Duck hunters now hit the Deben

more of the people who enjoy killing have turned up

This is about Sailing around Britain.

23 Responses to “Duck hunters now hit the Deben”

  1. 4 October, 2017 at 11:56 pmKenn Gibbs says:

    They look remarkably like southern (`murican) rednecks.

  2. 5 October, 2017 at 12:02 amdylan winter says:

    same mindset I guess.

  3. 5 October, 2017 at 12:46 amsteveeasy says:

    Well I could not agree with you more on this topic, Did you actually challange them on thier favorate pasttime ?. Never quite understood why our custodians of the countryside spend most of thier time killing anything and everything.,

    Steveeasy

  4. 5 October, 2017 at 7:49 amdylan winter says:

    I spoke to them – asked them where they were from – Ipswich gun club. If they pay for a lcience – the gun club pays. How often are they out here – as often as they like until feb 20. I said I was a bird watcher and said that the biirds will be disturbed for days after this. The geese were here but your club members came and chased them away. They have gone to the next river up where they are not allowed to shoot them. The blokes said that they like birds as much as I do. No they don’t.

  5. 5 October, 2017 at 8:12 amStephen Mundane says:

    What’s the collective name for a boat full of duck hunters? I’ve got a few ideas…Nothing against hunting for food but to do it for sport in the developed world where food (including goose meat) is just a mouse click away isn’t very civilised. They could perhaps replace their guns with a camera with a long lens mounted on one of these and shout “bang”:

    http://www.sharpshooterindustries.com

    The gun dog would be redundant though.

  6. 5 October, 2017 at 9:15 amPierre says:

    Your commentary did make me laugh Dylan.
    Admirable forthright commentary.
    You’re not keen on the hunting thing then?
    (I’m not either by the way)
    Good job that man. Thank you.

  7. 5 October, 2017 at 9:35 amdylan winter says:

    old bloke on the beach mumbles potty language

  8. 5 October, 2017 at 10:00 amPierre says:

    Honest though, honest.

  9. 5 October, 2017 at 10:04 amdylan winter says:

    I confess that I am not that keen on them. I am a bit alarmed that well armed men are regularly spotted on this quiet estuary beach where children play. There is a local effort to get dogs off the beach…. I wonder how many of these peopple know about the shooters coming out in their vans from Ipswich

  10. 5 October, 2017 at 10:31 amDavid Tyler says:

    Odious people with an odious “hobby”.

  11. 5 October, 2017 at 4:31 pmsteveeasy says:

    the thing is there is always more too this. Weve discussed this before I believe. I find it quite astonishing that gun clubs or shoots can even go on to what is (a public place if that is correct?) and pull out offensive rifles and shoot at all. regardless to what they are hitting. I once was walking along a public country lane when a whole load of idiots came along with rifles under arm. I found it extremely offensive and worrying.
    As for what you say is an open ticket to shoot any number of ducks until next year its utter madeness.and quite appalling.. Quite frankly the majority of people ive lived with for the last 30 years in shall we say the countryside!!. do what benefits them. If it moves shoot it or chase it. it satisfies their need to hunt but for pleasure purposes.
    Go in to the towns and the mentality is just the complete opposite. animal lovers. I work in the countryside with country people and I go home to the big city every night for sanity.

    Sounds like you need a campaign to rid the banks from these gun wielding idiots. try the local rag most folk would not even have a clue.

    Good luck

    Steveeasy.

  12. 5 October, 2017 at 5:03 pmEd Bourgoine says:

    At least they aren’t out there with 180 shot per minute assault rifles blasting away. I fail to see the “sport” in going out armed to the teeth and joyfully killing creatures purely for fun.

    Regards from the land of Trump

    Ed B.

  13. 5 October, 2017 at 5:10 pmdylan winter says:

    I always knew you were a nice and gentle man Ed

    D

    PS… I am still getting hate male from Trumpists. What is it with those people?

  14. 5 October, 2017 at 5:53 pmAdrian says:

    D
    An interesting subject, and one on which I doubt we will agree.

    Whilst I abhor anyone who kills for the sake of killing, I am firmly on the side of those who are prepared to kill for food. I imagine that those “hunters” took the geese they shot for their table, or sold them on to others who eat meat.

    If every activity that “someone” didn’t understand or like was banned, we would be a very boring world. Where do we draw the line? Fishing? Farming? Sailing?

    I respect your view on this matter, and your right to air it on any media your choose, but I hope you will respect the views of others, myself included.

    I am aware that this post is unlikely to make me popular, but feel it’s worthwhile if it provokes consideration of a different mindset.

    Do keep making your excellent films, even the ones with contentious subjects, and especially ones that get me on the keyboard!

    Cheers,

  15. 5 October, 2017 at 6:09 pmdylan winter says:

    I think a lot of it depends upon how that sport impacts on other people and the environment.

    The geese were here. The shooters came – the geese have gone.

    The ducks were here – the shooters came – the ducks have gone.

    if they want to feed themselves or their families then the money invested in the dog, the van, the skiff, the guns, the ammo, the camouflage gear will cover the cost of geese or ducks from Tescos. When they told me that they love the birds as much as I do then I knew that the discussion was pointless. I always agree with anything a man with a gun in his hand says to me. Holding a gun makes discussions rather one sided.

