Club del Colombaccio dell'Appennino Umbro-Toscano sums up the recently concluded Hunting Season, “we seek quality and not quantity”.
It is only two weeks since the hunting season has unfortunately ended and the various hunting communities are starting to draw conclusions. Leaving aside the quality, because hunting we want to say it is not quantity but rather an art and a passion based on the quality of the killing, we could not fail to notice the beginning of the usual and, now cloying, diatribe on wood pigeon hunting. in its most disparate forms. As the Club del Colombaccio dell'Appennino Umbro-Toscano we are firmly convinced that every form of hunting is to be protected and, above all, to be considered an object of respect. Those who practice the form of the fixed posting, those of temporary posting, those who use the splendid brim with the wood pigeon laid and those who make it on the fly are on the same hunting level.
Reading in the various forums we can unfortunately not notice the continuous bombardment of "posts" against hunting from fixed posting on the fly, against those who hunt from temporary posting with or without calls, those who hunt in the field, those who even shoot at the re-flight of the herd that has come to the game. These gentlemen would very much like to eliminate live calls for those who, in fixed positions, shoot from the air; they would like to ban the shot, clearly on the fly, on the wild ones who "believed", and last but not least increase the distances between a fixed position that carries out the firing at standstill from the one that carries out the flying shot.
And this would be the spirit of some clubs dedicated to the wood pigeon? But shouldn't a trade association protect the hunting of this wild only according to the right fauna balance? We ask ourselves this because going to dig deeper in the posts we notice that at the end of the day the municipality named of these gentlemen is only one: those who practice hunting with stationary shooting find it increasingly difficult and, consequently, collect less (remember the question of quality and not quantity?). We ask ourselves if the real problem is tradition, which somehow for some parts of Italy would make sense, or is it just a palliative because it is not cut down very little.
We would have expected requests of this kind from young hunters who still have a lot to learn, who do not fully know the fascinating and very difficult world of wood pigeon hunting, we are sorry instead that these complaints are made by people with white hair, who know what and how many are the difficulties in setting up a fixed posting with a shot at the poultry placed. Thrown plants and trees where to build the shed are not present in all the places dedicated to the installation of a game for the Wood Pigeon, as well as the passage and the sighting of a group of doves plays a fundamental role on the type of stake to be established. . What should we say to hunters who find themselves in an area unsuitable for shooting posed? And what do we say about the ambushes already operational?
The same goes for the pre-opening speech at Colombaccio. Many do not want it because, according to them, the pigeon in early September is still undergoing parental care. First of all we must not forget that we are talking about the second if not the third brood, therefore as the European Directive literally quotes, negligible for the conservation of the species; according to Ispra, which we regularly know is certainly not a friend of hunters, has quietly admitted the pre-opening of hunting in Regions where the species is in excellent health; third we return to the usual reason that since in the first week of October the Colombacci pass has not yet begun, the stalking in the meantime begin to make "cash" with the sedentaries.
The Club del Colombaccio dell'Appennino Umbro Toscano clearly says NO !!! This is not the right spirit of a trade association that wants to protect the passion for a species.
If there were scientific reasons that clearly indicate the need to restrict the methods of taking the Wood Pigeon we would be the first to strongly support it, but at present there is no sign of the need to intervene in this way. Our Club was fundamental in Umbria, together with some Hunting Associations, with the press release issued a few days before the Hunting Consultation which was directed towards the denial of the pre-opening at Colombaccio and will be even more so in the future if the "heavenly" requests above expounds of some illustrious Lord are only taken into consideration.
The only things we can accept to deal with at the moment, which in our opinion are the real problem that makes wood pigeon hunting more and more problematic and difficult, are two: the distances between fixed stalking and wild boar hunting in the month of October. In Tuscany we have 700 meters of distance between two fixed posts, a measure that we consider acceptable, in Umbria the limit is set at only 500 meters. Unfortunately, the choice of 500 meters was made for reasons of mere "opportunism" of a few who could not set up their own stakeout as another one was already present. Certainly it would not be a painless choice for some but we believe it is a reasonable compromise even towards those who cannot or do not want to hunt in a fixed stake, thus giving the opportunity to make the only temporary stakeout clearly no longer at 100 meters but at least 200 meters away. from a fixed stakeout.
The wild boar problem is of very simple solution: almost all Italian regions hunt in the period from November to January and we do not understand why some provinces should opt for the period from October to December, that is in full pace of Colombacci but also of Thrushes. We conclude by saying that it seemed our duty to inform hunters of what is happening in public arenas as they are often ill-informed or not fully aware of the realities of the facts. The Club del Colombaccio dell'Appennino Umbro-Toscano is however available to discuss with all interested parties in order to eliminate or at least reduce any friction between hunters.
Club del Colombaccio - Hunters of the Umbrian-Tuscan Apennines
(February 13, 2013)