Spanish hunters in the campo
#1
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When I had a look around my land I found a shotgun cartridge. My partners father had to tell someone to get lost who just came onto our lane and started taking pot shots at the small birds. Is this normal out in the campo? I’ve heard this is a tradition and sparrows and smaller birds are a Spanish delicacy. Can’t believe people just rock up onto your land with a firearm though. I don’t want my dogs getting shot if they take an unliking to random people with guns coming across the land.
#3
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The problem can often be out in the campo that there are no fences or way to determine whose land they are on. At least there isn't where I am. I do know there is a limit as to how close they are allowed to get to a residence, I think 300m(?) but not sure. I get them cutting across my land after the rabbits and sometimes get pretty close as there is a hill to my rear which they like to go to the top of. This is closer than 300m and we often have to "remind" them they are too close.
Round our way there is little we can do to stop them cutting/walking across and as they've been doing it for donkey's years, we tend to accept it, it's not often anyway. We don't have dogs but their dogs will come quite close to the house even if the hunters are a long way off.
Round our way there is little we can do to stop them cutting/walking across and as they've been doing it for donkey's years, we tend to accept it, it's not often anyway. We don't have dogs but their dogs will come quite close to the house even if the hunters are a long way off.
#4
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The problem can often be out in the campo that there are no fences or way to determine whose land they are on. At least there isn't where I am. I do know there is a limit as to how close they are allowed to get to a residence, I think 300m(?) but not sure. I get them cutting across my land after the rabbits and sometimes get pretty close as there is a hill to my rear which they like to go to the top of. This is closer than 300m and we often have to "remind" them they are too close.
Round our way there is little we can do to stop them cutting/walking across and as they've been doing it for donkey's years, we tend to accept it, it's not often anyway. We don't have dogs but their dogs will come quite close to the house even if the hunters are a long way off.
Round our way there is little we can do to stop them cutting/walking across and as they've been doing it for donkey's years, we tend to accept it, it's not often anyway. We don't have dogs but their dogs will come quite close to the house even if the hunters are a long way off.
Do they have a right of way ir something?
#5
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My land is quite large enough, 20 hectares. It is not flat as it is mainly a large hill poking out of the olive groves. Nothing is grown on it because it is too rocky. We do though have a dozen olive trees. Trying to put a fence around it, which you never see amongst the olive groves anyway, would be prohibitively expensive just to stop the odd hunter walking over it. It would alienate the neighbours who have land around us - our house is separate by at least a kilometre from the next house and the other landowners live in the nearest village or town. It would mark us out as foreigners as would anything that goes against the norms and would hinder our hard won integration with them.
They can have a few rabbits as they tend to eat our plants anyway and as for right of way, who knows. Hunters have been there probably ever since gunpowder was invented and it is common for me and my family and anyone else to walk through the groves to short cut the long curvy walk along the road or anywhere else.
Would I prosecute someone for walking over our hill? Absolutely not. Quickest way to be sent to Coventry and shunned everywhere local we went.
The only way you know who owns what land is, in fact you don't. There are commonly no marked borders, maybe a track here and there, but that's not conclusive and as everyone knows whose land is what, there is no point.
Our neighbour collects our olives and in payment to us we get a couple of bottles of oil from him after the pressing. That's good enough for us. An old guy from the village comes and collects the almonds from a few trees we have. He's happy and we're happy. They'd only go to waste as with the olives. We have two fig trees, it's a free for all when they are ripe as they don't all ripen at the same time. There's too many for us and whoever wants to get a few in passing or when working in the fields, they can. No problem. It's the norm.
Down in the bottom of our valley a man has some fruit trees. He only stipulates you ask him first but he never refuses.
The village and town houses have clearly defined borders, walls, fences etc, as you'd expect. In the campo? It's not a thing at all.
Would we fence off our land? Never.
They can have a few rabbits as they tend to eat our plants anyway and as for right of way, who knows. Hunters have been there probably ever since gunpowder was invented and it is common for me and my family and anyone else to walk through the groves to short cut the long curvy walk along the road or anywhere else.
