doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Want to go Grouse Shooting in the U.K.

Well you may never get the chance even if your lottery ticket comes up. There is an on line petition to get it banned. Here is a link to an on line petition to keep it. http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/66219 Please sign in. It is a big revenue earner with overseas visitors coming to shoot so your input will be helpful. Thanks. Lagopus.....

Lagopus:

The electronic link indicates that you must be a UK citizen or normally reside in the UK to sign the petition.

Rem

I have signed

It has my signature because I would want others in the future to know the thrill of attending their first Grouse shoot.

Hope driven shooting does not go the way of riding to the hounds in Merry Olde England!...Geo

Why is it that every imported culture must be kept whole and sacred but that of the host country must confirm to enlightened modern standards? For example Fox hunting is cruel and must be stopped but immigrants are barely expected to learn the host countries language. Now driven bird hunting may be lost as well.

Driven shooting may be lost without thought to the real consequence to bird population of both the hunted and non hunted birds. Left to their own devices and without careful management bird population will not remain at current levels but will almost certainly crash to a fraction of their current levels. Haven't we seen enough decline in bird numbers already? Ban hunting and careful management of land and 99.99% of the birds will be lost. Then when depleted numbers are stressed by drought of other natural stress their complete demise is just one major calamity from extinction. And if prey birds are lost so will all those birds of prey who kill and eat them when given half a chance. Foxes, hawks and other birds of prey will decline as well. Typical fix one problem and cause five others that short sighted experts often create with narrow agendas and feel good solutions.

Several years ago I had the pleasure of rough hunting and wood pigeon shooting in Scotland. I wanted to experience the origins of wing shooting and I have many fond memories of the experience.

Sorry, I didn't realise that only U.K. citizens could sign. Wrong in my opinion because the sport attracts so many from overseas.

Jim, if you have been pigeon shooting then you have experienced the best type of shooting there is in my opinion. I'd rather have an evening pigeon flighting or a days decoying to a days pheasant shooting any time. Lagopus.....

Yes, pigeon shooting is a lot of fun and we used decoys and had a pile of birds.

KY Jon - not sure I agree with this. Unless grouse moor management has changed since I studied it in the early 1970's (Master's degree at U. Aberdeen), gamekeepers kill every animal which could conceivably eat a grouse or an egg. They were the reason that peregrines, kites and eagles were exterminated in Scotland. Back then, a keeper's gibbet displayed everything from foxes through owls, ravens, stoats, weasels and even moles -an appalling slaughter of predators. Of course, killing raptors was not legal even then, but I heard of keepers being fired on the spot if a harrier (marsh hawk) was seen on a moor.

Can our UK friends tell us if such severe predator control is still the norm?