münstermanager
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Shooting Near Public Footpaths - ClarificationI'm sure some wise person told me that it was illegal to shoot within 50 metres of a public footpath. Is that correct? If so, does it make any difference to the distance if the guns are in a private field with a hedge between them and the public footpath?
I only ask as I took Beecham out today and saw one chap & lab in the public wood (it belongs to the village), in the next field (private) were the guns. At the back end of that was the copse & I could hear the beaters in there calling and banging sticks. This meant that the pheasants were driven out towards the public footpath. In light of the first para, I found this interesting particularly as the guns didn't appear to be that good a shot (I had a clear view as the footpath goes up an incline), runners (and there appeared to be more runners than shot birds) appeared not to be collected until a whistle had been blown and were still flapping about minutes after their return. Next mo, the gun a few metres (max) inside the hedge fired over the public footpath a few metres in front of us and the bird dropped in the field the other side of the footpath.
Just interested in the legality particularly in the light of the starting pistol incident & yes I'm having a problem finding ground to use mine...
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münstermanager
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psps - the footpath is a vehicle track with wide flat banks on either side
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Mark Jervis
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Shooting near footpathsSection 161 of the Highways Act 1980 makes it an offence without lawful authority or excuse to discharge any firearm within 50 feet of the centre of the highway and in consequence of which a user of the highway is injured, interrerupted or endangered.
So, in answer to your question - in the vast majority of cases - no.
If you have permission to be there.
However, it sounds like the party you encountered really need to carry out a proper risk assessment.........
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Mark Jervis
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ps - a vehicle track is not a footpath nor vice versa.
Is it a Byway Open to All Traffic , a Road Used as a Public Path or what?
Check on your OS map or the signboards on the track.
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münstermanager
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Hi
Thanks so much for answering.
Sorry, I was a bit dopey this morning. It is a Public Footpath which goes from one village to the other. It is used as a vehicle track by the farmers -only tractors, or serious 4 x 4s, could get up there anyway as it's seriously muddy but all & sundry do not have the right to do so as far as I know. On the OS it's shown as another road/drive/track with the green path marks over the top - the sign on the path is a public footpath sign. It's used a lot by dog walkers, hikers and sometimes people bringing their shopping back from one village to the other.
I don't know who the party were - certainly one of them wasn't finishing off live shot birds either. It wouldn't have been the farmer, if I've got the land boundaries right, as he has good working HPRs....
Thanks very much
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Sally
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We have several footpaths over our fields and we do shoot regularly. We asked the county footpath officer around to discuss one of the paths and took the opportunity to ask him about shooting near a footpath. His answer was that there was nothing to stop us but he would recommend putting up a sign saying 'shooting in progress' so that members of the public could make their own decision regarding the use of the path. We could close the path but would have to put in an application. Just like dog signs, we were told not to say 'beware shooting' just a simple statement of what was happening. The BASC code of conduct does mention footpaths, but just says that is could be considered to be a nuisance if shooting takes place near a path or negligent if people are on the path and shooting takes place over the path. There is no mention of any distances other than for a public highway (as mentioned above)
With clays, there is a code of conduct with the recommendation when shooting clays is that you shoot at least 200 ft away from a public footpath and in direction away from the footpath.
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