Making the news today....

[Mick Dempsey]

5 minutes ago, trigger_andy said:

They do throw the plebs a bone just to give the look of inclusion and now a classless sport that’s no longer a blood one. Then bugger off on the real hunts with the rest of the landed gentry. 
 

It’s a bit like Pheasant shooting round our way.  The Beaters on minimum wage get a Beaters Shoot at the end of the Season. They doff their caps to their betters and say thank you very much for the scraps they leave. 
 

I don’t think people realise that if you’re Sink Estate Scum that’s all you’ll ever be. If you’re paying £40 to play at Fox Hunting all you’re doing is aiding the real Hunters in whitewashing the sport whilst they laugh at you. 

You don’t know what you’re talking about, beaters do it for the day out, the chance to give their dogs a run, the lunch and the fresh air. No one (apart from me at 13 years old) did it for the money, the beaters and the guns sat together at lunch, no one was treated as a pleb in the two shoots where I was a beater.

 

I’m not a fan of pheasant shooting in hindsight, for various reasons, but treating it as a class thing is a mistake.

Edited November 27, 2021 by Mick Dempsey

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

1 hour ago, MattyF said:

**************** yourself your smug prick... you probably are right now any way.

Great job!

 

Your key points so far:

 

1) I’m a smug prick

2) Your lass is ex-council estate

3) You use baler twine to hold your pants up and townies are all twats. 
 

Oxford Union debating society?

 

 

[trigger_andy]

Just now, Mick Dempsey said:

You don’t know what you’re talking about, beaters do it for the day out, the chance to give their dogs a run, the lunch and the fresh air. No one (apart from me at 13 years old) did it for the money, no one was treated as a pleb in the two shoots where I was a beater.

 

I’m not a fan of pheasant shooting in hindsight, for various reasons, but treating it as a class thing is a mistake.

I know loads who beat. My mates got an Estate and when it’s their turn for a shoot try all flock over (pun intended) 
 

Why do they take £80 a day then if it’s just for fun? They struggled to get enough till they upped it to £80. None of them would do it unless they go their beaters day either. Plebs don’t tend to have their own Estates so have to dance to the Estate Owners Tune and all pretend they donut for the fresh air and doggie walks. 🤣🤣🤣

 

Maybe it’s more of a class thing round my way? By Glamis Castle there is a lot of ties to the RF. “The Laird” on the Estate certainly is. Helped me Mill (whittle  ) my first ever log there at the age of 80 as well. He actually sounds just like Prince Charles.   

[Mick Dempsey]

Have you ever been a beater on a shoot?

[trigger_andy]

Just now, Mick Dempsey said:

Have you ever been a beater on a shoot?

No, nor have I joined a shoot. I don’t really have that much interest in it. Been offered to take down a Stag. Not really into that either. They gave me a nice Trophy head instead, it’s now above my mantle piece.(old pic) Could go Salmon Fishing whenever I want in Season, CBA either. Far to busy at home. I don’t have a have a problem with any of these sports as it’s far more humane even if it’s not really my thing or something I have time for. 
 

But I know a bunch of the Beaters. Some live on the Estate. They love the beer money and do it for the peasant, I mean Beater Shoot after the gentry have had their fun. 

[trigger_andy]

The Laird getting stuck in on my first log. [emoji16] There’s nothing he does not know about breeding Red and Fallow Deer. He’s sold stock to Germany and as far away as Australia (pre-foot and mouth) and still gets called with questions.

[DanHorrich87]

3 hours ago, trigger_andy said:

Im not really sure that equating enjoying the slow and painful death of animals with living in a rural part of the UK goes hand in hand. Having lived in remote parts of Scotland most of my life I have yet to find someone who shares your definition of rural, and I hope I never do. 

So, I was contrasting rural against your obvious middle class urban values and you suppose my definition for rural is causing suffering to animals? I can see why others bailed out on this. Haha.

 

Misrepresenting someone then criticising it badly puts you twice removed from ever understanding. You crack on tho. You're obviously well paid for it.

[John Shutler]

1 hour ago, trigger_andy said:

 

It’s a bit like Pheasant shooting round our way.  The Beaters on minimum wage get a Beaters Shoot at the end of the Season. They doff their caps to their betters and say thank you very much for the scraps they leave. 
 

so your better informed to comment on subjects that you know very little about il let you know about game shooting for the common man.

