Nmb

Last season was hard work for us as they appeared to arrive after the November full moon as normal however after some frost I think they move to the coast. I had a walk last Wednesday without a dog and flushed a couple on our moss so hopefully should be a few about. Nothing better for me than my springer flushing a woodcock and then retrieving it after a nice shot!

I'll keep updating this thread for future days. We always have one after the full moon in November and depending on stocks we have another in December. We did a snipe drive on Saturday and it was absolutely full of them! The guns managed 9 which was a great effort so looking good for some shooting on Saturday.

I'm not criticising. You are preaching to the converted on this forum. However I worry it provides ammunition to the anti shooting brigade. That is all

Our shoot moved from BASC to SACS and have been impressed.

+2 I understand the reasons behind dumping them however in the current anti shooting climate it doesn't sit easily with me.

I like all his videos and seeing shoots that I could never afford to visit for myself. Can imagine his pigeon decoying video. He would probably put the decoys about a 150 yards out from his hide just to give them a chance!

Sorry to hear you can't make it Mike Woodcock are a great bird and a left and right would be amazing! I hit one but missed the second a couple of seasons ago however this could finally be the year! Nick

We have a shoot if safe approach and have never had any issues. nick

I was beating in snow on Saturday. Wet rubbish that melted but makes the day!

Nice bag there! My uncle has kept racing pigeons for as long as I can remeber and years before that. He says if a racer comes into a pattern then it is no use as it won't win any races of it's stopping off in a stubble park for a spot of lunch.

It's open to our syndicate members but generally we get 6-10 however due to the amount of ground we can accommodate up to 12

Still places available if anyone is interested. Lots of snipe on the ground.

Here is some pictures from the day. Firstly a picture of the neeps at Hattonburn Two future sportsmen looking forward to a buttery and jam Whilst some people celebrate good shooting.... others need to be consoled about the one that got away.

Hello everyone We had our 3rd syndicate day of the season on the 29th of October and after having such a promising start to the season we were all hoping for the good run to continue. Our first drive of the day would be Hattonburn and my team would be beating. I had high hopes that it would be a fruitful drive however it didn't really produce as many birds as we would have liked. I forgot to position a stop at the end of the burn so i have a funny feeling the birds deserted the drive early. A few shots were had and a brace of pheasants had been shot so it wasn't a complete disaster. Next up was the Willows for my team and there was certainly no lack of birds in this drive with almost everyone getting the chance to add something to the cart. Its a tough drive to beat as the willows are tightly planted and they still had their leaves which made it even harder. This drive will be done next shoot and I'm convinced it will be even better as the birds should fly that little bit stronger. The Sunflower crop was next and like the first drive it never really produced anything like the number of birds we had hoped however the 4 snipe which were flushed tested the gun with our guest Brian taking down a screamer! Never flushed Snipe from a field like this and not really sure why they were there to be honest. Last drive before lunch was the Containerwood and yet again it proved to be a real bag filler with everyone getting shooting at a mix of Partridges and Pheasants. The birds are starting to fly strongly here which made hitting a bird even more satisfying. 17 birds were added to the cart which meant we had shot 34 for our morning. Ruinwood was next and we hoped we could provide the A team with a good drive after the disappointment of their previous ones. On our approach to the drive we flushed 30-40 partridge which headed for the safety of the big pen and far away from the waiting guns at the bottom of the drive. Despite this the pheasants provided a good show and the guns had plenty of shooting. I'm tempted to try this drive up the hill next time to see if we can get a better chance at the partridges. Matt Steeles would be my teams last drive and it proved to be a steady drive with birds flushing nicely throughout and despite the fact I was out of the shooting it was nice to see some nice shots. We decided to do Glashmore as an extra drive and although it wasn't one of the most productive drives we managed a couple of pheasants and pigeons to the cart. After this Ben and myself decided to see if there were any Snipe in the bog next to Glashmore. We jumped the gate into the bog field and within seconds snipe were flushing everywhere! We must have fired 30 cartridges for only 4 Snipe but it was an amazing experience to see 50-60 of these amazing birds in such a small area. Another good day and a total bag of 44 Pheasants 12 Partridge 5 Snipe 3 Pigeon This is our 3rd consecutive day with a bag of more than 60 which is something we have never managed before. And judging by the amount of birds on the ground I don't see why the good bags can't continue! Thanks for looking Nick

We all try to have fun and the bag is very much secondary in our thoughts. Will definitely have to arrange something as we have plenty foxs!

Haha we are a fair bunch right enough,looking forward to a few shots tomorow during the day and a few drams after!

Hello everyone. Our 2nd syndicate day was on the 15th of October and conditions could not have been more different from the sunshine we enjoyed on the 1st. it was raining when we all met in the usual place and it would continue to pour down for the entire day. We didn't expect a huge bag due to the poor conditions however we hoped the Containerwood would have a few birds sheltering in the warm wood. My team were beating first and surprisingly plenty of birds seemed to be around the drive. Despite being absolutely soaked the birds flew well and a good amount of shooting was had. Next up was Tall Trees which is another warm wood and we hoped that it would have as many birds as its predecessor. Unfortunately there was very few birds in the drive but the beaters had flushed a fox which may have had something to do with it. (picture of the vixen in the photos above was shot next to this wood.) I did manage to shoot a nice cock bird which was a bonus and John managed to shoot a tagged partridge which forms part of our sweep. Kilduthie has not been shot yet so I was concerned the birds would struggle to fly however quite a few presented themselves to the guns who seemed to be in conservation mode letting the majority pass through for another day! My team had the Ruinwood next and we all hoped to have a few shots after seeing how well it had performed on the let day. I was again a walking gun however I quite like peg 1 on this drive and I managed to add a brace of partridge and a hen pheasant to the cart. I was not alone in getting a few shots with 13 birds being shot. Last two drives of the day were Matt Steele and the sunflower crop. Matt Steeles did well with a lot more birds being here than on the let day. Unfortunately the Sunflower crop had only a couple of partridge which escaped the line however 30-40 partridge had been flushed by the guns on our way to the pegs so hopefully they will be in the drive next shoot. it was a shame to end with a blank however it had been a great day despite mother natures best efforts to ruin it. We had a quick look for a pigeon at Glashmore before sitting for the duck flight. The ducks were in big groups and we only managed a single widgeon however we should have had a few more! Total bag 36 Pheasants 20 Partridges 4 Pigeon 1 Widgeon

