2006/2007 - Our Pheasant Shoot Review Slideshow

[Millomite]

Take a look

 

[Ferretboy111]

Was going to say for how many shots, as your days seem rather drippy and drabby.

 

Just on interest how many pheasants/partridges do u put down for that return?

 

Alex

[Millomite]

Was going to say for how many shots, as your days seem rather drippy and drabby.

 

Just on interest how many pheasants/partridges do u put down for that return?

 

Alex

 

What do you mean by the bold bit mate? It tells you how many shots at the end of the video

 

 

We put down 350 pheasants

[Ferretboy111]

Yeah i realised that at the end

 

118 return from 350 release, youd be hoping for a huge bag next season then?

 

Looks like you had a fair few days out!

 

Alex

[pin]

33% return, I think that's rather good for a small shoot as it goes. Some larger shoots with multiple full time keepers would probably take that return

[Ferretboy111]

Ummm,,,, still think thats pretty poor going really.

 

Everyone says about 30% return is expected and good, but if your the one buying in 350 birds n only getting 118 return i dare say you would get ****** off abit, with good keepering, feeding, and vermin control surely this is the worst things could be?

 

232 birds not shot, one would hope they are still about still n not all dead, something is truly wrong if 232 are going missing. 350 birds is a perfect small number to control n really look after.

 

Any idea millomite what went wrong? A nasty little fox?

 

Still got a fair few days out of it.

 

Alex

[pin]

I think you are being unduly critical FB..

 

You have no idea what the setup is, who if anyone was able to keeper them, what the surrounding land was like, how much natural food there might have been close by, if someone might have dogged the birds off to another shoot..

 

I am sure professional shoots with multiple full time keepers and vermin controllers would be expected to do better.

 

For me all who attended seemed to be smiling and looked to be enjoying the days, which is what its all about for me.

[Ferretboy111]

Yeah i know, im just curious about why so few were shot, trying to learn by being critical so i wont make the mistakes on my shoot.

 

Alex

[Suffolk shooter]

Its down to the good beating on your shoot FB as to why you got a good return

 

Millomite,

 

30% odd is still a good return, but as FB said with 200 birds now free to breed, here's hoping your shoot gets more birds next year.

 

FB,

You know as well as I do, putting down large numbers of birds doesn't guarantee good results. The terrain, natural food, cover, locality to other shoots (These might be more established etc), population of BoP, Foxes etc can all make an incredible difference to a shoots bag.

 

All anyone can do is to learn from each season, and improve or rethink where possible tactics and hope for better results the following year.

 

Ultimately though it is not about the bag total, but the fact that for a keeper its the challange of getting as many birds as they have bought/reared to survive the pitfalls and fly over the guns. For the guns it should be about getting good sporting birds and enjoying the day out in the country with likeminded people.

 

SS

[MC]

Surely it was the standard of Dog on his shoot SS?

[Ferretboy111]

Definately the top notch dog! Helps no end when a shoot has dogs, especially now ive cut a shed load of cover down in my woods!

 

P.s you know down the carrs, the willow wood of death?

 

Well its soo clear now we wont have any trouble pushing it through, and i havent even cut anything out of it, think im going to plan to do a day after christmas, n a day before then our rough shoot/ cock day towards the end of season. Put up 4 hens n a cock from there, aswell as 2 duck/

 

Alex

[nickfromsomerset]

I think ferret boy should look at exactly why does he go shooting. Seems to me its all about the numbers.. not the enjoyment. If he thinks enjoyment is about shooting every pheasant released or percentages..why release them? Just keep them in a vermin proof pen..feed them up and walk around inside the pen with an ak-47.. job done!! He's got a lot to learn. its the quality of the shooting..not the death count my friend. People out there agree with me or ferret boy?

[Millomite]

Ummm,,,, still think thats pretty poor going really.

