Mail slams vigilante airgunners

[secretagentmole]

Even though the above posts place the blame at opposite ends, both are equally correct.

The mail article was pathetic ill informed journalistic diarrhoea, of the worst kind,
but the people who put those pictures up on farcebook in the first place can't have the brains they were born with.

I shoot pests/vermin & have done for 40odd years, but I've never felt the need for gloating pictures & can't understand why people do .

Lensman I seem to remember Terry saying better than 70% of his readers hunt.

Thing is that people live in various locations, some hundreds of miles from friends they have made on the forums/social media. There is a propensity for hunters to exaggerate the size of the animal, like fisherman exaggerate the size of the fish they have caught, same with quantity. So we take photos to prove the veracity of what we say. I try not to put up photos that look like a prop from Friday the 13th, indeed one of my proudest photos was of a bakers dozen of woodies taken with an Mk 3 roost shooting, not a drop of blood in sight but plenty of pie filler!

[bozzer]

Moley

That's the difference. You got the job done. You were quite pleased with your job and you took a photo that showed what you were claiming was true ... and pies all around.

That's different from glorified kill shots with the hunter looking smug.

I'll post a comment to give some defence to maybe showing a squirrel with blood on it's head. If the hunter is using the photos to educate others, and he's making the point that the animal needs to be hit cleanly in the head, so that it dies instantly, and he is presenting a photo that shows where the pellet has struck to prove he is killing humanely, then I can see some justification in that. Just present the photo showing the animal and impact. I still can't see the need for the animal to be held up with the hunter smiling, like a batsman lifting his bat to celebrate his hundred.

I dunno, maybe you could argue that it's to show that this is actually about enjoyment as well as doing a vermin control job. Then it could be argued that dead animals and joyous grins are suggesting you'll be the next Dexter villain.

[danco1987]

" Where you draw the line re blooded kills being held up for display, with the hunter grinning like he's just won the Post Code Lottery, I just don't know. I can't see how that is ever going to shine a bright light upon us."

I want to know exactly what percentage of air gun owners actually do shoot animals/pests ? I no longer do and I doubt if the number is that many infact. The problem is that due to the exposure on virtual media they are much more in the face.

A.G

According to the Basc's value of shooting research, industry data suggests there are 4 million (est) airgun owners in the UK – of which 1.6 m shoot live quarry (40%).

A total of 16,234 questionnaires were completed, making this the most comprehensive research into the value of shooting ever undertaken in the United Kingdom.

[Barryg]

Make the complainants work in a halal or kosher abbatoir for a week....

Im not sure you can compare that with killing for enjoyment, anyway veganism is the fastest growing lifestyle movement in the UK up 360% in the past 10 years, this is what I mean by changing modern times that we live in.

If we can get Vegans to take up airgunning the sport might be safe

[bighit]

i left the lamping foxes facebook page due to seeing foxes with their eyes popping out, their guts hanging out pics that were getting posted up every few days . the admin on the page would ask folk to tone the pics down but they continued to post them up. they were getting worse and worse every post . it was like "see who can destroy the fox the most competition"

a pic to show how many you bagged like moley quoted is fine by me and can serve as record for the shooting in a sort of journal type way . but not pics of birds that are just a mass of feathers like on some pics.

we all know what a .17hmr can do to a rabbit's head ,we don't need to see it on places like the BBS or facebook groups .

[secretagentmole]

Im not sure you can compare that with killing for enjoyment, anyway veganism is the fastest growing lifestyle movement in the UK up 360% in the past 10 years, this is what I mean by changing modern times that we live in.

If we can get Vegans to take up airgunning the sport might be safe

If you explain it will save all those carrots....

[lensman57]

i left the lamping foxes facebook page due to seeing foxes with their eyes popping out, their guts hanging out pics that were getting posted up every few days . the admin on the page would ask folk to tone the pics down but they continued to post them up. they were getting worse and worse every post . it was like "see who can destroy the fox the most competition"

a pic to show how many you bagged like moley quoted is fine by me and can serve as record for the shooting in a sort of journal type way . but not pics of birds that are just a mass of feathers like on some pics.

we all know what a .17hmr can do to a rabbit's head ,we don't need to see it on places like the BBS or facebook groups .

