Good evening from England

O

Oscarsdad

New member
Good evening chaps,

I am a keen hunter and fisherman from England and I will be over in the US soon and so though I would join you guys to see if I can get some advice on possibly hunting / fishing when I am over.

Over here I do all sorts of fishing, fresh and saltwater, I have fishing a little bit in North America with White Sturgeon and salmon in British Columbia and more recently Cobia and Shark off the coast of Florida.

As for hunting, I shoot game in season and also controls pests (rabbits, pigeons and corvids) on farmland. I am pheasant shooting tomorrow as we are nearing the end of our season here (ends on the 1st of Feb) and then I have two more pheasant shoots next week. These are driven pheasant shoots so a team of beaters and dogs pushing the birds high over the guns. I also do walked up (rough) shooting over my dog for pheasants and grouse when in season. Pigeons shooting is done from a hide (blind) with decoys out in the field. I control rabbits with one if my rimfire rifles.

Shooting over here in England is different to you guys in the US as there is no public land, we have to have the permission of the landowner which is very difficult to come by. To use rifles other than a low powered air rifle the land has to be deemed suitable by the police - we have too many people living here so there is always a risk of someone wandering around!

I am recently getting into deer hunting but that is even harder to achieve over here with limited access to land - I have been on 4 hunts so far but not yet grassed a deer as only saw the wrong sex out of season!

Well that's a brief introduction, if you have any questions about hunting over here then please ask!

So finally here are a few pics of the type of things I get up to over here...

My dogs
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The spaniel doing what he is trained to do
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Then looking pleased with himself
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I was going to put some pics up of my guns but photobucket is misbehaving.

Tomorrow I will be shooting with my 12g English side by side which is almost 100 years old. I also have a browning Maxus but tradition dictates that it would not be the done thing to use an auto for pheasant shooting in the UK.

I hope to learn a few tips on here and may even be able to help with advice as well.

OD
 
Oscar'sDad...Welcome to the forum, and when the time comes, to the United States. I do hope you will be able to be here when official hunting seasons are open. If not, there are what we refer to as "game farms," where one can hunt out of season on officially licensed lands. These sites often have dogs you can hunt with if you are not able to bring your handsome twosome with you.

I hope (actually, believe) you are in for a treat, insofar as hunting goes. The U.S. is so much less regulated and more relaxed than Great Britain with regards to hunting in general, and upland game hunting in particular.

I've read copies of SHOOTING TIMES and was struck by the strictures of the regulations in G.B. Of course, I am a Mid-western based American, and have been spoiled by the freedoms of hunting in my country.

As you have been reading through various posts, there are going to be opportunities to hunt in virtually any state of our union. As the time comes closer and you can determine when and where you will be located, I am sure that gentlemen of those areas will do everything they can to make sure you are aware of the opportunities in that area, and may be able to direct you in person on some of the hunting.

If I may say so, you are about to enter the hunter's toy store; prepare yourself for the culture change and the opportunities.

Again, Welcome, and well-met.

:thumbsup:
 
You're not tricking me. You got to be Royalty. No common guy has that much time to hunt and fish:) Why ain't you fox hunting with the horses like you see on TV:) And what is a corvid? Nice looking dogs looks like they might've ate one of them castle gaurds with the feathers in their mouths:) Enough messing around. Welcome to UPH and thanks for sharing the :coolpics:
 
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Welcome to the site, those are two fine looking pups. I think you will enjoy this site, the moderators do a great job of keeping everything on track.

Is there much natural reproduction of pheasants in England, or is it mostly released birds?
 
Oscarsdad, I remember Your application to join UPH a few days ago.

Glad You joined and a nice introduction.
Be sure to clue us in on Your time and areas You will be at in the USA.
No question You have found the place for great advice and friendship.
Nice pics, I like Your team. :thumbsup:
 
Thank you for the warm welcome chaps.

As for yesterday's shooting, it went ok but not great...

I was a walking gun in the morning as the less experienced guns were taken by the game keeper to one side of the big wood and myself and another experienced gun then walked through to push the birds towards the team of beaters to then push them over the guns.

