Thread: New member from UK

The biggest and most important difference is public land available for hunting.

I am very fortunate to be one of the very few in the UK who cull deer for a living.

The UK has a 'chicken and egg' kinda approach to rifle ownership, not actively discouraging but enough roadblocks in the way to make it very difficult unless you have friends or family who shoot.

No suitable land to shoot over? No firearms certificate (a piece of paper they expect you to carry about!)

How the hell do you get land to shoot over without experience, and how do you get experience without the ability to purchase and own a rifle?

Set up to suit the toffs really, us plebs are just piggybacking off the house of lords and royal family who like their deer stalking.

You guys got it right, fight for your rights!

Welcome to the forum.

Originally Posted by caberslash

You guys got it right, fight for your rights!

We missed our chance at that in NZ back in 2019, too much emotion over shooting, too much (totally legitimate) fear from us that we would all lose our 'fit and proper' status and lose all our firearms if we were too vocal against the law changes. Some of us hope the legislation would m oderate after the election if we gave ACT enough votes, but the fear of covid made too many vote for a cintinuation of the most inept PM we've ever had, and now our firearms 'rights' are much reduced, with mor eto come if the anti mob get their way. We should have looked more carefully at UK and Australia and seen that once the anti-gun sentiment is put into motion it gains it's own momentumm and is very hard to stop.

The only advantage we have in NZ relative to UK is small population and explosion of feral deer numbers. There is significant ecological damage occurring in many parts of the country, asnd once the green movement get to understand the relationship between removing firearms and ecological issues, there might be some resulution possible. Alternatively some will push for AR10s and SLRs out of helicopters for pest control (or worse, 1080), at tax payer expense. The time is coming for a rational discussion in NZ, which has proven to be a very difficult thing for this nation when it comes to firearms.

I hope UK shooters take up this new 'religion' fully and play the woke idiots at their own game!

If you do manage to make the trip over, and enjoy trout or sea fishing, well
I rate both our fresh and salt water as top 5 in the world

The thought of that definitely appeals! I’m a keen fly fisherman, and some of the stories of NZ trout make me drool!