hunting and fishing

[Johnny Canuck3]

Yup - Those licencing regs look a lot less strict than the regs here. Which lso tend to be interpreted to the fullest extent as well. They also seem directed more to limit the number of animals taken, where our regs are aimed at limiting access to firearms first with the animal restrictions/quotas coming second. .

Our regs do both; they're separate regimes, really.

 

[chymaera]

It maybe that it's just common law which would explain the lack of any specific date for the law.

It isn't common law. I suspect I am not using the correct legal jargon for a Google search to find the relevant act of parliament.
(Several Archery websites state it is illegal but don't quote the relevant act).

 

[sparkling]

I couldn't find anything on Google that gave a date either

I thought, very possibly erroneously that the ban went back to the days when taking the king's deer was a capital crime and only the nobility were allowed greyhounds or hawks.

It maybe that it's just common law which would explain the lack of any specific date for the law.

It is still legal to shoot a welshman with a longbow within the walls of Chester after midnight

Or Hereford crossing the old wye bridge

something like that innit

 

[sparkling]

Yeah, I suppose your right but I still wouldn't shoot bunnies with an air rifle. Just a personal thing I suppose.

Honestly there's no problem taking em with an air rifle. One shot behind the eye will kill straight away.

 

[blackadder]

Honestly there's no problem taking em with an air rifle. One shot behind the eye will kill straight away.

Indeed it will. I'd only pull the trigger if I was certain of an instant kill. If I had a despatching dog with me then even a missed placed shot will still end in a quick death for the rabbit as the dog will be upon it within seconds.

I agree with Longdog's sentiments about running single dogs at small edible quarry, it's quick and it's natural and a beautiful sight watching running dogs hunt. (like safari here in the UK)

 

[pogofish]

Hunting with bows of any form, was outlawed by the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1963 for England. Not got the exact date for Scotland yet.

I remember stuff about historic prohibitions affecting old royal hunting forests & the like but that had pretty much fallen from use/application a very long time ago.

 

[pogofish]

It is still legal to shoot a welshman with a longbow within the walls of Chester after midnight

Or Hereford crossing the old wye bridge

something like that innit

Nope, they were all wiped-out in some rationalisation of archaic laws during John Major's government.

 

[Funky_monks]

....Hunting deer with dogs is of course quite illegal and in my opinion rightly so. Small game die almost instantly when a dog gets a hold of them and gives the old 'shake of death' breaking their necks. Large deer die from having their throats ripped out and that's not very nice at all.



*Personally I don't approve of hunting with two dogs at the same time. There's a good chance the prey will end up being ripped to apart rather than a (near) instantaneous death at the hands of single hound.

I thought a good lurcher was 'soft-mouthed' and therefore brings rabbits, hares etc, live to hand, for the hunter to stretch?

But then, I have terriers and any rabbits they catch aren't fit for anything other than dogfood by the time they've killed them, I've chased the dog around for a bit and they've had a tug-of-war with it. Useful ratters though.

I've also never had any problems killing rabbits with an air rifle, but I'd never pull the trigger if I was more than 30 yards from one, which is easy enough to do.

 

[Calva dosser]

Yep. One should not unsubstantially micturate over the wheel bearings of one's Hackney carriage in order to relieve friction overheating.

Johnny was hot on this sort of stuff before he fucked off to sell Seppoe anti-personnel mines.

 

[pogofish]

What do you mean, 'bringing in'?

Stalkers are largely left to it when they go on the hills. It is very independant & even isolated work. The "bringing-in" is when they turn-over the carcasses to their employers/the estate's larder, where they are inspected by the head keeper/estate manager (& possibly Deer Comission/Govt meat inspectors as well) for complaince with the various regs & restrictions, food hygene standards & estate policies before they are sold-on to the game dealers etc. Shots which render the carcass unsalable or unfit for human consumption (eg rupturing the stomach or bowel) & general signs of sloppy hunting tactics/undue suffering are not taken kindly at all.

Ponies are still very much in use on the roughest terrain but most estates also use these Argocat type buggies for transport

 

[longdog]

I thought a good lurcher was 'soft-mouthed' and therefore brings rabbits, hares etc, live to hand, for the hunter to stretch?

