Standing Down

FISMA

Lads,
Don't mean to condescend on anyone, especially since I have no idea what game you take or how much you take. However, there's an old expression having to do with kicking a man when he's down.

I get the feeling that some prey are in that position, given the recent weather, at least in my neck of the woods.

Also, I am not talking to those like the farmers or others that have legitimate concerns: more desperate foxes, for example, taking more chances, must be dealt with.

I am just concerned, as expressed before, that populations not receive any undue or unfair pressure.

I do not know how many of you fish, or what your age. However, anyone that has fished over the past 20 years has probably seen fish populations decimated and areas totally fished out. Areas that I have been trying to revive for the past decade still just have not done so. It's easy to fish an area out, much harder to bring them back.

The animals are already dealing with a string of bad luck: dry summer, wet fall, and now the snow. I can count the number of cock pheasants I have seen on one finger, the amount of hens on both hands. Granted, pheasant populations are prone to pops and drops.

I am no wildlife population expert, but do have a bit of practical experience and first hand knowledge on my side. Given that it's the start of winter and that the worst could yet be to come, we should practice restraint now and not later when mandated. You can always take them later, but once gone, ...

Concisely lads, just remember that we call it hunting and not catching. In conditions like these, consider passing on the easy shot, unless shot for the pot or protection of domestics.

To the young lads just starting, get out there and learn the land. Get some tracking under your belt. Train a dog. Read the wind. Don't be so anxious to shoot. Get out there with someone older and see what they do. Hopefully, you'll see that they are out there first and foremost to literally be out there. Then, to hunt and finally, have a shot.

Slan and keep it safe.

johngalway

Now is the perfect time to hammer the vermin/foxes Gives the game a better chance as well.

Glensman

During this time I'm going out of my way to hammer foxes, grey crows and magpies.

On the other had I shot a woodcock yesterday and a snipe today. I don't do much game shooting and we haven't been hit nearly as hard as the rest of the country, mainly because our area is coastal.

I seen BASC on tv yesterday calling for voluntary restraint...

FISMA

johngalway wrote: »

Now is the perfect time to hammer the vermin/foxes Gives the game a better chance as well.

John,
Perhaps, I am wrong. Please explain. If for no other reason than supplying me with a few talking points for my next encounter with the anti's. Sorry if I missed your sarcasm :-)

Perhaps, you are correct, now is the perfect time for us to get a leg up on them. Maybe the snow will not last long.

For me, it's just too easy now. It's no longer hunting, but catching. I could be snaring them easier than shooting with the tracks in the snow.

If you are a new shooter and haven't gotten a kill, I wouldn't begrudge you a shot either.

I am just concerned with a perfect storm causing a tipping point in the predator-prey model and fox populations going the way of many native fish.

I love to lamp, shoot, hunt, track, and train. I would like to do this for the rest of my life, with the next generation. Against shooting foxes, absolutely not, I want to shoot them for the rest of my life!

Also and again, ten years of my personal attempts to try and bring back fish populations have failed. Maybe I am just overly sensitive. Perhaps, if I had not witnessed the total devastation of so many ponds and lakes I would not be so concerned.

In all fairness, I must say that the country was not fished out by the locals which is in stark comparison to lamping and hunting in Ireland. Foxes are unlikely to receive the added, unregulated pressure that the fish did from foreign interests.

It's a difficult analysis - I feel for the NPWS lads trying to make calls on culling and fishing. In cases like these, better to err on the side of caution.

Finally lads, I am not in your neck of the woods. You know better than I about the fox population in your area. If it needs culling, cull away. Just be conscious of the population and the effects of surroundings and society.

johngalway

If you think back to older times, people used dig a lot more foxes, they had foothold traps, more extensive uses of poison etc, as most rural families would have had their own fowl and to a degree depended on their livestock directly.

I don't believe that two cold spells in one year will make all that much of a difference to the fox population. I have no doubt that I will get my average 40+ red fellas again next year

I wasn't being sarcastic at all. Just that in the cold conditions predators will loose a degree of their fear of certain situations, out of necessity. If you take a drive from say Clifden to North West Mayo and stay on the coast roads all that way, you'll see there is absolutely no danger of magpie or greycrow populations being in any danger. Even after the 300 grey crows we took in larsen traps there a while back the population has again bounced back.

Aside from the odd raptor, the predators have damn all predators.

Wild or raised game, by all means, leave it be when the weather is like this, I certainly agree. But, it's a good opportunity to get ahead of the vermin numbers. As an aside it gives those with itchy trigger fingers something to do to take their minds off the game birds!

The fox/vermin breeding pairs that get through this year will breed again and their populations won't be long in growing.

I've no desire either to eradicate anything

Savage93

+1 John, control is the name of the game, managing populations in order that others (future generations included) can enjoy the sport.