Should the UK have public land for stalking?

[Crosshair243]

Well that's interesting. We don't have ramblers wondering what Madonna and Guy Richie were doing but we do have bushwalkers, motorbike riders, horse riders and 4WD. We all just learn to get along.

The other Saturday, I was in a pigeon hide for the afternoon in the middle of our shoot. 70 people walked past during the short few hours I was there!
London is fast spreading out towards Bristol. It's hard to know where suburbia ends and the countryside starts in much of England

 

[private fraser]

It would be a focus for the anti's and the tabloids.
One would organise coach parties to disrupt it and the other would say it was a misuse of taxpayers money on toffs.

 

[mchughcb]

Well several thousand deer stalkers out any day of the week in my neck of the woods there is nowhere to focus.

 

[8x57]

The "village" where I live has grown to have nearly 10,000 residents. One mile north is one town of approximately 25,000 persons, two miles south is another town of approximately 35,000 residents and another mile or so south of that is a town of 45,000 residents. All three towns are very nearly joined into one large urban conurbation. Yet I still live in what is considdered a semi-urban area.

On the edge of the village is the start of a national park. National Parks in this country are quite different to what other consider to be national parks. It's merely an area designated as being a national park consisting of mainly farmland and even towns with very often little open moorland or "forest". Even the moorland is privately owned by someone.

Why do you think we invaded and colonised so many countries in the past. It was so we could find somewhere that we could sit down to have a ****.

 

[Kalahari]

All our "National Parks" are privately owned. Something far to few people seem to grasp.

David.

 

[private fraser]

Well several thousand deer stalkers out any day of the week in my neck of the woods there is nowhere to focus.

Different culture,countryside and scale here.
What's your experience of the uk?

 

[User00047]

For comparison Australia has a population density of 8.3 people per square mile
UK has a population density of 660 people per square mile

 

[deeangeo]

Bad idea. Too many other recreational people around on 'public land' to be safe for shooting. No control at all. Even in the Highlands on large estates with plenty of 'wilderness' area, recreational visitors - walkers, climbers, mountain bikers still get in the way and bu$$er up stalking from time to time.

 

[countrryboy]

Agree with most who say its far far too small and over populated. Plus as was also mentioned UK population is so far detacthed from the countryside now its unreal, would be a massive outcry as shooting, shooting is seen by many as a 'toffs', rich mans sport (and the anti's keep this up) so would be political suicide to even mention it.

And even buckeroo's figure above will be very much to ward the coast once u get inland the population density will drop again (althou to be fair Victoria does have quite a few decent sized towns inland).
But u also have all the private farms to stalk on as well as public land, here many people would be relying purely on public ground for there stalking.

 

[mchughcb]

Different culture,countryside and scale here.
What's your experience of the uk?

Mainly Scotland, loch side.

Why?

 

[mchughcb]

For comparison Australia has a population density of 8.3 people per square mile
UK has a population density of 660 people per square mile

And Australia has an urban population of 89% versus UK of 80%. Whats your point?

 

[Crosshair243]

And Australia has an urban population of 89% versus UK of 80%. Whats your point?

That I don't think you appreciate how overcrowded we are.

 

[timbrayford]

all fc land should be opened up to the public and mod land all you would need to do is apply for a free permit from the relevant office,they could even save money my getting rid of fc rangers

I agree, the FC appear to be far too focused on tree production and appear to look on deer as a pest to be eradicated rather than as a valuable publicly owned wildlife resource, perhaps deer management needs to be separated from their other responsibilities.

atb Tim

 

[mchughcb]

Interesting Tim, now were are getting some positive vibes.

 

[countrryboy]

And Australia has an urban population of 89% versus UK of 80%. Whats your point?

The point is the ammount of ground that is surrounding ur urban areas, ur population density is almost 100 times less, that's massive.

Btewwen most of ur big cities is a good 14-18hr drive, in that time u could drive the length of the UK

Plus the ammount of other land users also using the land is mental. Ur lucky in Oz in that many of ur cities have massive parks so city folk dinae even need to come to the country side and i'm sure u have some good parks round the outskirts of cities too, so they have no real need to go into the vast interior wilderness leaving. it free for the more hardcore users/hunters

Some of the large highland estates are 20-30K acres, some lowland estates may be a few thousand acres, i've worked on farms out there that have 30K acres of arable alone, plus the stock side.1 single handed sheep farm was 70K acres and his brother had 1 about 60ishK, those were 1 man farm's and not even very big on an OZ scale.

The difference in scale makes it almost impossible to compare the 2 countries

 

[mchughcb]

The distance between Adelaide and Melbourne, Melbourne and Sydney, Sydney and Brisbane is closer to 7 hours. You can only drive the length of the UK because at night I can drive up the M6 at 80mph. You can't do that except for NT.

Not many hunters go to the interior of Australia without permission. There is little or no public land to hunt there. It is either owned by stations or aboriginal land.

 

[private fraser]

Mainly Scotland, loch side.

Why?

Then you would know that even in the relative emptiness of parts of Scotland many "bobble hats" seem to take pleasure in ignoring polite requests to keep to paths in stalking season. Some are of the opinion that stalking is cruel and disrupt a stalk.
You've only got to read some posts on here about dog walkers etc to see what an overcrowded place the uk is compared to other parts of the world. Also,as I said,there can be cultural differences. ... take the uk v Canada v States v France etc.
Nice idea re the land but unworkable. Look at the Forestry Commission, they'll happily take your money for a lease then put a mountain bike trail or something in.
Shooters have no "rights" in this PC culture, we're always on the back foot.

 

[mchughcb]

We have the same problem with duck hunting protesters. I was involved in setting out the new regulations and last year they were enforced. They were hauled off and fined whereas previously they had free reign knowing enforcement officers wouldn't lift a finger. Last year it all stopped and they started getting the book thrown at them. So the right legislation needs to back up stalking in public land hunting. Its also called courtesy, such as hunters not field dressing animals in campsites etc.

 

[mchughcb]

How about stalking rabbits, foxes and minks with FAC air rifles on public land, could that work?

 

[private fraser]

We have the same problem with duck hunting protesters. I was involved in setting out the new regulations and last year they were enforced. They were hauled off and fined whereas previously they had free reign knowing enforcement officers wouldn't lift a finger. Last year it all stopped and they started getting the book thrown at them. So the right legislation needs to back up stalking in public land hunting. Its also called courtesy, such as hunters not field dressing animals in campsites etc.

Great, but you must know for that to work,you need the right culture as in my list of countries above.
In some States of America it's an offence to disrupt or interfere with a hunter acting lawfully, hell, it probably is here too but you try and get that enforced and you'll probably end up in the dock yourself.