DMQ Wild boar qualification

I don't think you are relegating hygiene to a lower importance, but it sounds that way how you have put it, game meat hygiene is paramount, a few peeps just died from iffy butties, never mind wild game, see here, https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=8&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjglPuY7dniAhUyVBUIHaMzD4MQFjAHegQICBAB&url=https://www.livescience.com/61906-wild-boar-meat-trichinosis.html&usg=AOvVaw1COYRs0j6RHQu9MSeBDFE3
So do you think a meat hygiene course should be compulsory for every shooter.
 
I'm just hoping to find somewhere to do my DGQ1. Then later my DGQ2 and DGQ3.

That's Driven Game Qualification where for DGQ1 I have to know the seasons for, and recognise images of, partridge, pheasant and grouse plus woodcock and other likely quarry and then take a test on driven clay pigeons from a high tower and as low incomers to simulate partridge over a hedge or "Norfolk belt".

Once I've that I want to acquire my DGQ2...that's where I actually go, accompanied, single gunned, on three drives either on the same one day of spread over two or three days.

I won't now need my DGQ3 (which is for those wanting to shoot double gunned) as I've no longer my pair of 16 Bore single trigger self-openers guns having sold them earlier this year.

But, heck, I regret that these DGQ Courses weren't offered three or four decades ago. I certainly wish I'd been able to do such things back then.

But joking apart I think that being able to learn, correctly, the skills to properly from BOTH a personal safety and end consumers' food safety 5even if it's just yourself that'll be eating it) aspect how to process a deer you've shot just is important.

There's some horrors on dressing and then preparing deer on You Tube especially from our American cousins. For that "hands on" with an experienced stalker or even in a deer park on culled deer is important. The latter is IMHO by far the best way to accomplish this goal than the DSC route as a number of deer can be so attended to.
 
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I’d much rather a statutory one by the government like the one I had to pass in Canada that the Dsc system which as I will say again is about money
Though to be fair I don’t think we need either , how many were dying of food poisoning from poor carcasses or being shot by careless stalkers before the Dsc system ? I’d be very interested to see the figures ......
So its ok for the RSPB to demand regulation of grouse shooting under their terms, or perhaps those of "Wild Justice"? By not putting our own house in order with credible self-regulation schemes we are gifting the antis an open goal.
 
I haven’t read all of the replies but I think that people’s offence boils down to the fact that the word “qualification” is used. If it was just a course to learn about wild boar, basically NOBODY would complain at all.
By making it a “qualification” they imply that anyone without it is “unqualified” and therefore inferior. That potentially undermines people’s reputations and could cost them their lease/permission. Same goes for DSC1/2 I guess.
It’s the thought that some day, those of us who have been getting along just fine without any formal “qualifications” may be forced into suddenly giving up a big chunk of money and time, to attend courses that we don’t actually feel that we need to go on.

I’ve hunted/stalked with a fair cross section of different folks over the years, from complete beginners to seasoned “pro-stalkers” and I can honestly say that I believe that having a so called “qualification” has nothing to do with how safe somebody is or how competent someone is.
I’ve seen people with vast amounts of qualifications AND experience make the stupidest mistakes, making the most ridiculous claims, getting the most basic things wrong, or displaying the most immoral attitudes, but I’ve also seen the complete novices with no qualifications taking enormous care to be extra safe, making good decisions in the field, and generally being a credit to hunting everywhere.
We do have courses for various hunting related subjects. A year or so back there was a course advertised locally, it was for boar management. The course was about expanding your knowledge about boar management not making people into boar managers. No badge or certificate at the end. I put my name down for it but it was under subscribed, so cancelled. Courses to expand you knowledge are always a good thing. Courses that give a quasi qualification are not.
 
So its ok for the RSPB to demand regulation of grouse shooting under their terms, or perhaps those of "Wild Justice"? By not putting our own house in order with credible self-regulation schemes we are gifting the antis an open goal.
But they’re not really credible are they as the boar certificate shows
 
No the time that I am talking about goes back before then to the days of the woodland stalkers certificate. Somehow that fell down and a "clever chap" from just outside Cardiff claimed copyright on the original training manuals and tried to hold them to ransom when they were trying to set it up again. This caused some delay as everything had to be re-written from scratch.

Okay, we were at slightly cross purposes then. :thumb:

That was way back in the last century! :rofl:

I was obviously referring to the introduction of DSC1 and the demise of the NSCC from which it was derived.
 
But they’re not really credible are they as the boar certificate shows
On the contrary, government departments such as the police, forestry commission etc recognise the worth of DSC 1 & 2, and so far groups like wild justice have left deer stalking alone.
 
On the contrary, government departments such as the police, forestry commission etc recognise the worth of DSC 1 & 2, and so far groups like wild justice have left deer stalking alone.
The police are wrongly using Dsc 1 as experiance which it very much isn’t ! As for leaving stalking alone I think you are very naive to believe that
 
Just because you don't need a qualification doesn't mean that some people don't want to be more knowledgeable and better qualified. How many people NEED to do the Deer Managers course? Plenty of us have done it though. Nothing to do with being a sheep being sad, being a Certificate collector or making a rod for my own back. This is my passion and whilst I needed DSC1 and 2 I don't need the DMQ. I did it for me. I enjoyed it though. Learnt loads and met some top guy's on the course. I am definitely a better stalker than the one who started this journey that's for sure!
 
So maybe we need tighter legislation for rabbits too? And rats?
I don't think so. There is already animal welfare legislation in place that gives all animals protection against cruelty, and any shooter who violates that legislation can be prosecuted, whether it's boar or rats.

Adding additional raft of legislation to boar would just turn it into another elitist branch of shooting sports.
I look at this from the point of view of a landowner. If feral boar were to turn up on my land, it should be up to me whether or not they get shot (or trapped), when, and by who, depending on the level of crop / habitat damage that I would be prepared to tolerate in return for having a new addition to our native fauna (which, Incidentally, I welcome), and whether I was interested in cashing in on the sporting element, or maybe just enjoy shooting a few myself. I don't need any additional legislation over and above what already exists to help me make those decisions. And neither would I want someone coming along claiming that they were one of the few people who are "qualified" to shoot boar, and that I'd better hand the management over to them...

Anyone who's grown up and sensible enough to be trusted with a firearm in our crowded country out to be capable of self regulation.
But and its a big but. People who own firearms are breaking the law on a daily basis. I sometime stalk in a very quiet area of Suffolk. I shoot, munties with shotgun pellets in them, Fallow with 22 bullets etc, Dorset the same with fallow and I have good friend that repeatedly informs the police about people shooting wild boar, with shotguns, 22s etc, but as of yet there is no law to prevent this. Before the law was changed Roe were treated as vermin by MOST farmers and its the same with boar now. I have not said I want qualifications, I said they should be given some protection in law. Seasons and legal calibres at the very least.
 
But and its a big but. People who own firearms are breaking the law on a daily basis. I sometime stalk in a very quiet area of Suffolk. I shoot, munties with shotgun pellets in them, Fallow with 22 bullets etc, Dorset the same with fallow and I have good friend that repeatedly informs the police about people shooting wild boar, with shotguns, 22s etc, but as of yet there is no law to prevent this. Before the law was changed Roe were treated as vermin by MOST farmers and its the same with boar now. I have not said I want qualifications, I said they should be given some protection in law. Seasons and legal calibres at the very least.
It doesn't matter how many laws you put in place, some people will always break them. Adding more laws won't change that.
As I said before, boar are already protected by animal welfare legislation. I don't see the need for any further protection. Muntjac don't have a close season, and they seem to be steadily expanding their numbers.
 
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