UK Game Season

[Feltwad]

The 1st September see the start of the lowland game season for partridge, woodcock, duck and geese , hopefully it will be better than the upland grouse season which opened on the 12th August with most moors not shooting this year due to disease and the lack of birds. The main sport of partridge shooting is with red leg partridges , the grey partridge is the UK common one but have declined in vast numbers becoming almost extinct in some parts mostly due to modern farming. Woodcock have in most parts faired well but still not in the numbers of 40 years ago foreign birds that emigrate from Europe on the November full moon help to make up the numbers but many estates do not shoot them Ducks and geese have done well more so the Canada geese with some good size skeins flying to and fro to the feeding grounds , which mostly at this time of the year are the barley and oat stubbles.
Feltwad

 

[pamtnman]

An acquaintance of mine runs hunting trips to Wales and Scotland. We were just talking about the bird situation there, and he is fairly optimistic. He leaves soon for Tarbert where his party has a limit of only 18 deer per hunter. Yes it’s a cull. Hinds and stags. Seems you gotta go real far to get into thick action over there

 

[Britsmoothy]

An acquaintance of mine runs hunting trips to Wales and Scotland. We were just talking about the bird situation there, and he is fairly optimistic. He leaves soon for Tarbert where his party has a limit of only 18 deer per hunter. Yes it’s a cull. Hinds and stags. Seems you gotta go real far to get into thick action over there

Tarbert on Kinytyre?
Beautiful part of Scotland.
And yes, it is crawling with deer.
A friend of mine use to go that area on culls too.

 

[pamtnman]

That whole west coast from Fort William north is spectacular. I have spent a lot of time at Inverie on Knoydart and surrounding area. Hunting, hiking etc Really special part of planet earth

 

[Feltwad]

There is also a number of Continental shooters that come to the UK for deer and also the Game shooting .Culling deer in Scotland and also parts of the Uk is mainly to keep the numbers at a reasonable level they also cause damage to young plantations .in a very bad winter these large numbers can soon decrease and a waste of good meat.
Feltwad

 

[FishDFly]

Are your Canada geese the same as the ones in the U.S, greater and lessor.? Do they migrate from Canada or are they resident birds which stay there all year?

We have some which migrate from Canada to Texas and some which are resident birds which never leave.

 

[Britsmoothy]

Are your Canada geese the same as the ones in the U.S, greater and lessor.? Do they migrate from Canada or are they resident birds which stay there all year?

We have some which migrate from Canada to Texas and some which are resident birds which never leave.

I've shot big canadas and smaller ones so I'm guessing there are lesser ones. I use to aim for the lesser ones hoping its a youngster and thus slightly more tender!
I understand our birds are resident.
The greylags seem to be swamping them out around by me. They have a closed season but the canadas now don't. I think it is showing a little in their numbers around my area.

 

[fleener]

I was surprised to see Canada Geese in NZ. Open season on the darn things. Seems they are taking over the World.

So, can you use a ML in Scotland to hunt deer sized animals?

We just canceled our trip for the third time to Scotland and Ireland due to Covid. Was to go in a few weeks.

Fleener

 

[Britsmoothy]

I was surprised to see Canada Geese in NZ. Open season on the darn things. Seems they are taking over the World.

So, can you use a ML in Scotland to hunt deer sized animals?

We just canceled our trip for the third time to Scotland and Ireland due to Covid. Was to go in a few weeks.

Fleener

No where in the whole of the UK can you use a muzzleloader or archery gear on Deer.
They won't even let you use one on a rabbit but a shotgun is fine (rabbit).

 

[BJamesBeck]

No where in the whole of the UK can you use a muzzleloader or archery gear on Deer.
They won't even let you use one on a rabbit but a shotgun is fine (rabbit).

It amazed me when I lived in Scotland that with the number of deer and a general anti-firearm attitude that bow hunting wasn't even looked at as a solution. I've heard rumors they are considering reintroducing wolves, which seems like a nuclear option. Granted, bow hunting may be a bit difficult out on some of the open moors, but in my experience with some of the deer there while out hiking, you could probably get within bow range for a few seasons before they figured out some of the "hikers" are deadly.

 

[FishDFly]

I always wanted to go to Scotland, it is my lineage.

Wasted too much time in South America fishing.

 

[FishDFly]

It amazed me when I lived in Scotland that with the number of deer and a general anti-firearm attitude that bow hunting wasn't even looked at as a solution. I've heard rumors they are considering reintroducing wolves, which seems like a nuclear option. Granted, bow hunting may be a bit difficult out on some of the open moors, but in my experience with some of the deer there while out hiking, you could probably get within bow range for a few seasons before they figured out some of the "hikers" are deadly.

Antelope are wary with great eye sight, they hunt them here around water holes. Probably could bow hunt like that there, "IF" they would let you.

 

[3Setters]

Just remember, the only way to hunt woodcock is over a pointing dog.

