Hunting in the UK

[trakker409]

From reading some of the recent threads it seems that hunting in the UK is somewhat difficult. I can't imagine how that must be. In my state we are allowed to legally take one deer per day from Oct. 15, the beginning of bow season, through Jan. 31, the end of rifle season. On days designated for either sex we are allowed TWO deer per day. For some areas of the state this includes the entire rifle season which runs from late Nov. through Jan. Our small game seasons are liberal also running from Oct. 1 through Feb. 28.
What does one have to go through to hunt in the UK? Here in Alabama we only need to go through a Hunter Education Course, once, and only then if you were born after a certain year. I've never had to do it myself.

 

[RovingArcher]

Dang Trakker, you folks are allowed a ton of deer. Are your populations out of proportion to the capacity of the land? Here in California, we're allowed 2 buck deer, forked antler or better and that's for the year. Hogs used to be 2 per day everyday year round with no additional cost over the hunting license. Now they're tagged critters to the tune of $15.00 per tag. Still cheap for a few hundred pounds of meat though. We have the hunters safety requirements as well.

 

[Buckshot]

The restrictions are enforced here in a different way.

When you're talking about deer I assume you refer to Whitetail ?

We have six different species of deer, most have individual seasons for male and female.
Roe deer, for instance, (a relative of your Whitetail) the buck season is in the summer and the doe season in the winter. The exact dates vary depending if you're in England/ Wales or Scotland.

We have no national restrictions on the numbers of deer (or anything else) to be taken per day. Some land owners may restrict hunters on thier land but that's an individual thing.

The restrictions we have mainly relate to getting a gun in the first place.
You have the right to bear arms set out in your constitution (is that the correct one?), we have to show we're not raving lunatics and that we have a reason to own a gun in the calibre we're asking for.
Each weapon must be justified individually, it's not just a case of the initial check and away you go.
The Firearms Certificate (FAC) lasts for 5 years, after which it needs to be renewed. A police officer will come round and check the firearms in your lockable cabinet (they have to be locked away) are the same ones as are on the FAC and all is OK with your security before the FAC is renewed.

Bow hunting is illegal (even for fish I think despite some of the threads on here, although I am happy to be proved wrong)
Self loading rifles are illegal (except .22 rimfire)
Hunguns are illegal (except black powder guns)

Hope this helps

Cheers

Mark

 

[C_Claycomb]

I was talking to a guy who was moving to just outside Nashville and he said that the local Fish and Wildlife people were saying that hunters wouldn't be prosecuted for leaving deer to rot! :yikes: He said that if you could pony up for the tags locals could buy up to 95 or something!!!! It seems that they just have WAY too many deer just out of city limits.

 

[Lurch]

Just to add to the grief that Mark outlines above!
The biggest hassle can be getting land to shoot over. I believe that in the states you have federal land which can be hunted over with the appropriate land? There is no such equivalent here. Common land cannot be shot over generally and you must have the landowner's (or the owner of the shooting rights) to shoot.
Oh and handguns are permitted provided they are over (I think 12") overall length. There is a handgun which has integral stabilizer bars which has been 'approved' for section 1 FAC, although I expect the authorities are looking for ways to overturn this.

 

[trakker409]

Thanks guys. I didn't know how hunting works in the UK or the rest of Europe for that matter. It's just something that interests me since our seasons here are so liberal. The state of Alabama has waaaaay too many deer. We aren't even required to buy tags. Each hunter can legally kill over 100 deer per season here. A few years ago we were in the top five states in total whitetail population. This is pretty good considering we only followed large states like Michigan and Texas. This year the Dept. of Conservation has decided to allow crossbows during the entire deer season, by everyone. Up until now crossbows have been allowed only for those with some type of handicap that prevents them from pulling a bow. I believe hunting over bait is now allowed although I'm not positive on that one. I haven't read the new regs. for this year. Although I don't agree with all of the tactics that are currently allowed they are legal due to our large population. While I do live in a rural area I've lately had deer bedding in my front yard! Kind of bold on their part since bow season is coming soon.

 

[Buckshot]

I was one of the many that suffered when they took handguns away (Boo hoo)

The barrel has to be over 12 inches and the overall length of the gun has to be somewhere around 20 - 24 inches.
I've used one, they're unballanced and not very pointable, the stock/ arm rest gets in the way and you can't get them in a holster very easily.

There's a new set of fireamrs proposals going through at the moment, one of the suggestions is to ban these long barrelled revolvers along with the rearly large calibres like .50 BMG. They're also proposing to raise the age on airgun usage to 18.

My MP's getting a letter...

Cheers

Mark