Good evening all,
This is my first post - I resisted the temptation to post before my ticket arrived but now it's here I thought I'd share my experience of my route to an '"open" .243 on my fac. Like no doubt many people on here I came to this sport after time spent shooting rabbits, fox etc with .22 lr (yes I know I'm going to get flak for .22 not being enough gun for fox but thousands of foxes met their maker that way before .17hmr was a twinkle in it creators eye so give me a break) before I decided stalking was something I really wanted to get involved in. So, sold my best shotgun (B725) and left the money in the gun shop as a credit note, I'm on the bromley/Kent borders and have no permissions of my own at all but my shooting buddy in Essex (9 ish miles south of Colchester) has a few thousand acres of permission, some of which is cleared for .243 but none of his permission allows him to shoot deer. After countless hours on forums like this I decided the path of least resistance would be to do my dsc1, (I already had an open .22 ticket at this point). So, signed up for dsc1 with the NGO over 2 consecutive weekends meaning no time off work, result!
The study material from the NGO was great but the info wasn't really sinking in until I stumped up the 20 quid for a month access online to the "ultimate deer data" with the BDS which allows you to keep taking the deer identification tests plus all the other questions online as often as you like. It really was worth its weight in gold! despite having done plenty of shooting over the last 10 years or so I couldn't believe how little I knew about deer and their management until I did the course. Anyway, course passed, my fac was coming up for renewal and I had an unused slot for .17hmr so I put the renewal in with a one for one giving up the .17 and requesting .243 - along with this I submitted a copy of my dsc1 certificate and a letter from my shooting buddy confirming I'm allowed to shoot on his permission as a guest and indeed do so regularly, it's worth stressing here that I have no permissions of my own at all and have never done a paid stalk (yet). So my new FO comes and does the renewal interview (previous one having just retired), I'm in the Met area btw, interview was on Wednesday 3rd Jan, new fac arrived in post Saturday 6th! Sadly they'd missed part of my .22 permission off (I punch targets at a club too) so returned ticket on Monday 8th Jan and it came back in the post today!! Conditioned as all lawful quarry ( plus zeroing on ranges) on any land I have permission on for both .22 and .243, so very happy with that. I guess what I'm getting at here is if you don't have land and centre fire experience etc. Ignore all the moaning about "you shouldn't have to pay for dsc1 blah,blah,blah" take the test and just make it as easy as possible for your FO to give you what you want. Btw my "free" (man maths!) .243 is already on order with scope, rings, mod etc etc.
I will back soon picking everyone's brain mercilessly on where to find reasonably priced paid stalks as soon as the browning is zeroed in!
This is my first post - I resisted the temptation to post before my ticket arrived but now it's here I thought I'd share my experience of my route to an '"open" .243 on my fac. Like no doubt many people on here I came to this sport after time spent shooting rabbits, fox etc with .22 lr (yes I know I'm going to get flak for .22 not being enough gun for fox but thousands of foxes met their maker that way before .17hmr was a twinkle in it creators eye so give me a break) before I decided stalking was something I really wanted to get involved in. So, sold my best shotgun (B725) and left the money in the gun shop as a credit note, I'm on the bromley/Kent borders and have no permissions of my own at all but my shooting buddy in Essex (9 ish miles south of Colchester) has a few thousand acres of permission, some of which is cleared for .243 but none of his permission allows him to shoot deer. After countless hours on forums like this I decided the path of least resistance would be to do my dsc1, (I already had an open .22 ticket at this point). So, signed up for dsc1 with the NGO over 2 consecutive weekends meaning no time off work, result!
The study material from the NGO was great but the info wasn't really sinking in until I stumped up the 20 quid for a month access online to the "ultimate deer data" with the BDS which allows you to keep taking the deer identification tests plus all the other questions online as often as you like. It really was worth its weight in gold! despite having done plenty of shooting over the last 10 years or so I couldn't believe how little I knew about deer and their management until I did the course. Anyway, course passed, my fac was coming up for renewal and I had an unused slot for .17hmr so I put the renewal in with a one for one giving up the .17 and requesting .243 - along with this I submitted a copy of my dsc1 certificate and a letter from my shooting buddy confirming I'm allowed to shoot on his permission as a guest and indeed do so regularly, it's worth stressing here that I have no permissions of my own at all and have never done a paid stalk (yet). So my new FO comes and does the renewal interview (previous one having just retired), I'm in the Met area btw, interview was on Wednesday 3rd Jan, new fac arrived in post Saturday 6th! Sadly they'd missed part of my .22 permission off (I punch targets at a club too) so returned ticket on Monday 8th Jan and it came back in the post today!! Conditioned as all lawful quarry ( plus zeroing on ranges) on any land I have permission on for both .22 and .243, so very happy with that. I guess what I'm getting at here is if you don't have land and centre fire experience etc. Ignore all the moaning about "you shouldn't have to pay for dsc1 blah,blah,blah" take the test and just make it as easy as possible for your FO to give you what you want. Btw my "free" (man maths!) .243 is already on order with scope, rings, mod etc etc.
I will back soon picking everyone's brain mercilessly on where to find reasonably priced paid stalks as soon as the browning is zeroed in!