    The birdlife on the river is disturbed for days after the shooters have been out. They came here for their own gratification. They enjoy killing wild birds which many times their number enjoy watching.

    Thousands of people come to this lovely place to enjoy the scenery and the wildife.

    The hunters come to this same lovely place to do bad things. They make it just that little bit less lovely because now the geese and the ducks have been frightened away.

    it is not good…. it is not nice.

    I came across this report from the BASC

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/aug/28/basc-britain-shooting-lobby-infighting

    A 65-page grievance investigation report prepared by the London law firm Hill Dickinson at the request of Alan Jarrett, the BASC chair until he resigned in June, includes allegations that directors and trustees gave each other two verbal barrels. One senior BASC man is alleged to have said to another: “You will live to regret this,” another is accused of saying of a colleague that “the only thing that cunt wants is a bullet between the eyes”, and a third is said to have said: “I swear I will kill you, you cunt.” All statements were denied, according to the Hill Dickinson report.

    BASC, headquartered on the site of an 11th-century mill recorded in the Domesday Book at Rossett, outside Wrexham, has a membership of 140,000 shooters and 110 staff. As Britain’s most powerful shooting lobby group, it boasts that it is the largest and best-resourced country sports organisation in the UK, with David Douglas-Home, the present Earl of Home and son of former the Tory prime minister Sir Alec Douglas-Home, its president. There is no suggestion he was involved in any of the grievances.

    they are not nice people doing a not nice thing.

  16. 5 October, 2017 at 6:34 pmsteveeasy says:

    of course you recall the affluent young couple who lived in the us. they sailed their boat to Alaska to fill their lockers with fish and bear meat. then they went home. But the general consensus was they were doing nothing wrong.

    these people who shoot ducks and geese arnt doing it to eat. they might give the corpses to a butcher for next to nothing. but as Dylan quite rightly says for a change!!!! its the wider impact. not only killing for no point other than self gratification, but destroying in its own right a wilderness.area of the region. I suspect the area even controls access of everyday people to manage the wildlife its a corridor of habitat being significantly hampered with. whoever granted this ridiculous right must have been mad or paid. no doubt.

  17. 5 October, 2017 at 7:07 pmdylan winter says:

    I don’t mind people taking fish – but when they decide to take out a top predator that is really bad. It can throw an ecology of a whole area out wack for years. I do not know what it was that they killed or how they sought to justify it…

  18. 5 October, 2017 at 9:04 pmAdrian says:

    Obviously an emotive subject, as evidenced by some of the language used eg “armed to the teeth and joyfully killing creatures purely for fun.”

    Those you initially complained of are not destroying a wilderness area, nor are they taking out a top predator. Those are arguments that may be used in other situations but not here. If we are talking about shooting geese let us stay with that argument.
    I would acknowledge that such activity will disturb the birds for a short period. However the birds return. As for diminishing the enjoyment of others, there are relatively few of us on the river over the winter, certainly not thousands. I too use and enjoy that part of the river.
    Re the BASC, sounds like idiots that you can find in any business, indeed in any human activity.

    However, the point I was initially trying to make remains, if you wish to ban this, what else is in the firing line (pun intended)
    By all means have a debate on the subject. A debate implies two sides having a fair hearing and consideration excercised by all parties.

  19. 5 October, 2017 at 9:36 pmdylan winter says:

    they are joyful when they make a kill – you know that to be true. They are almost as happy as their dogs.

    Of course they are damaging the environment – they are knocking it out of balance. For starters this is, or should be, perfectly good goose territory, they have all gone the Alde where they are protected.

    this estuary is lost to them – piling up pressure on where they can be without being shot by men armed to kill.

    of course they are not the top predator – no-one said that

    if you come back with nonsense I will remove the comment.

    please be sensible.

    You admit that the non target birds are disturbed – they sure are. Where do they go, how much condition do they lose as a result of being crowded into less productive places.

    The BASC are little better than the NRA. A bunch of gun owning people who get pleasure from weaponry.

    I have nothing else in my sights. Hunting wild game on this precious wetland is just plain crackers

    also it is not nice to come to a wonderful place and attempt to blow the local residents into the next life.

    please stop doing it and please stop supporting those who do.

    Dylan

  20. 6 October, 2017 at 6:16 pmkevin tisdall says:

    The fishing comparison is mostly bogus. Many (I assume in the UK and I know in the US) fishermen catch-and-release and there are seasons and limits. Hunting is more of a one-way-trip for the hunted and provides more collateral damage immediately. As mentioned there is a season and presumably some limit on hunting there. But it is a wholly unneeded process which in this day and age only serves the ego of the hunter.

    My brother in law but he hunts. Everything on the up-and up and very safety conscious. Not on the edge of a populated area but out in the idaho and oregon wilderness. He eats the ‘catch’. It’s still completely unnecessary.

    –Kevin

  21. 8 October, 2017 at 10:53 pmKeith says:

    Here in the US in the Upper Pennisular of Michigan, and other places I suspect, people pay the locals to bait an area with food to attract black bear. Then they come up and wait for the bear to show up and shoot it. Hunters? No. Just pathetic people.

    Keith

  22. 9 October, 2017 at 8:29 amdylan winter says:

    I think that there are better ways of treating wildlife than shooting it

  23. 15 October, 2017 at 4:05 pmWarren says:

    Wildlife Baiting in many areas of USA is highly illegal and should be reported if seen. Warren

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