Indians For Guns

Hi friends,

My computer crashed and in trying to salvage data, i came across some of my shooting pics..

Sharing with you. Hope you enjoy.

p.s.: though in most pics, it is just me, these bags are a team effort and so i am also sharing the pic of the team.

the gun used in all the shoots is: my darling my browning:



The ammo: Eley VIP game



Now some shikar pics:










Rain spoiled both the hunt and the pic.






My hunting buddies


We sometimes help out the farmers with pest control


My friend calls it the biggest goose shot in yorkshire.


The shoot is invariably followed by a bbq.

Excellent pictures,Shooter. I love your dress sense for the shoots,especially the Crocodile Dundy one.


Tell them the story behind the 'Biggest goose shot in Yorkshire'.That should regale them.


Best-
Vikram

Finally on I.F.G.
I always wondered why you had'nt put them up.
Rather late in the day.
But like they say "Dair Aaye . Durust Aaye"......These snaps are "Better late than Never".

thanks guys,
prashantsingh, the reason was that i felt nazar lag jayegi (in english: something like Turkish concept of 'evil eye').

But because of my comp crash and no backup (lost cellphone last year), i lost a few pics and before i lose the others, i thought i might as well post them online. Im tellingmyself, apno ki nazar nahi lagti. I hope the anti hunting brigade see this as living proof of sustainable hunting.

p.s. these are 'small' bags compared to other shoots. We just shoot for the pot.

Vikram, the tale nneeds to be well worded, so it will come in some time. maybe later this month.

The pest control thingies I presume are Bugs Bunny and family?

Nice pictures..how much do the permits cost or does one have to take some hunter ed classes?

Best

Navi, one need not take classes though there exists a course for deer stalking which helps in making an application for a firearms certificate to buy stalking/hunting rifles. If you are lucky, you play nothing for shooting rabbits,wood pigeons,rough shooting etc and even deer. Some pay very little for rough shooting and deer stalking.Some join a syndicate and pay anything from a couple of hundreds to a couple of thousands per year.

Driven shooting can get expensive-especially if you are shooting grouse. A day's pheasant drive can cost you £2500-3000 if you are into expensive shoots.Depends on the strength of your budget.

Then there are guided hunting/stalking- you can stalk deer for a day for as little as £40 to a few thousand quid for trophy grade red stags in the Scottish Highlands.

Best-
Vikram

looks like you are having real fun.good to see you all really enjoy.

nice shoot shooter, leave some for us please

Very nice! Interesting that you have the Chinese Ringnecked Pheasant there. Somehow I always think of England as the home of the "old English blackneck" pheasant that the Romans brought over.

We do almost exclusively "walk-up" hunting in the US, but of course we have a lot more land here. The whole of the UK is smaller than a medium sized state.

Good Pics...I wish I was there for the hunts too. I love to hunt goose and I see some nice geese bagged. I am curious, How do you call the geese there? Do you use the calls and the dogs to retrieve them? What kind of goose are those you bagged
Sorry too many Qs

Thanks for the comments friends.

Vikram has already answered most questions. A lot depends on ones contacts. For a newbie who doesnt know anybody but has his own gun and can shoot safely (some shoots prefer a 'safe shot' certificate but many dont), :

1 It is almost mandatory for one to have insurance And most shoots can get you one or one can get it himself. Costs £86 a year. This money is spent on conservation.

2To shoot, ones guns and ammo (of course), a place to shoot and animals.

2a If one is not a landowner, one can approach a landowner to give permission.
Else shooting rights can also be leased or bought. (Wont go into more details as it will be OT).

Sometimes a group of people/friends will pool in money to buy shooting rights. Or a few people buy it and sublet it to others. This is the rough idea of a syndicate.

3 One can depend on the natural population of animals to shoot (for example deer, all waterfowl, rabbits, pigeon etc). In rough shoot, this may be done for phesants and partridges too.

However in driven shooting where in Edwardian days there were bags sometimes almost reached 4000 phesants/day (Plus other birds), one cant/shouldnt depend on just the existing population of phesants/partridges (most commonly).

So these are also reared and released into the wild to supplement existing numbers. How many to release, existing numbers (approx), nomber to shoot, loss to predators, loss by other causes etc are just some factors that make one judge the numbers etc. It is almost a science and many agriculture colleges offer gamekeeping courses.
ALl this makes driven shooting expensive and the cost works out to £27/bird approx. I was talking to a gamekeeper who invited me to his shoot and they shoot 125000 (thats right) birds/year. The membership costs were approx £14000 per member per year.

Now a days its very difficuly to get free rabbit and pigeon shooting for newbies despite them being pests for farmers. A days pest shooting may cost £50. But in a syndicate one can shoot it for as little as £150/year.

Deer here are wild but one can shoot them at deer farms just like ranch shooting in the usa. Just for comparison, i enquired an owner about a trophy sika on a deer farm (almost like a canned hunt). It was £1000 "for you; usually £1300.

The deer staliking course, safe shot course etc are not mandatory but now many owners of estates ask for them to ascertain ones capabilities.

Wildfowling is the last remaining truly "wild" hunting in the UK. Wildfowling clubs buy land and leave it 'untamed' and members can shoot geese, ducks etc. on that land.
There are millions of wildfowl in the uk and tens of thousands shot evry year.
The common ones are:
Canada goose
Pinkfoot goose
Greylag goose
Ive never shot white fronted goose.

We call geese by decoys, calls, calling by mouth (im not that talanted though). Electronic calls arent allowed.

All this info is more for ways for a newbie to get shooting and there are many other ways and means to go shooting/hunting.

Very nice pictures. Thanks for sharing.

Nice browning too.

Herb

When you say White Fronted Goose, you mean to say Specklebelly goose like this one

shooter and Vikram

Thanks for the posts..

Best