Game shooting V deer stalking

norma 308

Well-Known Member
A recent intro posed a question and perhaps an answer to why stalking has become so popular .are more and more game shooters disillusioned with shooting game birds coming into stalking for the buzz and more natural man v prey scenario rather than blatting pheasants ? Not trying to beat game shooting over the head as I'm a keeper just interested if this is the case .
​norma
 
A recent intro posed a question and perhaps an answer to why stalking has become so popular .are more and more game shooters disillusioned with shooting game birds coming into stalking for the buzz and more natural man v prey scenario rather than blatting pheasants ? Not trying to beat game shooting over the head as I'm a keeper just interested if this is the case .
​norma
I've always enjoyed wildfowling and walked up patridge but I've far more opportunity stalking wise so if it's a choice between the two I always go stalking
 
I can't speak for anyone else Norma, but for me I see it just a case of 'natural progression'. I've loved shooting for as long as I can remember and previously got my full-bore 'fix' from the military. However, 8-years out and despite the hearing being completely screwed, I just couldn't stay away any longer and returned to shooting as a civilian this year. I was careful to have a proper set of plug in ear defenders custom made (by a hearing company) and use in conjunction with electronic ear cans. However, sadly my hearing seems to be so damaged that even the percussion seems enough to continue the damage and make the tinnitus even worse. I've consequently had to drop the clays and reduce use of the .17 HMR in favour of .22. I shall continue full-bore, but on a much more limited basis and foxing / stalking plays to that perfectly. As I've looked into further, the intellectual challenge and all associated skill requirements of stalking and dealing with afterwards have become increasingly appealing. I mean no disrespect to vermin only hunters (I'm still one myself), but there just seems so much more to stalking and how shall we say, somewhat of a 'spiritual' element. Finally and frankly, from everything experienced on this forum so far, the clientele also come across as generally far more "grown up".
 
Personally, in my case my mainstay until last year was wildfowling, simply because it’s accessible and affordable. My club has a few areas for pigeon and rough shooting too. There’s not much in the way of affordable gameshooting in the South-East, but in addition to that, shooting driven reared birds doesn’t appeal to me much, certainly not given how much it costs. I shoot driven birds once a year courtesy of a generous friend, it’s good fun, I have a chance to fill my freezer, but somehow, it doesn’t count. A bit like trout fishing at Syon Park: I go once or twice a year because it’s good fun and the only easily accessible fishing for me, but in my fishing diary, I never look at those pages again. I’ll swap you twenty reared pheasants for a chance at a single woodcock.

My regular expenditure on stalking (excluding equipment) is less than it would cost me for a day’s driven shooting. No contest!
 
For me as a newcomer there is a bit more reward to stalking.
I enjoy wildfowling and rough shooting. Still love both of them.
But the stalk, the selection, the one shot (hopefully), the grolloch, the butchering and feed the family is what does it for me.
It is very similar to spear fishing - that I also love.
 
Hmmm....good question!

I shoot game as well as stalk - but I also shoot rabbits, foxes, rats and pigeons. I use air rifles, shotguns and rifles, and enjoy all of the different types of shooting that I do; different types of 'buzz' I suppose for each one! I look forward to a session whacking rats around a pheasant feeder with a non-FAC air rifle as much as I do a day's decoying woodies or a day at the pheasants (and the pheasant/partridge shooting I do is alternate stand/walk in a DIY syndicate, not big driven only days - not that I'm decrying that; different strokes for different folks and all that).

I think that for a lot of people stalking is perhaps more accessible than it used to be, and access to information via the internet has probably helped there - it's perhaps removed the view that 'stalking' = 'rich chaps going to Scotland to shoot Monarch of the Glen stags'. As we know there is more to it than that.....

Trading one for the other isn't something I envisage - I just enjoy multiple different aspects of shooting I suppose.:D
 
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For me, it has been a simple matter of progressing! When I was younger, it was always rough shooting and pigeons, followed by some game shooting, which although I still love, I can take or leave in all honesty. A few odd days driven shooting a year is more than enough, most of them being small bag days too. But when I began to get into stalking through a friend, I was almost instantly hooked. Such a buzz from the whole occasion and for me stalking an animal that has had thousands of years of developing a huge awareness of predators, and to stalk in close without them noticing me is incredible!! It is the ultimate in terms of skill, satisfaction and continual learning and gaining of knowledge and for me, not much else comes close

Great question and thread Doug!
 
Strangley the deer part of my keepering job was a necessary evil and more crop/forestry protection rather than a sport.
Game shooting is nice now and again but I love lamping(rabbits or foxes) and pigeon shooting.
​Any form of shooting,trapping and snaring still makes me happy mind you.
 
A recent intro posed a question and perhaps an answer to why stalking has become so popular .are more and more game shooters disillusioned with shooting game birds coming into stalking for the buzz and more natural man v prey scenario rather than blatting pheasants ? Not trying to beat game shooting over the head as I'm a keeper just interested if this is the case .
​norma

The types that have started going driven game shooting make it less attractive.

I still like the rest. Wildfowling looks interesting.

I think my Avitar gives a good idea of the types of field sports I like.
 
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The types that have started going driven game shooting make it less attractive.

I still like the rest. Wildfowling looks interesting.

I think my Avitar gives a good idea of the types of field sports I like.

+ 1 -never understood it.

On top of that - expensive, often debatable sport (queue overweight-tame-chicken analogy) and just the whole idea of something that costs 50p to buy, a few quid to raise, £30 to stuff full of lead and then bulldoze into the ground because no-one wants to eat the damn things..

On top of that the average 'game shot'.. whether land owner or refuse collector, welll.. there's just a bit of wannabe about it all.

Stalking can attract similar types, though generally I think that, as a principally solitary activity - and one that really requires a lot of effort (early mornings, late evenings, blood, guts, mud and sweat).

It tends to weed out the wannabe weekend warrior types -you generally can't just buy a gun and go out in the same way (guided stalking outfits see a bit of this though I think).

:popcorn:
 
Goodness me, there are some stereo-typical and ignorant opinions in this thread that some anti-shooting people would be proud of!
Game shooting is a far more sociable activity as you shoot with a group, whereas stalking is a solitary activity. Both can be cheap or expensive, walked-up vs driven or woodland muntjac vs Higland stag. Stalking I would suggest is increasing in popularity due to improved accessibility.
 
Exactly the situation I am in. Been shooting since I was a lad, driven pheasant for the last ten years.

Over the last 3 or 4 I have noticed more "have a go heroes" in the driven game world who know sod all about anything apart from shooting the birds.

Twice now I have been in good syndicates ruined by these sorts of people. Last one folded last season. My plan now is to do DSC1 this year, apply for deer calibre and get into stalking having done a bit over 15 years ago. I will still take a few small driven days with friends back up in Scotland.
 
Over the last 3 or 4 I have noticed more "have a go heroes" in the driven game world who know sod all about anything apart from shooting the birds.

And the deer stalking world is really any different?
The problem is that without support from the have a go heroes the shooting world will be under yet more pressure.
As for shooting over-weight tame chickens,a lot depends on where you shoot and the way the birds are/can be presented and as for blood sweat and tears,talk to any keeper worth their salt and you'll see what it's all about.
 
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