The hunting crack is it gone.

blackpearl

just wondering is their anyone still out their hunting pheasants,snipe,woodcock and ducks very little talk about it and the first month nearly over ,out today we had 6 cocks 2 woodcock 4 teal and a snipe other than the first couple of days in november their has been no talk on this forum hope it not going the same way as a lot of other hunting forums it seems to be the norm nowadays.

Hunter456

blackpearl wrote: »

just wondering is their anyone still out their hunting pheasants,snipe,woodcock and ducks very little talk about it and the first month nearly over ,out today we had 6 cocks 2 woodcock 4 teal and a snipe other than the first couple of days in november their has been no talk on this forum hope it not going the same way as a lot of other hunting forums it seems to be the norm nowadays.

i think social media has the forum scene wrecked no one talking about anything they much prefer to go on FB and ask there. i think forums are great at least they kind of keep you anonymous to preying eyes of scum bags.

Cass

The hunting forum nearly always takes a hit during the season up to Christmas. It'll pick up slightly after, but it's actually usually quiet until the season is over with lads spending every spare minute out hunting and not on here.

Secondly FB has taken a large share of things no doubt. However people are slowly learning that FB is not the bastion of free speech people thought it was. They are, almost weekly, restricting gun groups and gun talk. Even dealers are now being banned for advertising their wares. Regular people cannot sell guns, but now it's spreading to scopes and basically anything gun related. Now buying and selling does not make a forum, but it's a start.

Lastly and while we try to limit it, there is a growing dislike and lack of tolerance from one type of shooting to another which prevents lads from posting. If a lad shoots "too many" pheasants of ducks, if a lad posts a picture of a fox which is a mess, etc, etc. They come under criticism and frankly abuse for it because the person replying doesn't believe that is how a "good sportsman" behaves. The Mods cannot, and generally don't interfere (unless it gets out of hand) but by stepping back and allowing the chat to go on it discourages other lads from posting for fear of similar reprisals.

blackpearl

Sad day thank god i am nearly 60 ,but i feel for the few young ones that have taken up hunting i wont see the end of hunting but they will .If it was not for the greed of gun clubs blocking new young members from joining their clubs i think hunting would be in a better place ,if every club took in 2 outside members think what it would do for the sport.

Vizzy

blackpearl wrote: »

Sad day thank god i am nearly 60 ,but i feel for the few young ones that have taken up hunting i wont see the end of hunting but they will .If it was not for the greed of gun clubs blocking new young members from joining their clubs i think hunting would be in a better place ,if every club took in 2 outside members think what it would do for the sport.

I agree with some of what you say but for different reasons, we are gone to a stage now that a lot of the land has become sterilised with clean ditches, drained etc and I suppose that you cant blame farmers for trying to get production from every inch of their farms. Around here the corn is cut and within 2 weeks a crop is set on it.
On the gunclub issue, we have actively tried to get young members over the last few years. A lot of them (if we can get them) leave within a year and may only be joining the club to get their FCA.
Again, it is very hard to persuade a young lad(or girl) that they would be better off out in the p***ing rain shooting vermin, than at home with a playstation playing Call of Duty.

Grizzly 45

It will definitely swing back to groups like these and probably more bloggish type pages.FB is just a hideous snake pit that unless you have dinosaurs hide as a hunter, the absolutely psychotic anti-gun and hunting loons home in you like a pack of sharks for anything related to hunting.Especially if you are a woman hunter, or a kid they [antis]go absolutely **** house rat crazy on them for some reason.
There are some real nutters out on FB land.So unless you really enjoy flame wars with nutjobs and obsessive comments about your penis size being too small.[Wonder what is these anti-hunting and gun loons obsession with dick size?are they all closet gays, or inadequate there themselves and projecting their fears?: confused:]
Anyhoo, as Cas said it isn't a bastion of free speech[All speech is free, except some is more acceptable than others] as made out by its founder, so it will lose those it discriminates against too.All it is is a good quick form of getting news and messages out to the world.

useurowname

Shooting is in decline big time. Don't want to sound like an old whinge but everything is instant now, very hard to get young lads into hunting more over conservation. They have to wait for a license, train a dog, then put the hours in with the club all for 3 months of sport. With my age group(30s)I find friends don't have the time with work and young families. No less then why golf clubs are struggling to get members, people don't have 3-5 hours at the weekend to go and play a round or similar to spend hunting. I'd be delighted to share my hunting craic with ye, but the sad fact is there isn't any.