Would I prosecute someone for walking over our hill? Absolutely not. Quickest way to be sent to Coventry and shunned everywhere local we went.
The only way you know who owns what land is, in fact you don't. There are commonly no marked borders, maybe a track here and there, but that's not conclusive and as everyone knows whose land is what, there is no point.
Our neighbour collects our olives and in payment to us we get a couple of bottles of oil from him after the pressing. That's good enough for us. An old guy from the village comes and collects the almonds from a few trees we have. He's happy and we're happy. They'd only go to waste as with the olives. We have two fig trees, it's a free for all when they are ripe as they don't all ripen at the same time. There's too many for us and whoever wants to get a few in passing or when working in the fields, they can. No problem. It's the norm.
Down in the bottom of our valley a man has some fruit trees. He only stipulates you ask him first but he never refuses.
The village and town houses have clearly defined borders, walls, fences etc, as you'd expect. In the campo? It's not a thing at all.
Would we fence off our land? Never.
#6

When I had a look around my land I found a shotgun cartridge. My partners father had to tell someone to get lost who just came onto our lane and started taking pot shots at the small birds. Is this normal out in the campo? I’ve heard this is a tradition and sparrows and smaller birds are a Spanish delicacy. Can’t believe people just rock up onto your land with a firearm though. I don’t want my dogs getting shot if they take an unliking to random people with guns coming across the land.
My neighbour has a box full of doves. He ties their feet to posts and leaves them all day in the sun. By the afternoon they are all hanging down. He calls it training. After the have finished their training course he takes them into the woods and ties them high in a tree to attract passing birds which he then shoots. My Dad was a hunter but he never did any of this.
#7
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This is very common in Italy. Where I live they go shooting little birds. In fact they shoot everything. The pellets sometimes hit me on the head when I am in the garden. They leave little bowls of water to attract the critters and shoot them when they are drinking. I collect these bowls when they are not looking.
My neighbour has a box full of doves. He ties their feet to posts and leaves them all day in the sun. By the afternoon they are all hanging down. He calls it training. After the have finished their training course he takes them into the woods and ties them high in a tree to attract passing birds which he then shoots. My Dad was a hunter but he never did any of this.
My neighbour has a box full of doves. He ties their feet to posts and leaves them all day in the sun. By the afternoon they are all hanging down. He calls it training. After the have finished their training course he takes them into the woods and ties them high in a tree to attract passing birds which he then shoots. My Dad was a hunter but he never did any of this.
daft shooting tiny birds with a powerful shotgun. Like shooting a rabbit with a rocket launcher. Everyone seems to have guns in the country.
#8
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The advice of not bothering the hornets nest is good advice.. The hunters and their associations are strong here in Europe and they will make your life miserable if they are reported as it is most likely that the mayor and police are hunters also..
It is just something you have to live with when you purchase your dream property in the campo..
It is just something you have to live with when you purchase your dream property in the campo..
#10
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As annoying as they are and despite their forgetfulness when it comes to picking up spent cartridges, hunters are generally very respectful of nature and neighbors. They would certainly never shoot towards a dog. My dog is very nervous but he seemed to ignore them when we lived in the countryside, as if there was a connection between them. In contrast, he's spent the past 2 weeks quivering at the end of my bed with the non-stop Fallas fireworks.
So have you moved out to Spain now? I can never figure out if you live here, there or elsewhere.
So have you moved out to Spain now? I can never figure out if you live here, there or elsewhere.
#11
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As annoying as they are and despite their forgetfulness when it comes to picking up spent cartridges, hunters are generally very respectful of nature and neighbors. They would certainly never shoot towards a dog. My dog is very nervous but he seemed to ignore them when we lived in the countryside, as if there was a connection between them. In contrast, he's spent the past 2 weeks quivering at the end of my bed with the non-stop Fallas fireworks.
So have you moved out to Spain now? I can never figure out if you live here, there or elsewhere.
So have you moved out to Spain now? I can never figure out if you live here, there or elsewhere.
Last edited by Stingychips; Mar 16th 2022 at 10:46 am.
#12
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