Ethics & Killing.

The Stalking Show - 11th to 12th April 2026 - Staffordshire County Showground
Thousands of squirrels get shot and discarded, they are edible, is the author going to start enjoying every squirrel on a plate he shoots I wonder....

We aint gonna stop idiots filming themselves being in their mind clever. Even if it gets banned an idiot will still film himself defying the ban, then what?
If no one flatters the idiot he has no reason to film himself.
Every time we engage these idiots like this they are getting the recognition they desire.
 
Bo Diddley said:
Certain situations make me uncomfortable.
One of them is when I hear/witness critters being shot that are very edible and can produce a good meal, but they are discarded in the bottom of a ditch or left on the field.
The sort of thing I'm thinking of when let's say a foxing buddy wants to shoot a hare at the end of the night because he's travelled a few miles and hasn't had a shot... I never allow it.
I've noticed a few YouTube videos with chaps with all the latest wizardry blowing up rabbits & hares with let's say a .223 "because the farmer wants them gone".. a complete waste of good meat in my opinion, and just live target practice to make a film for the channel.
Pigeons as well being either smoked up with a CF or left for the foxes :doh:.
I must be getting soft in my old age, I can't see the point in shooting critters that you can eat and then not making the most of it, it makes me wonder why these folks don't just shoot gongs & paper.
Atb
BD
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Every living creature in the field is in our custody and care, when we are carrying a rifle, shotgun, catapult or walking a dog. We were given custody and care of our environment and the beasts of the field by our creator. Part of the deal ws that we are allowed to harvest them. We owe everything in our custody and care respect. In your scenario, blatting a hare with a .223 just because a rifle hasn't let his gun off is sacrilege. I would tell him to B***er off and get a gaming console. Anyone doing that has no business owning a firearm. In fairness, a rifle wouldn't be my "buddy" for much longer if I heard one say that.
You are absolutely correct in my book. You aren't getting soft. You are just being decent and correct.
 
old keeper said:
Things have changed from when I was young. In those early post-war years as far as I can remember, nothing was ever wasted. We caught vast numbers of rabbits all of which went to the butchers. fox and badger skins were worth money and pigeons were, certainly where I was, all eaten. As a very young beater on the local shoot, all birds were eagerly taken. Nothing was wasted,
Today I've seen piles of pigeons just dumped in hedges, which in my opinion is just completely wrong.
Despite being told we are living in financially difficult times, large sums of money are spent on shooting equipment to shoot quarry worth virtually nothing. Even on the small pheasant shoot I've been involved with, people don't want the birds, as most just can't be bothered (or just don't know how) to prepare them.
Sadly, I think it's a sign of the times we live in.
Click to expand...
Yes maybe Old Keeper - but we need to show the newcomers how tasty stuff can be
We have our head beater - a lady who owned a cafe - she prepares wonderful pheasant rolls and things for us
I also show newcomers how to breast birds in a minute
 
Smellydog said:
Thousands of squirrels get shot and discarded, they are edible, is the author going to start enjoying every squirrel on a plate he shoots I wonder....

We aint gonna stop idiots filming themselves being in their mind clever. Even if it gets banned an idiot will still film himself defying the ban, then what?
If no one flatters the idiot he has no reason to film himself.
Every time we engage these idiots like this they are getting the recognition they desire.
Click to expand...
Went to a shoot that I had been invited to by a friend who had bid for two guns at a GCWT auction. The rest of the team was comprised of a group of scrappies from Essex, all of whom -bar one exception- were really decent sorts. The "one exception" could shoot, right enough. he just hadn't worked out the difference between "Can " and Should".
He was the youngest at @ 40yrs of age. Flash but tasteless car, watch, gun, mouth. A proper twunt. Camera on the barrel. "I film everything so I can work out where I am missing".
First drive he was up the bank on the left flank of the line notionally to stop high birds escaping on that side. Nah. Shot everything heading over the guns below him, before they cleared the trees. Not one of them a pleasing or memorable shot.
His friends, all of whom had spent a lot of money on the day, were showered with dead pheasants and pieces thereof. The "One Exception" then bounced out of the woodline beaming like he had just seen Jesus. "COOOOR! JOOSEEDAT?" WAAAAA! WOT A DRIVE!" I Shot 35 birds...YEEEES! Get In There! "CAAAMON!"
Next drive..."Woodcock!" from the beaters. "Can I shoot it?" "yes" said the keeper, instantly regretting his assent. BANG! head goes one way, body the other. He did slow down after that - one of his friends grabbed him by the short and curlies and shook him like a rat.
He did however finish lunch (which was early because we had reached the bag in record time) with the remark "the film will beat watching coronation street with the wife!" I think we were all fondly imagining that if there was any justice in the world, he would fall asleep in a car about to go into the crusher.
I wish Pulsar and others would just sell kit without the video option as standard. I don't think these you tube videos do us any favours. I see no benefit in it.
 
old keeper said:
or just don't know how) to prepare them.
Sadly, I think it's a sign of the times we live in.
Click to expand...
Nail on the head there Mike I'm afraid. Just too much faff to some & complete mystery to others. It's the same story with lamb sales in under 40s.

