filzee Posted October 22, 2013 Report Share Posted October 22, 2013 Hi, I have always been of the understanding that you should leave your pen drives until later in the season after the rest of the ground has been shot over. While talking to a friend on Saturday night who is on a shoot i used to go on he said they had a chap from BASC go down to look over their shoot and give them some pointers. One of his pointers was to shoot the pen drives early in the season. I can't remember exact reasons why but something to do with shifting the birds about. What do you guys think? I know there are quite a few keepers frequenting this site so would be nice to get your thoughts. We release 500 pheasants and have quite a good "wild" stock of birds too. We have 3 permanent pens and 6 movable panel pens so its more about the drives which include the permanent pens. Many thanks Phil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KFC Posted October 22, 2013 Report Share Posted October 22, 2013 It's only a small shoot that I'm part-time keeper on. Our main pen, in the big wood is left 'til later in the season. We have pens in some covers which provide birds for early drives which are released in stages and a couple of covers have holding pens which house four or five calling birds to hold wild birds in the cover. Providing our covers provide enough shooting then we leave our main wood as late as possible. The shoot has a couple of very large neighbouring woods which our birds may fly to, and not come back, if they're driven too early. I think it depends what there is around your shoot that may prove more attractive. If they are driven then I'm an advocate of not doing it too late in the day so birds have a chance to return to roost before dark. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
r1steele Posted October 22, 2013 Report Share Posted October 22, 2013 (edited) Hi, I have always been of the understanding that you should leave your pen drives until later in the season after the rest of the ground has been shot over. While talking to a friend on Saturday night who is on a shoot i used to go on he said they had a chap from BASC go down to look over their shoot and give them some pointers. One of his pointers was to shoot the pen drives early in the season. I can't remember exact reasons why but something to do with shifting the birds about. What do you guys think? I know there are quite a few keepers frequenting this site so would be nice to get your thoughts. We release 500 pheasants and have quite a good "wild" stock of birds too. We have 3 permanent pens and 6 movable panel pens so its more about the drives which include the permanent pens. Many thanks Phil To be honest it's not easy to say without seeing the drives, pen position and the lie of the land. In general, it is usually better to feed the birds from the pens up onto the drives and then on shooting days you drive them back towards pens etc. Some places have limited drives and pen drives are needed to make a proper day. The biggest problem when driving pens is quite often the birds will try and fly back over the beaters to get back to the pen (again, depending on the lie of the land, weather etc). If you are driving pens, try to do those drives earlier on in the day as you don't want to be chasing your birds away from their roost later on in the afternoon as they may go beyond your boundries, roost there, and when they come off the roost (to no food) they may carry on going the wrong way rather then coming off the roost to feed which is what they are used to doing. BASC has advised shooting the pens to 'shift the birds about'. Really your birds should already be on the feed rides of your drives in plenty of time before you start shooting so they shouldn't need shifting about. Using your pens to blank into a drive can often be more productive than actually using the pens as a drive. Sorry to rattle on but without seeing the shoot it's not easy to help that much. Hope you have a good season. Edited October 22, 2013 by r1steele Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TIDES EDGE Posted October 22, 2013 Report Share Posted October 22, 2013 Would not touch the pen untill end of season as stated before feed them away from pen and drive them back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
r1steele Posted October 22, 2013 Report Share Posted October 22, 2013 Would not touch the pen untill end of season as stated before feed them away from pen and drive them back. Not a fan myself but some don't have much choice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimbo86 Posted October 22, 2013 Report Share Posted October 22, 2013 as above - as needs must. I have 3 new drives this year so leaving pens as long as possible. All set up to drive birds back to pens. Last 5 years we have done 2 pens as a drive and left one all together. Made good drives but after 2/3 shoot days the birds did not come back. Same every year. We release 450 so similar numbers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arley Posted October 22, 2013 Report Share Posted October 22, 2013 We left pen wood last season with the intention of shooting it in January. Wood held a nice number of birds and we were looking forward to a good day then the wood flooded just before Christmas. Birds deserted the wood until the cold weather in February then birds returned to the feeders. Hope it stops raining soon we might have the same problem this season? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
r1steele Posted October 22, 2013 Report Share Posted October 22, 2013 (edited) as above - as needs must. I have 3 new drives this year so leaving pens as long as possible. All set up to drive birds back to pens. Last 5 years we have done 2 pens as a drive and left one all together. Made good drives but after 2/3 shoot days the birds did not come back. Same every year. We release 450 so similar numbers Mentioned that in post #3 as this can happen with a lot of shoots, but as you say, as needs must. Biggest problem when you're only putting small numbers down is that even losing a few makes a huge difference so keeping them on your own land is so important. Edited October 22, 2013 by r1steele Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
filzee Posted October 23, 2013 Author Report Share Posted October 23, 2013 Thanks for the advice so far. The pen in question is in the middle of a block of trees and dense cover. Its is probably 400yards x 400 yards. Surrounding the pen are fields which is where the guns set out. We are lucky in the fact that all the surrounding land is owned by one of 3 farmers all of which are on the shoot and so we have access to all of it. For the birds to get off the land we can shoot on they would have to travel about half a mile at the shortest distance. Once driven they tend to play to either two other woods both of which we shoot. Infact usually later in the season we would shoot one then move to this pen drive and they tend to go back to the one we have just done thus leaving them enough time to come back to roost. There are always a lot of bids in this pen drive due to the cover so was thinking it would be worth getting behind them early in the season to get them up in the air since most of them have never had to fly before. Hope that makes sence. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimbo86 Posted October 23, 2013 Report Share Posted October 23, 2013 Sounds like you are not short on drives then? I would say you should move all feeding to the other drive and try to get the birds in there and drive them all back to the pen. Then the birds have the pen as home where they are never disturbed. Scatter a small amount of food in the pen occasionally so there is a bit, but not in days leading up to shooting. At the end of the season we will blank the pen out first thing in the morning but you have to hope the birds get the idea and get to the drives on earlier shoot days Certainly some merit in getting them on the wing, their strength builds up the more they fly, and they will only fly if they have to! I have a walked-up day purely to get the birds flying, but only do the drives where i am feeding away and pushing them back towards the pen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
filzee Posted October 23, 2013 Author Report Share Posted October 23, 2013 Yes we are not short of drives. We counted up we have 13 at the minute with at least 4 "spare" drives if we seem to be struggling. It was always a farmers family shoot so all the local land owners are on it. I have been lucky since for the last few years i have put a lot of work in and they asked me if i wanted a peg. We do feed away from the pen but the problem is with such good cover and natural food available all the time some birds just don't want to leave. Its not a big drive but it always has a lot of birds in it and often a couple of deer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elby Posted October 24, 2013 Report Share Posted October 24, 2013 You shoot the deer too? I believe the pen should be a safe haven for the birds until late on in the season. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grandalf Posted October 24, 2013 Report Share Posted October 24, 2013 Our pens are right in the middle of large drives. Impossible to do one without the other. Doesn't seem to do any harm though. We always drive back towards the pen areas on the later drives in the day. Got to think where do I want my birds to be at sundown if they have got over the guns safely? Answer to that is back in the pen area. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
filzee Posted October 24, 2013 Author Report Share Posted October 24, 2013 You shoot the deer too? I believe the pen should be a safe haven for the birds until late on in the season. In answer no we don't shoot the deer. I was just saying that the cover in that small block is so good that we often get a couple of Roe flushed out when we are driving it. I have the rights to the deer (with correct caliber obviously) but i choose not to shoot any as they havn't been there more than about 3 years and there isn't many about. Great to see though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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