Fantastic shoot pictures of yore from UK

[Vikram]

These pictures are originally posted here.

http://forums.accuratereloading.com/eve ... /928107887

Enjoy!

Wildfowling at Cowbit Wash Spalding 1907



Norwich shoot 1910


West Dean park November 1911



Trirkleby gun room.



Shooting card



King Edward VII counts the lunchtime bag at Sandringham.



Game cart Studley Royal,Yorkshire



Some nice totals.




Head keeper at Warter Priory,with the fruits of victory.


Look at the worthy pride on this man's face.


Best-
Vikram

[penpusher]

Lots of punt guns around.Nice pictures.Thanks Vikram.

[badshah0522]

Amazing Picturess........Best pictures of the month.

[indian]

nice pictures vikram garu looks like there was abundance of game those days....by the way,r those very long guns(punts)still legal in the U K?

[Vikram]

Thanks gents.

Bharateeyudu garu , Punt guns are legal to hunt here and you can actually see them here. http://puntgunner.co.uk/

Game availability in terms of quantity is still there as far as I know.Pheasants,deer and rabbits at least.Hares are not very high in number but are regularly shot.Grumpy will throw more light on that.

Best-
Vikram

[Grumpy]

Well over half a million kills in 56 years - averaging very close to 10,000 kills a year.
Bags are nothing like so heavy nowadays - it`s just too expensive to raise Pheasants in those sort of numbers.
English Partridge, Black Grouse and Red Grouse which are all wild birds exist in much smaller numbers nowadays - mostly due to changing agricultural practices which means that there is much less cover and less insects. Wet/cold springs have also dramatically reduced those populations due to the young birds dieing from exposure and a lack of insect food.
Hare numbers have also declined - again, mostly due the the changes in farming.
The same applies to Woodcock and Snipe.
Deer numbers have risen dramatically ..... as has the number of species.
I don`t know how the current Rabbit population compares but there are certainly plenty about however it is noticable how numbers have declined over the past year because of the very wet spring and summer of 2007........but they`ll recover very quickly.
Fox numbers are at an all-time high - because of the large numbers of Rabbits, and because of a huge increase in urban Foxes who scavenge from rubbish, garbage cans and rubbish disposal sites. Urban Foxes eat some bizarre things nowadays ...... take-away Doner kebabs, Indian and Chinese food, burgers and fish and chips all feature significantly......and domestic cats are now regularly taken. The City of Bristol had the highest concentration of Foxes anywhere in the world in the 1990s but the huge population pressure caused a decline due to an infestation of mange. Foxes are now seen regularly in city centres.
Wood Pigeon numbers have increased noticably post WWII. The changes in agriculture have actively benefitted them.

[Pran]

Great pics, Vikram. Thanks.

Bharateeyudu garu

Good one

Pran

[Sakobav]

Nice Vikram, punt guns are interesting

Best

[nagarifle]

nice one man, reminds me of the rabbit pupualtion on wimbledon common, and ferry medows in perterborugh, (and the piegions around neslon colom, london waiting to be served on plate)some hunting in boats still done around norfolk area, seen them long shooters, in small boats, many are still hunting around eastern england. still the pics are great, i have to post some of brits in injun sunny clime hunting. wait out

nagarifle

[indian]

thanks grumpy its the same thing in canada too...declining grouse population due to farming but flourishing coyote and fox population............and same with deer and bear too

[hellfire_m16]

Lovely pictures Vikram.........a nice glimpse into the past.
-Vinayaka

[Vikram]

Thanks guys.

Grumps wrote:
Well over half a million kills in 56 years - averaging very close to 10,000 kills a year.

I didn't get it Grumps.Could you please elaborate it please?

My friend Eugene writes this:

"The fourth pic is of the great Irish sportsman and eccentric Sir Ralph Payne Gallwey in his gun room at Thirkleby Hall in Leicestershire. His writings on punt gunning are still available in reprint...a wonderful read, and still relevant to modern punting.

For the main part he used guns of around an inch and a bit; however the one in the middle is I think "Irish Tom" a real monster of 2". It's now unlawful (1 1/2" is the max.)

Sir Ralph also had double punt guns made by H&H. "


More on " Irish Tom" here. http://www.basc.org.uk/content/34irishtom34

Best-
Vikram

[Grumpy]

Vikram you wally, check the photograph headed the `Game killed by the 2nd Marquess of Ripon from 1867 to 1923" and look in the lower right corner. You`ll see that the total is 556,813.
1867 to 1923 is 56 years and 556,813 is `well over half a million`. Divide the one into the other and you get the figure of `just under 10,000` which was the old guys average per year.
Concentrate man !
Most, if not all of those photographs, are taken from the same book......which I have floating around here somewhere....................
Eugene is wrong by the way, maximum bore for a shotgun is still 2 inches.

[sudhaiob]

The II Marquess of Ripon died at the sh0ot while shooting his 556813th bird- a grouse

[mundaire]

The II Marquess of Ripon died at the sh0ot while shooting his 556813th bird- a grouse

Dangerous birds those, grouse - eh?

Cheers!
Abhijeet