Help - shoot burning pheasants and feeding them to my pigs!!

Jakem

Member
I help out on quite a big shoot and the system they use is to have the birds dressed and wrapped from the previous shoot by a game dealer who helps out there as well and then each gun is handed an oven ready pheasant/partridge whether they wanted it or not at the end of the day, any unusable bird usually goes home with the lads with the ferrets, which is usually me.

What really gets my back up is when the guns hit there bag before lunch due to picking crap and easy birds and then expect to wave some money about and shoot another hundred low easy birds, a lot of these guns have no clue on a decent bird and shouldnt be aloud on the pegs.

With a good team of beaters, guns, keeper and shoot captain a day out on the pheasants can be one of the best days had by people without easy access to other disciplines of fieldsports/country pursuits id imagine.
 

Smith31

Member
Pigs eating raw meat did not start foot and mouth, pigs eating imported meat from animals that had foot and mouth did.
There’s a lot wrong with what’s going on here but a possible cause of foot and mouth it isn’t
Pigs eating raw meat did not start foot and mouth, pigs eating imported meat from animals that had foot and mouth did.
There’s a lot wrong with what’s going on here but a possible cause of foot and mouth it isn’t

I was pointing out how feeding raw meat to animals leads to massive issues for all, foot and mouth was one, we spend over £10,000 a week having abattoir waste and blood removed to a approved rendering plant. Before BSE and foot and mouth all this was sold.

Now the cost of removal is simply deducted from the price which is paid to the farmers for their stock. I would guess that every farmer is £5 a head per sheep and £20 per beast worse off since foot and mouth to compensate for the increase in waste removal costs.
 

JCMaloney

Member
Location
LE9 2JG
Saw our local keeper just before Christmas after I posted this: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/pheasants-shoots.260438/

He`s keeping up with disposing for food with a combination of good guns and not "just shooting".

Guns, beaters and me have made a fair dent in his early season glut with a lot being crowned/breasted and carcasses going to raw feeding for dogs, ferrets etc.

Also a good few groups on FB that will take game to be eaten.

Burning or burying is a fast way to regulation and banning.
 

Osca

Member
Location
Tayside
As a student (long time ago) we once had pheasant pie on the hall of residence menu (must have been cheap as the menu was generally greasy spoon). Every bite had lead shot in it, cooked in the pie.

How do you square that with H & S?
 

kiwi pom

Member
Location
canterbury NZ
I think its a hard "sport" to justify, Fox/rabbit/mink hunting whether people agree with it or not is a pest control service and- even though a large part of the population would be outraged- you could chuck badgers in with them too. Plenty of other sports or hunts serve a purpose too, pig hunting is popular round here and helps keep the population down and of course people tend to eat the fish they catch or at least throw them back.
What's the purpose of pheasant shoots? it keeps a few people in jobs, ok but what else? Its just people with money paying someone to rear a bird that wouldn't be nearly as common (or a problem) without the shoot and then standing around and shooting them- when someone else 'puts them up' for them- and then having no interest in the bird they shot.
You could pay someone to fire clays out of a wood and it would be the same thing.
I don't have a problem with farmers walking their hedge lines with dogs and shooting the odd one but these huge shoots are just wrong and will I think eventually ruin it for everyone else.
 

pycoed

Member
I've yet to see any pictures of whole pheasants being dumped, yet this is the story everyone jumps on - another "urban myth"? As others have said, de-breasted & de-legged carcases look a lot like whole birds when two or three are bundled together. I well know the problems with game dealer collections for small shoots, but given that taking the breasts & legs take only a couple of minutes per bird & comprises more than 80% of the meat, then you are left with only a carcase to dispose of & knackermen would presumably do that for so much a sack - same as lambs?
 

Paul E

Member
Location
Boggy.
The words "Gamekeeper" and "arsehole" are inextricably linked.
You are going to have to tell him to dispose of his crap somewhere else.
Quite forcibly, and in no uncertain terms.
 
Location
East Mids
The words "Gamekeeper" and "arsehole" are inextricably linked.
Can't agree with that, know some excellent keepers who care for their birds, the environment and anyone affected by their operations. Unfortunately there are some very greedy land agents though who often want the numbers of birds 'upped'. Most keepers hate big bag days, there is so much pressure on them. I used to beat at Belvoir and one of the younger keepers (there were 4) had some of the most prestigious drives on his beat and he also had some of the biggest days (to be fair they were tip top shots). He used to be physically sick in the morning and on edge (and ratty!!!) at least until a few good drives had been completed.
There is often a particular problem with pheasants being dumped in the 2 weeks around Christmas due to the high volume of shoots and the dealers/butchers want a few days off too! An entrepreneurial lad locally got his Dad to post on the village facebook page that he was dressing & selling game birds that his Dad had shot/bought from the shoot. He should have gained a handy Christmas stash as he had a lot of takers.
 