123shooter

The young for 20 years now exercise with their fingers on a keyboard or now a phone.

They cannot socialize or communicate with other humans unless it is through social media.

Unless a farmer or gun club is going to communicate with them through their facebook account then they would not bother as they do not have the option to block them at least once a week.

They have no practical skills so have an inability to partake in anything that require the use of a tool. This they feel would be below them and would require an eastern European.

They have no idea where their food originates other than from a fast food outlet, supermarket or home delivery person.

Their education comes from propaganda peddling hard left tutors and same social media.

Hunting would be an ancient past time of old people who they blame for all their problems.

RKMG

123shooter wrote: »

The young for 20 years now exercise with their fingers on a keyboard or now a phone.

They cannot socialize or communicate with other humans unless it is through social media.

Unless a farmer or gun club is going to communicate with them through their facebook account then they would not bother as they do not have the option to block them at least once a week.

They have no practical skills so have an inability to partake in anything that require the use of a tool.  This they feel would be below them and would require an eastern European.

They no idea where their food originates other than a fast food outlet, supermarket or home delivery person.

Their education comes from propaganda peddling hard left tutors and same social media.

Hunting would be an ancient past time of old people who they blame for all their problems.

You can hardly blame younger people not wanting to go out hunting if that's your attitude towards them!!

useurowname

123shooter wrote: »

The young for 20 years now exercise with their fingers on a keyboard or now a phone.

They cannot socialize or communicate with other humans unless it is through social media.

Unless a farmer or gun club is going to communicate with them through their facebook account then they would not bother as they do not have the option to block them at least once a week.

They have no practical skills so have an inability to partake in anything that require the use of a tool. This they feel would be below them and would require an eastern European.

They no idea where their food originates other than a fast food outlet, supermarket or home delivery person.

Their education comes from propaganda peddling hard left tutors and same social media.

Hunting would be an ancient past time of old people who they blame for all their problems.

I don't think I'd go that far. I just think there are easier, more convenient pass times available now that can be accessed in an instant

123shooter

RKMG wrote: »

You can hardly blame younger people not wanting to go out hunting if that's your attitude towards them!!

That's not an attitude, more an observation and sometimes an experience.

123shooter

useurowname wrote: »

I don't think I'd go that far. I just think there are easier, more convenient pass times available now that can be accessed in an instant

Like I said on a pc or phone.

useurowname

123shooter wrote: »

Like I said on a pc or phone.

Yeah, but the rest is a fairly bad indictment of our young people and in my opinion an unfair generalisation. I know plenty of young people who enjoy and understand the countryside, they come from farms and know exactly how food is processed. They are plenty capable of forming their own opinions, unfortunately they havnt been bitten by the hunting bug as their dad and uncles were. I suppose you could argue their dads and uncles hadn't as much variety either and fishing or shooting was readily available in the country.

123shooter

useurowname wrote: »

Yeah, but the rest is a fairly bad indictment of our young people and in my opinion an unfair generalisation. I know plenty of young people who enjoy and understand the countryside, they come from farms and know exactly how food is processed. They are plenty capable of forming their own opinions, unfortunately they havnt been bitten by the hunting bug as their dad and uncles were. I suppose you could argue their dads and uncles hadn't as much variety either and fishing or shooting was readily available in the country.

It was supposed to be tongue in cheek but if you have all lost your sense of humour............I don't think I would like to go hunting with you either :D:D:D

useurowname

123shooter wrote: »

It was supposed to be tongue in cheek but if you have all lost your sense of humour............I don't think I would like to go hunting with you either :D:D:D

Fair enough , I couldn't be listening to a moaning old codger like you all day either. 😄

Grizzly 45

Dunno TBH is that all true.One of my mates who was a shooter got married, gave up his guns, got divorced, now on the rebound and his non-stop gaming son have come out to a clay soot with me and are now mad keen to get back into clay shooting.Especially his son.Especially when his son espied my semi-auto rifle and was close enough to identify it as a "US designated marksman's rifle".

