Voluntary Annual Assessment - Poll

Would you participate in such an assessment?

  • Yes

    Votes: 20 12.7%
  • No

    Votes: 138 87.3%

  • Total voters
    158
Still an interview and test, pass fail, a lot riding on it, not everyone (myself included) relishes that environment when it’s desk based never mind on a range.
Yes in a way it is part of a selection process but is separate from the interview. As the test is not hard (4 inch target was the smallest from memory) everyone who is competent should pass quite easily. Especially when you get two attempts on the day. If you think about it all you are doing is substituting the stress of shooting a deer with the stress of an interview.
 
And profit from those 150k or so firearms owners in the U.K. in the process…. Do you work for BASC? I’m guessing this test would come with a price tag associated!
Yes I will make so much profit with the time it takes, running a range and still charging only a nominal range fee for sorting all of it...

***That is heavy sarcasm before someone takes that seriously***

A lot of this rests on the shoulders of willing volunteers who want to help improve deer welfare in keeping the cost to do this as low as feasibly possible. The implication of my post was £0 cost for the assessment itself, but a nominal fee to be on the range as is standard for range days run by charitable entities.
how would a test be kept so cheap?

I wouldn't be able to control other people with that, but from my point of view I would be looking to charitable entities within the deer management world, particularly where their core mission is to improve deer welfare, to take this up and run the events as low cost as feasibly possible in order to make it as accessible to all.

This is why I mentioned the cost in the OP as I want to highlight this is not my idea to make myself rich. I am just sick of seeing deer injured due to poor shooting having seen the stalkers shoot repeatedly poorly on ranges.
 
what about a shot gun test aswell? need to be humane in all aspects of control
I for one have never shot a deer with a shotgun, if that is something you do then yes potentially that would also be a worthwhile addition, perhaps another optional portion could be added for those who need it?

If you are talking generally with shotguns I am solely discussing deer here as this is SD?
 
It matters not a jot what organisations and professional bodies mandate. If it’s not in law it’s not going to impact anyone and if it’s not in the firearms acts it’s not going to stop someone who has access to private grounds from stalking deer for themselves and even then is almost impossible to police
 
I say no. However there doe's seem to be a desire to improve competance whether its justified or not. I rasied this in another thread that access to ranges for a more informal level of self practice without the foramlities of a Range Club, is sadly not avaliable to many. New stalkers more so as they find their feet in the world of deer stalking and management.
If your lucky you may have your own ground to put a target up and let a few fly now and then or a local easy going range like that of Corinium (still a 40 min drive for me but I have land).
How to solve this problem is not by putting more hurdles in our way but by making it easier and FUN to participate.
Yes there are range days arranged by BDS and BASC and I have not been to any of these to know for sure how they work ( spent time at Bisley in my youth at formal range days) and how many people attend them. If they are to formal, I would stick to the cardbord box in a field on my own now and then. I may try and get to one and see.
 
What about a shot gun test as well?
Yes. Not only humane but it saves the keeper and the beaters otherwise wasting their time to make the birds fly at all. There I was standing on my peg in Nottinghamshire this Wednesday just gone. Out comes a bird from the woods being beaten. Gun two pegs down goes "bang" and yet the bird sails on. Out comes another bird and the gun on the next peg goes "bang, bang" and the yet the bird sails on. Out comes a bird over me. "Bang". Dead in the air, folded up, dead right there.

So out I goes and calls over to these two guest guns "That's how your meant to do it." All part of the banter but equally very very frustrating when guns can't hit what the keeper and beaters have worked to present to them. Them one with his multichokes and the other his extended multichokes and both with "diamond shot" this and "quad seal" that, as that's what David Carrie uses, and me with my late father's now one hundred and four year old boxlock ejector bore improved and improved with Lyalvale 2 1/2" fibre wad 1 1/8 ounce of #5.
 
Last edited:
Yes I will make so much profit with the time it takes, running a range and still charging only a nominal range fee for sorting all of it...

***That is heavy sarcasm before someone takes that seriously***

A lot of this rests on the shoulders of willing volunteers who want to help improve deer welfare in keeping the cost to do this as low as feasibly possible. The implication of my post was £0 cost for the assessment itself, but a nominal fee to be on the range as is standard for range days run by charitable entities.


I wouldn't be able to control other people with that, but from my point of view I would be looking to charitable entities within the deer management world, particularly where their core mission is to improve deer welfare, to take this up and run the events as low cost as feasibly possible in order to make it as accessible to all.

This is why I mentioned the cost in the OP as I want to highlight this is not my idea to make myself rich. I am just sick of seeing deer injured due to poor shooting having seen the stalkers shoot repeatedly poorly on ranges.
Who is shooting all these poorly shot deer exactly? What is your reference point?
 
We used to be happy to do the same for HTH I'v no problems doing it , its a bit of fun as well. Maybe put some of the fee into a fund Air ambo etc. Iam in.
 
Because I have good motives in wanting to improve deer welfare, having seen too many situations where poor marksmanship has resulted in injured deer? Hence have suggested a way we can truly have an impact on that as a community?

How dare I! 😂
How have you seen so many injured deer from poor marksmanship ?
 
From an ethics point of view whats the difference between shooting a squirrel, rabbit, rat or deer?? None whatsoever! As hunters we should be giving our live quarry the respect of a quick and painless dispatch as possible.

I'm sick to the back teeth of none legislative decisions made to add hurdles to our chosen sport.

Being given the run around I had and with financial outlay now having been wasted my answer is a solid NO
 
I have seen people shoot very well on Deer but not on paper, it isn’t there thing so to speak.
I have seen people shoot very well on paper but very badly on deer.
Which would you stalk with.
I come across people bragging about there tiny groups with there super special caliber thing y jig rifle. It isn’t real world
I came across recently where some stalkers were being accessed by a competent person, what wasn’t realised until after was that the stalkers being assessed were more qualified then him... who checks the checkers.
Just because you say your better than xyz doesn’t make it so.
 
No thanks - just more time consumed on something that I don’t see as necessary.

I don’t believe the DSC makes you competent.

I feel like we have these courses yet have very few incidents relating to firearms, so why the need?
 
Back
Top