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Is there any future in game keeping anymore?


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7 hours ago, Born Hunter said:

I'm not a keeper so I don't know shit really but I'm going to say what I think anyway. :laugh:

The future (beyond five years time) of traditional keepering is quite possibly abroad, places where operating costs are lower and politics more favourable.

At home, in the UK, I really think we need to adapt, hard! Our value of 'sport' over 'harvest' is going to be our undoing in the 21stC. When it costs £45 to kill the bird but the meat is worth nothing alarm bells should be ringing! The public just won't accept it "Hunting for food is fine, hunting for fun is disgusting".

As always, it's a lot more complicated than that but the public don't want to know and so it is what it is.

I'd like to see a hard cultural shift towards a greater value of what is harvested and the utilisation of it. Personally standing on a peg does nothing for me, the whole day that surrounds it is great but the shooting part is not what makes me tick. I want to hunt, I want to harvest something, and I want to feel beat at the end of it. I find people, even non hunters, respect that more.

Two days stalking to provide sausage rolls for everyone on NYE. The piss heads demolished them! :laugh:

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Outstanding post mate 

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I haven’t been posting on here for a while but I had a look today and I feel that my input might be valid as I earn my living as a gamekeeper and have done for the last 15 years or so . There are some

I'm not a keeper so I don't know shit really but I'm going to say what I think anyway.  The future (beyond five years time) of traditional keepering is quite possibly abroad, places where operati

Mate I think it would be good if you got yourself a trade to fall back on like Stiff said?... Then get out there and find yourself a job that gets you out into the countryside and that could open a fe

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2 hours ago, THE STIFFMEISTER said:

I think your quite vague here ... do you beat? Are you composed enough to talk to people ? The list goes on 

in reality your 19 pal , you haven’t been able to get out and prat anything that moves or go out on the piss as a younger man should be. 
 

I wouldn’t tolerate keeping as a career for my kids , but bluntly it’s not all cabbing around with a terrier or two or scuffing over a fallow . It’s a big lifestyle job and for the MAJORITY a low reward. 

i know a lot of keepers struggling as a family and a lot of ex keepers who can’t believe they did it for as long as they did. 

I know that mate but there’s no sunshine without rain. I’ve had plenty of time to experience situations in life which has formed me into the man I am today. 
 

I struggle with anxiety and depression a lot because I can’t stand the way people are nowadays and I don’t mean I can’t talk to people I’m a weirdo who sits in my house. It’s just when It all gets too much I wouldn’t rather be no where else than on the land. Just me and Freedom. Shit wages? I’ve been dirt poor all my life anyway I’ve gotta start somewhere. (I have got my head in other career opportunities) and as for shit jobs I’ve worked em it doesn’t bother me I’m a hard grafter.  I can have a intellectual conversation with somebody I respect. I was brought up with manners pal!

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18 minutes ago, LukeandLou said:

Thank you mate that was really helpful, I’m in West Yorkshire close to North.

Not an area of the country I know particularly well. I think Askham Bryan college is around there? They do land based courses. 

But. What shovel leaner is saying is 100% correct. If you can manage to get away from home. Sparsholt is the top place to go. 

Would you consider stretching your career aspirations to deer management? 

If so look into the Forestry Commission. Again you'll need qualifications and experience but their Wildlife Ranger jobs are fantastic. 

 

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14 minutes ago, THE STIFFMEISTER said:

f***ing load of shite 

what the f**k you on about ? 

What century you in ? 

No need to go to college to learn stockmanship or disease prevention or how to monitor the developing stock under your charge , just stick on the application “used to have an air rifle and a beddy whippet when I was at school” 

twaddle 

Calm down man your being a fool just read what people are saying and stop getting all shirty,  I expect there are just as many college educated keepers as there are self taught country men in the job, you seem to be just getting yourself a bit irate over nothing, out of curiosity I thought you were an engineer in the armed forces have you spent much time running any kind of estate in the country to make you such an expert ???

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1 minute ago, BGA said:

Not an area of the country I know particularly well. I think Askham Bryan college is around there? They do land based courses. 

But. What shovel leaner is saying is 100% correct. If you can manage to get away from home. Sparsholt is the top place to go. 

Would you consider stretching your career aspirations to deer management? 

If so look into the Forestry Commission. Again you'll need qualifications and experience but their Wildlife Ranger jobs are fantastic. 

 

I definitely would. I’m from quite a rough council estate and I’d do anything to get away from here. Nobody understands you know? Uneducated fools. Don’t have the slightest clue what a gamekeeper even is but as you stretch just a tad further out to the rural working community people are knowledgeable. I found this group not that long ago, I love it it’s brilliant. Everybody’s on here for the same thing.