3 maybe 4 yrs ago I did a little talk at my daughter's primary about sheep & food production. I started by asking who'd tried lamb. 30 odd kids (some less odd 🤣🤣) and only 9 had tried it. 😩 To be fair lots of the "No" were actually "don't know", which is just as bad imo - why aren't parents telling their kids what they're eating??
My Mrs had made minced lamb koftas with mint yoghurt dip for me to take in & they got devoured!
Maybe we're the odd ones out, but we have family meal every evening at dining table. No TV, no phones & wife tells kids what they're eating (eldest often helps make it!)

I really feel the next government needs to focus a lot on education of food to kids.
 
old keeper said:
. Even on the small pheasant shoot I've been involved with, people don't want the birds, as most just can't be bothered (or just don't know how) to prepare them.
Sadly, I think it's a sign of the times we live in.
Click to expand...
The small shoot i was part of used to send the birds to a one lady business who prepared the birds and they came back in a plastic tray like meat in a supermarket. We payed a £1 for each one, it removed the to busy, can't be bothered or just don’t know how and they were all taken, by the guns and beaters for own use or given to family and friends.
 
Liveonce said:
The small shoot i was part of used to send the birds to a one lady business who prepared the birds and they came back in a plastic tray like meat in a supermarket. We payed a £1 for each one, it removed the to busy, can't be bothered or just don’t know how and they were all taken, by the guns and beaters for own use or given to family and friends.
Click to expand...
Oven readies are a winner and the way forward. It also helps if the keeper hands them to the guns with an "I dare you to refuse" look!
 
willowbank said:
“”

WHAT... 3.5k Camels shot, WTF sounds bl**dy awful I’ll google that 😢

WB
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Been a lot more shot since then.

www.abc.net.au

Town under siege: 6,000 camels to be shot

Thousands of wild camels will be shot to lift their siege of a remote outback town.
www.abc.net.au www.abc.net.au

Nearly a 1000 a day shot,fed pigs,dogs and blow flies

At the completion of the project in 2013, the Australian Feral Camel Management Project had reduced the feral camel population by 160,000 camels.[43] This includes over 130,000 through aerial culling, 15,000 mustered and 12,000 ground-culled (shot from vehicle) for pet meat. It estimated around 300,000 camels remained, the population increasing 10% per year.[44] The largest individual aerial cull operation was conducted in mid-2012 in the south-west of the Northern Territory. It employed three R44 helicopter cull platforms in combination with two R22 helicopter spotting/mustering platforms. It removed 11,560 feral camels in 280 operational hours over 12 days, over 45,000 square kilometres, at a cost of around $30 per head
 
I do not actively look for Woodpigeon shooting now, as getting them sold is difficult now my local game dealer has shut. I used to do a fair bit twenty odd years ago but the decoys have basically been gathering dust since.

On my shoot two fields of volunteer cereals have been topped and were blue with pigeon, not looking a gift horse etc I went with my brother on Monday. Picked 58, shot terribly but had a great afternoon.

Now I have a chiller full of pigeon no one wants

The field will shoot again, but I will not go. Farmers son will have a go at them, but he has no qualms about chucking them in a ditch.
 
John Gryphon said:
Been a lot more shot since then.

www.abc.net.au

Town under siege: 6,000 camels to be shot

Thousands of wild camels will be shot to lift their siege of a remote outback town.
www.abc.net.au www.abc.net.au

Nearly a 1000 a day shot,fed pigs,dogs and blow flies

At the completion of the project in 2013, the Australian Feral Camel Management Project had reduced the feral camel population by 160,000 camels.[43] This includes over 130,000 through aerial culling, 15,000 mustered and 12,000 ground-culled (shot from vehicle) for pet meat. It estimated around 300,000 camels remained, the population increasing 10% per year.[44] The largest individual aerial cull operation was conducted in mid-2012 in the south-west of the Northern Territory. It employed three R44 helicopter cull platforms in combination with two R22 helicopter spotting/mustering platforms. It removed 11,560 feral camels in 280 operational hours over 12 days, over 45,000 square kilometres, at a cost of around $30 per head
Click to expand...
Horrible to think of but that is what you get when people do not properly manage an artificial or man-altered environment.
 
John Gryphon said:
Well on the other side of the world 100`s of 1000`s are shot to rot.

Camels
Buffalo
Donkeys
Goats
Deer
Roo`s
Horses
Pigs
Rabbits

and more
Dogs
Hares
Foxes
Click to expand...
Is there no market anymore for this meat in the pet food trade?
I remember watching a documentary many years ago about a guy who hunted for the pet trade and earned a good living, butcher was with a chainsaw sometimes and straight into the back of the refrigerated wagon when full a drive to the processing plant.
 
mudman said:
I do not actively look for Woodpigeon shooting now, as getting them sold is difficult now my local game dealer has shut. I used to do a fair bit twenty odd years ago but the decoys have basically been gathering dust since.

On my shoot two fields of volunteer cereals have been topped and were blue with pigeon, not looking a gift horse etc I went with my brother on Monday. Picked 58, shot terribly but had a great afternoon.

Now I have a chiller full of pigeon no one wants

The field will shoot again, but I will not go. Farmers son will have a go at them, but he has no qualms about chucking them in a ditch.
Click to expand...
Breast them out and use the meat for dog food, that's what I sometimes do.
 
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