munkonminor wrote on Nov 12^th, 2007 at 11:17pm:

Simply that all the "hunters" who regularly trapse through our finca shoot at anything and in any direction. On several occasions we have been showered in shot because they are either to stupid or have total disregard for anyone else. As we border the Natural Park they prefer to stand on our finca and kindly leave us their spent shells, last year two men were there with high velocity rifles. Good sport shooting finches !

Several points:

1. Hunters are allowed to hunt on your land unless it is completely fenced.
2. They are not allowed to discharge their weapons within 50m of an isolated building (ie your finca) or 100m of a village. The law doesn't mention anything about standing outside that zone and firing at a building but I suspect that deliberately, as opposed to accidentally, firing at a house would land a hunter in a lot of trouble.
3. Hunters must not litter, including spent shells, your land.

One thing is the law and quite another is getting it enforced without going bankrupt or insane. We´ve found that walking up to hunters on our land and asking them politely if they wouldn´t mind hunting elsewhere has paid off. We've had a few grumpy twits going on about their rights and all that but if you can maintain your cool and persevere with the polite "do me a favour" act it seems to work. Most just said it wasn´t a problem and over a period of three years we've gone from a war-zone to a relative quietness.

Above all else, if you do approach hunters remember that it is their right under Spanish law to blast to smithereens anything that moves outside Natural Parks or private hunting grounds (coto de caza). There is no point getting upset about it or talking about trespass, they have the law on their side. The only alternative is to fence the entire perimeter of your land.

Snowhite