SHARING THE EXPERIANCE

[mole catcher 1]

Theres some of us who would realy love to take a trip out in the field shooting live quarry rather than paper targets or knock downs. sadly for some that wish and desire will never become a reality.

I had the plesure of taking Iron man andy out on tuesday night for a few hours lamping rabbits. Something i know he has wanted to do for some time, since early january after taking hold of an air arms tx200. Of course taking a novice shooter out in the field under the cover of darkness is something that should be done with two things being of paramount importance, Personal safety and animal wellfare. What i mean by animal wellfare is this, being able to place a instant killing shot on target leading to a humane death. This can only be done with practise and practise he has. Andy has gone to the lenghts of making his own knock down targets, joining a rifle club and putting in a great deal of time to gain the skills to do this. As for safety,again Andy has taken on board all aspects of this and proved on both ocassions to be a safe gun. Safety is something i feel some of us, if not all of us have let slip on the odd occassion. This is where myself taking out a novice gun has given me something in return, its brought back the importance of safety, something which many of us do sometimes let slip whilst out on our own. Like the old saying goes, fimiliarity breeds contempt. Another thing about having a fellow gun in tow is that of field craft, again something that can only be learnt,not taught in a clasroom environment. It gave me a chance to look at my own field craft and adjust where needed. something which has now been brought to my attention and can be worked upon.

 

Sadly, being a full time pester i forget just how lucky i am to be able to follow my passions within hunting through my work. This is something many cant do and will never get the chance to experiance. Seeing Andys face as we walked the paddocks made me realise just how easy i have become sanitised to what i have in my hunting life and how easy it has become to take it for granted that it will allways be this way.

I do owe Andy a debt of gratitude for the help he has given me over the last few months in one way or an other, and to repay him for his help i have aranged to pass on a small( 50acre) woodland plot of my shooting permission, that a customer of mine has kindly agreed to give permission to Andy to shoot within. This will hopefuly get him on the ladder to gaining a good foot hold within field sports.

 

This has got me thinking along these lines, sadly to many of us that have had the good fortune of gaining experiance within fieldsports fail to freely pass on this knowledge. I know there are many takers who would gladly take and take untill theres nothing left and then drop the person who has helped them, nieverty is not one of my qualitys, been on the recieving end of it myself. all im saying is those new to fieldsports still have something to offer us that have been around a few years, if nothing else they offer a clean un- tainted view to the hunting world.

Edited May 10, 2007 by mole catcher

[mole trapper 1,646]

And whats more, MC doesnt charge for his generosity of educating people with a desire to learn.

TOP MAN.

[ironman andy 0]

Cheers MC. I really enjoyed the hunting experience .

It is totally different to shooting on the club range where I can hit a 1 inch target, (quite) consistantly at 50 meters. Range estimating is somthing that I need to practise!!

In the couple of times that MC has allowed me to join him I believe that I have learnt more than I ever could by reading about hunting!

If anyone has the opportunity to go hunting with an experienced hunter like MC, I would totally recomend it.

Cheers again MC

Andy