Home
Forum
What's New?
LinkBack URL
About LinkBacks
Reply With Quote
I've just come backl to Air Gunning after half a Century of big bore handguns (till 1997) and even bigger bore 19thC Black Powder cartridge rifles. Sadly today a pension doesn't run to keeping up the now horrendous Home Office regulations regarding Part 1 Fire Arms Certificate with new regulations being applied several times a year, or so it seems
So I've had to give up the big bores and come down to a little 'vermin' and 'pot' shooting. I've found there's much good advice in this thread on how to apply for shooting permission.
I do have insurance, I have printed out several scanned copies of the certificate so that these could be handed to Farmers or Land Owners along with a permission to shoot form.
I have found it advisable in the past to have a map of the local area where you are applying for shooting permissions, sadly the economical priced O/S 1:25,000 scale maps are really unhelpful as they don't show farm or field boundaries and getting maps of a larger size such as 1:10,000 scale are very expensive indeed. I was quoted £25.00 from one licenced O/S agent.
Knocking that idea on the head I went home and had a think. Then I realised I had Google Earth on my computer (this is a free download from the WWW).
I called up the programme and entered the name of the nearest village to where I was seeking permissions. When the area came up, I located the farm that I was to visit, centered that on the screen and backing away slightly so that a good area of land surrounding that farm was shown. There in glorious colour were all the fields and their boundaries which were very readily visible. I then printed off a couple of copies which I took with me.
I called at the farm and introduced myself to the farmer, informed him I was looking for some vermin shooting and asked him if I could have permission to shoot Wood Pigeon, Rabbits, Grey Squirrels and any other pests that were causing him a problem. Whilst he was weighing me up, I produced the colour print of his farm. Boy, did that catch his eye, and he asked why I had it. I replied that it was to enable him to mark out the boundaries of his farm if I was granted his permission. That was the turning point, he immediately agreed, He signed my permission form then drew in the boundaries on the map. He then noticed I had a second copy of this map and asked if he could have it, no problem there. I gave him my phone number and said if he had any particular problem he needed sorting out urgently I could be there in 10 minutes, being retired. That evening I printed out a glossy picture of his farm, stuck it into a nice frame I'd bought at a car boot sale for 20p, went to the farm and presented him with it.
The following day I had phone calls from two of his brothers asking if I was interested in shooting over their farms, if so, all it would cost me was a framed colour satellite picture of their farms. I now have 700 acres to shoot over for a few minutes work on my computer and printer. It's worth a try chaps.
I plan to decoy Wood Pigeons and shoot them from a hide, but was horrified at the cost of the adjustable telescopic hide poles, at around £40.00 per four. In my local market you can buy identical clothes props for £2.50 each, the only difference is, they are not fitted with a spike. That's easily cured, spikes can be made from hardwood dowel from your local DIY shop. I bought enough surplus military camo netting to make a couple of large hides for for less than £20.00 and a few dark green plastic tent pegs to stop it flapping in any breeze. When your on a pension you have to watch your pennies. lol.
I'll let you know how I get on.
Harry
fingers crossed