I managed to shoot a nice cock bird and two hens which chose to fly in the wrong direction away from the guns so I decided to take them anyway, all three snap shots whilst walking which is my favorite way to shoot pheasant over the traditional driven pheasant where you are stood waiting for them to be pushed towards you.

There were then a few more drives in the wood, my wife managed to shoot a nice cock bird and I shot 3 more birds as they were going away from me. Frustratingly I had a really nice chance at my first woodcock (these birds fly very low and weave in between trees so often don't present a safe shot due to the number of beaters / other guns around) but in my excitement managed to cleanly miss with both barrels!

After a brief stop for elevenses of sausage rolls, cake and port we went back out shooting the other side of the land in more open fields with small hedgerows and woods...my wife got some more shooting but didn't connect with anything and then a horrible storm turned up with hail being driven sideways at 60mph which was really rather uncomfortable!

The bag for the day between about 12 guns was 21 pheasants - there were about 6 birds shot but not picked as we couldn't find them in the deep brambles in the wood. But a lovely day out in some lovely countryside and a great laugh with some lovely people of all ages which is what it is all about really, the shooting only makes up a small part of it.


FLDBRED said:
Welcome to the site, those are two fine looking pups. I think you will enjoy this site, the moderators do a great job of keeping everything on track.

Is there much natural reproduction of pheasants in England, or is it mostly released birds?
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In general there is only a little natural reproduction, young birds (poults) are reared in pens by the gamekeeper from about April and then they are released in around July before the start of the season in October - once they are released they are free to go anywhere and are classed as wild birds but keepers will have corn feeders and cover crop around the land to keep the birds where they want them. It is at this time that predator (fox) control becomes more important, a few birds will also be taken by birds of prey but they are protected so that just has to be expected. Having said that, yesterday I found 2 pheasant nests containing eggs - the birds must be confused by the mild winter we have had here and are breeding early.

All of the grouse that I shoot up on the moors further North in England are completely wild with no management at all - hence why I impose a bag limit on myself of just a brace (I walk about 15 miles through thick heather and gorse to get them so a brace is usually enough before heading home for a rest!)

captaincoot said:
You're not tricking me. You got to be Royalty. No common guy has that much time to hunt and fish Why ain't you fox hunting with the horses like you see on TV:) And what is a corvid? Nice looking dogs looks like they might've ate one of them castle gaurds with the feathers in their mouths Enough messing around. Welcome to UPH and thanks for sharing the
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Fox hunting is now illegal in the UK, but they have a few ways of getting around that legally! I do not go fox hunting (horses are far too expensive to keep in the UK), I don't even shoot them as I try my best to only shoot things that I or my dogs will eat. A corvid is the groups of birds - crows, rooks, jays and magpies - all of which damage crops and also eat the eggs and nestlings of song birds. In a similar way to grey squirrels which you guys kindly donated - I shoot those little critters on sight! haha!

My wife and I will be coming over to the US at the end of April, early May - we were originally going to go to Florida as I was there in May 2013 and it was lovely but we have decided to go to California instead as we would like to see all of the varied scenery of the National Parks and the coastline.

I have had a brief look at hunting / shooting guides online and wow, it is really really expensive! I am lucky over here as I rarely pay for shooting, the pheasant shooting I am doing this week is all free for working as a beater all season. The other shooting I do is pest control so also free, the only shooting I do have to pay for is my deer stalking. Having said that, the shoot I will be on on Wednesday and then again on Saturday, when the guns are paying in season it is not far off $1000 a day.

So hunting may not be an option (I may not be allowed either as it is our honeymoon haha!) but I hope to at least be able to do some fishing somewhere, either salt or freshwater.

One quick questions you guys may be easily able to answer - are there any sports in season at that time of year? I went to a Chicago Bulls game a few years ago in Chicago and thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience and really like the way you guys do your sports so was hoping to go to some sort of sports game. That reminds me, it's the SuperBowl tonight isn't it? :cheers:I may try to stay up all night watching it, but then I tried that last time and when the power went off I had to go to bed as I have to get up for work the next day!