Ours is a working syndicate so 10 guns all pay the same amount of money (£1400 a year for 10 shoot days plus one tenants day) we rent a few hundred acres from a larger estate comprising of several thousand acres for about 3k a year. the greater majority of that land is mixed woodland surrounded by arable land with a small barn in the middle that is the base for the shoot. we have 4 release pens that we built and maintain annually that  eventually feed 8 drives. we release 1600 poults into the 4 pens around july time then try to keep them alive till when mid october when we start shooting ( pheasants are like sheep in the sense that all they want to do is die) we buy growers pellets for the birds then as time goes on corn from the adjacent farm. we all share the workload so i’m usually up there a couple of times a week as a minimum all year round. non of us are gentry, infact ones a teacher, another a welder, i’m a tree contractor and my mates a butcher. one of the guys does admin type work and another is a boat day skipper. gardener, retired cnc machine operator, building site manager and school caretaker make up the rest. we all chip in for the food on a shoot day and my mate who’s the butcher and runs a small farm shop provides the grub. it’s a stand one/beat one type affair so there’s two teams of 5 and on each drive 5 are shooting and 5 are beating. we also have about 20 people who turn up to beat. no ones paid anything but all the additional beaters are fed and take a brace of birds at the end of the day. the beaters are mostly fiends and family who come for the day out and enjoy the day and the exercise plus they enjoy working their dogs if they have one. most of the beaters have been going for as long as i can remember. one of the guns of one of the 5 man teams couldn’t make it today so two of the beaters got to shot two drives each for the day, it’s pretty relaxed. we have a beaters day mid season. the shoots been going about 30 years and generally we will shoot around 40-60 birds on a shoot day. any birds that  are left at the end of the day go to my mates shop. the shoot doesn’t usually have much money left at the end of the season, it just about covers all the costs. myself and another guy usually shoot 30 foxes a year off the ground, most of those are town foxes that come across looking for an easy feed. we also manage the deer on this section of the estate. 

its a lot of work and no ones there for anything apart from the enjoyment of it, guns and beaters alike 

[Big J]

5 minutes ago, John Shutler said:

so your better informed to comment on subjects that you know very little about il let you know about game shooting for the common man.

Ours is a working syndicate so 10 guns all pay the same amount of money (£1400 a year for 10 shoot days plus one tenants day) we rent a few hundred acres from a larger estate comprising of several thousand acres for about 3k a year. the greater majority of that land is mixed woodland surrounded by arable land with a small barn in the middle that is the base for the shoot. we have 4 release pens that we built and maintain annually that  eventually feed 8 drives. we release 1600 poults into the 4 pens around july time then try to keep them alive till when mid october when we start shooting ( pheasants are like sheep in the sense that all they want to do is die) we buy growers pellets for the birds then as time goes on corn from the adjacent farm. we all share the workload so i’m usually up there a couple of times a week as a minimum all year round. non of us are gentry, infact ones a teacher, another a welder, i’m a tree contractor and my mates a butcher. one of the guys does admin type work and another is a boat day skipper. gardener, retired cnc machine operator, building site manager and school caretaker make up the rest. we all chip in for the food on a shoot day and my mate who’s the butcher and runs a small farm shop provides the grub. it’s a stand one/beat one type affair so there’s two teams of 5 and on each drive 5 are shooting and 5 are beating. we also have about 20 people who turn up to beat. no ones paid anything but all the additional beaters are fed and take a brace of birds at the end of the day. the beaters are mostly fiends and family who come for the day out and enjoy the day and the exercise plus they enjoy working their dogs if they have one. most of the beaters have been going for as long as i can remember. one of the guns of one of the 5 man teams couldn’t make it today so two of the beaters got to shot two drives each for the day, it’s pretty relaxed. we have a beaters day mid season. the shoots been going about 30 years and generally we will shoot around 40-60 birds on a shoot day. any birds that  are left at the end of the day go to my mates shop. the shoot doesn’t usually have much money left at the end of the season, it just about covers all the costs. myself and another guy usually shoot 30 foxes a year off the ground, most of those are town foxes that come across looking for an easy feed. we also manage the deer on this section of the estate. 

its a lot of work and no ones there for anything apart from the enjoyment of it, guns and beaters alike 

 

I understand why you organise the shoot and enjoy it. I've eaten plenty of pheasant and have worked for shooting estates in the past in a forestry capacity. May I make a few general observations though?

