Wildfowl Season

[Feltwad]

Here in the UK September 1st is the start of the wild fowl season ,what will the 2023 season be like will surely be a debatable question , the bird flue epidemic has taking a large amount of seabirds including the migrating birds of the sea shore also inland birds which included game birds .With a few isolated areas where the flue has not reached there will be some wildfowlers out with their 6,8 , 10 bores to bag a goose or duck for the punt gunner I doubt there will be only the odd one .
Feltwad

 

[Feltwad]

Not much interest
Feltwad

 

[10 Ga.]

Hi feltwad

In the UK do they still allow punt gun hunting for waterfowl? I would be interested to hear how effective it is?

-10Ga

 

[ohiochuck]

Sadly the US does not allow shotguns larger than 10b for waterfowl
It would be nice to use a larger bore
I admire UK gunners who can use the big bores --black powder or smokeless

 

[SOLANCO]

Punt gunners here in the late 19th century fired into rafts of birds on the water. Market gunners did not hunt in any sporting sense of the term. Dead birds were packed in barrels and shipped by rail to New York and Philadelphia. There were regular trains from both shores of the Chesapeake because the volume of game birds, along with fish, crabs, and shellfish justified it.
It is testament to the robust nature of the Chesapeake, and other estuary habitats, that they have recovered from the unwitting excesses of the market hunters and fishing communities.