Look Out Norfolk, Chris Packham Is Back Again!

[BroadAmbition]

 

Now, we all know that Griff off Broad Ambition is as rich as Crassus,

Don't I wish and yes I had to google him, can't say he was ever a mate of mine

I do Game shoot as many of you are aware.  For me though with unfortunately not being as rich as Crassus it is a rare pastime and becoming rarer.  The boxes of game shot cartridges I use per season can usually be counted on one hand.

So far this year not been on one game shoot.  We (Our group) had a day planned to celebrate our shoot captains 70th Birthday at Rasby Castle next month - Now lost due to the covid issues.  We run a local game shoot with him - that is also on hold for the foreseeable. 

On 'Our' shoot every single pheasant / partridge is picked up and taken back to the farm, the guns / beaters are offered a brace to take home - Most do including me (Hence having pheasant for dinner on our recent Lads week).  It's amazing how many 'Mates' I have that ask me for a brace of oven ready pheasant or partridge during the season.  The rest are supplied to a local chap that processes them then sells them throughout the season at Donny market, so none of them go to waste. 

As Vaughan has so very well explained the benefits of shooting to the countryside are huge, not just for the fauna but also for many other animals / birds as well.  Without game shooting, the management / feed provided many of our abundant species would be very thin on the ground indeed

Game shooting nowadays is so very expensive, 'Paid Days' are now running at about £50:00 per bird PLUS VAT so way out of the average mans wage income.  That Rasby Castle shoot? £1000 per gun for the day with eight guns on the drives and that's a deal that was done to make it cheaper, limited to around 150 birds between eight guns =£53:00 per bird.  On top of that is the beaters fee and gamekeepers tip to pay - another £150 per gun.  Then when you add on the transport to get there and back, two nights in the hotel, spending money, and for me personally two days loss of earnings, it's a fortune per gun.  I worked it out, it was to cost me personally around £1000.  BUT that didn't include the fee for the days shooting of £1000 each - That was being picked up by our captain as a gift to his mates for his 70th Birthday!  so the cost to me should  have been about £2k.  That for two nights in a hotel and one days shooting

I can so easily go clay shooting all year round for the price of one days game shooting and have plenty of change left over.

Grouse shooting on the Yorkshire moors during August?  I did once get invited - 2 x nights in a game lodge, full 5 star service for the whole weekend the cost? £10'000 per gun, only took me a couple of nano-seconds to turn that one down

This then is why the sport suffers from the 'Hooray Henry' tag.  Basically for far too many its ignorance plus pure and simple jealously 

However local game shoots throughout the land are run on a syndicate basis.  We have one of which I am lucky enough to be a member.  This is far more down to earth where the cost is concerned.  That costs me personally about £1400 for the season for about eight Saturdays shooting which is do-able if I'm careful.  'Our Lot' are certainly not champagne swilling toffs chasing around the countryside.  (Although admittedly some of them spend tens of thousands per year shooting - just because they can) We put a lot of time and effort into managing the land that you see today.  We have to take it in turns to help out as and when we can although we rely heavily on the free help of our captain (Land owner farmer), and the head beater who is retired and spends all year round managing our shoot areas.  Then there is another mate who because of the fox hunting brigade failing to keep their end up (Not their fault of course) spends night after night shooting foxes, he normally culls around 60 per year and misses twice as many,  If it wasn't for the likes of him the surrounding villages would be over-run with them, family cats / dogs would be thin on the ground that's for sure.

Game shooting / land management is a huge topic, far bigger than I have time or knowledge to explain on a thread like this but in a nutshell, if it wasn't for game shooting, the likes of the Countryside Alliance and the BASC 'Our' lands, animal species would be in a right mess and so much lacking that we take for granted. 

Packham is a danger to all of us whether you use / enjoy the countryside or not

Griff 

[JennyMorgan]

26 minutes ago, BroadAmbition said:

Packham is a danger to all of us whether you use / enjoy the countryside or not

Can't argue with that, The bloke and his ilk are an absolute anathema.

[ChrisB]

Thanks Griff,

I was going to write my response today, I have not had time over the weekend. However I have little to add to your excellent post.

Except:- I do strongly object to a person using their celebrity status gained by their exposure on the BBC to attack others pursuing a legitimate and lawful activity. If Packman wants to be a forefront activist, fine it is his right, but he should resign or be fired.

[floydraser]

5 minutes ago, JennyMorgan said:

The bloke and his ilk are an absolute anathema.

Gordon Bennet! I've got to have another wondow open on Google just to keep up with this thread! 

[floydraser]

Packham is an author among other things. One thing I do know about publishing is that you will get published and sell more books if you have a bit of notoriety for whatever reason. It could even be that his agent could be telling him, "It's coming up to Christmas y'know better find something to crow about!"

[Vaughan]

6 minutes ago, floydraser said:

Gordon Bennet! I've got to have another wondow open on Google just to keep up with this thread

While you're on the site, I consider him to be quixotic and iconoclastic.

Among one or two other things . . . 