Pity medal of honour or call of duty doesn't simulate recoil and weight:)[As well as all the other goddam horrors of war:(] He was rather surprised at that aspect on the shotgun but shot a 1st time ever handling a gun 6/10 on DTL.

I think what it is is simply as shooting sports are the red-haired bastard child in Ireland and we get little or no coverage compared to other sports, it is unheard of that youngsters take up shooting her, unless you came from a shooting family.On the Continent where airguns are off ticket items, you have lots of kids joining airgun clubs still and the Germans now have a backlog of courses for "young hunters".
It's basically our image and our laws that are screwing us here lads.We have the material, we just arent connecting with them.

Cass

I don't think all that is said about younger people is quite true. Some of it is mind you.

Yes there are easier and possibly more fun ways for them to entertain themselves, but look at the sport of shooting. I hardly recognise it from even ten years ago let alone 30+. The laws are getting stricter, the organisations are trying desperately to privatise it, mandatory courses, the Gardaí are getting less educated (if that possible) and making the application process more difficult, and then there is the cost.

Shooting is getting more and more expensive. Good 'ould Ireland is still milking it with prices even higher than boom times. Cartridges are averaging €12 per box for a decent game cartridge. Rounds for rifles are going up and up, and with Brexit and rising taxes import of stuff will become more expensive and we'll foot the bill. A rifle that cost €1,500 three years ago is now going for €2,400 even though the price in America has gone down slightly. So where does the other €900 come from? Also now you need a course for this, a curse for that, and a course for everything in between. If everytime i turned around and someone had their hand out i'd think twice about getting into it let alone staying in it. Hell i know a few lads that have given up the sport in the past two years for this very reason (cost).

A young lad in his late teens or even early twenties will have other things on his mind too. I know i did when i was that age and my shooting "stalled" for a while. I was lucky that i had the guns so when i wanted to get back into the sport i just took up my guns (i kept my licenses paid each year).

The attitude of the younger generation has something to do with it too. My young lad was stuck to my side anytime i went out, but now at nearly 17 the idea of standing in a field or walking them holds no appeal. Unless there is constant "action" then they find it boring and i don't blame them for it. As was said above with social media and the ever connected life they live its hard to "unplug", harder than it is for anyone that is 40 or older as we never grew up with (or at least not tot the extent they do now).

ezra_

Cass wrote: »

The attitude of the younger generation has something to do with it too. My young lad was stuck to my side anytime i went out, but now at nearly 17 the idea of standing in a field or walking them holds no appeal. Unless there is constant "action" then they find it boring and i don't blame them for it. As was said above with social media and the ever connected life they live its hard to "unplug", harder than it is for anyone that is 40 or older as we never grew up with (or at least not tot the extent they do now).

Is that not normal though?

In my late teens I wanted to strike out on my own and do what I thought was fun / great / cool.

You find what you like and grow out of the rest, and now (early 30s) I find myself drifting back to things I enjoyed as a child as the onset of middle age sets in.

PS - I don't own a playstation and haven't played call of duty and would love to join the local gun club but finding anything about it is tricky nigh impossible.

123shooter

Of cause it's not true about all youngsters (will you lot loosen up)..........I was just taking I suppose headline stuff and making fun of them........although there is an element of truth in it.

My opinion is.........most people are sheep and if you keep sheep you can quickly see the resemblance between the two species.

Most people will follow and do and believe then behave the same way everybody else does of same age and group they are around or belong too. There are of course exceptions.

So if you remove people from a way of life/sport/past time or educate them a certain way for long enough (10-20 years) then they will look at what others do (in this case hunting) as odd, old fashioned, too much trouble etc etc.

Cass

ezra_ wrote: »

Is that not normal though?

Depends on your idea of normal. For me, no its not, but then again i didn't have Facebook, instagram, whatapp, twitter, etc. I also didn't have a phone (mobile) until i was in my early twenties. He [young lad] has had one since he was 11 [something i did not agree with] and could use mine, his Mother's and anyone else's well before that.