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3 minutes ago, LukeandLou said:

I know that mate but there’s no sunshine without rain. I’ve had plenty of time to experience situations in life which has formed me into the man I am today. 
 

I struggle with anxiety and depression a lot because I can’t stand the way people are nowadays and I don’t mean I can’t talk to people I’m a weirdo who sits in my house. It’s just when It all gets too much I wouldn’t rather be no where else than on the land. Just me and Freedom. Shit wages? I’ve been dirt poor all my life anyway I’ve gotta start somewhere. (I have got my head in other career opportunities) and as for shit jobs I’ve worked em it doesn’t bother me I’m a hard grafter.  I can have a intellectual conversation with somebody I respect. I was brought up with manners pal!

Seeing as you’ve misinterpreted every point I’ve made , I’d say keeping isn’t for you as with an attitude like that as an under keepers , you’d get a smack in the jaw and told to f**k off . 

“When it all gets too much you have the land and your freedom???? “

Have you any idea how stressful rearing is young un? 

How shite a shooting day can be when the birds aren’t playing ball? 

How terrible the wages are ? 

Your 19 , you can get by with next to nowt. When your 24 with a girlfriend and a kid will the wages still be alright or will the free cottage and fuel allowance See you by? 

My advice to you young man is to get a trade that pays the correct remuneration for the tangible work.  You could be a train fitter or an electrician with enough funds to buy your own place in the countryside rather than swanning around on a pittance looking after someone else’s. 

Good luck in your choices dancing with wolves ...

   

 

 

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2 minutes ago, THE STIFFMEISTER said:

Seeing as you’ve misinterpreted every point I’ve made , I’d say keeping isn’t for you as with an attitude like that as an under keepers , you’d get a smack in the jaw and told to f**k off . 

“When it all gets too much you have the land and your freedom???? “

Have you any idea how stressful rearing is young un? 

How shite a shooting day can be when the birds aren’t playing ball? 

How terrible the wages are ? 

Your 19 , you can get by with next to nowt. When your 24 with a girlfriend and a kid will the wages still be alright or will the free cottage and fuel allowance See you by? 

My advice to you young man is to get a trade that pays the correct remuneration for the tangible work.  You could be a train fitter or an electrician with enough funds to buy your own place in the countryside rather than swanning around on a pittance looking after someone else’s. 

Good luck in your choices dancing with wolves ...

   

 

 

Smack in mouth ? Is that so pal. You are a very judgmental Character I see haha. I don’t think you have took what I’ve said the right way.

 

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8 minutes ago, Greyman said:

Calm down man your being a fool just read what people are saying and stop getting all shirty,  I expect there are just as many college educated keepers as there are self taught country men in the job, you seem to be just getting yourself a bit irate over nothing, out of curiosity I thought you were an engineer in the armed forces have you spent much time running any kind of estate in the country to make you such an expert ???

 

this idea that all keepers do is mince around in a hilux potshotting foxes and looking for poachers is bollocks. 

If we are generalising to the extent , i manage land on a weekly basis and I would say that the overwhelming majority of keepers are from a shooting / beating / keepering background prior to starting as an underkeeper. 

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Social Anxiety I have and no one would know unless they knew me from this website. I can cope under pressure I have trained for the fire service all my life and I got the job last year but at the end they failed my medical due to having a n operation. My medical is due in 9 month. Just shit waiting on one thing all my eggs in one basket. I have to do something I have a passion for 

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3 minutes ago, THE STIFFMEISTER said:

 

this idea that all keepers do is mince around in a hilux potshotting foxes and looking for poachers is bollocks. 

If we are generalising to the extent , i manage land on a weekly basis and I would say that the overwhelming majority of keepers are from a shooting / beating / keepering background prior to starting as an underkeeper. 

Maybe the idea for the uneducated and people lacking knowledge. 

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4 minutes ago, THE STIFFMEISTER said:

So are you from a keepering or shooting family or a beater or know how a shooting day pans out ? 

My granddad was a game keeper so he passed a lot on to my dad who obviously passed it onto me. Done a good bit of beating when I was younger and always out with my dogs.

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11 minutes ago, LukeandLou said:

My granddad was a game keeper so he passed a lot on to my dad who obviously passed it onto me. Done a good bit of beating when I was younger and always out with my dogs.

Fair play then you’ll know the rigours and aspects of the job. 

I don’t know if newton rigg is still as respected as others but the majority of keepers I know went there . Not too far from you . 

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