[Vaughan]

14 minutes ago, ChrisB said:

If Packman wants to be a forefront activist,

I assume that was a Freudian slip?

[floydraser]

 

2 minutes ago, Vaughan said:

While you're on the site, I consider him to be quixotic and iconoclastic.

Among one or two other things . . . 

This is far from the first occasion I realise I should have tried harder at school. 

[keifsmate]

Rich as Crassus, or rich as Croesus?

Crassus was a Politician generally considered to be the richest man in Rome

Croesus was the KIng of Lydia and generally considered to be the richest man on Earth

[ChrisB]

12 minutes ago, Vaughan said:

I assume that was a Freudian slip?

It was indeed, I was typing whilst holding a conversation with my son in Melbourne. It should have been Packham.

[JennyMorgan]

2 hours ago, ChrisB said:

If Packman wants to be a forefront activist, fine it is his right, but he should resign or be fired.

There's thought!

[annv]

Yes we kill to eat! we also have to kill vermin that eat that which we would eat and spread diseases to us or the animals that we eat if someone dresses up to kill vermin that i otherwise would have to pay to have done what's not to like,  does anybody know how many shoots this will affect 500 meters is not far to have a restriction of a release pen,  my be move it to the other side of the field this my suit every one. John

[JennyMorgan]

3 hours ago, floydraser said:

Gordon Bennet

That's interesting, out of curiosity I googled Gordon Bennett, I felt that I had too! Yes, he did exist.

[JennyMorgan]

3 hours ago, Vaughan said:

While you're on the site, I consider him to be quixotic and iconoclastic.

Among one or two other things . . . 

The joys of a private education or a military career, or hanging around the boatsheds of a Broads boatyard?

[JennyMorgan]

If it's JP that we are talking about then 'quixotic' is entirely apt, as clearly illustrated by the Acle Bridge visitor centre.

[Vaughan]

On 01/11/2020 at 15:53, Bytheriver said:

This is the full info from DEFRA which I received on Friday but was not expecting any interest from the forum!

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/review-of-gamebird-releases-on-and-around-european-protected-sites?utm_source=5de6822e-97ef-4b03-853d-380b743390a6&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=govuk-notifications&utm_content=immediate

Thanks very much for that and I have had a read of it this morning. Not all of it I admit, as it goes on for miles!

It seems to me that there is nothing really new here that has not already been in force for years and the Game Bird Report says that most of the fears expressed are based on "weak" evidence.  It seems to be something to do with disturbance to the soil caused by game birds dunging and foraging, but admits this is mainly in the rearing pens themselves!

So I get the distinct impression that Chris Packham has just jumped on this particular band wagon for his own self-aggrandisement.

As to soil disturbance by dunging and foraging, having lived on Thorpe island among pheasants, foxes and badgers which all live there, I would blame the badgers ten times more than the pheasants!

But then, we mustn't restrict the badgers, must we?

[ChrisB]

Just rec'd :-

[ChrisB]

My screen print is fine but seems to to go right dowm in definition on transfer to the forum.

[grendel]

23 minutes ago, ChrisB said:

My screen print is fine but seems to to go right dowm in definition on transfer to the forum.

if you click it opens in the forum page, if you click it again it opens in a new tab, then you can enlarge it by clicking a further time and it is perfectly readable

[annv]

Yes we kill to eat! we also have to kill vermin that eat that which we would eat and spread diseases to us or the animals that we eat if someone dresses up to kill vermin that i otherwise would have to pay to have done what's not to like,  does anybody know how many shoots this will affect 500 meters is not far to have a restriction of a release pen,  my be move it to the other side of the field this my suit every one. John

[annv]

Hi Thanks for that Cris as i thought a lot of bull s!!! t cant see that it will cause any problems for shooters and as we are coming out of EU they wont be able to muddy the waters. John

[Vaughan]

Thank you very much Chris, and I note this, from the last paragraph :

It's sometimes easy to forget that the countryside we know today has been shaped by game management.  Not only does it best protect and maintain our hedgerows and woodland but the wildlife that depends on it too.

 

I rest my case!

[ChrisB]

Just rec'd from BASC.

 

 

[Bytheriver]

22 hours ago, Vaughan said:

Thanks very much for that and I have had a read of it this morning. Not all of it I admit, as it goes on for miles!

It seems to me that there is nothing really new here that has not already been in force for years and the Game Bird Report says that most of the fears expressed are based on "weak" evidence.  It seems to be something to do with disturbance to the soil caused by game birds dunging and foraging, but admits this is mainly in the rearing pens themselves!

So I get the distinct impression that Chris Packham has just jumped on this particular band wagon for his own self-aggrandisement.

As to soil disturbance by dunging and foraging, having lived on Thorpe island among pheasants, foxes and badgers which all live there, I would blame the badgers ten times more than the pheasants!

But then, we mustn't restrict the badgers, must we?

Re Chris Packham - I'm sure it took more than just him having a rant to launch an investigation on that scale!

[ChrisB]