I have fired off a letter to the Shooting Times, let's see if they print it.
I sent it last night so they have plenty of time for this weeks edition.
I also sent a letter to the DI as follows,
Dear Sir,
I read the Article reference the problem of Culling the 'Herding Species' written by Graham Downing in the Shooting Times dated 12th February and was absolutely amazed at the following paragraph.
"It is hard enough transporting and setting up high seats and getting the stalkers to fill them without an evening session being ruined by walkers and unruly dogs wandering through the woods"
I understand the problem with dog walkers and ramblers but I did not see an invitation put out asking for volunteer stalkers.
I'm sure had there been, not only would he have got the stalkers to fill the seats but the stalkers would even volunteer to erect the high seats themselves and in some cases even provided their own, thus making the job he found difficult, a lot easier all round.
I am a Stalker of many years but, having recently retired, no longer have access to the ground I had previously. When I look for Stalking opportunities I find the money asked for is more than I used to earn when I was providing a service to Land/Estate/Forestry owners and the article as read would look as if it would have provided an excellent opportunity for the many people like me that there must be all round the country.
Yours Truly,
Eddy McConnell, AW 74. Holder of DMQ2, Advanced Stalker Certificate,Trained Hunter, Ex RCO (time expired)
PS, Davie,
I haven't got a 3" nob and I'm not getting any cut off for anybody