Smiling Assassins..

[foxtrotoscar 35]

All too common. I know a lot of people don't like informing the police of where they're going / what they're doing, but this shows the value of informing the police ahead of the trip. This could all too easily have led to an ARU being sent and you possibly being shot by mistake. It's far better to establish you're not a poacher ahead of any complaint and for the police to have a mobile number to contact you on. The whole he's shooting people allegation (if that police woman is correct in reporting that as said), of course is a whole other level / issue.

 

I agree entirely with your attitude about building bridges, far better to do that then antagonise the situation as you're likely to come across these people again in the near future. A smile over the hedge even if fake, is better than an argument / traded insults every time you appear! You also risk escalating it with damage to your car etc.

 

Having said that, one way you could have got your own back without the animosity as they'd never know it came from you, would have been to simply say to the police woman at the end of it, aren't you going to do anything about the caller wasting police time? It's one thing to report someone shooting on a field as potentially being a poacher, but another thing to lie entirely and state they're actually shooting people. It's wasted your time and could have led to a full armed response and someone innocent getting shot. They shouldn't be allowed to get away with phoning in dangerous lies like that when it could put the life of someone innocent in danger. That way you put it back on the police to at least verbally warn the caller, or maybe even caution / charge them with wasting police time or making false allegations, and as it apparently comes from the police considering the call after investigation, and not you making an allegation against the caller, it's unlikely any finger will be pointed in your direction. It may also make the caller think twice about calling again if they risk prosecution themselves.

 

You could do it post incident of course, but it then does point more to a complaint from yourself.

 

Personally, I'd like to see people prosecuted who lie to the police to simply get them out in these circumstances in such a dangerous manner. I could almost guarantee if you called the police and said there's someone with a gun shooting people in my street and they came out, and it was a pack of lies, they'd at the very least caution you, and most probably prosecute you for doing so. Yet it seems that if it involves complaints about country sports, it's forgiveable.

I know you mean well, but the police don't like being used as a stick to beat the opponent back with. If I had said that (and it did indeed cross my mind) The officer may well have seen through my game and got shirty with me or thought less of me. Regarding the police side of it I did okay. I answered all her questions without argument and beat her down to a pulp quite legally by handing her my FAC and let her try and make sense of it without any help from me as she didn't ask for any! That was priceless as she hadn't a clue what gun I had with me and there's all the conditions they don't know about etc. I quite enjoyed watching her struggle with it TBH but she was a decent young officer trying to sort the situation fairly, which she did do. She knew about permission letters which I never carry as her dad was a shooter she said. I had the farmers number on my phone and that was good enough.

Edited June 7, 2016 by foxtrotoscar

[Alsone 789]

however I do not agree we should be phoning police to inform them we are shooting on private property, with authority,I dont phone them and tell them I am going out on my motorbike,or off to the pub, so why the hell should I phone them and tell them I am going to a farm in the middle of nowhere to shoot, the only exception I would make to this is if I was shooting somewhere very sensitive, a golf course for instance looked over by houses, then yes I can see the merits in doing so, but other than an example such as that, forget it.

 

Whereas I agree in principle with this, in practice you have to ask yourself is it better to stand on your right to privacy or risk your life because you didn't want to make a phone call and some idiot thinks it's funny to report you potentially as some rampaging gun toting lunatic?

 

At least if the police know where you are, who you are and roughly what hours you'll be there, any general complaints of "I've just seen a man brandishing a gun walking around in fields in XXX" can be met with, "yes we know all about it sir, he's authorised to be there and shooting legally on behalf of the landowner". In the event of any further queries, they can phone your mobile for a chat. A phone call in advance and / or a phone call whilst out shooting will probably save an armed response and that in turn could possibly save your life. Yes mistakes by ARU's are rare, but they do happen and it only takes one mistake for it to be final...Personally I'd rather make the phone call, and contact with the police for the right reasons, can only increase your reputation as a responsible shooter.

Edited June 7, 2016 by Alsone

[foxtrotoscar 35]

 

however I do not agree we should be phoning police to inform them we are shooting on private property, with authority,I dont phone them and tell them I am going out on my motorbike,or off to the pub, so why the hell should I phone them and tell them I am going to a farm in the middle of nowhere to shoot, the only exception I would make to this is if I was shooting somewhere very sensitive, a golf course for instance looked over by houses, then yes I can see the merits in doing so, but other than an example such as that, forget it.