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JCMaloney

Member
Location
LE9 2JG
As a student (long time ago) we once had pheasant pie on the hall of residence menu (must have been cheap as the menu was generally greasy spoon). Every bite had lead shot in it, cooked in the pie.

How do you square that with H & S?

Spit it out and hope your fillings are sound? :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::)

Luckily a hand held metal detector saves my old fangs and trips to the dentist. :):)
 
I was speaking recently to a young lady, who is married to a keeper on a large-ish shoot. She appears to have a thriving business processing and selling game, mainly from the shoot where he keepers. She told me that they have to pay a gamedealer , a thousand pounds per season to take their surplus birds!
 

Brisel

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Midlands
As a student (long time ago) we once had pheasant pie on the hall of residence menu (must have been cheap as the menu was generally greasy spoon). Every bite had lead shot in it, cooked in the pie.

How do you square that with H & S?

Shot is easy to remove in casseroles etc. Just don't tip the pot upside down as the lead rapidly falls to the bottom. I eat pheasant at least once per fortnight doubting the season and am unlucky to find a single pellet in a quarter of the dishes I prepare.
 

An Gof

Member
Location
Cornwall
Shot is easy to remove in casseroles etc. Just don't tip the pot upside down as the lead rapidly falls to the bottom. I eat pheasant at least once per fortnight doubting the season and am unlucky to find a single pellet in a quarter of the dishes I prepare.

You need some more days shooting :LOL::LOL: we eat Pheasant at least once a week 52 weeks of the year. The freezer is full of the stuff. Trouble is it’s costing me more than fillet steak ;)
 

Brisel

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Midlands
You need some more days shooting :LOL::LOL: we eat Pheasant at least once a week 52 weeks of the year. The freezer is full of the stuff. Trouble is it’s costing me more than fillet steak ;)

More fun to obtain the meat, even if you have to travel for it occasionally ;)
 

Pasty

Member
Location
Devon
What makes you think that? Corvid and fox’s \ badgers are their only real threat, much the same as most song and game birds?
It will probably never be proven but pheasants are highly prone to ground predators and are plenty stupid too. Also harvest machinery. I would put good money on them becoming extinct in the UK if none were put down for 5 years or so. If you think about it, a shoot puts down 10,000 and shoots 5000, how many of the rest do you see trotting about in the summer? How many cock birds do you see with proper spurs? I speak as someone who not only raised and released chicks on a small syndicate but also worked on a large estate in Devon.
 
It will probably never be proven but pheasants are highly prone to ground predators and are plenty stupid too. Also harvest machinery. I would put good money on them becoming extinct in the UK if none were put down for 5 years or so. If you think about it, a shoot puts down 10,000 and shoots 5000, how many of the rest do you see trotting about in the summer? How many cock birds do you see with proper spurs? I speak as someone who not only raised and released chicks on a small syndicate but also worked on a large estate in Devon.
I don’t know about extinct but certainly rare, quite possibly becoming a protected species with no doubt many of those who would like to see shooting banned wanting more done to protect them ..............
Of course, with out shooting there would be no need for keepers or much of the cover they plant which has benefits for a lot of other wildlife too , shoots and keepers do a lot to maintain balance in the natural wildlife, without them the countryside would be a poorer place and I say that as someone who isn’t a big fan of shooting.
 

Bongodog

Member
It will probably never be proven but pheasants are highly prone to ground predators and are plenty stupid too. Also harvest machinery. I would put good money on them becoming extinct in the UK if none were put down for 5 years or so. If you think about it, a shoot puts down 10,000 and shoots 5000, how many of the rest do you see trotting about in the summer? How many cock birds do you see with proper spurs? I speak as someone who not only raised and released chicks on a small syndicate but also worked on a large estate in Devon.

I'm not aware there have ever been any organised shoots in our village rearing pheasants, but we have always had a few in the fields. Seems to indicate that they would not become extinct, but their numbers would stabilise after a while, after all if pheasant numbers dwindle to near zero, the predators starve and die off making life better for the few who remain.
 

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