Sounds like a good first day! At least I'm not alone with the pre shoot nerves! Good luck with the rest of the season Nick

Thanks things are looking promising but a nice cold winter would be a huge help!We have a couple of small rough shoots and woodcock days which you would be more than welcome to come to if you like? Thanks, they are stunning to look at and also seem to be a haven for the birds!

Few pictures from the shoot firstly the aptly named Sunflower crop View of the Ruinwood from peg number 2 Containerwood from peg number 6 [/uR some of us after the let day ] And finally a young vixen we shot a few weeks back at the tall trees. was using my Tikka 243

Hello everyone. I finally have internet which means a late write up of our last two shoots! As I mentioned in my previous posts we had our first ever let day on the 1st of October. Despite having a few nerves I was so busy getting prepared for moving houses that I didn't have time to panic! it was an early start on the big day as I wanted to dog in a few areas, plenty of birds were around the drives so early signs looked promising. No matter how many birds are on the ground without the members coming out to help with beating, picking up etc we wouldn't have been able to provide any sport and it was brilliant to see so many members and non members turning up. I had planned 6 drives which I hoped would provide varying amount of sport and the idea would be to have a good first and last drive along with a cracker before lunch. First drive of the day would be "Containerwood". The beating team started of by blanking in the duck pond and Jaffreys wood which resulted in a healthy number of birds flying in to the main drive. The guns were positioned in the traditional way around the front of the wood as well as along the side of the Red-moss. It was the latter where most of the birds tended to fly and judging by the shot tally it had been a good start to the day. Next up was "Hattonburn" which is a relatively new drive on the shoot and one of the few which has the potential to produce high birds. As the name suggests the drive is a burn which runs along the bottom of a den. There is farm steading which has a fair bit of set-aside around them which seems to prove popular with the pheasants. As an added bonus there is whole field of Turnips which I hoped would provide a good Launchpad for the pheasants to fly high over the den and back home to the kilduthie pen. However three quarters of the way through the drive I was fearing a blank may be on the cards! Luckily my springer Isla started to flush bids out of the Turnips and as predicted they headed back to their pen providing good sport. After this birds started to spring out across the line and we could all enjoy watching them testing the team of guns. After the 13 birds on the first and the 7 on the 2nd drive we were looking pretty good for making the 60-70 birds we were aiming for and I was confident that the "Sunflower crop" could really add to the tally. This drive is a real haven for Partridge and they did themselves proud by providing a constant supply of high birds over the guns, in addition some of the pheasants flew like January Veterans and we couldn't have hoped for it go any better . Last drive before lunch would be "Jaffreys crop" which is a couple of fields over from the previous drive. Again a good amount of birds were flushed and some good shots were taken. after a quick sweep behind the guns everyone was looking forward to a hard earned lunch! After loading up the cart we had shot 44 head of game which was a good result. I wanted to give the guns a good end to the day so we decided to try "Matt Steeles" which we hoped would add a few to the bag but leave enough to really finish on a high. This was the first time through this drive and some of the birds didn't fly well but 5 pheasants were added to the cart. Last up was the "Ruinwood" which until the last couple of seasons had been our showpiece drive. We started beating slowly and making sure the dogs were kept in and within a few minutes the stops were letting me know via the radio that birds were building up at the flushing points. It was like the old days when there would be an almost constant barrage of fire for a mad 10 minute spell. After flushing a last hen pheasant i sounded the horn for the last time and headed back to the bothy to hang up the birds. We offered the beaters the chance to take their guns out and have a duck flight and 5 of us decided to give it a go. it was the best flight we had ever had and i managed 2 teal with a single shot which was a bonus. i was really on fire and managed to shoot 9 teal and a mallard out of a bag of 13 Teal and 3 Mallard. It was a great day all round and really showed what our little shoot could achieve when everyone pulls together. Total day bag. 42 Pheasants 26 Partridge 1 Pigeon Evening Bag 13 Teal 3 Mallard Thanks for reading Nick

Hello everyone, I haven't forgotten about the thread but unfortunately I'm still waiting for Internet in my new house so can't get write ups about our last two shoots up yet. Will hopefully have internet on Monday!

Well that's everything ready for the shoot tomorrow. Went out early yesterday morning and spent the majority of the day putting pegs out and seeing where the birds were. Really healthy numbers of both partridge and pheasants so hopefully we can provide some good sport. I will try and get a good write up done at some point over the weekend and if I get any good head cam footage from the beating line i can put that up as well. Good luck to everyone for the season ahead! Nick

My girlfriend has a pair and they have outlasted several pairs of cheaper gloves that I have used. I have used her ones when out lamping and they certainly did the job.

I emailed police scotland regarding my house move next week and they said to tell them my new address and they would arrange a appointment to check new security. They said I can store them in the new cabinet until a visit has been made