 

[pamtnman]

There is also a number of Continental shooters that come to the UK for deer and also the Game shooting .Culling deer in Scotland and also parts of the Uk is mainly to keep the numbers at a reasonable level they also cause damage to young plantations .in a very bad winter these large numbers can soon decrease and a waste of good meat.
Feltwad

I’m always surprised at the number of hunters visiting Scotland from Germany and Sweden. I’ve met hunters there from Spain, Portugal, France and Poland, too. But the Swedes seem to be the predominant.

 

[pamtnman]

I always wanted to go to Scotland, it is my lineage.

Wasted too much time in South America fishing.

Ain’t nuthin wrong with that, Fish. I have never been to SA let alone fish there, but friends of mine go and the photos and stories they bring back are incredible.

 

[pamtnman]

No where in the whole of the UK can you use a muzzleloader or archery gear on Deer.
They won't even let you use one on a rabbit but a shotgun is fine (rabbit).

In 2016 I hosted the Dickson’s gun shop manager for ten days of hunting here in PA. We met when I stopped in the old (original) Dickson’s in Edinburgh, and spent a fine morning handling wonderful firearms, including a Westley Richards 4-bore double rifle. Gary is a professional stalker, and he explained the ridiculous barriers there to hunting with either a bow or black powder. He lamented having shot hundreds of red deer with scoped rifles but being unable to use his exceptional stalking skills to ground hunt with his bow. So I had him over to archery hunt for deer, bear and turkey at the farm in southcentral PA and our camp up in northcentral PA. His first morning up in a tree stand was his first time ever in a tree stand. Gary had never seen so many trees in his life. He saw an enormous buck with the most symmetrical rack ever that had been showing up on our trail cameras. Although I watched Gary repeatedly place every single arrow in the bullseye at —- 75 yards— , he said he was intimidated at the thought of threading his arrow through the woods into the buck. So he drew on it but never shot. The rest of his visit was spent rotating through different tree stands and videoing a bunch of bucks he considered too small to shoot. Because that first one “looked like a proper red stag,” and it probably was a 160-inch deer, no other buck would do for him. Not even nice 8 and ten points probably in the 120-130 range. He let them all walk away. A year later I returned to Scotland to hunt with a black powder double rifle on the estate it was originally made for. That’s a whole different story

 

[Sidney Smith]

No where in the whole of the UK can you use a muzzleloader or archery gear on Deer.
They won't even let you use one on a rabbit but a shotgun is fine (rabbit).

Why aren't you allowed to hunt deer with a muzzle loader or archery gear?

 

[pamtnman]

Why aren't you allowed to hunt deer with a muzzle loader or archery gear?

Because neither black powder nor archery produce what the various government bureaucrats believe is sufficient energy for a quick, decisive, one shot kill. I believe their minimum is 2,000 foot pounds of muzzle energy. It might be more than that. Apparently some people in Wales are talking about changing this to accommodate different weapons, but it’s an uphill fight there.

 

[BJamesBeck]

Because neither black powder nor archery produce what the various government bureaucrats believe is sufficient energy for a quick, decisive, one shot kill. I believe their minimum is 2,000 foot pounds of muzzle energy. It might be more than that. Apparently some people in Wales are talking about changing this to accommodate different weapons, but it’s an uphill fight there.

Yep, muzzleloaders and bows are not seen as being capable of completing a "humane kill". I think a lot of the issues stem from a general aversion to hunting from a vast majority of the populace who see it as a posh upper class sport rather than as an effective conservation tool and means of feeding people like we often do here in the U.S. I had, and still have, a lot of interesting discussions about it with my Scottish friends, many of which really enjoy eating venison but generally disapprove of hunting.

 

[TFoley]

Last time I posted the government figures on muzzle energy and velocity required in the various parts of the UK, and yes, it's different in Scotland than in the rest of the UK, I got told off by the management and accused of politicising. I even got snotty posts from people who weren't interested in how things are done over here. That gets old very fast, although by now, I ought to be used to it.

These figures are some years old, but give you some idea of how much furriners bring into the country on an annual basis - Quote - 'For live quarry shooting the UK is a very popular destination for overseas visitors, especially for species such as pheasant, red grouse and red deer. With over 1 million participants, shooting generates £1.6 billion annually for the UK economy and supports the equivalent of 70,000 full time jobs.'

By way of contrast, bearing mind Mr Beck's comment that his Scottish pals like to eat venison, but don't like the thought that somebody has been out on a cold, wet hillside and actually shot it with a real-live bullet-firing gun, here's something else to think about - 'the [BASC] survey reveals that [UK] shooters spend an estimated £2.5 billion a year on goods and services.....This produces a direct financial benefit to the UK – defined as gross value added (GvA) – of £2 billion a year.'

Every mouthful of venison they stick down their necks has been legally shot by a shooter. There are no 'venison farms' here in UK.

With that in mind, I recommend anybody sufficiently interested to look up the figures on the BASC or British deer society websites.