As the GWCT representative at The Code of Good Shooting Practice, I tend to be the first port of call when anyone at GWCT receives a complaint, so I get to hear more than most about what members of the public complain about. I should also point out right at the start, that most complaints do not come from out and out antis, but from ordinary people who are probably ambivalent about shooting. How we handle what these folk have to say is therefore quite important; do the right thing and they may well become an ally, or at least remain neutral, but do it badly and they are easily alienated.
Late summer and autumn is dispersal time, and most low ground keepers are tearing their hair out as they do their best to send wandering poults back home. This is the moment when I start to hear from people who are fed up with having a garden full of poults, dust bathing in their precious flower beds, and eating the choicest morsels in the vegetable plot. In most cases a bit of more active dogging in can alleviate the problem, and even if some birds carry on going there, being seen to try hard to help can make a big difference to how the shoot is viewed.
I have heard of situations where gardeners have been offered compensation for lost produce where this is a persistent problem. While the shoot might see this as a good gesture, as a keen fruit and vegetable grower I see another view. I do not do this to save the price of a bunch of supermarket carrots, but for the satisfaction of growing my own, and the joy of eating the best tasting produce at its peak.
As we move into the autumn, direct shooting related issues become more frequent, with shot fallout a common cause for complaint. As shooters we don’t think twice about a few pellets plattering down around us, but for a householder sitting out with their mid-morning coffee it’s a different story. The same applies to someone walking a footpath well out behind the guns. There may be no safety issue, but for the uninitiated there can be genuine alarm, because they do not understand the difference between falling shot and what they perceive as a near miss.
Simply visiting neighbours before the first shoot, and explaining there may be an odd spent shot can make a big difference. Please also remember that when you place a gun close to the boundary, they should be briefed not to shoot in that direction. Better still, copy the grouse butt idea and put in a couple of posts to define the safe angles of fire and interrupt the swing. That way, there will be no issue of forgetting in the heat of the moment.
This problem can arise in much the same way for the rough shooter near a boundary. Whenever I can, I try to take a route close to the boundary and shoot into my own ground, rather than stay further away and be tempted by birds heading off. This way both shot and noise are directed away from any neighbours.
Autumn also brings questions around the retrieval of shot birds that have fallen over the boundary. Shot game is food, and must not be wasted, so we have an obligation to retrieve it, and runners must be sought out and humanely dispatched as quickly as possible. But, without permission, no one has any right to pursue the wounded or collect the dead from over the boundary. Collecting a dead bird involves trespass, as does sending a dog; and if the bird concerned is only wounded this becomes “trespass in pursuit” in the eyes of the law; in other words, poaching.
So, here again a pre-season visit to neighbours can make a huge difference. The average householder is likely to be quite sympathetic if they have not already been alienated, and the same should apply to the shoot next door. This will also allow you to clear up any question of leaving your gun behind, to avoid accusations of armed trespass, when you climb the fence – something which Mr Plod would surely take a dim view of if it ever went wrong.
Telling key neighbours your shoot dates is a good idea, and I would always encourage it, but going so far as to put your shoot calendar on the village notice board would be a recipe for inviting disruption by antis, so be selective. Also, please remember that horse riders are a bit of a special case; there can be real safety issues if a sensitive horse is spooked by a sudden bang. This is why The Code has a special section on horses and riders and suggests informing local horse yards of your plans well in advance.
Last January I had a typical example of where this goes wrong. A shoot which normally operates on Saturdays had no doubt added an extra day, and caught out a lady who had a routine of making herself and her rather nervy horse absent on shoot days. When she complained, no doubt somewhat angrily, about not being kept in the loop, she received a rather curt reply, much to her annoyance. This lady already felt that she was going out of her way to avoid a problem that was not of her own making, and she will be one of many who have a similar view.
You might expect that come the 1st of February, it all goes quiet, but you would be wrong. Just as autumn is dispersal time for poults, so February and March are re-arrangement time as a birds go into the breeding season. This is the moment when harems of hen pheasants, wander off from the shoot and into the village gardens, following the crowing cock birds as they set up territory. I’ve lost count of the times when I have been told that the pheasants are gobbling up every last crocus on the lawn, and raiding the bird table to boot.
This is one of the two main reasons that The Code has a strong emphasis on continuing to feed into the spring, “normally till the end of May”, the other being not abandoning our birds to the hungry gap. So, please do see to it that you provide for your birds at this time and remember that your feeding needs to spread with them, so that they choose to set up their territories within your boundaries.
Attention to these details goes a long way to setting up good relations with the neighbours, but there is another thing that can help too, and that is being reasonably free with shot game. Once upon a time a brace in feather was a valued Christmas present, but nowadays even country folk are often unsure about how to dress a bird, so please think in terms of oven readies. A few brace delivered free might even help to create a market for more.