I have now got photobucket working again so here are some pictures of the gun I use for all of my game shooting - it is approximately 100 years old, made in the city I now live close to (Birmingham), I have restored the woodwork on it but it has lost all of its case colour hardening from the action and the bluing is a bit thin in places, but then it drops birds ok and it only cost me $100! It has had a good clean and dry after getting soaked yesterday ready for use again on Wednesday. It has 2 1/2" chambers which makes cartridges more expensive as most modern guns here now have 2 3/4" chambers but I have a good supply now and have to make sure I don't miss too often!









OD
 
Welcome to the forum. Sharp looking spaniel. I have a Brittany as does my usual hunting companion. We rough hunt only on our wide open plains which involves much walking. Looking forward to your posts.
 
Welcome to the forum. To answer a couple of your questions

Super Bowl will be played on Sunday Feb 2. Unfortunately the game starts around 1130pm in England. I have spent several years in Europe so I feel your pain about staying up all night and still having to go to work an hour or so after the game ends. Not to much getting accomplished Monday morning thats for sure.

Sports-Probably the only sporting event you would be able to attend during the time frame you mentioned is baseball. Seems to be a personnel preference as to whether or not you would like to watch a game or not. Personally I love it but I have friends that would rather watch paint dry. Hockey and Basketball playoffs should be going on also but those tickets will be expensive and I couldnt tell you if there will be a game close to where you will be staying.

Enjoy the forum. Look forward to hearing a different point of view.
 
Welcome aboard. You have some fine looking dogs there, I am especially fond of spaniels and terriers myself. I left a reply to your post in the Ca forum, I hope it helps. If you have anymore questions feel free to ask and I'll be as helpful as I can.
 
Oscarsdad,

I feel very bad for a man who hasn't had the opportunity to shoot a deer in the wild. IM me and I can put you in a tree on my place next fall. I can guarantee you the opportunity to shoot at a deer. If you miss, that is your fault.

Now those of you who are saying "What about me," sorry. I like this guy and feel bad that he happens to have been born in a country that doesn't allow him the freedoms that this country does.

We might not have the right tea or proper manners for an Englishman, but our hospitality is second to none. Welcome aboard. By the way, who is Oscar?
 
quail hound said:
Welcome aboard. You have some fine looking dogs there, I am especially fond of spaniels and terriers myself. I left a reply to your post in the Ca forum, I hope it helps. If you have anymore questions feel free to ask and I'll be as helpful as I can.
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Thank you - I saw your post and they may be hope for a hunting opportunity yet!

jsdriggs said:
Don't forget the NHL hockey playoffs. San Jose, LA, and Anaheim all have tremendous teams and will most definitely be in the playoffs this year.
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Excellent, thank you I will look into it.

goldenboy said:
Oscarsdad,

I feel very bad for a man who hasn't had the opportunity to shoot a deer in the wild. IM me and I can put you in a tree on my place next fall. I can guarantee you the opportunity to shoot at a deer. If you miss, that is your fault.

Now those of you who are saying "What about me," sorry. I like this guy and feel bad that he happens to have been born in a country that doesn't allow him the freedoms that this country does.

We might not have the right tea or proper manners for an Englishman, but our hospitality is second to none. Welcome aboard. By the way, who is Oscar?
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Thank you very much for your kind offer - I may very well be able to organise to take you up on it. I don't for one second think you guys don't have proper manners and I am a coffee man rather than tea haha! But I won't hear a bad thing said about our American cousins - personally I'd rather we stayed allied with you guys and said goodbye to Europe and their silly laws and rules haha!

Oscar is my terrier in my photos...my spaniel is called Jet.

I am pheasant shooting again tomorrow and will try to take some pictures for you guys to see the sort of land we shoot over.