 

Whereas I agree in principle with this, in practice you have to ask yourself is it better to stand on your right to privacy or risk your life because you didn't want to make a phone call and some idiot thinks it's funny to report you potentially as some rampaging gun toting lunatic?

 

At least if the police know where you are, who you are and roughly what hours you'll be there, any general complaints of "I've just seen a man brandishing a gun walking around in fields in XXX" can be met with, "yes we know all about it sir, he's authorised to be there and shooting legally on behalf of the landowner". In the event of any further queries, they can phone your mobile for a chat. A phone call in advance and / or a phone call whilst out shooting will probably save an armed response and that in turn could possibly save your life. Yes mistakes by ARU's are rare, but they do happen and it only takes one mistake for it to be final...Personally I'd rather make the phone call, and contact with the police for the right reasons, can only increase your reputation as a responsible shooter.

 

I agree the shooting logs many forces have can be a good thing, they are also a double edged sword IMO. Like many other shooters I enjoy doing what I like and not informing anyone where I am or what I'm doing when out shooting. The problem is the police constantly try to interpret H.O guidance to suit their own "control" agendas. So if we all started ringing in to assist them, it would soon become a legal requirement to do so, of that I have no doubt. On the other side of the coin, Alsone makes some valid points and there are times when it benefits both the police and the shooter. I use it sometimes and I have mixed feelings about it. I mentioned earlier in this thread about an issue I had with the force helicopter buzzing me after being informed of my location and time I'd be there. I wasn't happy and reported it, never to hear a response surprisingly.

I'm all for assisting the police but do wonder at their agendas to control shooters rather than assisting them.

[Born Hunter 17,812]

Totally against voluntarily informing the authorities about my private activities. Today it's advisable, tomorrow it's best practice and next week it's a legal obligation.

 

f**k that for the sake of dealing with plod once in a blue moon over a misunderstanding.

 

Has any legit sportsman ever accidentally been shot!? LOL. I'll take my chances and retain my liberty.

[Alsone 789]

Has any legit sportsman ever accidentally been shot!? LOL. I'll take my chances and retain my liberty.

 

Not that I'm aware of, but the list of "accidents" is quite long. eg:

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1294974/Bungling-armed-police-fired-guns-accidentally-110-TIMES-3-years.html

 

6 civilians killed and several police officers.

 

When they're hyped up on adrenaline and you're held at gunpoint, it only takes one misinterpreted move to lead to a shooting. I'm not saying here you should have to report where you're going, just that it's often in your own interests to do so. The unfortunate fact is we live in a society when gun owners are persecuted for following a legitimate and lawful sport and there are many urban do gooders who see shooters as cruel people rather than people actually helping to restore the countryside's balance and are all too enthusiastic to report them as a result for following what is a lawful pastime.

[walshie 2,804]

There is an area between being careless with firearms and being ridiculously over-the-top and always imagining the worst case scenario. I like to call this area "sensible."

 

There is a friend of mine who is totally anal when it comes to his guns. I guess it's better than waving them about without a thought for the consequences, but in some cases this over-cautious approach appears to verge onto obsession. I wouldn't have thought being obsessive about anything was a great character trait when it came to firearms.

 

Just my take on it.

[Alsone 789]

That's a very good point Walshie, but maybe he's had a bad experience.

[The one 8,511]

I know how your feeling ive to log on to one permission and still ive had the armed responce out 6 times the other guy had them out 4 times and his bottle went and hes not been back , when i log in i tell them i dont have a mobile phone and that security can contact me via radio if they need me , we had another job for three months and for months after that they would phone you saying are you at xxxxxx we have had reports of a man with a gun despite telling them the contract was over . Another thing i do after ive logged on is tell the bus drivers they radio threw to the garage so if they do happen to see you they dont call the police , i was all for secrecy but letting a few people seems to work better for me . Now when you phone them im sure all your details flash up and they just confirm them

[foxtrotoscar 35]

Little update, I saw the guy last evening as I pulled up at that permission. No apology from him. He did ask if I'd ring him when shooting there in the future! Well he has two hopes and one of them is called Bob! Also he then bragged he was a shooter himself, which annoyed me slightly as he should really have spoken with me before calling the police out. I was mistaken about him being here for some time though as he only took it on recently, but looks similar to the last guy. Farmer advises me Rape will be the next crop grown in the adjacent fields, so plenty of pigeons for the shotguns! Lol

[Alsone 789]

Strikes me he just wants the permission all to himself and that he's worried that you shooting next door will mean less prey coming off your fields onto his permission.