You find what you like and grow out of the rest, and now (early 30s) I find myself drifting back to things I enjoyed as a child as the onset of middle age sets in.

Thing is your interests will generally change as you get older, and dare i say wiser. You might keep a toe in the pond of what used to interest you and this generally leads us back to those things as we get older as we can usually indulge in them and afford them.

PS - I don't own a playstation and haven't played call of duty and would love to join the local gun club but finding anything about it is tricky nigh impossible.

I actually do. Own a playstation. And an xbox. Every Christmas they get broken out for a couple of days and then back away for another year.

Game clubs, not all of them, do need to change their practices. I know there are issues with game clubs about member numbers, locals only, etc. but someone said it above that there is still an issue with clubs taking in new members and until something can be done to accommodate everyone some will find themselves on the outside.

However this should not be a reason not to take up the sport. I started and shot for years without being a club and only joined one when i and two others started our own. We had to limit member numbers because of the size of the club and the lands we had, numbers we were releasing, and with 7 other clubs around us we had to be strict on who could join as we didn't want lads from other clubs being a member of two clubs which might have excluded someone else joining that was a member of none.

Can the nargc not shed some light on the club for you? Perhaps throw up a thread here and someone from it might see and help you out.

ezra_

I might try the NARGC route - what is the best way, just drop them a mail?

Tommyaya4

Since we took over the club no one has being stopped joining and anyone interested will be taken out and shown the ropes but still very few young members and the hassle licensing guns down here would put anyone off. Also I will say that some ladsca way to harsh and judgemental to other shooters the post titled Nov 1st being the example

useurowname

Point that's been made that I'd agree with, getting into shootingis far more difficult than other sports for a complete outsider. But I don't think it's something that can easily change it is a niche sport and always will be. I grew up in the country, my relations and neighbours and friends dads shot, it's the same for nearly every other guy I shoot with. It was just something around us, something inherent in our environment. I don't remember ever not understanding what shooting was about, you went if you wrere brought, I loved it and my brother hated it. As it's becoming less popular(and it is, no question) there is less opportunity for young lads to experience shooting. I can imagine how difficult it might be from an urban kid trying to take up the sport in his early twenties, impossible unless he has means greatly beyond that of his peers .

Cass

All non thread specific posts deleted.

If someone is doing something you think they shouldn't be or that you're concerned with ring the Gardaí. Its their job to check on such matters. Don't come onto a hunting forum looking for solutions and purposely causing a row.

No infractions have been issued but one more comment relating to the other topic that was derailing the thread and they will be.

End of.

Uinseann_16

As a young lad ill chime in on why you dont see many young people out shooting ive had many lads ask me on the laws and how to get a licence etc.. i live in a rural area many of them are from farming families and have plenty of space to shoot they just want to know how but when i tell them that they need to do a course at 40 euro (in my district they want it) then they have to pick a gun another few hundred then pay 80 euro for a licence and also 100 euro for a gun cabinet for many its not worth paying all that just to see if they like the sport not to mention ammo costs
ive helped a few lads on the how to's but most get put off by the price
Although what some people have said is true alot of young lads my age 16-17 are very impatient.
I m from a shooting background so that meant i had a head start its very hard for anyone not from a shooting family or area to start as they haven't the faintest idea to start


Grizz is right most people dont even know anything other than a 22 or a shotgun is legal or even that any gun is legal here never mind any shooting sports no knowledge means no interest

blackpearl

What happened to starting of with the ould second hand single barrell not to dear ,if you really want to get into the sport it will not take a load of money.

Grizzly 45

Here's a paradox to the whole situation we are facing here.Imagine a highly technological society, with some of the most strict gun laws on the planet, and an industrialised agricultural sector 100times more efficient than ours.A very strict hunting license procedure, but with a steadily increasing hunter population and people willing to do about four years worth of theory before they even see a gun or go hunting?

Meet the women hunters in Japan!
https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2017/07/5227e21ceca7-number-of-women-hunters-in-japan-on-increase.html

In the UK, some of the best gundog trainers and on more and more shoots the dog men are now women.
Maybe we are looking at this the wrong way?Should we maybe try to get the "better halves" out hunting as well?

