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A young guy at work asked me for advice on applying for a firearm certificate for vermin control on his partners fathers farm. He lives with the young lady they have there own home.
Apparently some of the farmers land is wick with rabbits. He asked the prospective father in law if he and a friend could shoot them with a air rifle. One of them would lamp while the other shot the rabbits. He also has ferrets.
Any way he decided he needed a .22 rim fire to make things easier. So he asked the father in law if that would be OK he said yes as long as you are careful and use it responsibly.
So he buys a cabinet installs it and fills out the paper work. The firearms enquiry officer turns up he advises him to go out with a experienced shooter and find out what it is about. He went out one night with a guy he knows shooting rabbits with a .22. He phones licensing and gives the officer the guys name. Licensing contact the farmer the guy he went out with his Supervisor at work(reference) and six weeks later he has a firearms certificate. He now has a .22 rim fire bolt action rifle. lamping kit. Its fitted with a moderator he has expanding ammo on his certificate and now he is out there most night shooting rabbits. He is looking to fill the other slots on his certificate because rimfire/fulbore rifles are class. Apparently he thinks he should be looking for liability insurance because the .22 ammo goes all over the place it ricochets of dry stone walls it flies over areas were there are live stock. He did not realize how far these things travel. He used to sell the rabbits to a guy for a pound each but now the guy does not want them because of the mess they are in. I introduced a guy to full bore shooting earlier in the year he is a probationer he will be lucky to be in the position to apply for a firearm certificate by early next year. May be I should advise him to take up vermin control and forget the club business.

What's the question?

The guy does not know his arse from his elbow. How could he get a firearm certificate in six weeks yet a bona fida club shooter target shooter would need a minimum of seven month and only then if he is lucky. He actually said to me you have guns why don't you bring them up one night and shoot a few rabbits. Yeah .308. 6.5x55. .303. 7.62x39. etc etc. Well of course I would. So if you want to wander round the country side taking pot shots at fury things fine if you want to shoot at bits of paper oh no you need to go through all the hoops because you must be a bit weird to want to only shoot at paper.

It's all about good reason. He has met that and satisfied Plod that he is safe enough within the confines of approved land to shoot a rimfire.

A club shooter only has his club as a good reason and has to satisfy the legislation for a club environment. Once in though they will no doubt have access to a wide variety of firearms both from the club and the latitude that exists in a HO approved club to share guns.

Safety and knowledge amongst guys that come to shooting like your buddy is in my experience as an Instructor woeful. However we do get some lovely shots come into club shooting like this.

Just to stray a little bit off-topic, can someone clarify for me this business of shooting at night? Hunting at night is prohibited here, for a number of very good reasons, imo. Using lights is completely outside any sporting practices that I know of; target ID at night outside very short range is very difficult if not impossible in even moderately heavy cover (where the animals live...); and, probably most importantly, (which the OP touched upon) how on Earth can you be certain of your background beyond your target with rounds that are potentially lethal hundreds of yards away? Add to that the dense population of the UK, and I am at a loss to rationalise this night hunting thing. Comments? Thanks. :)

Browning_grrl wrote:Just to stray a little bit off-topic, can someone clarify for me this business of shooting at night? Hunting at night is prohibited here, for a number of very good reasons, imo. Using lights is completely outside any sporting practices that I know of; target ID at night outside very short range is very difficult if not impossible in even moderately heavy cover (where the animals live...); and, probably most importantly, (which the OP touched upon) how on Earth can you be certain of your background beyond your target with rounds that are potentially lethal hundreds of yards away? Add to that the dense population of the UK, and I am at a loss to rationalise this night hunting thing. Comments? Thanks. :)

night shooting for pest species such as rabbits and fox is often the most productive, this is not sport so much as numbers control. the shooting of game animals is only legal under special licence (usually issued for crop protection )
animal identification is relatively easy, as the rabbits and fox's move out into the open under the cover of night, however positive identification and backstop is essential!

couple of videos (involve dead animals )

huh. Well, as you say, not sport at all. And I still can't see how the backstop issue gets solved - that's very open country to have bullets flying around in the dark.

Doesn't anyone use working terriers for rats over there? Back home, we had a brace of Jack Russells who kept the horse-feed bins nice and clear of vermin on a daily basis. I still have one for rabbits & possums - he's WAY more efficient than I am......

Browning_grrl wrote:huh. Well, as you say, not sport at all. And I still can't see how the backstop issue gets solved - that's very open country to have bullets flying around in the dark.

Doesn't anyone use working terriers for rats over there? Back home, we had a brace of Jack Russells who kept the horse-feed bins nice and clear of vermin on a daily basis. I still have one for rabbits & possums - he's WAY more efficient than I am......

it can actually be good fun as well,very demanding shooting! the backstop in the Fox video is the rising land and banks behind the target, in the case of the rabbits, the elevated firing position and the frangible nature of the ballistic tipped .17HMR make that a non-issue, same with .22LR shoot down into the ground and not towards an unsafe direction and theres no problem.
as to the Jack Russel, good luck with him when he's got a couple of thousand acres to cover
PS I believe ratting with terriers is very popular in some parts of the country

So what's the question

I know a guy who did not know the difference between rimfire and centre fire; got a piece of paper from a farmer saying he could shoot vermin on his land and ended up with a ticket for .17HMR. .22LR, .223 and 12 bore. No training, no probation period and no waiting.

Redcat