Other field sports

[Cranfield]

During my life I have owned and worked ferrets, a lurcher, various terriers and gundogs and enjoyed every minute of it.

I have also been shooting since the age of 11.

 

I don't differentiate between fishing, shooting and hunting.

They are all my hobbies and interests and I perform them as efficiently and humanely as possible, within whatever laws and rules exist.

I even consider myself a greater conservationist than a lot of the duffle coat/badge wearing, tree huggers that one keeps hearing from.

[les middy]

So how old do you have to be before you start to suffer the onset of maturity. Its just that |I think I had better get the freezer filled up before it happens.

 

you'r only a young wipper snapper at 59

 

you will have to get a few years on before you reach maturity

 

and i just love to get out and catch/shoot/net rabbits better than any chicken, also pheasant/deer/ducks

 

and i butcher and dress all my own

[Norrie]

i have 3 ferrets 1 lurcher and 3 jack russells, and wouldnt be without any of them, Norrie i have almost all of Brian plummers books, great reads they are too!!

 

 

William, Great pics , BUT, whats with the gloves for handling your ferret ??? was it a biter ?? :)

 

Brian Plumber (sp) is a very good writer, with lots of humour in his books, which I thoroughly enjoy reading...

 

Might have to get you to take me out ferreting when I'm up at yours next !!! That is, if you dont mind !!

[thurso angler]

William, Great pics , BUT, whats with the gloves for handling your ferret ??? was it a biter ?? :)

 

Brian Plumber (sp) is a very good writer, with lots of humour in his books, which I thoroughly enjoy reading...

 

Might have to get you to take me out ferreting when I'm up at yours next !!! That is, if you dont mind !!

 

 

Hi Norrie, not a biter just bloody cold on a frosty january morning

 

Yes i really like brian plumers books, a lot of it is fiction or borrowed from other peoples experiances but i dont mind, there still top reads!!

 

He used to live up here in his later life about 10 miles from here, you will have fished no more than a few miles from his old house.

 

Norrie id be delighted to take you out ferreting next time your up, TBH th dogs and ferts have taken over from my fishing, whenever i have some spare time im off out with them, anytime you wish to go out just let me know.

 

will

[Huge_Vitae]

Look my point is pictures are posted on here depicting dogs killing wildlife or 'vermin' OK we know its legal to do so, but why do we have to be subjected to the pictures of the kill? my theory is that by using AN the people that do this seek some sort of approval for what they di. These people are then supported by Sportsman and the like by telling all and sundry that angling is no better in that by the action of fishing that I am no better because I torture fish by catching and releasing.

Can I remind Sportsman and the like that this is a Angling Forum and to compare angling with such activities as Hunting With Dogs as to its justifiable merits is not at all as a great deal of anglers see OUR sport Angling. hunting with dogs has been banned with the exceptions that we see portrayed in that post.

It is the last ditch effort of a few to bring a more acceptable side of this cruel 'sport' through this forum. You may support it with a few likeminded people but I will bet that a vast amount of people would not and feet that hunting with dogs has no place in society in the 21st century. No doubt this activity will be confined to history where it belongs before too long.

This is a complex issue Rabbit and as usual one has to be careful not to dislike some or other part and 'cherry pick' as you add your opinion.

 

In my mind, When I was a young boy, on some days we would not have had food on the table if my brother had not gone rabbiting.

 

How they were caught and dealt with did not interest me at all. There are still places in the world where this opinion is justifiable.

 

As I have progressed in life the land around me has also 'progressed' My children have not and would not eat Rabbit yet they are blissfully unaware how the food on their table is produced. I do not kill and eat my own chickens as they are more to me than a source of food. and yet, stupidly' I will go to a supermarket/fast food outlet/take away house and purchase from there. There is no logic to this, I know it but continue to do so.

 

I dislike hunting Fox's with dogs, BUT, I consider a fox as vermin to be eradicated and have, and will continue to shoot them at every opportunity. I do realise that a shot Fox might or might not suffer more or less than one ripped apart by hounds, and yes the 'they have a chance to get away' etc. etc.

 

But in my case, probably different to the rest of the Country, there was no indigenous fox population here until recent times. Foxes were brought to the Island and released and allowed to breed for the purpose of hunting with dogs and horses and that decision was stupid, self centered and narrow minded and, in this particular case negates the arguments some put. But that is only here and not there, where you are.

 

As far as hunting with dogs is concerned in general, we have been doing it for thousands of years, some will say that Humans did not discover dogs as pets but more likely that dogs discovered humans as allies.

 

I think this should be allowed to stay and that more emphasis be placed on some intensive farming methods who in a day exert more inhumane and obscene cruelty to animals than any of the members here do in a lifetime.

 

And don't believe for one second that the rules that are put in place are adhered to, especially in foreign lands. And the next time you go into a butchers and see a sign that says "all our meat is Halal" (or whatever, I can't remember exactly) have a look and see what Halal meat actual is.

[Guest Rabbit]

Ah, but Sportsman, you don't understand that Rabbit is more "evolved" than you, I, or even Newt

 

Whereas we are atavistic, near-Neanderthal, fish-eating throwbacks, Rabbit has "moved on", and as he told us in a recent thread, is prone to eating tinned luncheon meat at the waterside (thats mechanically recovered meat with all the unpleasant connotations implied by factory floor sweepings).

