Wanted: driven hare shoot

[Beretta V]

To each his own but most who have enjoyed hare coursing - stop shooting (at) hares with a shotgun. The hare deserves either a quick instantaneous death (shot by rifle) or a sporting chance where she is either caught or escapes. Any hares left to breed on a coursing estate at the end of the season were proven by natural selection. Losing hare coursing in 2004/2005 was the worst possible outcome for the hare.

Re 90-100 hares. The one I participated in filled a trailer - literally hundreds of hares just chucked in like household waste.

Apologies for drifting off topic

I agree that hare shooting is best done with a rifle.

We never wasted any. All went to a game dealer and got good money at the time.
Regards Dan

 

[Jagare]

Loosing any field sport is tragic. I know there were hare drives where huge numbers of hares were shot. I don't buy the argument that hares are in some way a more noble prey than any other animal we hunt. Your argument sound a bit like what the fox hunter said about those that that kill foxes with rifle or shotgun.

 

[Beretta V]

Neither should be banned.
The only bit I didn’t agree with fox hunting is when they put a terrier down.
That’s just my opinion each to their own.
Hunting is a countryside scene.
If townies don’t like it stay in the towns!!!

 

[Keith Edmunds]

You know what - it really is hard to express why some methods feel more just than others. For me, I certainly have more concern for a species as a whole than the individual creature. When a species has sporting status, it is preserved - when it falls into the pest category........It loses such protection.

I think some of us like to hunt a revered quarry and others are happy with the morality of controlling pests.

 

[Jagare]

I've never looked on the hare as a pest. I have quite a few on my ground here, I saw a Swedish hare the other day, haven't seen one in several years. European brown hares are known as German hares and Swedish hares are what i suppose people call mountain hares that go white in the winter. I don't shootany hares because my neighbor is a fanatical hare hunter. He's out nearly every day in the season with his Dunker Stövare, thats a Harrier dog from Norway. Hare hunting here is about dog work. You would starve if you relied on hare hunting to provide meat for the table. He also hunts roe with a teckle.

 

[Uncle f]

Get an eagle. Much more sporting and great to see. Eight times out of 10 the hare wins.
Certainly not a really effective control tool but great never the less.
It really is the sport of kings

 

[Brno2e]

I take my Lurcher beating on my shoot as she works well and retrieves even better. One day at 11's pit stop she coursed a hare and caught it in a 40 acre field before I could stop her with all the guns watching. After a bit of an epic pursuit she dispatched it and brought it back to hand. I said sorry to the guns but was told it was the most sporting thing they had seen in ages.

 

[Keith Edmunds]

I take my Lurcher beating on my shoot as she works well and retrieves even better. One day at 11's pit stop she coursed a hare and caught it in a 40 acre field before I could stop her with all the guns watching. After a bit of an epic pursuit she dispatched it and brought it back to hand. I said sorry to the guns but was told it was the most sporting thing they had seen in ages.

Brilliant!!! God I miss it.

 

[kenbro]

There was a prog on radio 5 Live just after lunch today, about countryside policing and hare coursing.
Ken.

 

[AGR]

To each his own but most who have enjoyed hare coursing - stop shooting (at) hares with a shotgun. The hare deserves either a quick instantaneous death (shot by rifle) or a sporting chance where she is either caught or escapes. Any hares left to breed on a coursing estate at the end of the season were proven by natural selection. Losing hare coursing in 2004/2005 was the worst possible outcome for the hare.

Re 90-100 hares. The one I participated in filled a trailer - literally hundreds of hares just chucked in like household waste.

Apologies for drifting off topic

Some 30 odd years ago I used to have a rep call on me who used to go on driven hare shoots, they were more prolific than rabbits, and they often filled a farm trailer. I think all the glyphosate used these days would keep the numbers down, and locally the pikies are very active post harvest. That and modern silaging, I hardly think we need hare drives any more!

 

[Keith Edmunds]

Some 30 odd years ago I used to have a rep call on me who used to go on driven hare shoots, they were more prolific than rabbits, and they often filled a farm trailer. I think all the glyphosate used these days would keep the numbers down, and locally the pikies are very active post harvest. That and modern silaging, I hardly think we need hare drives any more!

When I think back, I can hardly believe how many there were.

 

[limulus]

There are no hares around here any more, all gone, move along please........

 

[25 Sharps]

We have more hares than rabbits on one farm, have counted over 30 in a field, brings its own problems!

 

[HeathStalker]

Do people still organize these days and if so does any body know any contact details .A couple of lads i meet the other day would like to book .

Steve, are you still on the lookout for this?

 

[enfieldspares]

Well I hope in the three years since the OP posted his question that he got himself sorted with it?

 

[Bowland blades]

I have been on hare shoots.
Personally it’s not nice.
If hares need to be controlled ( in some areas they do) it’s best done with a rifle.
A hare that is back ended sounds like a baby in pain.
I never want to see it again.
If hare are to be shot by shotgun then a heavy load us required to make sure of it.
Also if you have guns that can’t be trusted avoid them!
Regards Dan

to be fair most of the wounding is shooting at the rear end of the hare at too great a distance ! Hares are easy enough to kill at shorter range as soon as you can after they spring ( so long as your onto a side shot or head on a 410 is fine ) . Shooting at their rear end is the issue

 

[jp vanden weghe]

for hares in Norfolk; contact; serkan inanli <s308@hotmail.co.uk>
good luck

 

[Malxwal]

Hare control, whether white or brown, is management and not sport. Selling folk hare shooting with a shotgun isn't right, it's not sport by any stretch of the imagination.

 

[sh1kar]

I agree. My son about 15 years ago went out with a keepers daughter in N Hampshire. I was invited to a hare shoot over 3500 acres. Game dealer with chiller on site when I arrived. 8 of us shot 173 hares. With shotguns. We saw probably 3 times that. No way rifle shooting would have made an impact. He did that every 2 years. Lots of beaters well back. Guns in gaps in hedges and gateways. Shots head on c 25 yards

 

[Ratel]

I say watching our combine working this evening and the hares were leaving the field on the second circuit. We have an awful lot but no way am I driving them to shotguns. I went on a few drives years ago and it sickened me to see how they were treated. If you can't control them selectively with a rifle between late September and Christmas you shouldn't be in charge of them. No problem to shoot 150 over that period if necessary and I say if. Root crop damage yes, grain crops minimal as they nibble and move on unlike rabbits who graze it all off.