123shooter

Grizzly 45 wrote: »

Here's a paradox to the whole situation we are facing here.Imagine a highly technological society, with some of the most strict gun laws on the planet, and an industrialised agricultural sector 100times more efficient than ours.A very strict hunting license procedure, but with a steadily increasing hunter population and people willing to do about four years worth of theory before they even see a gun or go hunting?

Meet the women hunters in Japan!
https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2017/07/5227e21ceca7-number-of-women-hunters-in-japan-on-increase.html

In the UK, some of the best gundog trainers and on more and more shoots the dog men are now women.
Maybe we are looking at this the wrong way?Should we maybe try to get the "better halves" out hunting as well?

I dont think there will be any hunting of any kind in the future Grizzly as........

Industrialized agriculture will mean more crops grown under/in sterile and factory conditions.

Lambs/poultry protected by electric fences and other devices.

Less wild animals as their environment disappears even more.

Wild animals become managed and protected. Management by chemical birth control.

useurowname

Bleak, have you been to Blade Runner by any chance ?

123shooter

useurowname wrote: »

Bleak, have you been to Blade Runner by any chance ?

Unfortunately I am old enough (as you pointed out) to remember the first one.

Basically time moves on.

Uinseann_16

blackpearl wrote: »

What happened to starting of with the ould second hand single barrell not to dear ,if you really want to get into the sport it will not take a load of money.

Not everyone has a major interest in shotguns i didnt i have two rifles. a single barrel would still cost around 100 quid

Cass

I've moved the discussion on bag limits, laws, changes, etc. to it's own thread as we're staying off the original topic.

So all posts regardnig the craic of shooting sports stay here, and all the posts about how to further the sport of hunting/fieldsports can go into the new thread, HERE.

blackpearl

Uinseann_16 wrote: »

Not everyone has a major interest in shotguns i didnt i have two rifles. a single barrel would still cost around 100 quid

A second hand one you could get for 50 quid what ever floats your boat but if you really whant to get into the sport you will find a way,years ago loads of people got into the sport who had no conection to the sport fathers ,uncle ect now even sons of hunting fathers are not geting into it as i said hopefully at my age i will not see the end of hunting in this country,but of the few young ones starting now they will see it end ,3/4s of the hunters in this country are from their mid 40s up a lot of them with their locals only way of thinking and greed have a sin to answer for.

J.R.

I acknowledge your point about younger people finding it difficult to get into a gun club. Many clubs do have mostly over 40’s whereby it’s difficult – if not impossible - for the younger, aspiring shooters to join. I personally, do not understand why clubs, that have plenty of land, do not encourage younger shooters to join. Correctly vetted & selected - they would be a help, an asset and would continue on the work of the club into the future.
I also understand why it is very difficult to get into some clubs – we are one of them. In our club it is not because we don’t want to share it with the younger generation or that we want to hog it all for ourselves.
Living in Dublin – I realise that being a member of a club in is very difficult to achieve for the younger generation. It can be very difficult (if not impossible) to get game/pheasant and vermin shooting in the Dublin region and surrounding counties. I presume the same applies to many other larger town & other cities.

The fact that Dublin is so built up & a lot of land in surrounding areas has been lost to motorways / dual-carriageways / Luas lines / Dart lines /large housing estates in the surburbs (built during the boom) means lots of clubs have lost large tracts of land - plus land still in gun clubs territory beside motorways is practically useless and unshootable (for safety reasons) means that many clubs have limited membership & many are full at present.

Many lads residing in Dublin are in clubs in Dublin, Meath, Kildare & Wicklow but these are now beginnning to restrict membership due to demand & loss of shooting land also. With the price of housing rapidly increasing people are being priced out of the Dublin market. They purchase cheaper in surrounding counties. That means that many clubs in counties surrounding Dublin now have long waiting lists.

Although I'm in Dublin myself I'm a member of a club in Kildare at present (no vacancies due to loss of large tracts of land – long waiting list to join and a vacancy will only arise when someone leaves). I have a few friends who have tried to join clubs in Dublin & Dublin's surrounding areas for years but are still on a waiting list (preference given to locals on list living in these areas, which is only fair, I suppose)

What has been outlined above may explain why it is difficult to get into a club in large urban areas.
For those clubs lucky enough to have large tracts of land in rural areas I cannot understand why they do not encourage younger members to join. It would be the lifeline of the club.

