Pheasant /partridge returns 2009/10

[Blackbart]

What has your returns been like this year?

 

We put more birds down than ever before and put more time in dogging in,hand feeding,pest control etc etc yet our return looks like being only about 30-33%

[t jack]

What has your returns been like this year?

 

We put more birds down than ever before and put more time in dogging in,hand feeding,pest control etc etc yet our return looks like being only about 30-33%

 

 

similar on our llittle 800 bird shoot, more birds than before, more time spent and not too great a return, i havent done the maths but id expect 30-40% some of the big shoots near us had similary bad returns with full time keepers, so i think it was just a bad year in my area?

[Blackbart]

We put 1400 pheasants down and 100 partridge.The partridge vanished and only 5 or 6 have been added to the bag during the season and we have shot 440 pheasants with one days shooting left so a bit dissapointing really.

[al4x]

we've had a reasonable year one syndicate I beat on is up to about 40% and the bigger estate I beat on is over that with over 100% on ducks. But and this is the big but there are still bucket loads of birds about, I think having the cold when we did here brought them all in and helped hold them as we've got end of season shooting like I've never seen it and thats despite seeming to have a large abundance of foxes at the moment.

[Blackbart]

Thats the bit that is anoying alex, the birds just are not about !.They seem to have left with the snow.We had a good boxing day shoot when there was snow everywhere and ended up with 103 birds in the bag,but the last 2 shoots has seen very few birds about the place.

[al4x]

I would guess we had 240 on saturday made up of 47 ducks and the rest mostly pheasants but the shooting wasn't great, the late season birds flew really well so shot ratio wouldn't have been great and now they're getting wiley they take any excuse not to be driven the right way. One things for sure got a beaters day next monday and that could be very interesting as the keeper certainly is concerned at the sheer number still about.

You obviously had harder weather than us but interesting it made that much difference as even the small syndicate I beat on has been having a good year, mostly held back by the quality of the shooting which is a shame for the keeper.

[flyingfisherman]

The syndicate im in have had a great year, apart from 100 ducks released onto a fishing lake which all disappeared. Put down 3-400 pheasants in two pens and have shot 60% of the pheasants. Its tailed right off now, with only cocks day possibly next week..

 

Lots of greylegs around, tonnes of snipe (a first for our shoot) and a good few woodcock. I would say a very successful season, although a few years ago, we tried to put down 600 pheasants and shot less than this year.. Showing that overstocking on land can be detrimental.

[ollie]

70 pheasants put down on our 3 man syndicate, 41 shot. Good return, 58ish%.

[utectok]

1000 down less than 200 shot and picked... Pretty poor here there is talk of trying to get a part time keeper but that's more money !!

[PhilR]

I've been beating for a number of years on a commercial shoot and there's been 15 syndicate or let days this season. The required bag is 200 each day and 250 for the odd let day. The bag has been exceeded every time with the exception of one let day when they couldn't hit the proverbial barn door, but the shoot owner has three shot counters on the go during the drives and works on a ratio of 4 to 1 and they had the shots even if it was at thin air.

 

Beater's day on Monday was a record 416 pheasants, for 1379 shots, between 14 guns - 9 on pegs and 5 around the beating line all rotating over the six drives. The full time keeper puts down 10,000 poults and from the number of birds still around on Monday, we could have managed another couple of days had the season permitted it.

 

I was in a local syndicate until this season and decided not to rejoin because of consistently declining annual return on birds shot plus the keeper's decision to increase fees significantly this season to buy extra poults which to my mind could mask the real root of the problem.

 

I've also bought several days during January in Sussex, Bucks and Berks and reckon the results have been disappointing I reckon they've been shot out.

[webber]

The syndicate that McF, Micklmus and I are now involved with put down 1400 Pheasant, the return was 34%, which was up on their return for last year (25%)

 

The increase was generally due to improvements in gamekeeping methods and practices, sadly all members were not singing from the same hymn sheet which cost us a considerable number of birds. Hopefuly lessons will have been learned and best practice techniques will be employed by all the pens next season.

 

webber

[Sprinter]

Hmm bit of a game of two halves really.

On the one hand a shoot that im involved with has seen returns of less then 20%, birds just headed for the horizon at every opportunity. While dogging in one side of the shoot they were streaming out the other!! and vice-verse. Aided and abetted by the local hunt crashing through the woods and all cover crops, uncountable dog walkers with packs of unruly mutts, wandering doormouse surveys, bat groups, wandering gentlemen of foreign origin picking maize in the cover crops and an infestation of do as you likeys.

