As you say needing the DSC1 to lawfully sign off a carcass to enter the food chain has made it madatory for those seeking to obtain stalking rights from any of the large institutional landowners .... or even smaller farmers these days who might look to profiting from the sale of venison means you have to have this qualification .... infact having just done your DSC1 I would suggest staying on the "bandwagon" and getting registered for your DSC2 and do your accompanied stalks as soon as possible .... as the correct manor for dealing with a gralloch has previously changed and is likely to keep changing ..... in line with those whose jobs seemingly require them to justify their existance by "improving" matters .... and the sooner you do these with current training .... the easier it will be.... and sadly DSC2 is actually required now by the said "landowners" more often than not if bidding individually or looking to join a syndicate ....
Essentially therefore the hoops have been created and we need to learn how to "jump" ....
The history of why they were created is a bit of an own goal for those concerned about just how many "hoops" there needs to be to enjoy a shooting hobby .... but for those who take conservation and management of Deer very seriously .... it was deemed a necessary step in their opinion .... and they campaigned for the relevant legislation .....
What you get out of it is perhaps what you bring to the table .... if your keen to learn it certainly does no harm .... if you are old school who see it as a hinderance .... then it will not be as enjoyable .... however there are always some issues on these courses .... and whilst I came along "keen and open minded" I suppose being "old school" myself I was bound to find some of this "painful" ....
What irritated me was the attitude of the main instructor on my course .... others were fine .... but this one in particular would never miss an oppertunity to "offer his opinion" on rifle calibre/scope choice and anything else he could think of .... and he was "the expert" .... he also had a link to the local gunsmiths and had many "new and enlightened" customers from the attendees who IMO were buying into a lot of needless "upgrades" .... because he would denounce certain makes and types of scope all in favour of his own "kit" .... and seemed to me to be profiteering from the course ....
He had no "bites" from me though .... and to his visible irritation I still managed to pass .... but the guy we had for the gralloch side of the course was a much more modest bloke .... and more knowledgeable too .... the disease recognition side of things he taught really well and just for that it was worth going on .... so in hindsight I think it was'nt so bad overall ...
Interesting observations.
Here are a few of mine based on what I either overheard or discussed on my course and in no particular order:
1. A lot of people of have said how easy they found DSC1 to pass to which I would say yes, but surely only because we studied the course content to permit answering the questions correctly! After all there was no way of knowing in advance which of some 500 questions were going to be asked.
2. The interactive course lectures I enjoyed most were the deer ID and shot placement ones. The former being concluded by pre-exam revision that entailed our lecturer asking students to identify an often indistinct beast by make, model, age and if of winter/summer pelage.
3. Student participation was mandatory for the shot placement exercise and involved indicating the correct point of aim with a laser on deer offering anything from a fully broadside exposure to the frankly unshootable. Great fun and oh how sorely tempted I was on one tricky proposition not to have pointed to the spine and explained that upon the beast collapsing like a sack of spuds I would rush over and, in the blinking of an eye, stick it with a knife! I just wasnt brave enough though and even when noting the lecturer belongs to my rifle club.
4. As purely an observation I suspect that the high pass rate for the shooting test would be significantly less if the standard DJV roe target 10 ring was used rather than that of the very generous scoring enclosure of the DMQ silhouette.
5. Somewhat ironically I came away totally committed to obtaining DSC2 ASAP even though Im very disappointed to learn that I cannot present historic evidence of hill stalking, carcass preparation or larder work in the context of beasts culled between 1982 2005 with Forestry Commission Scotland.
Cheers
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