Shooting in the dark

[Slowboat35]

‘Five thousand wild geese in a village creek’ and ‘Three thousand duck on the wing’…
His description of mud is classic Wentworth Day: ‘For mud is the friend of wildfowl, the saviour of our still unspoiled East Anglian coasts. Without mud there would be bungalows and trippers, motorboats and speculators, Cockneys and cads. Mud defies and derides them all.’

That just encapsulates all that is so wonderful about our east anglian rivers.
Brilliant!
If only today's numbers of fowl were even a tenth of those figures...and the bloody trippers, cockneys, speculators, cads and (to a lesser extent) moboats weren't there either...

 

[Slowboat35]

If anyone would like to know more about the history of wildfowling on the East Coast, I would recommend J. Wentworth Day’s book Coastal Adventure: A Book about Marshes and the Sea, Shooting and Fishing, Wildfowl and Waders and Men Who Sail in SmallBoats, published by Harrap in 1949.

None for sale in UK.

If anyone has a copy they would lend or sell I'd love to hear of it.
Otherwise I'll just have to wait until a copy becomes available.

As a better available dry-land companion which sounds on similar lines I'd reccommend the more inland Norfolk tale of "The Rabbit Skin Cap" by George Baldry. The most delightful reminiscence of a boyhood in a long-gone era, though with surprising echoes that still reverberate here today.

 

[Tomahawk]

If anyone would like to know more about the history of wildfowling on the East Coast, I would recommend J. Wentworth Day’s book Coastal Adventure: A Book about Marshes and the Sea, Shooting and Fishing, Wildfowl and Waders and Men Who Sail in SmallBoats, published by Harrap in 1949.
In the author’s words it is a book about ‘wildfowlers and fishermen, of marsh farmers and those hermit brethren of the longshore mudflats…’ He tells of ‘Five thousand wild geese in a village creek’ and ‘Three thousand duck on the wing’…
His description of mud is classic Wentworth Day: ‘For mud is the friend of wildfowl, the saviour of our still unspoiled East Anglian coasts. Without mud there would be bungalows and trippers, motorboats and speculators, Cockneys and cads. Mud defies and derides them all.’
The book is illustrated by many historic black and white photos of oyster dredgers, punt-gunners, wildfowlers, sailing barges, smacks, mud and saltings.

There is… or was a punt gun over the fireplace in the Blue Boar Maldon.
It looks like an almighty cannon which is pretty much what it is.

 

[Sandydog2]

None for sale in UK.

If anyone has a copy they would lend or sell I'd love to hear of it.
Otherwise I'll just have to wait until a copy becomes available.

As a better available dry-land companion which sounds on similar lines I'd reccommend the more inland Norfolk tale of "The Rabbit Skin Cap" by George Baldry. The most delightful reminiscence of a boyhood in a long-gone era, though with surprising echoes that still reverberate here today.

There's one here on ebay J. WENTWORTH DAY Coastal Adventure - 1st ed 1949 - w | eBay

 

[AntarcticPilot]

There is… or was a punt gun over the fireplace in the Blue Boar Maldon.
It looks like an almighty cannon which is pretty much what it is.

There's one in the museum at the Wild Life and Wetlands Centre at Welney. Fearsome object! Designed to convert a marsh full of ducks into pate with one shot, as Sir Terry put it!

 

[johnalison]

When in Paris a couple of weeks ago I had a starter of duck paté de foie gras. I'll probably go to hell, but it was worth it.

 

[Slowboat35]

There's one here on ebay J. WENTWORTH DAY Coastal Adventure - 1st ed 1949 - w | eBay

Thanks very much -can't understand how I missed that yesterday unless it was listed in the meantime. Order placed!

 

[WoodyP]

Another good book is Kenzie, The Wild Goose Man, by Colin Willock. Kenzie used to guide for Sir Peter Scott, before he got more interested in conserving wildfowl than shooting them.

 

[Keith 66]

Wildfowlers usually pursue their quarry at dawn & dusk or under the moon. There were at one time thirteen wildfowling clubs in Essex under the Essex Joint council, Most are still going. All require a management plan & consent from Natural England to shoot & will invariably operate large reserve areas alongside shooting areas. Many clubs have leases over crown foreshore, some lease council owned land, some clubs own it. Kent wildfowlers for instance are actually the largest land owner & manager on the Medway & Swale estuaries.
The times you can shoot are tightly regulated & are usually from one hour before sunset until one hour after sunrise. This means any shooting will take place at morning or evening flight. Full records & bag returns are mandatory.
My club manages over 1200 acres but shoots over less than 100.
It aint easy & any ducks or geese are well earnt!

 

[englishrobs]

When in Paris a couple of weeks ago I had a starter of duck paté de foie gras. I'll probably go to hell, but it was worth it.

Fabulous stuff.