 

Firstly, from a forestry perspective, pheasant shoots are a nightmare. The infrastructure (pens) left in the woods puts metalwork everywhere, which compromises the value of the crop and makes harvesting awkward and unpleasant.

 

Secondly, there is evidence to suggest that pheasant shoots support larger grey squirrel populations. Taken from Shootinguk.co.uk:

"The possible link between the decline of woodland song birds and grey squirrel predation is now the subject of Game Conservancy research, particularly as it has been suggested woodlands where pheasants are fed may hold higher stocks of grey squirrels due to the abundance of food"

 

Thirdly, from an aesthetic point of view, pheasant holding woodlands are hideous. The combination of the pens, unsympathetic woodland management (ie managed for the shoot as opposed to species diversity of timber quality) and profusion of idiot pheasants and scrounging grey squirrels just ruins any enjoyment anyone might derive from the place.

 

I'm entirely supportive of rough shooting to control pest species (such as grey squirrels). Why is there a need to go to all the effort and destruction of a driven pheasant shoot. 

 

There is also the environmental impact of releasing 57 million non-native birds into our countryside each year....

[Toad]

5 minutes ago, John Shutler said:

so your better informed to comment on subjects that you know very little about il let you know about game shooting for the common man.

Ours is a working syndicate so 10 guns all pay the same amount of money (£1400 a year for 10 shoot days plus one tenants day) we rent a few hundred acres from a larger estate comprising of several thousand acres for about 3k a year. the greater majority of that land is mixed woodland surrounded by arable land with a small barn in the middle that is the base for the shoot. we have 4 release pens that we built and maintain annually that  eventually feed 8 drives. we release 1600 poults into the 4 pens around july time then try to keep them alive till when mid october when we start shooting ( pheasants are like sheep in the sense that all they want to do is die) we buy growers pellets for the birds then as time goes on corn from the adjacent farm. we all share the workload so i’m usually up there a couple of times a week as a minimum all year round. non of us are gentry, infact ones a teacher, another a welder, i’m a tree contractor and my mates a butcher. one of the guys does admin type work and another is a boat day skipper. gardener, retired cnc machine operator, building site manager and school caretaker make up the rest. we all chip in for the food on a shoot day and my mate who’s the butcher and runs a small farm shop provides the grub. it’s a stand one/beat one type affair so there’s two teams of 5 and on each drive 5 are shooting and 5 are beating. we also have about 20 people who turn up to beat. no ones paid anything but all the additional beaters are fed and take a brace of birds at the end of the day. the beaters are mostly fiends and family who come for the day out and enjoy the day and the exercise plus they enjoy working their dogs if they have one. most of the beaters have been going for as long as i can remember. one of the guns of one of the 5 man teams couldn’t make it today so two of the beaters got to shot two drives each for the day, it’s pretty relaxed. we have a beaters day mid season. the shoots been going about 30 years and generally we will shoot around 40-60 birds on a shoot day. any birds that  are left at the end of the day go to my mates shop. the shoot doesn’t usually have much money left at the end of the season, it just about covers all the costs. myself and another guy usually shoot 30 foxes a year off the ground, most of those are town foxes that come across looking for an easy feed. we also manage the deer on this section of the estate. 

its a lot of work and no ones there for anything apart from the enjoyment of it, guns and beaters alike 

I think this is a great way to shoot, it's enjoyable for everyone for multiple reasons, you get a decent bit of exercise and get to know the land and the animals and really observe nature. What I really can't stand is the chicken farming type shoots, 600 bird days a couple of times a week are common on one shoot around here. How can anyone actually justify that? I'd love to protect shooting, fishing etc, but all the time that ridiculous setups such as those exist the whole industry is going to look bad and the decent arrangements like yours will ultimately suffer.

 

Its the same with fox hunting for me. It looks bad, everyone knows they aren't really following 'trails' and all the time there is a massive show of people actively going out to break the law on what they know is a controversial, divisive subject then everyone involved in reasonable country sports actually suffers.