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Decline in shooting? (1 Viewer)

trw

Well-known member
I've been trying to get to the bottom of what's happening to the trend in shooting birds in the Kent estuary area in Cumbria.

I couldn't help but notice I hear less shooting going on over the past few years. Being near the coast,the area was popular for pheasant shooting as well as wildfowling.

Today I met a very keen shooter who has lived in the area all his life.
In his opinion he reckons the old shooters who are dying off are not being replaced by the younger generation. He blames an interest in other pastimes these days and shooting birds isn't one of them.

As we scanned round he pointed out three ex- shooting estates where shooting is no longer carried out. His information about these estates confirmed what I'd been told by another local who is actually an ex-shooter.

We also talked about the most well known convert from shooting to birdwatching,Sir Peter Scott. founder of the WWT. We were looking at one of his favourite places for shooting, the marshes and sands of the Kent estuary . He would often stay in the local hotel,the Ship Inn at Sandside, in his shooting days.
 
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I've been trying to get to the bottom of what's happening to the trend in shooting birds in the Kent estuary area in Cumbria.

I couldn't help but notice I hear less shooting going on over the past few years. Being near the coast,the area was popular for pheasant shooting as well as wildfowling.

Today I met a very keen shooter who has lived in the area all his life.
In his opinion he reckons the old shooters who are dying off are not being replaced by the younger generation. He blames an interest in other pastimes these days and shooting birds isn't one of them.

That's one extinction I'd be happy to see and indeed happy to accelerate.

John
 
As climate change, habitat destruction and pollution accelerate I can only celebrate a dying off of wildfowling. I imagine wildfowlers with an interest in conservation must be feeling concerned at how long they can continue their hobby from an ethical point of view.
 
I think there are two things at work.

The first is straight out of "The Better Angels of Our Nature", by Steven Pinker; As society progress there is a decline in violence and that includes violence against animals. Read the book for the more gruesome details of past amusements.

The second is the commodification of experiences: A decline in people just "doing things" and instead going on organised activities. People are no longer just grabbing their guns and going out for a bit of local rough shooting, they are paying to go on organised shoots. Once you are paying you expect more birds, better food, a Range Rover between drives etc etc. That puts the price up and you begin a vicious circle until only the rich are buying "packages. It is not just in shooting: in the hills the individual climbers and scramblers have been replaced by the organised grou
 
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Wildfowling and pheasant shooting are two VERY different things. The former requiring a degree of commitment and endurance that is unlikely to be promoted from the comfort of a centrally heated bedroom and I-Pad.

Driven pheasant shooting requires endurance of another kind, at least for those tasked with raising healthy birds and presenting same to the guns. Revenue generation will be critical to an estate and the ability or otherwise to make a shoot financially viable may have a lot to do with the silence you refer to.

LGM
 
I think there are two things at work.

The first is straight out of "The Better Angels of Our Nature", by Steven Pinker; As society progress there is a decline in violence and that includes violence against animals. Read the book for the more gruesome details of past amusements.

The second is the commodification of experiences: A decline in people just "doing things" and instead going on organised activities. People are no longer just grabbing their guns and going out for a bit of local rough shooting, they are paying to go on organised shoots. Once you are paying you expect more birds, better food, a Range Rover between drives etc etc. That puts the price up and you begin a vicious circle until only the rich are buying "packages. It is not just in shooting: in the hills the individual climbers and scramblers have been replaced by the organised grou

Interesting analysis. By all accounts, there’s been a long-term decline of hunting in the States as well, the usual reasons given being continuing urbanization, over-protective parenting, and the rise of a whole suite of attractive indoor alternatives to outdoor activities in general.
 
This ties in with what I am hearing and seeing. The second hand shotgun market has dropped considerably, the bottom end stuff has gone through the floor , mid range is well on the same way, and stuff by the top end makers is difficult to sell , given the amount available and prices compared to a few years ago. Top end driven shoots have had to reduce prices to attract custom, and that lesser operations have significantly cut the number of birds reared, one local shoot reared 3000 pheasants last year, and has reared 400 this year. The largest shooting operation in the area would appear to have cut back on the number of birds released, if the quantity of roadkill on the lanes through the estate is an indication. Much of what they did was corporate entertaining and the rewards that could be made by squeezing the odd extra day was, in my view, the driving force behind many of the excesses that have caused people to turn away from shooting and eating game. I do not know about wildfowling.

Jim I
 
Shooting overall is if anything becoming more popular in fact I believe the the number of gun licence holders is at an all time high. I read just last week that it stands at something like 750,000 people in England and Wales alone.
There are plenty of young people taking it up and more women than ever too.
However wildfowling is a different matter it's not for the faint hearted and involves an awful lot of effort putting up with the most extreme conditions etc often for little or no reward in terms of birds in the bag so wildfowlers do seem to be a bit of a dying breed but I don't think that says much about shooting it's more just a reflection of the world and younger people in general.
 
The full England and Wales figures are here:- Firearms slightly up, Shotguns slightly down.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publi...nd-and-wales-financial-year-ending-march-2017

Local to me there has been a large increase in clay shooting, again as organised activity sessions rather than individuals. They seems to be very little crossover clay birds to real birds.

I think the crossover only works one way, A lot of people that shoot live birds shoot at least some clays but probably most that begin shooting clays won't move on to live game.
 
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