Another thread here (very interesting) on preserve shooting etc shows that there seem to be two camps in the minds of many posters - Shooters and Hunters.
The latter gain most pleasure from the hunt and the dog work and the shot is a bonus.
The former get their challenge from testing themselves against difficult, fast birds and enjoy the dogs, the hunt, the guns and the social side as a bonus.
As with much in life, there is crossover. some 'Hunters' like the occasional day being challenged by a good number of difficult birds and some 'Shooters' sppreciate the odd day away from the formal shoting set-up; perhaps ferreting, foreshore wildfowling, or shooting over dogs on a bit of rough scrub-land in anticipation of the odd rabbit, pheasant or pigeon.
If I examine my own shooting life I admit to enjoying both. Testing your nerve against large numbers of wind-blown partridges coming off a hill in a gale, trying to pick your bird, swing, connect, re-load repeat before it is all over is a rush that stays with you - even when you fail in spectacular fashion!
Waiting on an inland flooded gravel pit in anticipation of the arrival of malard, teal, widgeon and perhaps even a skein of Canada geese is a meditative experience all of its own. You may get a shot, you may get a flurry of shooting, you may just smoke acigar and watch the sky get red, then black.
Decoying wood pigeon presents really wild birds, coaxed into shot with care and skill - and each time you shoot a bird it will be from a different angle and speed from the last.
Stalking rabbits of a summer evening with a .22 rim-fire is pure joy - warm breeze, long shadows and bunnies feeding.
Hunting pheasants and partridges over dogs - deep ditches, tall hedges - maybe a woodcock, the staple of English shooting.
For me it must be Sporting, it must be challenging and it must have an element of unpredictability and the possibility of failure.
I just came back from my fifth hunt in Italy (Umbria) after wild boar - my companion got a right and left with a solid slug loaded Beretta 20 bore. He was ecstatic.
I saw neither hide nor hair of living porker for the fifth year running - I had a wonderful day all the same.
I love it all but to be totally honest, I want to be in a position to try my old guns and my (lack of ?) skill with them on testing quarry. Otherwise, it is not shooting, it is walking the dog.
- but what are you? Hunters or Shooters?