J.R.

Pheasant hunting getting worse

I notice that the pheasant shooting in our club has been very poor to date this year. Last few years weren’t much better with poor returns for birds released.
Talking to members in other clubs in various parts of the country many members have noted the same – don’t know where the bird are gone this year.
I see from posts here on boards.ie that some lads are having a great season & meeting lots of birds – lucky devils!!....best of luck to them!
We have plenty of feeders out and quite a few hedgerows but still pheasants seem to have disappeared.
I have as few reasons why I think it is worsening – just guesswork but here it goes.

1. Ploughing in winter
A trend that seems to have caught on here in North Kildare is whereby all the tillage farmers now plough & plant after the harvest. No more stubble fields in the winter. These stubble fields used to be great for duck coming into. Also they made walking easy and provided ground cover.
Now the land is very heavy and sticky. It’s muddy, boring and difficult & tiring to walk. My dog (quite old) finds it tiring with clods of mud stuck to all paws. Perhaps the birds also find it unattractive & boring to remain in – perhaps lust green fields in stud farms are more attractive.

2. Rabbits - food
Rabbits which were plentiful are now very scare. They provided food for vermin to feed on. Perhaps now with their disappearance the pheasants feature more on the menu. Just guessing – but I found many piles of pheasant features where a kill had taken place.

3. Vermin
We are not hammering the foxes as much as we use to or should – definitely intend to increase this in the near future. Greycrow & magpies are being well controlled.

4. Buzzards
Buzzards – there are lots of buzzards about this year. Three times while decoying I had a buzzard dive down to attempt to take a decoy. With the loss of rabbits they need to turn their attention to other food sources,. As well as eating carrion, rodents etc. are they supplementing their diet with pheasants??
I am not for a moment suggesting that buzzards should be controlled – no way!!
I think they are magnificent and enjoy watching them soar overhead – I’m just trying to figure out why pheasant numbers have decreased so much.

5. Hen Pheasants
In years past we used to rise lots of hen pheasants – we meet very few – if any- in the last few years. Where are they all gone? Is it because clubs mostly only release cocks? With no hen in an area there will be no new clutches for next year.

6. Stud farms nearby
Perhaps pheasants quickly that realise nearby stud farms (preserved) are a safety spot and remain there throughout the season undisturbed. I don’t know.

Grizzly 45

1

. Ploughing in winter
A trend that seems to have caught on here in North Kildare is whereby all the tillage farmers now plough & plant after the harvest. No more stubble fields in the winter. These stubble fields used to be great for duck coming into. Also they made walking easy and provided ground cover.
Now the land is very heavy and sticky. It’s muddy, boring and difficult & tiring to walk. My dog (quite old) finds it tiring with clods of mud stuck to all paws. Perhaps the birds also find it unattractive & boring to remain in – perhaps lust green fields in stud farms are more attractive.

SOP in the EU for generations.At least over there with Winter snows the ground is going to be hard.Proably the fields will be like the Somme over here doing that. This is where hunter/farmer relationship comes into play. Can and is your relationship strong enough to ask him to leave an acre unplowed for the Winter to get the ducks onto the stubble?

3. Vermin
We are not hammering the foxes as much as we use to or should – definitely intend to increase this in the near future. Greycrow & magpies are being well controlled.

literally, you need to be committing fox genocide if you want a good pheasent shoot.

4. Buzzards
Buzzards – there are lots of buzzards about this year. Three times while decoying I had a buzzard dive down to attempt to take a decoy. With the loss of rabbits they need to turn their attention to other food sources,. As well as eating carrion, rodents etc. are they supplementing their diet with pheasants??
I am not for a moment suggesting that buzzards should be controlled – no way!!
I think they are magnificent and enjoy watching them soar overhead – I’m just trying to figure out why pheasant numbers have decreased so much.

