Game Shooting involves the shooting of game bird species,
the main quarry being Pheasant, Partridge and Grouse. 2 main styles of shooting
are undertaken, the more formal practice of driven shooting and the more
informal practice of rough shooting. Both offer the sporting gun challenging
shooting often in stunning surroundings.
Pheasant and Partridge are normally from reared stock that
are released onto the shoot ground as poults. Game farmers hatch out eggs and
day old chicks or poults are delivered to the shoot depending on the model they
are operating. For pheasant, once they have reached a certain age the poults
are released into large pens located at strategic points within woodland or
suitable habitats. Soon after release they will begin to spread out over the
shoot but the pen will remain a safe heaven for them away from major predators
such as foxes.
Partridge release is conducted along similar lines though
smaller mobile pens are the norm over large static release pens. These are also
placed on field margins or sheltered spots as opposed to being within woodland.
Grouse however are very hard indeed to raise artificially
and grouse moors are reliant on wild stocks for their quarry, weather and
predation can have a massive impact on the success of the breeding stock in any
year.
Driven Shooting or Rough Shooting?
Driven Shooting
Driven shooting is mainly associated with shooting pheasant,
grouse and partridge. This is the most organised/formal form of shooting as
well being the most expensive though prices do vary massively from a few
hundred pounds a day to many thousand depending on the size of the expected bag
and the quality of the shooting on offer.
As a basic summary a shoot is normally set out over a number
of woods, copses, game crops or a moor with guns strategically placed so that
the guns are presented with birds flying over them in such a way to provide
challenging yet safe shots.
Normal practice for a driven shoot is to have a line of
beaters spread out through a wood etc who are controlled by the Gamekeeper or
Beat Captain. Beaters are people who walk through the wood in a controlled
fashion flushing birds from cover and towards the guns. Dogs are also common in
the beating line and it is key they are well behaved and in full control at all
times thus reducing the risk of them flushing too many birds at any point in
time, on some shoots due to the nature of the cover dogs are not used.
The guns are placed around the wood or game cover in certain
positions to cover the points at which the birds will flush. The position where
they stand is normally called a peg and will be numbered, typically the team of
guns number between 8 and 10 guns. Each peg is position so that the gun has a
clearly defined arc of fire that they are to cover.
Each sweep through a wood or cover is called a Drive and
typically there will be 5 to 7 drives on a shoot day. The drives are designed
to ensure birds are not scattered around the shoot thus reducing losses from
birds wandering away.
On grouse moors guns are place in butts which may or may not
be sunk into the ground to compensate for the low flying style of the grouse
and to go some way to camouflaging the gun from the birds in flight.
Rough Shooting
This is a more informal method of game shooting. Guns walk
through woodland, scrub land, along hedgerows etc. and flush and shoot birds that
get up. This is often done with a dog to flush the birds in front of the gun so
their hands are free to use the gun rather than use a stick.
This is often seen as a more exciting form of game shooting,
although the size of the bag is often considerably less, the direction of birds
is less predictable and can often offer some very challenging shots.
Rough shooting is often a case of 'one man and his dog'
walking the land in search of game to shoot, but syndicates of guns often shoot
like this as well, especially early in the season and towards the end when the
birds have dispersed over a wide area.
On grouse moors, pointing dogs are used to indicate where
grouse maybe and then given the command to flush the bird so the gun can
shoot.
Gun Dogs
Dogs are an important part of game shooting. Not only are
they used to flush game, but are used to retrieve both dead and wounded game so
it can be humanely dispatched to prevent suffering. The most commonly used dogs
are labradors, spaniels and pointers, although many other breeds have been used
successfully over the years.
There are no hard and fast rules as to what each breed is
best at, it varies very much from individual dog to dog. Generally however
Spaniels seem to be the preferred breed for beating/flushing due to their
ability to enter and work thick cover. Labradors are great retrievers due to
their size and speed and their quiet nature, they make excellent peg dogs or pickers
up. Pointers are used mainly in grouse shooting or rough shooting where the gun
needs to get close enough to the bird to have a shot, in such situations their
highly tuned sense of smell and their instinctive point are very valuable
features. But as said above these are not hard rules.
