Hi gents,
thought I'd bounce a scenario off you, to see what you think.
I've been shooting 600 acres for the pat 12 month, belonging to a farmer friend of mine, with my shotgun. He also has other guys doing the same thing, with shotguns, air rifles and rimmies. He's had so much trouble with rabbits that he's open to all and sundry and up until this weekend we hadn't go in each other's way (it's a bit hard to when there's 600 acres to share). So, here's the problem.
I was doing my regular rough shooting stint, walking the perimiter of each field until I saw some fluffies, stalked until I got into range, and shot them. 100% kill rate, 6 bunnies - not bad for an hour's work! As I came round to the next field, I noticed a pick-up truck halfway into the field (actually on the barley), with an Anschutz rimmie out of the window. Before I had a chance to exchange pleasantries, the guy jumped out of his motor and gave me a barrage of abuse (mainly that us shotgun owners destroy any quality hunting for the rifle owners as the rabbits go gunshy).
I'm not disagreeing with the guy, so i didn't argue. I reminded him that we'd both been given permission by the same chap to shoot, so it's best to talk to him. More abuse, so I left him.
I also own a CZ 452 and a Weihrauch HW35, so my shottie was just the choice tool for the day.
My point (yay, he got there in the end!) is this - as shooters, some employed to control pests and others just for filling a saucepan, shouldn't we more civil to each other? We're constantly getting attacked by protesters and other misguied individuals, so isn't it best that we work together?
This guy apparently caught 500 rabbits in a fortnight, as opposed to my half-dozen every now and then. He has a job to do, and I can see that - but have we got to this stage in society when we can't even have friendly confrontations? And let's not forget that I was there with permission and have been there twice as long as he has!
Answers on a postcard....
especially if he is a non shooting farmer who sees the rabbits as a pest problem he can simply pass on to someone else and avoid a pest control bill in the process as you mention.
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