wanting to set up a 100 arcre shoot for a few friends

[sixhills 69]

Hi First i am not sur if this is the correct section I have over 100acres of land which dips into a valley and the owner is sick of people knocking his door saying can i shoot ect and now has passed all shooting rights over to me.

We Get Pheasant and Grouse on the property but have left them as they are not ours. i am looking for some information of how to build a small 100 acre shoot.

Could anyone give me any ideas as to what i would need to do to place birds down on the ground and keep as many as possible.

I and a few friends would be looking after them and starting in the new year. but i would like to No if say there was three of us shooting and working to gether how many birds would be suitable to put down and how many feeders would we need to put out in the fields and wood lines to hold the birds.

 

I Reliase this sounds vauge but any type of plan so we could work out costs would be great.

 

Thanks all for any anwsers

 

Sixhills 69

[Mungler]

Start by having a look here, and getting Will's Shoot.

 

http://forums.pigeonwatch.co.uk/forums/ind...069&hl=book

 

I picked one up off ebay for not much.

[Browning]

See if you can find a local friendly keeper who would walk you round his shoot and point out the various

requirements, methods and he uses. You will be able to scale it down to suit your own requirements.

 

I did the same for a young lad a couple of weeks ago, in readiness for next year. In return he's

helping me with some feeding.

[Pheasant Feeder]

In order to help, what type of land is there e.g pastere arable, rough grass, woodland.

 

To put pheasant down a holding wood is prety much essential in order to build a release pen. This would ideally be near the middle of the land. The release pen needs to be fox proof so at least 1.8m high with a 'floppy' top, we usually lay at least 2-3ft of netting on the ground and cover with earth to prevent a fox digging under the bottom. In addition we have 2 strands of electric fence 9" and 18" high about 9" away from the mesh. Also bob holes need to be created. The design of these is better seen than described, I have a couple of books 'running your own shoot' and a basic one on gamekeeping I'll try and dig them out for the name of the publisher but it could be swan hill press. These also have good illustrations of pen design. The pen needs to be in a quiet area but where you can get access with water and feed.

 

If there is some nice rough cover a moderate distance away then placing some feeders in there would help to hold birds, or if possible some small area's of covercrop could be planted. We use a maize sunflower kale mix and this seems to work well. If there are some smaller areas of woods or copse then bales of straw can be placed on a sunny spot with feed scattered on top. Look at the woodland and see how much ground cover there is throughout winter, a wood with no ground cover in winter is a cold place and pheasants will not want to sit on a cold bare woodland floor, thinning the tree canopy to let sunlight in might help improve things.

 

Is there any ponds suitable for duck flighting? A stream or beck which could be dug out to a shallow depth to give a larger surface area to allow more duck to land.

 

As for costs, how much do you wish to spend? How many days do you wish to shoot? How much time do you have to devote to keepering from july to February?

 

Poults cost around £3 at 6-7 weeks. 50 would cost £150 allowing for £30-£40 for poult feed max and half a tonne of wheat and costs are up to £260.

Pen materials, electric fence unit and wire, feeders, drinkers. How big a pen do you need, I think its around a meter of perimeter fence per poult.

 

Then cover crop does the landowner want recompensing for the area laid to cover? Can you drill it yourself or do you need to pay someone to do it? Then the cost of seed, shopping around could save quite a bit (£20-£30 for a couple of acres).

 

If you have the land on a long term basis then the investment in materials and time for the pen is worth it, and makes future seasons more cost effective. I was on a DIY shoot of around a dozen guns where 500 birds have been released on 800 acres and rent has been paid to farmer. It was £450 a gun shooting 10 days and that was only last season, and there was still a small amount left in the kitty.

 

If there is only 3 of you then good walked up sport can be had on the right ground for a couple of hundred quid each.

 

More info on land use and type would help give better advice.

 

Hope this helps.

[sixhills 69]

Thanks Pheasat Feeder the lad is split i would say 3/4 is laid arable and the rest is grass for padocks there are to long dence woods which at the moment do seem to hold birds which have flown onto the land.

 

I was hoping to get posibbly two friends to join me and using it to put some birds down poss 1/2 pheasant and 1/2 partridge splitting the cost and just shoting what we wanted there is a small lake which is feed by a stream which runs throw the woods.

 

I do not want to run this as a shoot but we have good stocks of rabbits and pigeons but the land owner likes t have game wondering around his property and feels its not fare to shoot other peoples birds and is happy that if i put say 50 down and took 50 he would have no problem as he knows some move on.

 

If I could get a few freinds together and set up some sort of shoot and split the cost again the land owner would not be bothered he may be othered about planting other crops we normaly have Rape, Wheat and Linseed plus grass land.

 

plenty of hedge rows and like i say woods which run down the middle of the land in the bas of the valley.

 

If i was to place 100 birds down what would happen to the ones that were not shot would the stay or just die? I would keep feed and water out all year not a problem

 

Thansk for all replies

 

SixHills 69

[Pheasant Feeder]

If you put 100 down expect to shoot about 30 at best the others will disperse some will be shot elsewhere some will be taken by Fox's and all summer you will be unlikely to see many, but as the crops are harvested and the weather turns colder they will come back to the feed you are providing.

[salukiwhippet]

Totally depends on the land, some holds game like mad and some doesn't! You'll need a little pen - if you allow 1m of perimeter per bird, you're somewhere near but the bigger the better!

 

Grub - try to get wheat tailings from a grain merchant - get in early!

 

Water's important too, 5 gallon drums cut lengthways with a stone in to stop em being knocked over, fill them up once and then let the rain do it, unless we have a real dry spell.

 

Oh, and I can guarantee you ain't got grouse!

 

James

[Pheasant Feeder]

I've never had the time to release partridge, so I can't give any first hand advice. If you build your pen in the central wood and as the birds mature and start leaving the pen area slowly move your feeders out to where you want the birds, like the surrounding hedge rows.

 

As I'm not sure of any previous experience you may have; acouple of basic points finish shooting an hour or ideally two before the birds are goint to want to start getting up to roost and don't shoot them any more often than once a fortnight.

 

The birds that your holding now from elsewhere are a good indicator that the land may well hold game you release. Depending on work commitments hand feeding everyday at the same time is the best option onto straw feed rides but if this is inpractical then spring feeders on hoppers are your only option.

 

Predator control does need to be kept on top of. Although there may be few if any fox's about at present when you open mr fox's kentucky McPheasant he'll soon be a regular and probably will bring his family and friends.

 

If there is a pond/lake thats shootable then regular feeding should encourage duck to stay. If there are no duck on then a few call ducks might encourage more, providing good flighting and the occasional drive, but duck soon catch on to the idea if shot too frequently.

[Blackbart]

Ditto with the grouse comment,and i wouldnt bother with partridge as 100 acres is pretty small to hold partridge and i am afraid the day you release them is probably the last day you will see them.

 

Stick a pen up with a hundred birds in,provide water and food,a few feeders around the place and you should have a few enjoyable days walked up shooting.