Thread: Eating of shot game

Originally Posted by suzuki15hp

I grew up in a hunting, shooting and fishing family, and shot most of the creatures discussed above and have no issues with most of it. I don't shoot now, as my wife is totally against it (stick to the fishing for a quiet life).

However, I just can't accept the wanton shooting of foxes. I'm not talking about shooting a fox in a temper when your chicken run's been decimated on your property. You can be forgiven for that. It's the weekly winter ritual that I see here, where a team of shooters set out to kill as many foxes as they can, normally on a Sunday morning, for no more than sport and on someone else's land.

The foxes are only going about the business of living their life, and if they do manage to get into your chicken run, maybe that's your fault through bad construction. The fox is merely looking for food, and to be taken out at distance, by high velocity ammunition using what, in essence, is a sniper's rifle just doesn't seem fair to me.

got woken at 2 this morning by a couple of foxes having a fight in the back yard. Initially I thought I saw a cat run away (not ours - lazy fecker barely bothered to wake up) but then it seemed as if one was encroaching on the others territory.

The authorities wouldn't take kindly to the use of a weapon in an urban environment but at the time, had one been handy ...

My gun club put down 400 pheasant this year and we managed a grand total of 15 shot! But remember in Ireland 99% of hunters are rough shooting. There are a few driven estate shoots but they seem to be more for tourists or the very wealthy.
My main quarry are snipe, woodcock, teal, mallard and widgeon. They are always eaten.
i would love to go on a driven shoot just for the craic and see how the other half live!

Originally Posted by rockslider

i would love to go on a driven shoot just for the craic and see how the other half live!

I organised one here in the 1980's, on behalf of our MD, who was a shooting fanatic, for 8 of our top customers.

Shooting - Kinnaird Castle

It was certainly a great example of how the other half live.

Two days on a 200 bird per day driven pheasant shoot for 8 guns, at £2,500 per day. So £5,000 for the shooting, and more than 200 birds were shot each day for which we had to pay, if I remember, £6.25 a brace.

We didn't stay in the castle, but in a local hotel in Edzell, as we had the wives and partners of the 8 guests, plus me and the MD and our wives. I had to procure 16 gifts, 8 tanatalus for the men (tacky; not my choice) and 8 silver quaich's for the ladies.

What with the shooting, birds, cartridges tips, hotels, meals, drinks and gifts, the 2 days cost well over £10,000. A lot of money to spend on 2 day's entertainment for a small company in those days, oil industry or not.

However, the location, organisation and quality of the shooting was exceptional. We were moved around the estate to different pegs throughout the day and experienced a fantastic variation of terrain to shoot over, all the guests and their wives and partners had a fantastic time.

The only down side for me, apart from the Company expense, was the ease of shooting lots of pheasants. I was an experienced shot at that time, on rough shooting, and it was just a bit too easy.

Originally Posted by suzuki15hp

I organised one here in the 1980's, on behalf of our MD, who was a shooting fanatic, for 8 of our top customers.

Shooting - Kinnaird Castle

It was certainly a great example of how the other half live.

Two days on a 200 bird per day driven pheasant shoot for 8 guns, at £2,500 per day. So £5,000 for the shooting, and more than 200 birds were shot each day for which we had to pay, if I remember, £6.25 a brace.

We didn't stay in the castle, but in a local hotel in Edzell, as we had the wives and partners of the 8 guests, plus me and the MD and our wives. I had to procure 16 gifts, 8 tanatalus for the men (tacky; not my choice) and 8 silver quaich's for the ladies.

What with the shooting, birds, cartridges tips, hotels, meals, drinks and gifts, the 2 days cost well over £10,000. A lot of money to spend on 2 day's entertainment for a small company in those days, oil industry or not.

However, the location, organisation and quality of the shooting was exceptional. We were moved around the estate to different pegs throughout the day and experienced a fantastic variation of terrain to shoot over, all the guests and their wives and partners had a fantastic time.

The only down side for me, apart from the Company expense, was the ease of shooting lots of pheasants. I was an experienced shot at that time, on rough shooting, and it was just a bit too easy.

Looks an amazing place! If your going to do it, do it in style!
I quite like the sound of easy shots as snipe is our main quarry on the farm, and our cartridge to hit ratio is not great.
We are thinking of releasing some red legged partridge on the farm this year (not my gun club) as a bit of an experiment. Debating between them and grey partridge which are native, but the greys would need a bit of work with kale strips etc planted. We plant kale anyway as a fodder crop but not as strips along the copses which would benefit them. It's just me and the brother who shoot the farm (he runs it). We have never put down pheasant as they breed in peace here anyway. We prefer the duck and snipe.

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Originally Posted by suzuki15hp

I organised one here in the 1980's, on behalf of our MD, who was a shooting fanatic, for 8 of our top customers.

Shooting - Kinnaird Castle

It was certainly a great example of how the other half live.

Two days on a 200 bird per day driven pheasant shoot for 8 guns, at £2,500 per day. So £5,000 for the shooting, and more than 200 birds were shot each day for which we had to pay, if I remember, £6.25 a brace.

We didn't stay in the castle, but in a local hotel in Edzell, as we had the wives and partners of the 8 guests, plus me and the MD and our wives. I had to procure 16 gifts, 8 tanatalus for the men (tacky; not my choice) and 8 silver quaich's for the ladies.

What with the shooting, birds, cartridges tips, hotels, meals, drinks and gifts, the 2 days cost well over £10,000. A lot of money to spend on 2 day's entertainment for a small company in those days, oil industry or not.

However, the location, organisation and quality of the shooting was exceptional. We were moved around the estate to different pegs throughout the day and experienced a fantastic variation of terrain to shoot over, all the guests and their wives and partners had a fantastic time.

The only down side for me, apart from the Company expense, was the ease of shooting lots of pheasants. I was an experienced shot at that time, on rough shooting, and it was just a bit too easy.

I dare say your MD got his money back in invites to other shoots and in business terms, this being the way it works. Still does today despite all sorts of rules regarding business entertainment.

One thing to consider. You might have been an experienced shot - others may not have been. The estate may not have taken you to the better drives where high pheasants could be encountered. Most shoots offering corporate days operate on that basis. No point in showing 40 yard+ birds to guns who are not competent enough to kill them cleanly. The shoots I pick up on don't. They have a number of drives and a new team will always get birds at moderate heights to begin with. Once the estate is sure they can shoot well the next time they come they may well get higher birds.

A high pheasant, curling on the breeze, is just about the most difficult shot in game shooting with the exception of driven grouse coming downwind at 70mph.

Interesting that the shoot charged so much for going over. Here we allow 10% plus or minus with no extra charge or refund. If the guns are a poor team and have arranged a 200 bird day, have fired 1500 shots and killed only 100 birds then it is decreed that they have had the shooting and seen the birds, It is not the estate's fault if they couldn't hit them. The normal ratio is 4:1 so guns shooting at 7 or 8:1 are obviously incompetent.

Another way of doing it if a team has booked two days and goes over on the first day is to adjust the bag on the second day. This generally works out quite well.