OD

Ps. Just to show I can catch fish over your side of the Atlantic - one of my biggest ever fish:

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Well chaps - since I have miracuoloulsy been able to access this site at work (anything with the word gun or hunt etc is usually blocked as a "weapons" category, presumably so that we don't put vegetarians off their cous cous and tofu (although I have the photo of my spaniel with a cock bird as my desktop!:p)) I thought that I would provide a brief write up of how shooting yesterday went...

Well unfortunately the weather was once again wet and quite windy...

This shoot is a little more organised so the day was started with a coffee (or tea being English!) and a bacon sandwich - I do mean proper thick back bacon which has been grilled, not the thin streaky deep fried stuff that you guys have to put up with haha! Then we divided into two teams of 7 guns, each team would then perform the role of the beaters for one drive whilst the other team shot the drive and vice versa.

My father doesn't get much opportunity to shoot now so I had invited him to share my peg and we drew peg 2 on the first drive. The peg number would then increase 2 per drive to make sure everyone got a fair chance at being in the hot spot.

We trudged over to the first drive where the beaters were pushing through some cover crop alongside a small lake...peg 2 was at the far end of the line and so all the pheasants and partridges went to the other end of the line and we didn't get a shot.

After beating a drive we were back shooting and this time peg 4 was the hotspot, it was raiining hard now and we were freezing and my cocker was shivering a lot!...we were stood out in a field of winter rape and the birds were driven out of a strip of woodland...this time we got some shooting! My good friend who is the farmer who runs and owns the shoot was on our right and plenty of birds were flying over him and he was consistently knocking them down with his little 20 guage...then a single hen bird came straight over our peg and as my father was shooting the first one he dropped it with the second barrel and it was a runner with one of the labs on it quickly. Then I was up shooting and a nice cock bird came rocketing over me high and straight and I dropped it also with the second barrel and my cocker marked it nicely. Obvioulsy I had to point out to my Dad that I killed my bird rather than wounding it but then he got his own back as a cock and a hen bird came over one left and one right of us and they were going like missiles...Dad took the left bird with the first barrel dead in the air and as I was closing my gun to make sure the bird on the right didn't get past he swung to his right and dropped that one too at the extremes of range...also dead in the air. That'll teach me to tell the old man how to shoot haha! My young cocker then got a little confused as he had marked three birds but was beaten to them by some much more experienced dogs so it took him a while to find the cock bird which I shot despite it being only 30yds away.

After beating another drive, and pushing birds out of cover into a small wood at the top of a hill I thought we were going to be in for a treat on the next drive as last time I went beating there, there were 238 shots taken on just that one drive and a lot of birds! Sadly this was not the case and only 6 birds came out of the whole drive...only one of which came over us really high this time as they start off in the wood about 50ft higher than where we were staning anyway....I clipped the hen with my second shot and then my Dad finished it off and Jet the cocker retrieved it for us nicely.

Then time for lunch and sadly I had to take my father home due to his 94 year old father being taken ill which sort of put a dampner on the day and I didn't do much in the afternoon as I was only really there to make sure there were enough beaters.

Anyway, if I can get the photos to work, here are some (not great quality as my wife if not much of a photographer) photos of the sort of land we are shooting over (they are not all my empty cartridges, I only used 2 on that drive).











I am shooting the final shoot of the year this saturday at the same place so hope to improve on the couple I shot yesterday, no father or wife with me this time so may have more opportunity to shoot some nice challenging birds. Then I have to wait until August for the grouse season to start until I can shoot game again:(

OD
 
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Jakeismydog2 said:
OD,

I have a question for you. Are you able to keep your firearms at your home? I had heard that was not the case in the UK.
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Yes, but they have to be locked in a police inspected gun safe to which only I have the key, rifle ammo has to be locked away too, but not shotgun cartridges as that would be impractical due to the size of a slab of 250 cartridges for example. My wife has her shotgun in there but since she is not legally allowed access to my rifles she is not allowed to know where the key is kept.

I can only buy the calibre of rifle ammo which is on my license and my license states how much I can buy in one transaction and also how much I can possess at any one time. My rimfires are 500 rounds and my .243 is 200 rounds (not that I will ever need that much as the centrefire will do well to get fired 10 times a year!
 
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