Controversial statement coming up.....
In general I feel we the shooting community don't take to training or learning new skills as we should.
We don't test ourselves in unusual situations or challenge ourselves to learn new skills
Learn new disciplines, shoot different firearms, shoot in different positions.
The debate about whether shooting moving large game in the U.K. is a prime example.
This is a cultural debate rather than a skills based one.
Not everyone wants to or is capable of taking running game.
So what? Try it, learn it, practice, no one is forcing you to use it in the field.
The bigger issue here is the ones who maybe want to and think they are capable without training or practice.
How many people have you come across in all your years of shooting who claims to know it all but still does things you have questioned, had concerns about or caused a raised eyebrow?
Poor safety techniques.
Poor fundamentals of shooting rifles or shotguns.
Poor understanding of basic firearm maintenance
Poor understanding of ecology, biology, physiology of chosen quarry
Poor understanding of basic carcase handling.
Poor understanding of the law (this one really gets my blood pressure up as they are usually the vocal ones about what you can and can't do!)
Yet we are often unwilling to accept that we come up short ourselves
We package any extra training as not necessary or required
We don't have time to train or learn new skills, "we don't need to"
We still separate ourselves from other shooting groups.
Target shooters, gallery rifle, clay shooters, driven birds, wildfowlers, long range shooters, large calibre shooters, black powder shooters, air rifle shooters, pistol shooters. Etc etc
If legislation comes in that effects another group that you don't belong to, we don't tend to react in solidarity.
I challenge all of you to at least sample (ideally learn) something new from a shooting perspective in 2019.
Go stalk another species
Go stalking with someone else as an observer.
Just watching someone else gralloch differently is an education
Visit a shooting cinema, range, clay ground, air rifle club, gallery rifle club, go ferreting, ratting, decoys, wildfowling etc
Shoot off sticks, try a bipod, try not using a bipod, try open sights, try shooting left handed/right handed, sitting down, standing up, one bloody leg if you want....just try something new!
Anyone on here or any other forum has access to such a wide range of people and backgrounds doing all manner of different things. Use them, contact them and offer trades on days out
I personally want to shoot more running targets/quarry with rifles and shoot out past the one mile mark this year.
I am also going to get some shotgun coaching. Lord knows I need it!
Having had the pleasure of hunting on different continents I have experienced how other groups of hunters do things.
Some is applicable only to them (very little though)
Some is universal and we could learn from it.
German hunters have to be tested on moving and static targets EVERY YEAR or they don't hunt.
French hunters have to take a fairly detailed test on the various quarry they hunt.
Many other countries practice collaborative hunting with large groups, sometimes with beaters and dogs, sometimes just hunters.
Education and acceptance of where hunting and land/wildlife management sits in the wider community is much more prevalent.
The list goes on.
I genuinely believe the sooner we adopt some of the practices seen in other countries on training, testing, learning new skills, and even down to the way we manage deer numbers in the U.K. the better off we will be.
Your 2019 mission should you choose to accept it....
Be better than you are at everything you do as well as some things you don't!