SurreyHunter
Member
Appreciate all the feedback and opinions everyone. Plenty here to take into consideration. I think the biggest points here are: Is it recreational or is it a professional job.. For me, it's more recreational.
Do any of you charge for pest control / stalking?
- Thread starter SurreyHunter
- Start date
Rake Aboot
Well-Known Member
Ask pest controller
Or someone who deals with farmers who ask you to pay to shoot rabbits
It does my head in. It basically goes back to days when ferreters doffed their caps.
15 years ago I did a large amount of rabbit control for a major power supplier covering 3 power stations and adjacent land , the contract also covered foxes, feral cats and at 1 site deer, I charged between £75-80 per hour , number of hours per site were down to me but I didn’t take the mickey ,commercial insurance was a large cost due to the nature of the work and the location of the sites .
Really? So which are you, the one who is jealous as someone has the time to go out and enjoy something for free that you have to do for a living or the one who is jealous because you’ve not got lucky or worked hard enough to get your own ground??
You have to be one or the other.
As for doffing the cap, I look after about 4000 acres for 7 landowners. I get the deer in return on about half of it, but I work bloody hard at it. If there’s rabbits causing a problem they get shot, pigeons or rooms, they get shot, rats get shot….. if I need help I get friends out too. The landowners are all very greatful for the service I provide. I don’t do it for the stalking I do it because I love shooting. Apparently that isn’t allowed!
Yeah, I don’t operate Like that if it’s causing a problem it gets dealt withPlenty of cowboys around by me, I’ve taken on 4 different sites for rabbits in the last year that have had various hobby shooters/ferreters on and they are sick of it so ring me and happy to pay, lots of lads doing it for hobby don’t want to “kill their sport” so only knock a few down, I don’t blame them but I’m also glad of it
Rake Aboot
Well-Known Member
How grateful are they for the service you provide ?
Really? So which are you, the one who is jealous as someone has the time to go out and enjoy something for free that you have to do for a living or the one who is jealous because you’ve not got lucky or worked hard enough to get your own ground??
You have to be one or the other.
As for doffing the cap, I look after about 4000 acres for 7 landowners. I get the deer in return on about half of it, but I work bloody hard at it. If there’s rabbits causing a problem they get shot, pigeons or rooms, they get shot, rats get shot….. if I need help I get friends out too. The landowners are all very greatful for the service I provide. I don’t do it for the stalking I do it because I love shooting. Apparently that isn’t allowed!
I get it , I was virtually a full time stalker for years on an estate where I kept half the deer which paid for a lot of my equipment , fuel etc but it still doesn’t stop land owners taking you for granted.
I’ve worked harder than most to gain permissions and obtain shooting which have kept me shooting for over 40 years ,
I still hold my view that doing pest control jobs for free does us no favours and creates a situation where there is a queue of folk at the back of you waiting to step in and take you’re shooting from you.
Most farmers I’ve dealt with also hold no loyalty to you for your free services and will let anyone willing to do it for free have a go if you so much as miss one task that they want done.
Just the facts as I see them after a lifetime in the game.
Yep, most farmers will have much more respect for someone who gets the job done in a professional manner and then sends them an invoice for the service provided.
And if he's got your invoice then he's got your contact details on file in the farm office, not on a grubby card laying in the footwell of his landrover.
If they're getting it done for free then there's not the same loyalty, and you can easily find yourself in a position where half a dozen different people have got free permission, unbeknown to each other.
You must be dealing with very different land owners.
All of mine are very grateful, they really appreciate the work I do for them, and turn anyone away who has asked to come on. Have been shooting for most over 10 years and one for 20. More than one has offered to pay for venison that I have dropped around to them from their own deer.
That is all bar one who is a bit grudging as he gets paid on his other farm for pigeon shooting and deer but he knows that the farm I look after is hard work and he gets good value out of me, if anyone else asks to shoot on there then he sends them my way.
As I say I shoot for 7 landowners and have shot for others all have been exclusive bar a golf course, oh and a couple in west wales who I shot for locally and relocated. I get free holiday accommodation for the family for knocking over their foxes.
Last edited:
I forgot to add that I do get £2/£2.25 for trapped & head shot rabbits (although the game dealer reckons my head shot rabbits must have been licking their arse at the time of impact
). This mounts up a bit over time and helps pay for derv/ammo, or I can have meat at cost price from the game dealer/butcher.
Jamie956
Well-Known Member
There's quite a variation in circumstances isn't there.