Roadkill... Start collecting it.Buzzards are carrion eaters as well, so give them something a lot easier to dine on than the live game.They are opportunistic and if one species isn't available they will catch the other.Also, keep an eye out for where they roost to observe their countryside.Usually a tall isolated tree, or power line pole, etc.They'll spot the cadaver in no time.

5. Hen Pheasants
In years past we used to raise lots of hen pheasants – we meet very few – if any- in the last few years. Where are they all gone? Is it because clubs mostly only release cocks? With no hen in an area, there will be no new clutches for next year.

Bad gender mix alright.It actually should weigh a bit more to the hens, as they are the ones more likely to be killed in nesting season by predators.

6. Stud farms nearby
Perhaps pheasants quickly that realise nearby stud farms (preserved) are a safety spot and remain there throughout the season undisturbed. I don’t know.

without a doubt.. Have a waterfowl reserve next door to me.Up until Aug 31st, I have mallards aplenty in my rain puddles on my land, where they scoff all my provided wheat and barley.Come Sept1st, they are all in the Wildfowl sanctuary.:rolleyes:

blackpearl

We had a good supply of wild cluches this season due to foxs and mags and greys getting hammered but the big plus was the corn getting cut very late the buzzards could not get at the young birds .

Birdnuts

Large numbers of pheasants are killed on our roads - especially the reared variety. A recent study in the UK confirms this. With the vast increase in the amount of traffic across urban and rural Ireland its not hard to see it being a significant factor

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-41487536

Indeed I've seen on some rural roads more pheasant carcasses then the likes of your rabbits or foxes

ezra_

ezra_ wrote: »

I might try the NARGC route - what is the best way, just drop them a mail?

Nothing back from NARGC so far...

Cass

I've removed a couple of posts that inevitably crop up every time the topic of buzzards comes up.

I'll say this once and once only. Don't start it. There will be no warning, no more Mod Notes. It'll be a ban straight away.

richiedel123

ezra_ wrote: »

Nothing back from NARGC so far...

What county u in? Could u not look for county rep and get them to find out information for you?

clawback07

I am shooting for well over 40 years - if I was to look back through rose tinted glasses I could say the craic is gone out of shooting .Yes , the landscape of Ireland has changed dramatically over those 40 years and mostly not to the benefit of hunters as we are already aware , but I still go shooting where I can within the club I am in and on land where I have permission . It ain't what it was but it still gets the blood going whether it's one pheasant and three grey crows as it was on the 1st of November last or wood pigeon coming into roost as many evenings as I can or rats with an air rifle it's what you make of it .
I've packed it all in twice ,got rid of everything to do with hunting , only to get withdrawal symptoms and start all over again ! So I just enjoy every opportunity that arises and keep the regrets for the (many ) misses !

ezra_

richiedel123 wrote: »

What county u in? Could u not look for county rep and get them to find out information for you?

Am in Wicklow. Have looked before for a wicklow contact but haven't found anything

useurowname

clawback07 wrote: »

I am shooting for well over 40 years - if I was to look back through rose tinted glasses I could say the craic is gone out of shooting .Yes , the landscape of Ireland has changed dramatically over those 40 years and mostly not to the benefit of hunters as we are already aware , but I still go shooting where I can within the club I am in and on land where I have permission . It ain't what it was but it still gets the blood going whether it's one pheasant and three grey crows as it was on the 1st of November last or wood pigeon coming into roost as many evenings as I can or rats with an air rifle it's what you make of it .
I've packed it all in twice ,got rid of everything to do with hunting , only to get withdrawal symptoms and start all over again ! So I just enjoy every opportunity that arises and keep the regrets for the (many ) misses !

Your lucky, I'm afraid shooting crows and rats doesn't stir my blood. If that's what we're being reduced to I don't think it's much to look forward to.

clawback07

useurowname wrote: »

Your lucky, I'm afraid shooting crows and rats doesn't stir my blood. If that's what we're being reduced to I don't think it's much to look forward to.

I can see your point ,but hunting stirs my blood whether it's rats , pheasants , woodcock , snipe or whatever and with the ever encroaching monoculture of silage grass and electric fences you gotta improvise and adapt ,and shooting rats with an air rifle has given me access to hunting land I wouldn't have otherwise !