 

So whilst we three are piscivores/omnivores, Rabbit's diet (as reported by him) is akin to someone who has "moved on" to become a scavenger.

 

He also tells us that he used to be a herbivore

 

Rabbit, ( from another thread)

 

but has obviously "moved on" from being gullible (thats what being "evolved" must mean, Newt)

 

...and as for the diet of real rabbits, well, I don't want to go there

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbits#Diet_and_eating_habits

 

Blimey got the AN secret police on to me now .

 

Well I suppose its best to be talked about than not at all.

 

''Viva La Evolution''

[Norrie]

Hi Norrie, not a biter just bloody cold on a frosty january morning

 

 

He used to live up here in his later life about 10 miles from here, you will have fished no more than a few miles from his old house.

 

Norrie id be delighted to take you out ferreting next time your up, TBH th dogs and ferts have taken over from my fishing, whenever i have some spare time im off out with them, anytime you wish to go out just let me know.

 

will

 

 

OK, I'll let you off with that one mate...

 

 

Yep, It does get a bit of a "Compulsion"...I must admit to being the same when I had my Ferrets... I would think nothing of walking lots of miles working them....

 

I wish you had told me about his living there before now...I would have made a wee pilgramage !!! :P

 

I have now "progressed" to an air rifle ( still a rubbish shot , and much lazier too ), and shoot on a friends farm at the back of my house, he has a real rabbit problem....which is good for me...

 

Hopefully up before the end of the year, with the boat ... we could do a "trade"

Edited September 13, 2007 by Norrie

[Vagabond]

Bravo Rabbit, nice to see you have evolved a sense of humour.

 

Just concentrate on the steam locos and the barbel fishing and you'll be OK

[Vagabond]

I have also been shooting since the age of 11.

.

 

 

That's interesting, in 1944, at the age of ten, I was entrusted to go out with a gun on my own. Mind you, I had a rigorous briefing and training from my great-uncle, a hard-bitten Norfolk farmer I was in considerable awe of. "Never point a gun at anyone unless you intend to kill him" was his mantra.

 

Over the years children have increasingly become "protected" (mollycoddled?) so that these days the idea of a minor carrying a shotgun would produce a turnout of the social services, an armed response unit, and the town band.

[Guest Rabbit]

This is a complex issue Rabbit and as usual one has to be careful not to dislike some or other part and 'cherry pick' as you add your opinion.

 

In my mind, When I was a young boy, on some days we would not have had food on the table if my brother had not gone rabbiting.

 

How they were caught and dealt with did not interest me at all. There are still places in the world where this opinion is justifiable.

 

As I have progressed in life the land around me has also 'progressed' My children have not and would not eat Rabbit yet they are blissfully unaware how the food on their table is produced. I do not kill and eat my own chickens as they are more to me than a source of food. and yet, stupidly' I will go to a supermarket/fast food outlet/take away house and purchase from there. There is no logic to this, I know it but continue to do so.

 

I dislike hunting Fox's with dogs, BUT, I consider a fox as vermin to be eradicated and have, and will continue to shoot them at every opportunity. I do realise that a shot Fox might or might not suffer more or less than one ripped apart by hounds, and yes the 'they have a chance to get away' etc. etc.

 

But in my case, probably different to the rest of the Country, there was no indigenous fox population here until recent times. Foxes were brought to the Island and released and allowed to breed for the purpose of hunting with dogs and horses and that decision was stupid, self centered and narrow minded and, in this particular case negates the arguments some put. But that is only here and not there, where you are.

 

As far as hunting with dogs is concerned in general, we have been doing it for thousands of years, some will say that Humans did not discover dogs as pets but more likely that dogs discovered humans as allies.

 

I think this should be allowed to stay and that more emphasis be placed on some intensive farming methods who in a day exert more inhumane and obscene cruelty to animals than any of the members here do in a lifetime.

 

And don't believe for one second that the rules that are put in place are adhered to, especially in foreign lands. And the next time you go into a butchers and see a sign that says "all our meat is Halal" (or whatever, I can't remember exactly) have a look and see what Halal meat actual is.

 

Don't understand why you should want to see the fox eradicated Huge, they might be vermin to you but they are a part of the decreasing wild large mammal population that are indigenous, but I suppose as you keep chickens they may indeed be vermin, which rather answers why I asked you wanted the fox eradicated.

Yes I understand the thing about keeping chickens and not being able to kill them for food, I don't keep chickens but I too would find it difficult to wring the blighters neck. Not that I am a woosey you understand just that the thought of eating Henrietta would not be at all good. Anyway a Tesco's chicken is about £4 and far less personal.

I did say previously in the thread that I worked for MIn Of Ag when I was a nipper and used to see thousands of pigs meet their maker (Harris's of Calne, Wiltshire) and thought nothing of it, the slaughter was so calm first gassing to put them to sleep, and you know the rest . But don't think I could do that job now, it's just me I suppose

 

 

 

 

 

Bravo Rabbit, nice to see you have evolved a sense of humour.

 

Just concentrate on the steam locos and the barbel fishing and you'll be OK

 

Always had one, not a train spotter and also like all forms of fishing matey