Arriving at work this morning I set about the pleasant task of building a bonfire in the back field as the chaps went about their various jobs. A perfect clear October morning, the peace of the countryside was only disturbed by the continuous bang of shotguns from a few fields over from mine. I paused for a while to watch a line of beaters walk slowly forward to wards a line of shooters whilst various dogs darted to and fro. Now, I am a firm believer in people spending their money as they see fit but I am pretty sure the shooters who no doubt had paid rather a lot of money to shoot at the little birds that frantically flew towards them, had not gotten any real value for their money. I love shooting and given the chance will shoot as much as possible,target or clays, so I am very pro shooting in itself.But standing in what appeared to be tweed outfits the assembled shooters looked faintly ridiculous blasting the occasional bird out of the air. As I said "you pay your money etc".....mind you the dogs looked like they were having a great time of it so not all was lost.
Thursday 1 October 2009
Tweet Tweet Bang!
Arriving at work this morning I set about the pleasant task of building a bonfire in the back field as the chaps went about their various jobs. A perfect clear October morning, the peace of the countryside was only disturbed by the continuous bang of shotguns from a few fields over from mine. I paused for a while to watch a line of beaters walk slowly forward to wards a line of shooters whilst various dogs darted to and fro. Now, I am a firm believer in people spending their money as they see fit but I am pretty sure the shooters who no doubt had paid rather a lot of money to shoot at the little birds that frantically flew towards them, had not gotten any real value for their money. I love shooting and given the chance will shoot as much as possible,target or clays, so I am very pro shooting in itself.But standing in what appeared to be tweed outfits the assembled shooters looked faintly ridiculous blasting the occasional bird out of the air. As I said "you pay your money etc".....mind you the dogs looked like they were having a great time of it so not all was lost.
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6 comments:
Well, its weird. I enjoy the idea of a real 'hunt', out in the wild, getting in touch with our primal selves and then consuming what we take. But shooting fish in a barrel is another thing altogether.
Absolute Candle - besides you wouldn't hit anything anyway - ever TRIED shooting fish in a barrel?
And if they are happy shooting the occasional bird - what's your winge about? Don't you like people enjoying themselves?
Nothing occasional about it.
I used to beat pheasants when I was a lad - it kept me out of trouble.
Thud: this word "gotten" is certainly not one that you have ever learned in Blighty.
It ranks alongside "winingest" as one of those gruesome Americanisms that will never appear in the OED.
As someone who does shoot from time to time, there is a funny sort of protocol at work here.
It's about not shooting birds that are too easy a target and not shooting birds that really belong to one of your neighbours'.
The better the shot you are, the fewer the birds you swing at.
Any shoot with a ratio of worse than 4:1 (shots to kills) means that the shots aren't up to the job.
Lakelander ... as a scouser I am as you can imagine more than capable of destroying the beauty of the Queens English without any help from my Acquired Americanisms, many of which I rather like. As for kill ratio I don't think anybody told the birds.
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