None of my dogs have ever presented me with a living beasty an I've never had one that wasn't fit for the pot

 

[Funky_monks]

None of my dogs have ever presented me with a living beasty an I've never had one that wasn't fit for the pot

None of my dogs have ever presented me with a living beastie (or a dead one that wasnt wrestled from them), that was fit for the pot. I once heard someone say that his terriers preferred the 'internal' retrieve.

I guess they must have just broken its neck and brought it back without ragging it to bits?

 

[Calva dosser]

I had a mate with the most vicious little Somerset hunting terriers on satans' moors.

Ace at getting rabbits. One word and they would bring them back largely undamaged.

I have a suspicion that a degree of correctional bestiality was involved in their training regime.

 

[Funky_monks]

Mine love getting rabbits - its just that, once got, giving them to me is far from their minds.

I have no plans to try any bestiality, correctional or otherwise. Maybe that's where I'm going wrong......

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Honestly there's no problem taking em with an air rifle. One shot behind the eye will kill straight away.

What happens if you shoot it up the fundament?

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Stalkers are largely left to it when they go on the hills. It is very independant & even isolated work. The "bringing-in" is when they turn-over the carcasses to their employers/the estate's larder, where they are inspected by the head keeper/estate manager (& possibly Deer Comission/Govt meat inspectors as well) for complaince with the various regs & restrictions, food hygene standards & estate policies before they are sold-on to the game dealers etc. Shots which render the carcass unsalable or unfit for human consumption (eg rupturing the stomach or bowel) & general signs of sloppy hunting tactics/undue suffering are not taken kindly at all.

Ponies are still very much in use on the roughest terrain but most estates also use these Argocat type buggies for transport

Most hunting for larger animals here takes place in the bush. By 'the bush', I mean heavily wooded and/or mountainous terrain. What that means, is that the carcass is dressed and sectioned right there, and the pieces hauled out. They're big animals.

 

[Calva dosser]

Not exactly The Devon & Somerset Stag Hounds.

Guys look like chavs.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Not exactly The Devon & Somerset Stag Hounds.

Guys look like chavs.

They're just country people.

 

[chymaera]

They're just country people.

Not English country people.

 

[pogofish]

Yup, As well as on the moors plenty of huntinh goes-on in the mountains as well. For Roe Deer & other smaller species, most hunting is in dense woodland/farmland lower down. Carcasses are still brought-out though, as anything more than draining the blood has to be done by trained slaughtermen in a licenced abbatoir if the meat is going to be regarded as fit for sale.

Largest animals are generally not taken for meat tho. They are left for the paying shooters to kill as trophies. They can of course do what they like with the meat themselves, so long as they don't try to sell it.

 

[pogofish]

Saying that, It is also the case that the estates like & try hard to encourage paying shooters who can match the skill of a professional stalker (many are former snipers & the like) simply because they profit from both the sale of the shooting & the sale of the meat.

Which is why it is generally considered the highest complement to be paid to an amateur hunter is if they are allowed to hunt independently

 

[chymaera]

It appear hunting with a bow was banned in England by The WILDLIFE AND COUNTRYSIDE ACT 1981.
(This surprises me as long before that where I lived in a rural area anyone found shooting at wildlife with a bow and arrow was likely to get their arse kicked at the very least).

 

[pogofish]

Plenty of places had their own local restrictions on various game activities/season dates etc long before then, either by byelaw or tradition - Legal or not, IME hunting with bows was certainly actively frowned upon in most places well before then.

 

[chymaera]

Plenty of places had their own local restrictions on various game activities/season dates etc long before then, either by byelaw or tradition - Legal or not, IME hunting with bows was certainly actively frowned upon in most places well before then.

I have just had an e-mail update apparently the legal ban was back in the 1950s, and superceded by the 1981 act but the sender has no idea under which act of parliament the original ban was.

 

[fizzerbird]

Honestly there's no problem taking em with an air rifle. One shot behind the eye will kill straight away.

 

[Calva dosser]

Last time I followed a stag hunt, Ronnie Wallace* offed the beast with a humane killer.

* Master of the hunt.

I believe rentokill get rid of the surplus stags now.

I doubt they use humane killers somehow.

 

[sparkling]

Can I just clarify. I have not suddenly become a combat wearing, gun toting, furry animal killing machine. I inadvertantly left myself logged in on the FizzBombscare PC at the weekend...hence the two posts on this thread.

I prefer my contact with animals to be of the 'ahhh arn't they sweet' type.

I even adopted a slug at the weekend called Simone