on grazing sheep on the moutains was introduced! Anyone here who has ever hunted grouse will tell you, you could walk for days and never see a grouse, other days you could park up and only be on the way up the mountain when you put up a covey of 8 plus.

And as for your question the_doctor, grouse and areas where we shoot them are so few and far between the chance of getting someone to bring you is highly unlikely.

BoarHunter

Well the fact that the Salmon tag system is not applied is i think a consequence of different factors : first there are too many people who don't see further than their nose and can't see the big picture. The system works in other countries. This needs to be thaught at school ! stop this poaching mentality and the populations will be managed with serious figures-

this leads to a second reason : the lack of controle ! there needs to be a far better monitoring of the fishing activity- rangers, etc Fine the people who think they can fish away...

Once this will be applied then the number of Salmons will increase and the tourists will come back. This of course mean that the price of a fishing permit might increase .... need to pay rangers, etc

the good old days are over i'm afraid.

This is the same for hunting : if you get rangers, biologists to look after the grouse and the ecosystems ( like you said, burn heather, etc ) and in the meantime get a controled and limited cull there might be a future for grouse in this country.

The only thing is that people don't want to pay the cost of it ....

DavyDee

BoarHunter wrote: »

Well the fact that the Salmon tag system is not applied is i think a consequence of different factors : first there are too many people who don't see further than their nose and can't see the big picture. The system works in other countries. This needs to be thaught at school ! stop this poaching mentality and the populations will be managed with serious figures-

this leads to a second reason : the lack of controle ! there needs to be a far better monitoring of the fishing activity- rangers, etc Fine the people who think they can fish away...

Once this will be applied then the number of Salmons will increase and the tourists will come back. This of course mean that the price of a fishing permit might increase .... need to pay rangers, etc

the good old days are over i'm afraid.

This is the same for hunting : if you get rangers, biologists to look after the grouse and the ecosystems ( like you said, burn heather, etc ) and in the meantime get a controled and limited cull there might be a future for grouse in this country.

The only thing is that people don't want to pay the cost of it ....

While i dont disagree with you on the conservation side of things, it must be done properly and there are proven studies worldwide which can help us in protecting all of our natural resources. Poaching is not what done the damage to the salmon stocks! The moy fisheries in Ballina used to take over 1000 salmon per day out of the salmon wiers, they also used to pull nets from in one spot in particular called Pól na Monach which almost wiped out the sea trout out of the moy and when they had that completely f**ked they started pulling nets in front of the cathedral taking thousands of salmon a week. These were the people paid by us the tax payer to "PROTECT" the river! The drift nets on Killala bay done their fair share of damage too. Since the drift nets, salmon wiers and nets have stopped the river is finally making a come back but because the Central fisheries board who promised us they would never use salmon tagging as a means of limiting rod anglers to a yearly quota done exactly the opposite there will never be figures to prove this! And as for calling anglers who dont tag fish as poachers you are 100% wrong as we are the ones who protested against them wiping out the salmon on the river. It has also been proven that a maximum of 10% of the salmon run is all that is caught by rod anglers on any river which is sustainable. We all pay rod licenses and permits!

As for the grouse, unless the government legalise the burning of the bogs or even better promote it and bring a bounty back on vermin you can forget about them making a proper comeback!

Feargal as Luimneach

DavyDee wrote: »

The only good the tagging of salmon has done is cripple our tourist industry! It doesn't work nor will it ever as I'd say 1 in 30 salmon here on the moy are tagged and I'm been generous saying that! Its another one of these systems introduced by bureaucrats who never fished a day in their lives!

The only way to sustain a grouse population would be to burn the vast areas of heather in sections each year as they do in england, scotland and wales. You also need to shoot the old cocks out of the areas as they become infertile and scare away younger fertile males from the breeding hens. It is also essential to keep the number of foxes and grey crows down. It has been proven that not shooting grouse does as much harm as over shooting. In the Yorkshire dales it is not unusual for a driven shoot to produce bags of 200 grouse per day and the number of grouse are at their highest levels for years as the estates are managing their vast areas of heather correctly.

The biggest threat the grouse faced in this country however was the grazing of sheep on heather. The sheep carry a stomach mite in their mouth which can be left behind on the heather. Grouse have a stomach like paper and once they contract the stomach mite it is certain death! I personally have noticed a slight increase in grouse numbers in the areas i hunt over the past few years since the ban on grazing sheep on the moutains was introduced! Anyone here who has ever hunted grouse will tell you, you could walk for days and never see a grouse, other days you could park up and only be on the way up the mountain when you put up a covey of 8 plus.

And as for your question the_doctor, grouse and areas where we shoot them are so few and far between the chance of getting someone to bring you is highly unlikely.

The disease you are talking about is Louping ill. It is transmitted by ticks not by a stomach mite.. The tick carries the virus. It is tranmitted to the grouse by eating the tick or by the tick feeding(sucking blood) off the grouse. This virus causes inflammation of the brain and causes death to the grouse in a majority of birds.
There is another major disease of Grouse caused by a strongyle worm. It affects the caecum (part of the large intestine), causings death sometimes or ill thrift. Strongylosisis more of a problem in areas of artificially high density ie a managed grouse moor.