Hello anyone who reads this. Posting here partly because it's a good idea for someone in my situation, and mainly because it is obligatory in site rules (I joke 
). Firstly I'll start of with a brief background on why I have signed up for this forum.
I have recently returned back home after traveling for a good couple of years. A decent chunk of my time was spent living in New Zealand where I was lucky to find a job with a demolition company - owned and run by a devout christian family. Now I don't know what everyone is saying about hardcore Christians in this age of the atheist man - but these guys were awesome.
As an end of year thank you present to us boys, the big cheese took us all out for a hunting trip. Prior to this I found that hunting is much more common place in NZ than what I knew of back home in Lancashire - noted from the simple fact that you would hear at least one hunting related story a week from an average person (by this I mean someone who doesn't follow the sport as a hobby). Finding out that we were going on a hunting trip got my excitement levels peaking for three reasons:
We spent the first day of the trip driving down to the farmers property (the guy was a good friend of our boss) and getting to know him personally and as a group. The next day we spent the morning firstly zeroing (?) the guns that would be used for hunting the deer. After that we then went to the beginning of the trail that we would be taking and began surveying the area (we were sat at a vantage point over looking a few hill faces) for potential game. Over the course of an hour we saw about 8 deer of varying sizes moving in and out of the bush in the distance - which, by the farmers estimations, was enough to warrant a stalking expedition the next day. For me just seeing these wild deer was getting me excited.
Farm owner and his dog Meg, a NZ bred working dog.
After a good nights sleep we got up nice and early to go over gun safety and etiquette for everyone that needed it (mainly me). We then saddled up with the 3 rifles (shooting .308's) and set off in a vehicle as far as we could go, at which point we carried on by foot. The bulk of the stalking consisted of: moving forward quietly downwind to vantage points; surveying the area for tracks and deer; then moving onward toward any sightings. Eventually after a 2 hour trek (all of it pleasant mind you) we happened upon our moment. We were positioned behind a tree - with a perfect resting branch for 2 people and with 3 deer grazing about 100m in front of us in some slightly elevated bush. I'm watching the whole situation unfold as the deer are spotted, our group maneuvering around for position, the guns being trained (?) on them, and the count down to fire. Shots go off. We think it's a hit so us younger boys run off with a knife to finish it off.
Farm owner, workmate, workmate, and boss - Stalking.
To spare you from my waffling on I'll attempt to wrap this up nicely. We didn't hit and didn't get another chance as good as that one. The next day after feeling a little defeated, the boss surprised us with a helicopter ride (look at us getting treated) where neighboring farmers used the opportunity to flush out pest pigs (they need to get rid of them because they damage the land and eat valuable young) which were killed from the helicopter by the farmers son using a shotgun. A male deer in velvet was also killed this way so that the boss didn't go home empty deer handed (personally I wasn't too keen on this as it took away all the challenge, but I gladly accepted the meat so I can't complain).
I was exhilarated from start to finish and knew it was something I would want to do again. I began thinking how I would save up for a hunting trip holiday back in NZ in the future, with the idea of becoming experienced enough to become more independent with it. I reserved the idea in the back of my head for when I had more money to play with (which was going to be a long time) until very recently when I was talking to an old friend from school, who mentioned he owned a shotgun. When I heard this I'm thinking 'Wait, what?', then asked him "How/why?!", to which he replied to with a chuckle "For hunting mate.". It had never crossed my mind that hunting was something you might be able to partake in gun free England. I had always thought that hunting was reserved for posh southern folk on horseback.
Fast forward to a Google search of how to start hunting in the UK, where it was recommended that I start by introducing myself here. So here I am looking for any advice on getting my foot in the door. Any help is deeply appreciated.
*I have shot a .22 at targets in safe location for somewhere around 2 hours total.
*I shot a .308 once on the trip described above at a hare for dog food (you're thinking that thing got disintegrated, but I skimmed the back of it's neck which was still enough to kill it instantly. I count this as a hit
).
). Firstly I'll start of with a brief background on why I have signed up for this forum.I have recently returned back home after traveling for a good couple of years. A decent chunk of my time was spent living in New Zealand where I was lucky to find a job with a demolition company - owned and run by a devout christian family. Now I don't know what everyone is saying about hardcore Christians in this age of the atheist man - but these guys were awesome.
As an end of year thank you present to us boys, the big cheese took us all out for a hunting trip. Prior to this I found that hunting is much more common place in NZ than what I knew of back home in Lancashire - noted from the simple fact that you would hear at least one hunting related story a week from an average person (by this I mean someone who doesn't follow the sport as a hobby). Finding out that we were going on a hunting trip got my excitement levels peaking for three reasons:
- Being a lad, naturally guns are a major interest - reasons being buried deep within us. I believe that mankind inventing the gun to fire a projectile at x m/s is the evolution of man picking up a rock and throwing it as the first weapon, carrying on this primal instinct through the ages. A primal instinct that I believe increasingly needs fulfilling in a world where we are slowly moving away from our nature.
- The fact that what we are hunting will be killed by US and that it will be processed into consumables and shared between US. Being involved in the process before eating the meat. With growing concerns around the western world on whether killing animals for meat/consuming meat in general is even ethical, I've felt a moral obligation (albeit small) to prove I can carry out the whole process to essentially 'earn' my right to carry on eating meat (this is a personal objective of mine and I am by no means saying that I think everyone should do this to eat meat. There are a multitude of other arguments to be had that back up this right).
- And last but no least, I was getting paid my normal hourly rate the whole time (legend)!
We spent the first day of the trip driving down to the farmers property (the guy was a good friend of our boss) and getting to know him personally and as a group. The next day we spent the morning firstly zeroing (?) the guns that would be used for hunting the deer. After that we then went to the beginning of the trail that we would be taking and began surveying the area (we were sat at a vantage point over looking a few hill faces) for potential game. Over the course of an hour we saw about 8 deer of varying sizes moving in and out of the bush in the distance - which, by the farmers estimations, was enough to warrant a stalking expedition the next day. For me just seeing these wild deer was getting me excited.
Farm owner and his dog Meg, a NZ bred working dog.
Farm owner, workmate, workmate, and boss - Stalking.
I was exhilarated from start to finish and knew it was something I would want to do again. I began thinking how I would save up for a hunting trip holiday back in NZ in the future, with the idea of becoming experienced enough to become more independent with it. I reserved the idea in the back of my head for when I had more money to play with (which was going to be a long time) until very recently when I was talking to an old friend from school, who mentioned he owned a shotgun. When I heard this I'm thinking 'Wait, what?', then asked him "How/why?!", to which he replied to with a chuckle "For hunting mate.". It had never crossed my mind that hunting was something you might be able to partake in gun free England. I had always thought that hunting was reserved for posh southern folk on horseback.
Fast forward to a Google search of how to start hunting in the UK, where it was recommended that I start by introducing myself here. So here I am looking for any advice on getting my foot in the door. Any help is deeply appreciated.
*I have shot a .22 at targets in safe location for somewhere around 2 hours total.
*I shot a .308 once on the trip described above at a hare for dog food (you're thinking that thing got disintegrated, but I skimmed the back of it's neck which was still enough to kill it instantly. I count this as a hit
).
