Shooting Ban Due To Cold Weather

tadghbeag

GOVERNMENT NOTICE
National Parks and Wildlife Service

Temporary Closure of Open Hunting Season for Birds

The Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government has temporarily closed the hunting season for wild birds due to the recent freezing conditions across the State.

The Wildlife Act 1976 (Temporary Suspension of Open Season) (No.2) Order 2010 suspends temporarily the hunting of wild birds due to the severity of weather conditions from Wednesday 8 December 2010 up to and including Tuesday 14 December 2010.

The species concerned are Mallard, Teal, Gadwall, Wigeon, Pintail, Shoveler, Scaup, Tufted Duck, Pochard, Goldeneye, Golden Plover, Snipe, Jack Snipe, Red-legged Partridge, Cock Pheasant, Woodcock, Woodpigeon, Canada Goose, Greylag Goose and Ruddy Duck. It does not affect shooting of pen-reared birds where a licence to do so has been issued under Section 22(9)(b) of the Wildlife Acts. Applicants for such a licence should immediately contact:

National Parks and Wildlife Service,
Main Street,
Ballybay,
Co. Monaghan.
Tel: (042) 9748712


The National Parks and Wildlife Service urges all hunters to respect this measure which clearly has a conservation benefit for the long-term populations of these wild game species.

The situation will be reviewed by Wednesday 15th December.

BELOWaverageIQ

Excuse my ignorance, buy why is the Hen Pheasant not on the list (Cock Pheasant is specifically listed)

brianfrancis45

John,

The link you posted relates to the ban imposed in January 2010 and not the current ban or have I somehow got that wrong ? If so apologies in advance......

cavan shooter

hens are protected anyway unless under license

johngalway

Oops, well spotted Brian

That'll teach me for Googling too quickly.

cavan shooter

brianfrancis45 wrote: »

John,

The link you posted relates to the ban imposed in January 2010 and not the current ban or have I somehow got that wrong ? If so apologies in advance......

This might help
http://www.countrysideallianceireland.org/


http://enviroireland.com/?p=2163

brianfrancis45

John,

Now I know why your so succesful at getting so many fozes - you've been shooting from the hip !

No6

I think most of us have been opperating and unofficial no game bird shooting policy since the snow and ice arrived already, I know I have and of course have seen lots of phesants, woodcock and snipe!!! and no foxes!!

deerhunter1

brianfrancis45 wrote: »

John,

The link you posted relates to the ban imposed in January 2010 and not the current ban or have I somehow got that wrong ? If so apologies in advance......

Correct

Grizzly 45

[The National Parks and Wildlife Service urges all hunters to respect this measure which clearly has a conservation benefit for the long-term populations of these wild game species.

So its better too to let a surplus pouplation die off due to lack of food and exposure than being hunted and not wasted????Not to mind that our European and US neighbours dont have this in their hunting seasons,and have MUCH more severe Winters than us???
NPWS really has odd ideas of "conservation benefits"!

Shakes head in puzzlement ..and wanders off....

EPointer=Birdss

The whole ban or unofficial ban etc on pheasants puzzles me.
You rear em & feed em for the purposse of sport hunting. If you get them great & if you don't just seeing or flushing them is pleasure enough.
However if hoppers are maintained they will not be hungry. In fact should be better fed than most other birds.
When the season is over a surplus of cock pheasants is bad for an area as they can cause hens to leave nests they're sitting on.
A handful of cock birds is enough for a club come April.
Missing weeks mid season to me is pointless. I don't find them any less sporting or slower because of the cold. A lot of them will stay off the ground in the cold anyway so hard to come by them when the weather remains hard for a few days in a row.
TBH I think it's acting a bit moral for the sake of morality to just down tools.
If you want to give the wading birds a break then don't mount the gun when they fly past you. As regards disturbing them this is rubbish, you flush a snipe or woodcock in good or bad weather & they fly a hundred yards or less & drop again. They mostly feed by night anyway so no harm is done by making them fly on for a bit.

Other side of this whole debate is the weather in parts of the county is fine & others is under a foot of snow so all things relative to the conditions in the area...

MarkD.

EPointer=Birdss wrote: »

Other side of this whole debate is the weather in parts of the county is fine & others is under a foot of snow so all things relative to the conditions in the area...

