ACTION POINTS

It is time for all shooting associations, shoot owners and those of us who shoot to stop burying our heads in the sand and do something.

With more than 60 years of shooting, 50 years in the gun trade and 40 years of running my own shoots, I think I am in a position to pass on my views before our shooting is lost for ever. Here are the main points.

Firstly, bag size is the first thing we should restrict as this is getting out of hand and resulting in over supply of game to a small market. Our shooting associations are doing nothing to restrict numbers and the Code of Good Shooting Practice is not worth the paper it is written on unless it is vigorously policed. Shoot owners should have to give a legally binding declaration to all those buying days that the shoot is abiding with the code, including the maximum size days allowed. How and where the game is disposed of to be included.

The handling by all of our shooting bodies in respect of lead shot without consulting their membership beggars belief. The truth is that no one has ever died as a result of eating lead shot in game in 200 years of shooting. The shooting over wetlands is a different matter as, unlike humans, wildfowl have gizzards that grind up everything they pick up.

The plastic wads and cases problem is easy to solve and we only have to go back 60 years to when all cartridges were paper cased and all wads fibre, which biodegrade.

I have never found any reason to use heavy loads in plastic cartridges with plastic wads.

All other cartridges should be banned and lead shot remain.

Tony Kennedy, by email