 

[sailorman]

Anchored up the Pyefleet last night, just off the downstream end of Peewit Island. At around sunset a dinghy motors past us upstream, 2 chaps and a dog, lands on Peewit Island. An hour or so later, they haven’t come back, it’s pretty much dark, and sporadic shooting starts seemingly on the peninsula of mainland which forms the entrance to the Pyefleet. Occasional movement of torches. After a while the shooting ceases, shortly afterwards the dinghy motors back downstream. What would they have been shooting in the dark, and how would they spot their quarry?i used to shoot atfter dark most nights,

With a pard 0800 night sight and rimfire rifle, many bunnies smat 100mi could see them at 300m no problem

 

[The Q]

I live within walking distance of marshes, I heard shooting at night and wandered down the garden with a very powerful torch and pointed in the direction of the shooting which was from the bridleway / farm track between the dry ground and the marshes.
Cue a reving of engines as the illegal hunters depart.

Personally I prefer this development of the gun punt used nearby.

 

[diverd]

With the full moon and weather conditions we currently have it will have been wild fowlers, on a duck or goose flight. In some areas contacting the police on 101 and logging your activity is normal practice, but its not a legal requirement, its just best practice in some areas. In places with a lot of public activity it reduces hassle to and from the police, and taking copys of the various required paperwork means af the police do attend, and can actually find and get to them, then their time on scene is minimised. Local cops will generally know the area and if wildfowlers regularly use an area probably wont turn out, unless something is unusual.

 

[Jan Harber]

In Julian Tennyson’s book Suffolk Scene (published by Blackie in 1939) there is a chapter entitled Duck, Fishermen and Marshes. It contains a wonderful evocation of the upper reaches of the Alde, the author’s favourite river. He and his brother grew up there between the Wars.
He describes how ‘…I spent my days and nights walking on it, swimming in it, sailing on it, sleeping on it, shooting in its saltings, poaching in its marshes. My life then was just one grand adventure on that river; I could find my way blindfold across the marshes, or row a punt in pitch darkness from the top of the narrowest creek to the moorings at Slaughden Quay.’
Six years after his book was published Julian was killed in Burma in 1945. He was then aged thirty.

 

[sailorman]

Most shooting people now have thermal imaging or image intensification devices.

Depending on the quarry, if legitimate, than shooting after dusk is not lawful. Amd in any case, the shooters MUST have the landowner's permission. Worth a quiet word with your local police Wildlife Crime Unit.I ALWAYA OBTAINED WRITTEN PERSISSION PLUS I WAS INSURED WITH BAsc

 

[sailorman]

Yed yhermal is bucoming popular but it is very expensive, my pard 809 lrfwith a laser ilhminator is excellent for the money with laser

 

[Slowboat35]

sarabande said:
Most shooting people now have thermal imaging or image intensification devices.

But not wildfowlers!
Image intensifiers are only used on rifles, so only for rabbit and fox control at night. Shooting deer at night is illegal.

 

[sarabande]

TI/II is often used by a spotter for incoming or sleeping quarry. It's hard to imagine, based on my awareness of good practice in the West Country that wildfowlers are not similarly equipped. And there are occasions when shooting of deer at night or in the close season is permitted, but you need a special licence apart from the FAC, and have to complete forms A16 and L16.

Finally I am aware of shotguns equipped with thermal imaging. They tend to be used with BB cartridge loads rather than 5s and 6s for obvious reasons.

 

[sailorman]

A pretty wild and unsubstantiable assumption if I may say so. Almost every square inch of UK is privately owned bar government land, ie parks, streets and MoD property.
It's an equally wild and irrational assumption to imagne that shots at night necessarily involve the commission of some kind of crime.
But then this is the countryside and you say you come from London which is perhaps why you don't seem to understand that shooting at night is quite unremarkable. Especially on coastal marshes, in fowling season and at dawn or dusk. As every country dweller knows...


A great deal of wildfowling is carried out on the foreshore or on publicly accessible land adjacent to footpaths and floodwalls/sea defences where people might want to walk their dogs. Or even walk without them. (baffled as to how walking dogs is relevant). There is no right to roam in England, thank God, so dog walkers (and their dogs) even after dark on remote Pyefleet marshes are required to stick to public footpaths - of which there are none, and fowlers are always aware of where those footpaths are and will act accordingly.

But what bothers me is how the digamma any of this could possibly seen as a police emergency?
Even by townies?

Quite apart from all the above shooting over land for which you do not have permission is a only civil offence, not a criminal one so Police have precisely no input or interest, and every legal gun owner has the right to shoot on the foreshore provided they do not trespass (another non-police civil offence) in accessing it, which is certainly ensured by arriving by boat.


Nothing at all to see here folks. Move along please, move along!carrying a firearm without land owner permission is actually called " armed tresspass"

 

[Daydream believer]

As a lad in my early teens I recall fishing in a sand pit one night. As dusk fell we were sudenly surrounded by hundreds of rats & had great fun trying to catch them. Although I cannot imagine what would have happened if we had caught one
It may be that with the presence of water, the hunters were looking for rats. Rat shooting is a sport enjoyed by many an air rifle owner. A 4/10 or a 12 bore would be more effective of course.