Episode 7 - The Christmas Shoot, Pheasants, Missing Duck & Festive Cheer

The Season Continues

So the season is now in full swing here in Wiltshire. I seem to be flat out at the moment, its dark too early to do anything after work so only weekends available for feeding round and any jobs that need seeing to. Running our shoot every alternate week plus other days beating elsewhere and even the occasional invitation to shoot myself mean my holidays are dwindling fast and time is at a premium.

A day carrying a gun myself

Our third syndicate day was slightly different for me as The Farmer kindly asked me to carry a gun in his place. The Lieutenant was given the onerous task of keeping some kind of control over our unruly bunch while I took it easy and just did as I was told. To mix things up I thought I would describe the day through my eyes as a "gun". 

We spent the morning at The Moor. Remember we are a walk/stand outfit so the draw was fixed so I was in the "blue" team ("red" stand first then "blue" etc). This meant I could start early blanking in a bit of woodland and a field before acting as a stop for the second drive while the first drive was going on. It does mean you become a (very distant) back gun on the first drive and I duly took advantage of this by missing three lovely cock birds with both barrels! I did finally shoot a lone duck that came my way.

2nd drive and when a very tall hen came my way early on I had no expectations, I waved the barrels somewhere ahead of it and to my surprise it folded nicely. A good cock followed that I killed with my 2nd barrel (would have be a good chance of a right and left if I hadn't wasted the first shot), finished the drive with another hen bird.

3rd drive and the walking guns, of which I was one, effectively act as stops leaving the beaters to walk the birds up hill towards them and the birds break back over the beaters to the standing team of guns. For once this worked well and there was plenty of shooting, inevitably one or two come forward giving us walking guns a chance and I duly shot a hen and let several go by un-molested as they were a bit low. So after a dismal start I am now 5 from the last 5 and think I am George Digweed!! 32 head at lunch was pleasing.

An excellent pheasant and partridge stew for lunch was provided by the The Carpenter, arriving, as it did, in his work vehicle it was christened "Coq au Transit Van".  Very good it was too.

After lunch it was Hilltop and I was a standing gun - with new found confidence in by shooting ability coursing through my veins .........I fell flat on my face. Three nice birds over me, dragged one down that needed a good dog to find and missed the others, not many birds here today and the wind which was by now a gale was not in a great direction.

Juniors was next and I was back in my natural habitat, the beating line. A great drive with plenty of birds that flew perfectly with the wind up their tails. I did witness little brother, The Accountant, shoot 3 out of 3 on peg 1 and there was a loud cheer go up when The Carpenter killed a phenomenally high bird. 

Finished as we often do with The Brake. I was standing on Peg 1 and thought I would get a chance at an early bird of two but for some reason they were not in the game crop at the start of the drive, with my confidence in my boots I missed the only one that came my way. Some good birds shot towards the bottom of the drive but the highlight was guest and fellow Scribehound contributor Jake shooting was he assures me was the highest Jay ever shot by anybody, anywhere, ever!!

An excellent day all in all, although we still need to get amongst the duck. 57 pheasants, 3 duck, 6 pigeons, 2 squirrels (The Entertainer wont leave them alone)  and a Jay. From a personal point of view I enjoyed my day carrying a gun and in particular came to appreciate how much good dogs and pickers up do in a day.  I witnessed The Irishman and his spaniels pick four strong runners on the first two drives, The Magician and his dog Merlin find my woefully shot cock off Hilltop and The Lieutenants spaniel Fern find a hen that I don't think many thought was hit off The Brake. Well done to all of you all - both human and canine.

Christmas Shoot

Our 4th syndicate day of the season and similar to our previous day grey with a very strong westerly wind. With such short daylight hours we decided to shoot through and have lunch at the end of the day.

Started at "The Moor" with some trepidation. The duck have pretty much disappeared, I guess so much flood water across the area draws them away as they like nothing better than freshly flooded land also while feeding the previous weekend Les Roastbif and myself didn't see many pheasants. Anyway my fears were quickly dispelled as the first drive was full of birds, 60 plus shots on the clicker. Whilst not quite so prolific the second drive had a sprinkling of birds throughout such that the clicker had recorded 79 after 2 drives. Back at the game cart the expected rows of birds were a bit shorter than I had hoped with just 10 in the bag - the guns had struggled to come to terms with some very challenging pheasants it seems.

The 3rd drive at "The Moor" and our last one before elevenses (in reality 12;30) was a great success, a good number of birds and we got them nicely over the guns. A steady flow of birds from start to finish with some good ones amongst them, Deadly lived up to his name with a very high, fast curling hen in front of a good gallery. Back to "The Farm" and with 19 in the bag but with 125 on the clicker it had been a good morning.

Hilltop next (once Vinyard had been towed out having got stuck) and same as last time it was into the teeth of a strong wind which was not ideal, a few in it and maybe three added to the bag for a dozen shots. 

Seniors was next and I had high hopes, we had not shot it for a month and I was seeing plenty there. As it turned out it was OK but not quite what I had expected, the Lieutenant and I lost several out the back a the start which we need to fix for next time. I think the majority of the guns had shooting and I saw a white pheasant go through the line shot at but not touched.

Final drive and decided to rest The Brake this week and finished with Juniors. Again not quite the show of birds I expected but enough to keep everyone happy. Once more we lost a few out the side which can be remedied for the future. 

Back for another excellent lunch which was supplied by The Marine this week. Beer buggered chicken, carved in front of us and eaten in bread rolls. Superb!

Final bag 34 pheasants, 2 squirrels and a pigeon but with 225 on the clicker it could have been more.

Shoot Dogs

This time I would like to introduce you to Irishman's spaniels, as you would expect they are Irish Water Spaniels. Mother and daughter Aigean and Abhainn, please don't ask me how they are pronounced but I can tell you they translate into English as "Ocean" and "River" respectively. They are particularly well behaved especially considering their "spanielness" (I think I've made up a new word there) and as noted earlier in this article they make a huge difference. 

The Squirrel Cup

Normally a quiet time of the year but at least two of the contestants are trying. The Entertainer went into our most recent syndicate day leading The Aging Progenitor by 3 to 2. A the start or the third drive a message came thorough from the "AP" on WhatsApp, now 3-3. This lasted all of 10 minutes when a volley of shots went off to my right with The Entertainer narrowly beating The Marine to the prize so now 4-3. What was noticeable how firmly the squirrel was claimed with a loud shout of "that's mine", I am sure that had it have been a high pheasant he would have graciously agreed to a shared bird. Anyway since then the Aging Progenitor has shot the bottom out of his bird feeder whilst missing the grey varmint clinging to it but hasty repairs were performed and the culprit (who should have learnt from his close miss) has paid the price. Now 4-4 at the top of the table.