Thought I'd do a quick little write up as a reminder to everyone to be hospitable to people you meet and bite your lip when met with impoliteness and hostility.
I was out lamping by myself a few weeks ago, seeing if there were any rabbits or foxes around. Middle of nowhere, pitch black night with a dim moon, cloud cover and a stiff breeze - ideal lamping conditions. After a little while with not much action I found myself in a lamp. Never known a rabbit to shine a lamp. My first thought was "who is that on my permission?" quickly followed by "I'm in the f**king crosshairs".
I hastily dived behind a hedge, flicked on my head torch and stepped out waving in the direction of the lamp. Rather worryingly, it stayed on me for a considerable length of time. 2 blokes in an offroader gently trundled down the hill toward me and as you can imagine with 3 strangers meeting each other in the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere with guns involved it was a fairly cold conversation, opening with a "Who's this then?" from the other party. I did my utmost to remain civil and we exchanged numbers. I called my night's end at that point - amazing how finding yourself the target of a .223 can put a dampener on your motivation to shoot.
I realised that one of the chaps in the car had held the permission before me and had never been told not to come anymore, nor had he been told someone else was given permission!
I thought this was the beginning of losing my favourite permission.
A few phone calls exchanged and the long-time permission holder apologised for being cold on our meeting, which I accepted. It was an understandable reaction I thought, remembering how I felt when I saw the lamp being shone on me, he and his friend seemed to be friendly down-to-Earth blokes and I was grateful they followed the rule of not shooting until you know exactly what is in the crosshairs!
A meeting with the farmer to come to some arrangement has bore fruit, and now it not only looks like I get to keep shooting the land safely, but I also have 2 new acquaintances, and potential access to even more permissions than previously (one with a rather large Fallow population!)
It could have been so much different if during our first meeting in the field I had been angry and shouting curses at him and his mate.
Stay friendly!
I was out lamping by myself a few weeks ago, seeing if there were any rabbits or foxes around. Middle of nowhere, pitch black night with a dim moon, cloud cover and a stiff breeze - ideal lamping conditions. After a little while with not much action I found myself in a lamp. Never known a rabbit to shine a lamp. My first thought was "who is that on my permission?" quickly followed by "I'm in the f**king crosshairs".
I hastily dived behind a hedge, flicked on my head torch and stepped out waving in the direction of the lamp. Rather worryingly, it stayed on me for a considerable length of time. 2 blokes in an offroader gently trundled down the hill toward me and as you can imagine with 3 strangers meeting each other in the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere with guns involved it was a fairly cold conversation, opening with a "Who's this then?" from the other party. I did my utmost to remain civil and we exchanged numbers. I called my night's end at that point - amazing how finding yourself the target of a .223 can put a dampener on your motivation to shoot.
I realised that one of the chaps in the car had held the permission before me and had never been told not to come anymore, nor had he been told someone else was given permission!
I thought this was the beginning of losing my favourite permission.
A few phone calls exchanged and the long-time permission holder apologised for being cold on our meeting, which I accepted. It was an understandable reaction I thought, remembering how I felt when I saw the lamp being shone on me, he and his friend seemed to be friendly down-to-Earth blokes and I was grateful they followed the rule of not shooting until you know exactly what is in the crosshairs!
A meeting with the farmer to come to some arrangement has bore fruit, and now it not only looks like I get to keep shooting the land safely, but I also have 2 new acquaintances, and potential access to even more permissions than previously (one with a rather large Fallow population!)
It could have been so much different if during our first meeting in the field I had been angry and shouting curses at him and his mate.
Stay friendly!