As for the NARGC ban to add to that, my mate rang their head office Friday and asked "Can I goo hunting game birds even tho there is no snow or frozen ground in my area?" "Response was no as your insurance will not cover you" Then my mate said "But there is no snow or anything in my area, its chilly but not the ice age" Reply was "Its a voluntary ban, but if we asses that you were injured due to ice you might not be elligable for compensation"

So two things were highlighted there;
1) The an they recommended was due to insurance reasons (Fair enough they dont want to be paying out massive sums) But then begs the questions is their "ban" for the interest of birds or for the interest of insurance reasons????
2) Also they stated it was voluntary, which is the route we took on my mates own permission land and not club land.

cavan shooter

MarkD. wrote: »

As for the NARGC ban to add to that, my mate rang their head office Friday and asked "Can I goo hunting game birds even tho there is no snow or frozen ground in my area?" "Response was no as your insurance will not cover you" Then my mate said "But there is no snow or anything in my area, its chilly but not the ice age" Reply was "Its a voluntary ban, but if we asses that you were injured due to ice you might not be elligable for compensation"

So two things were highlighted there;
1) The an they recommended was due to insurance reasons (Fair enough they dont want to be paying out massive sums) But then begs the questions is their "ban" for the interest of birds or for the interest of insurance reasons???? .

As nothing is mentioned in the exclusions in the policy I cant see that standing up if there was an accident.

If this is true (not saying that it isnt) Why have personal accident insurance?? , a while ago this wasn't compulsory, me thinks some questions should be asked on this at National Level.

kfod

tadghbeag wrote: »

. It does not affect shooting of pen-reared birds where a licence to do so has been issued under Section 22(9)(b) of the Wildlife Acts. Applicants for such a licence should immediately contact:

does this apply to EPointer=Birdss question?
" The whole ban or unofficial ban etc on pheasants puzzles me.
You rear em & feed em for the purposse of sport hunting. If you get them great & if you don't just seeing or flushing them is pleasure enough.
However if hoppers are maintained they will not be hungry. In fact should be better fed than most other birds. "

I suppose the licence wouldnt be back untill the ban expires anyway!!

tadghbeag

Just checked the weather forecast for next week in my area - more cold weather on the way hard frost a snow from monday onwards - no shooting for me until January i'd say :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

EPointer=Birdss

But pen raised birds or wild birds- if 1 gets up in front of you how could you tell the difference?
Plus what's more moral about shooting pen raised as opposed to wild?

The Big Fella

tadghbeag wrote: »

Just checked the weather forecast for next week in my area - more cold weather on the way hard frost a snow from monday onwards - no shooting for me until January i'd say :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

Your still allowed shoot as much clays as ya want tadghbeag.:D

tadghbeag

Suppose your right - Leinster League is up and running in Jan should be good fun, anyone know of any good clay shoots before christmas

DavyDee

EPointer=Birdss wrote: »

The whole ban or unofficial ban etc on pheasants puzzles me.
You rear em & feed em for the purposse of sport hunting. If you get them great & if you don't just seeing or flushing them is pleasure enough.
However if hoppers are maintained they will not be hungry. In fact should be better fed than most other birds.
When the season is over a surplus of cock pheasants is bad for an area as they can cause hens to leave nests they're sitting on.
A handful of cock birds is enough for a club come April.
Missing weeks mid season to me is pointless. I don't find them any less sporting or slower because of the cold. A lot of them will stay off the ground in the cold anyway so hard to come by them when the weather remains hard for a few days in a row.
TBH I think it's acting a bit moral for the sake of morality to just down tools.
If you want to give the wading birds a break then don't mount the gun when they fly past you. As regards disturbing them this is rubbish, you flush a snipe or woodcock in good or bad weather & they fly a hundred yards or less & drop again. They mostly feed by night anyway so no harm is done by making them fly on for a bit.

Other side of this whole debate is the weather in parts of the county is fine & others is under a foot of snow so all things relative to the conditions in the area...

I agree with you to a certain extent but we all know f**kers who will go and shoot the birds from under the feeders! We had this trouble afew years back where 2 members of the club plagued the feeders for the month of November!

Anto...

No6 wrote: »

I think most of us have been opperating and unofficial no game bird shooting policy since the snow and ice arrived already, I know I have and of course have seen lots of phesants, woodcock and snipe!!! and no foxes!!

i have seen at the least two foxes a day since the snow landed! we are riddled with them all over the place!:mad:

EPointer=Birdss

DavyDee wrote: »

I agree with you to a certain extent but we all know f**kers who will go and shoot the birds from under the feeders! We had this trouble afew years back where 2 members of the club plagued the feeders for the month of November!

