Chapping Doors

Gazza

Well-Known Member
There has been many threads posted on here about methods to get permission to shoot/stalk. Cold calling at farms/on land owners has been discussed with successes and failures being posted. I am a great believer in cold calling, ok there will be many knock backs but sometimes you just hit a gem.

There is a farm in my area I have known all my life and passed many times. A mixed arable/beef/sheep farm of about 1000 acres, nice woodlands and is surrounded by similar ground. I knew there are deer on the ground and it just looks the dugs goolies. Three years ago I decided he can only say no and chapped the door. Eventually after a lengthy "interview" the reply was "you can shoot foxes in that field but phone me before you come out". Much has happened in that 3 years and I have shot many fox and other vermin extending my one field to the full farm. The farm is now home to my syndicate pheasant shoot with 12 members and I keep deer numbers in check. Our families now all socialise together.

Turns out that over the previous years several guys have had the shooting. All apart from one fell foul with the farmer ( one gave up shooting through ill health) and were instructed to leave. Must admit we are very generous at Christmas time but we are repaid many times over throughout the year.

Reason for posting is that I suffering the after effects of a party in the farm house last night. All from chapping a door.
 
Excellent tale :D A polite inquiry should cause nobody any offence, and should you be lucky enough to be granted access it's nothing other than commonsense and courtesy to abide by any stipulated conditions. And to your own great advantage, this has paid off in spades. Really happy for you, mate :thumb:
 
Just got a new permission after popping in to buy some eggs from the farm shop chance remark about fox control and there you go.2 n arf years been knocking doors since my last perm sold up,theyre out there but its look of the draw .Ive got guidelines to follow but its not my land and so its a respect thing do as the farmer asks and you keep your permission extract the urine and its down the road. Glad its gone so well for you and have a fry up itl help your recovery :rofl:
 
Seems the best method is to go in behind some ones back. It has the best success rate just wait till you here of some one who has done a real good job and the farmer knows there reliable then go in at there back and tell the farmer you know the chap well and have controlled wild life with him many time.:evil:
 
Seems the best method is to go in behind some ones back. It has the best success rate just wait till you here of some one who has done a real good job and the farmer knows there reliable then go in at there back and tell the farmer you know the chap well and have controlled wild life with him many time.:evil:

Sounds like there's a story in that one davie ?
 
Just a few observations:

1. By pairing up with a friend you double your opportunities. When I speak to a potential new landowner I always involve my 'stalking partner' and he does the same. We work as a team, sometimes hunt together, sometimes on our own, and agree cull targets and communicate and share the costs of high seats and share any venison with the landowner and with each other.
2. We have gained several permissions where the farmer / landowner told us that nobody had ever asked them for deer shooting permission. This is not out in the wild and North of the arctic circle...but within a few Miles from major towns in The Cotswolds. I wonder what those people who complain they can't get land actually do to get land. You need to get out there, and be prepared to be disappointed a few times, bounce back, try again, and bingo.
3. In a few cases we have asked landowners, close to our home addresses, yearly, for 5-6 years. The answer was always 'No'. Until they suddenly say 'Yes'. Tenacity is required, as well as some relationship building.
4. Quite a high percentage of farmers say they don't like game. A gift of a venison joint, or some steaks, including some cooking suggestions, does wonders. Once they get a taste for venison the desire to harvest some from their own land takes over.
5. Having qualifications and being able to name referees and not use the f word in every sentence does help, if you get my drift.
 
Last year I was walking around a farm track , this is a public footpath as well, the farm is derelict but 2 local farmers lease the ground, anyway 4/5 times idiots left gates open and the cattle got out, I rounded them up off the housing estate and put them back in the fields. I found the farmers name and got a number off a local lass who knew him, gave him a call to let him know what was happening. Anyway @ 2 months ago I bumped into the farmer 1st time i'd met him and he said about idiots leaving gates open, told him I was the person who had put his cattle in previously, one thing led to another after mentioning my gundog and he gave me permission to shoot over his land and the leased farm @ 350 acres all together, then about a week later got a call from the other farmer to say I could sort the geese and vermin on his farm if I wanted to as well. another few hundred acres, sadly no deer on the ground but quite a lot of geese and loads of rabbits as well as fox and vermin. Just goes to show a chance meeting and being helpful can go a long way.


Scoby 270
 
Ive also found shooting via some unusual means, in the local farm shop I was talking to the owner and he knew I shot and asked if id been doing much, said that I now did more deer enjoying the solitude and quiet time, he asked if I could shoot the deer on his farm as he was fed up with them raiding his pheasant feeders, we agreed to share the venison keeping alternative carcass, funniest one was when I dropped the first one off to him he wasn't there so one of the butchers took it, spoke to him a few weeks later and asked how he'd got on with it, seemed they'd thought it was a gift for them, and shared it out when they cut it up. He said to drop them off at his home in the future, other one was where I bought something off eBay and went to collect it from a smallholder with about 100 acres, we got talking about my truck and the mud tyres on it, explained I do a bit of deer stalking, and he asked me to come shoot the deer on his bit as he'd had to put an electric fence round his new hedge as they had eaten the last one. I said I would but that I would share the venison with them dropped some off last night and talking to his wife, and she said they were really enjoying the venison and were really pleased they'd met me, he'd had two people who'd nocked the door previously who he'd said could go, but when he told them it was only 100 acres had not bothered to come back. I've been 4 times and shot deer 3 of those, only reason I didn't on the 4th was I missed, its muntjac stalking and I've seen the odd roe, 20 mins from home max and in both cases really nice people.
 
Just chapped on the neighbouring farms door but he was not there , lady took my name and number and said she would pass it on ,,told her i had to jump the boundary to get a buck and what would be the thoughts on me extending my boundaries ,,so waiting on a call back,,,extra 1000 acre large fields and mature wood belts,,,im actually holding my phone waiting haha
 
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