Some things to go on could be
a) what kind of person the farmer is,
b) how money orientated they are, which again could come back to what they're like,
and c) how much of a pest problem they have.
If they don't have big numbers of whatever it is, but they see a few about, then they might be happy to 'allow' you to paddle around their land and get rid of some. If they have big numbers and problems loosing lambs, crops, what ever it might be, and they see you are reducing numbers and your reducing their losses in turn and your leaving no signs of damage anywhere then they might be more will to accept an invoice or make a 'token gesture to costs' to help you because your helping them?
J
Some things to go on could be
a) what kind of person the farmer is,
b) how money orientated they are, which again could come back to what they're like,
and c) how much of a pest problem they have.
If they don't have big numbers of whatever it is, but they see a few about, then they might be happy to 'allow' you to paddle around their land and get rid of some. If they have big numbers and problems loosing lambs, crops, what ever it might be, and they see you are reducing numbers and your reducing their losses in turn and your leaving no signs of damage anywhere then they might be more will to accept an invoice or make a 'token gesture to costs' to help you because your helping them?
J
76thirty
Well-Known Member
Tbh that’s the way it should be if that’s what they’ve agreed to do, the farm I stalk on for hobby wants me to keep the rabbits in check too as that’s what I first started there on, i often nip them down and this winter I’ll be ferreting everything as He told me he didn’t want to see any (much like the fallow but that’s a different story)
Rake Aboot
Well-Known Member
Yup and as I said , how grateful
Grateful enough to pay your ammo and fuel? Maybe pay for a dog or some dog food ?
Or grateful enough to let you do pest control for them for nothing.
I understand your point but can you see mine ?
You get nothing from these people but give them plenty.
Gratefulness is cheap.
Bo Diddley
Well-Known Member
I suppose the old saying "You can have a pocketful of thankyou's but they don't pay the bills" springs to mind! I have one rat only pig farm that I sometimes get a couple of notes passed my way but that's it, this guy was in a muddle with his rats until I hammered them a few winters ago, twice a week for the first couple of months, well over a thousand shot in that time, I must have saved him a bit in feed and rat bait.
2500 acres of foxing all around my home I'm happy to do for nothing, beats sitting indoors dreaming about it that's for sure
2500 acres of foxing all around my home I'm happy to do for nothing, beats sitting indoors dreaming about it that's for sure
Home Loader
Well-Known Member
I have all sorts of deals and relationships with land owners, sit down and make a deal you are both happy with in writing and crack on.
Last week through a family friend I was asked to check out a tennis charity who's grass courts are being dug up by foxes, so I popped down. One coffee on them and a quick walk I suggested some fencing repairs were the best way as we could the location meant trapping would have been a full time job. The quote for the materials for the grounds man to fix the fences was around 1k. Rentokil had quoted 4k for set up of the traps and 1k per fox, no mention of any ways to prevent the problem reoccurring. I received a lovely card and a crisp £50 as a thank you and a call from another club asking for help they will pay, but sometimes it's about net working, the owner of the second club owns rather alot of land.
Last week through a family friend I was asked to check out a tennis charity who's grass courts are being dug up by foxes, so I popped down. One coffee on them and a quick walk I suggested some fencing repairs were the best way as we could the location meant trapping would have been a full time job. The quote for the materials for the grounds man to fix the fences was around 1k. Rentokil had quoted 4k for set up of the traps and 1k per fox, no mention of any ways to prevent the problem reoccurring. I received a lovely card and a crisp £50 as a thank you and a call from another club asking for help they will pay, but sometimes it's about net working, the owner of the second club owns rather alot of land
.Same with a lot of stalkers. They want to run a zoo to get good heads rather than whack things to get the count down.Plenty of cowboys around by me, I’ve taken on 4 different sites for rabbits in the last year that have had various hobby shooters/ferreters on and they are sick of it so ring me and happy to pay, lots of lads doing it for hobby don’t want to “kill their sport” so only knock a few down, I don’t blame them but I’m also glad of it
Why on earth should they! Basic supply and demand dictates that as long as there are more people hoping to secure some land to shoot on than there is available, farmers will never need to pay people to shoot their pests.
As I said above I don’t understand why people expect a hobby to pay for itself, shooting costs me money and not a small amount, but I’m happy to pay it as I enjoy it!
People who think they should be able to charge for recreational shooting or that they should get paid for it need to step back into reality.
Even when they only have a small patch and absolutely no hope of managing the population for any achievable medal goals!
Similar threads