I agree. I don't mind seeing the result of a well placed airgun shot on a rabbits head but as I have mentioned several times before, there is no need to show the result of the impact of a 223 round on a fox or a rabbit. In fact I find it disgusting, nor do I think that it is necessary to display dead fox cubs next to the bitch . It doesn't bother me but I am sure that there are a lot of people out there who do get emotional about seeing these dead animals and get the wrong ideas.

A.G

[lensman57]

According to the Basc's value of shooting research, industry data suggests there are 4 million (est) airgun owners in the UK – of which 1.6 m shoot live quarry (40%).

A total of 16,234 questionnaires were completed, making this the most comprehensive research into the value of shooting ever undertaken in the United Kingdom.

I am obliged to you for the information. That is a very high number and I didn't expect it. I was thinking more in the 15%~20% range.

A.G

[lensman57]

Thing is that people live in various locations, some hundreds of miles from friends they have made on the forums/social media. There is a propensity for hunters to exaggerate the size of the animal, like fisherman exaggerate the size of the fish they have caught, same with quantity. So we take photos to prove the veracity of what we say. I try not to put up photos that look like a prop from Friday the 13th, indeed one of my proudest photos was of a bakers dozen of woodies taken with an Mk 3 roost shooting, not a drop of blood in sight but plenty of pie filler!

The number of gun owners actually shooting live quarry may perhaps be location dependent. For example of the two dozen or so guys that I shoot with at the outdoor range only 3 guys admit to shooting live quarry. When I used to go to the local rifle and pistol club the percentage was higher more like 3 out of every 10 guys in the club were in the hunting/pest control business.

A.G

[lensman57]

Nooooo!!!

Sorry mate but we really need to be standing up more. Terry and the other chaps are correct that we complain to the tabloids and the PCC directly. If only 5% of the members on here did that then they would need to sit up and take notice.

I've complained directly to the DM and raised a PCC form.

99.99% of airgun owners go about their business according to the law and do not cause any bother to anyone. Enough is enough. These guys writting such articles must be made to account for their motives. If the information given by BASC that there are 4 million gun owners is true then the percentage of the number of people causing trouble is infinitesimal campared to the number of the people who own guns. No need for such sensationalist none sense.

A.G

[Zomboid]

Last night I was wrapping up a chicken carcass in paper and came across an article in an old Sunday Times. Group of pro-Red Squirrel people have started taking out the local grey population because of parasites. No histrionics. No negativity. And a picture of a lady in a camo frock with an airgun - precharged of course being a lady. Probably .177 too.


Ooh I am awful.

[Andy001]

I haven't read it fully, as I haven't time. It's a slightly older article. This doesn't seem to too negative, if I'm mistaken don't blame me.

https://www.theguardian.com/environm...grey-squirrels

[bighit]

Last night I was wrapping up a chicken carcass in paper and came across an article in an old Sunday Times. Group of pro-Red Squirrel people have started taking out the local grey population because of parasites. No histrionics. No negativity. And a picture of a lady in a camo frock with an airgun - precharged of course being a lady. Probably .177 too.


Ooh I am awful.

the lady in the frock is the same lady that the daily mail has singled out . julie bailey i think.

[bighit]

I agree. I don't mind seeing the result of a well placed airgun shot on a rabbits head but as I have mentioned several times before, there is no need to show the result of the impact of a 223 round on a fox or a rabbit. In fact I find it disgusting, nor do I think that it is necessary to display dead fox cubs next to the bitch . It doesn't bother me but I am sure that there are a lot of people out there who do get emotional about seeing these dead animals and get the wrong ideas.

A.G

exactly . its just not needed ,as i said we all know what a bullet or pellet can do to animal. so we don't need to see it spread all over the area it fell on. some on the lamping foxes pages had shooters leaving the page in disgust at the pics . a lot looked like misplaced shots and the animal possibly suffering with its insides on the outside .

[ZAKDINGEL]

Everyone who shoots vermin should get a squirrel feeder made and put up where they shoot after years of trying to hand bait them into a shot range and stalk up on them I saw the feeder in the airgun world a short time back and thought I would give it a go and I can tell all anyone who's thinking of it get it done it really dose work not only giving you the chance of a shot at some vermin it also provides food for the birds that are around I have now spent more time sitting around and not getting sick of nothing coming into range as all the birds coming in for a free feed it has also opened my eyes to what birds are around some places I shoot Also by shooting these grey pest's you will be saving many a young song birds eggs and young in the spring time