Rook shooting

[Matthew Arnold]

Got a lovely early start tomorrow (5am. Out in field for 5.30. Shooting when first bird arrives). Won't get any pics as weather forecast doesnt sound very nice. Should be a good day though. Will give you the tally my dad and i have.

[Gareth Smith]

How come you shoot them so early when they are all carrying ?

We dont start shooting them till second week in may .

Isn`t the traditional date to start `12th may` ?

[tractorboy1]

Cant understand how people get enjoyment out of killing animals. I do understand pests need to be controlled but cant see where the enjoyment is.

[Mark Bolam]

How come you shoot them so early when they are all carrying ?

We dont start shooting them till second week in may .

Isn`t the traditional date to start `12th may` ?

 

Agreed.

 

Goes against the grain a bit for me. Have to make do with claybusting (or not!) for a few months.

[Gareth Smith]

Agreed.

 

Goes against the grain a bit for me. Have to make do with claybusting (or not!) for a few months.

 

Love a bit of claybusting Still struggle like hell with some of them crossers though !

[Sam Thompson]

Cant understand how people get enjoyment out of killing animals. I do understand pests need to be controlled but cant see where the enjoyment is.

 

I get no enjoyment out of killing anything. I have enjoy hunting things. And this is where you must distinguish between sport hunting/shooting and killing. I like the challenge of out witting deer. So I stalk wild deer. I shoot one when it fits in with a management plan and because I like eating them. I take... satisfaction, if that is the word, at making a clean kill with minimal suffering to the beast.

 

 

I love deer though. I eat, sleep, breath and talk deer. I hunt them with a camera, I walk miles with a rifle, find a herd, and don't take a shot. I spend hours looking at them. I have lost thousands of pounds doing this, and the best part of 12 years living deer, and probably know more about deer than most people who wouldn't dream of killing one because it is "cruel". In the hard winters I think of my deer. I put feed down for them so they are not hungry. How many Bill Oddie types do this?

 

It is something only a hunter can understand I fear.

[Graham]

I shoot and fish but I would never dream of shooting rooks whilst they're breeding. Some may have just started sitting now. Traditionally it's the middle of May when the 'branchers' are shot for a bit of rook pie.

 

Unlike crows rooks are not great pests eating mostly worms, leatherjackets etc.

 

One of the great sounds of early spring is the activity in a rookery.

[cousin jack]

I shoot and fish but I would never dream of shooting rooks whilst they're breeding. Some may have just started sitting now. Traditionally it's the middle of May when the 'branchers' are shot for a bit of rook pie.

 

Unlike crows rooks are not great pests eating mostly worms, leatherjackets etc.

 

One of the great sounds of early spring is the activity in a rookery.

 

Ditto!