On the other hand i have shot in a small syndicate that has returned 44% Pheasant and 90%!!!!!! partridge. Admittedly we have drawn some partridge in from somewhere, but hey-ho if they come over you have to shoot at them don't you.....

[M ROBSON]

On the estate we use they shot over 2500 birds, I don't know the % returns.

 

On my own shoot my Pheasants were 46% from 1000 birds. Partridge 52.5% from 40 birds. Mallard 60% from 600 birds.

 

Been a good season for the days we shot but I have a lot of birds left over.

 

I lost 3 days shooting through cancellations due to cold weather wildfowling ban.

 

Cheers,

Mark.

[markm]

My small syndicate - 50% pheasants and 70 % ducks - (although they were very poor fliers this year)

 

Other syndicate I am a gun in, pheasants are ok / good (not sure of exact %age) but only shot 20 out of 400 duck (5% OMG)

[docholiday]

we put dowm 2000 birds and shot just under 600, bit strange as up to christmas we were gettin approx 100 bird days then dropped to 30 - 60 bird days, many of our days were still with brightsunshine and very cold which didnt help to get them flying.

doc

[dave kelly]

ON OUR SMALL SHOOT 500 HUNDRED PHEASANTS AND 75 DUCKS PUT DOWN.

101 PHEASANTS AND 47 DUCKS SHOT.NOT A GOOD RETURN;BUT ENJOYED THE DAYS OUT

[goldypurple]

On our forrestry shoot we put down 400 pheasants and shot 230, dont think that is bad at all considering the weather we have had this year. does help having neighbouring shoots thou.

[scolopax]

Released 150 poults and shot 62, so I guess that is a little over 40%. We also shoot a wood a few miles away and accounted for another 31 there, but they are not our released birds so not counted them in the % returns.

 

Had five days with 5 guns, of which 3 or 4 were standing. Averaged 26 head per day. Already looking forward to next season....

[poshpaddy]

We put down 200 pheasant poults and 1 partridge poult in our first season.

 

We shot 139 pheasants which is basically a 70% return.

 

Now we just need to expand, hoping to put down 600 - 800 next year if we can get the other members to stump up some extra cash.

[PhilR]

I was talking to a farmer pal today who used to let some of his land to a shoot and he reckoned that the soil has a great deal to do with whether the birds will stay or not.

 

In his opinion if the shoot has sticky, claggy clay the birds don't like it on their feet and will try to get to somewhere where it is less heavy, whereas if it is sandy or chalky well draining soil then they'll stay put.

 

Don't know whether there's any truth in this but my previously mentioned syndicate was on very thick clay, that you picked a couple of lbs up on your boots every time it rained, so it might be part of the missing bird equation.

[proTOM1]

Just done our returns but what i have to say we are a big shoot with other big shoots near by. On my side the 4 drives i keep in order 9000 french patridge put down 71% back which is pritty good ,1000 english down as part of bring back the english thing we are in only 16 birds shot my side which i have to say that makes me happy as i love seeing them around the place good season, also shot 89 pheasants and we put none down ,27 wood cock which for my side is vey good

 

Now to the ducks 500 put down 43% back due to many factors they were very wild this year then the snow and ice ment we left them alone , as a norm we get around 90% back but nevermind . will work out the other sides returns and post at a later date !

 

[Blackbart]

Some good returns about the country.I think as ours is a relatively new shoot and there is not another shoot that puts birds down within about 5 mile of our boundary so a return of 33% isnt a disaster.We were let down at the last minute with the ducks as the r sole of a gamefarmer sold ours to a big client who wanted some extra so after phoning around a lot we ended up with no ducks put down but we did shoot 12 off the ponds.

[Quickshot]

Two shoots that i know the rough returns of.

 

The first one, the shoot i reared the poults for. We released around 2500 and struggled to shoot 900. So thats 36%. Plus a few partridge, and duck.

 

The second is one i hold quite close to my heart. Its the one i first went beating on. They put down 1300 birds, both pheasants and partridge. They have shot 1045 this season, for 3400 shots. Thats an 80% return with a 3.25 : 1 shots ratio!

 

QS

[henry d]

Most shoots I go to are averaging @ 50% for pheasant and 60-70% for french partridge.

[tony armstrong]

we released 250 poults on our small little syndicte over 8 days weve shot 173 pheasant 12 partridge 22 woodcock and 30 plus duck from a small flight pond.not bad for a little shoot hopefully this year we will have some game crops and a little more work on the flight pond so fingers crossed...cheers tony just got those pigeons to sort out now.its a hard life.(just that thing called work gets in the way.....