Very true but in fairness if you wait at a feeder at day break the birds arive in like clockwork regardless of the weather so they were probably doing this all the time...

These individuals are obviously not sportsman & lack the traditional ways of looking at things. More obsessed with numbers than anything by the sounds of it.

However these are issues to be resolved at a local level so why should the masses suffer for the inadequacies of a few...
The weather to me is not a factor when it comes to pheasants.

During the hard feezes of minus 14 etc last season I went for a few walks for pheasants but was a waste of time cause;
a) the dogs couldn't work
b) the pheasants were roosting all day
This led to days where i'd walk for 3 hours & be lucky to meet a bird.
Come the thaw in January like magic the birds were back again & not 1 of the birds I shot tagged or not was in poor condition as they all at access to a few barrells of wheat 24/7...

deeksofdoom

Have to agree with E-pointer and Grizzly, if we continue to have these cold winters we might as well pack up shooting altogether. Clubs should be providing food for birds in the harsh weather, but as E-pointer has pointed out it is nigh on practically impossible to meet a pheasant in the frost, because the scenting is so bad, even if you do go shooting you'll be lucky to bag one . As another poster has pointed out; the NARGC are a bit quick to impose a voluntary ban on hunting for fear of someone having an accident and depleting the precious compensation fund.

I'm going to refrain from hunting until I get the all clear again, by which time we'll probably have another burst of a cold spell again. But I think the IPWS should restrict the ban to wild birds such as wood cock snipe and species f wild duck. The powers that be should have a rethink on pheasant and duck which are pen reared, released and are being adequately fed at hoppers, etc.

mallards

I was reading in the back of the independent that the no shooting notice says that released birds can be shot under license? I'm not sure on southern game laws but do you need to apply for a license to release game or shoot them when all other game is off limits due to the cold weather?

Mallards

landkeeper

mallards, afaik thats a licence from npws that allows commercial shoots to operate as they have released birds solely for the purpose of shooting them and are feeding them & usually have a keeper employed , by the same token the licence allows the shooting of hen pheasants ie if you have these in place you are shooting managed game birds and can continue

mallards

Thanks for clearing that up Landkeeper.

Mallards

pejay

tadghbeag wrote: »

Just checked the weather forecast for next week in my area - more cold weather on the way hard frost a snow from monday onwards - no shooting for me until January i'd say :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

This might be a very silly question, but just for talk sake the bad weather went on till after crimbo maybe mid january, would there be an extension to the season to make up for lost time,

Cass

That would be at the Minister's discretion.

pejay

So no then!!!!

Cass

We should/will have a new Minister before the end of the Season so ............

[Embedded Image Removed]

marlin vs

pejay wrote: »

This might be a very silly question, but just for talk sake the bad weather went on till after crimbo maybe mid january, would there be an extension to the season to make up for lost time,

NO.

pejay

Thats looks a very deffinate NO.
what makes you so sure

marlin vs

pejay wrote: »

Thats looks a very deffinate NO.
what makes you so sure

Iv'e been there a couple of times before going back to the early seventies,and the season has never been extended,I don't think it's going to change now.

pejay

marlin vs wrote: »

Iv'e been there a couple of times before going back to the early seventies,and the season has never been extended,I don't think it's going to change now.

Maby just wishfull thinking on my behalf

deerhunter1

pejay wrote: »

Thats looks a very deffinate NO.
what makes you so sure

Because you are coming near the nesting/Breeding time when birds are starting to pair off. it would not be nice/sporting.

tadghbeag

If the weather is going to follow this trend for the next decade(as the experts have said) should we start the shootong season early and finish the season early October - December and then when the weather hardens up we could all be concentrating on feeding and shooting vermin - any thoughts on this

Grizzly 45

Leave the seasons as is.
Just consider objecting to arbitary total loss by ministerial pen of a quater or more of it,under a very spurious conservation idea disguised as morality.Winter is Natures way of killing off the weak and surplus pouplation.So by shooting in the cold weather,we are reducing by a miniscule percentage surplus game that is competing for limited resources out there.The other option is if it continues,that there will be plenty of dead game lying around thru starvation.