 

Everyone says about 30% return is expected and good, but if your the one buying in 350 birds n only getting 118 return i dare say you would get ****** off abit, with good keepering, feeding, and vermin control surely this is the worst things could be?

 

232 birds not shot, one would hope they are still about still n not all dead, something is truly wrong if 232 are going missing. 350 birds is a perfect small number to control n really look after.

 

Any idea millomite what went wrong? A nasty little fox?

 

Still got a fair few days out of it.

 

Alex

 

It's not poor at all mate. Our main release is situated 200 feet up, there are miles and miles of fell around it. The pheasant get up onto the bracken and just keep on going. The keeper is my 70 yr old grandad who hand feeds the birds, asking him to go 7-800 feet up the fell every morning isn't exactly fair now is it?

 

We are the only shoot in the whole valley so we get NO birds from anywhere else. Look at our shot to kill ratio. We fired over 800 shots, at least 750 of those at pheasant. The birds were there, they just weren't shot. We are a family syndicate with most of the lads only shooting on shoot days with 1 clay shoot in the summer. If we shot 349 birds it would be boring. That's not what we are about. A good crack and a laugh is the main aim for the day, with enough to go round for the table

 

I think you need to take off your rose tinted glasses in terms of keepering. You released 120 birds for how many return? How many shoots do you have around you?

[Paul in North Lincs.]

I think ferret boy should look at exactly why does he go shooting. Seems to me its all about the numbers.. not the enjoyment. If he thinks enjoyment is about shooting every pheasant released or percentages..why release them? Just keep them in a vermin proof pen..feed them up and walk around inside the pen with an ak-47.. job done!! He's got a lot to learn. its the quality of the shooting..not the death count my friend. People out there agree with me or ferret boy?

 

Your point is very valid...............but lets remember that sydicate shooting is a business to. Im not sure if FB is a keeper or has a shoot of his own, when when dealing with the commercial aspect, the guns have to be satisfied, and there has to enough birds to provide good shooting through out the season.......numbers do have an impact especially if you want the guns to keep coming back year after year.....thats business

 

If I paid £1500 for a season shooting for instance.....I would feel cheated if I only shot 3 birds......do you see where I'm coming from??

[tiercel]

Millomite, This might be the answer how FB has such a high return.

 

 

Because i have kind farmers surrounding me who also do shoots and put down 400+ pheasants that i can steal!

 

If the birds are presenting themselves to the guns i cant tell them not to shoot them! very much doubt we are shooting them out, plenty more for another day and anyway we are putting birds back!!!

 

Alex

 

Had my pheasant shoot today on my shoot, (we put down 120 birds) even though i thought i had lost a load to foxes we managed:

 

48 pheasants,

3 ducks,

1 pigeon.

[nickfromsomerset]

I think ferret boy should look at exactly why does he go shooting. Seems to me its all about the numbers.. not the enjoyment. If he thinks enjoyment is about shooting every pheasant released or percentages..why release them? Just keep them in a vermin proof pen..feed them up and walk around inside the pen with an ak-47.. job done!! He's got a lot to learn. its the quality of the shooting..not the death count my friend. People out there agree with me or ferret boy?

 

Your point is very valid...............but lets remember that sydicate shooting is a business to. Im not sure if FB is a keeper or has a shoot of his own, when when dealing with the commercial aspect, the guns have to be satisfied, and there has to enough birds to provide good shooting through out the season.......numbers do have an impact especially if you want the guns to keep coming back year after year.....thats business

 

If I paid £1500 for a season shooting for instance.....I would feel cheated if I only shot 3 birds......do you see where I'm coming from??

 

 

i see where you are coming from but if a group of people told me they need to shoot say 90% of whats released then i wouldnt bother going shooting and i'd become an anti!!! and also a high ratio of birds shot to released still doesnt mean the good shooting. Means 'easy' shooting to me..

[Millomite]

Millomite, This might be the answer how FB has such a high return.

 

 

Because i have kind farmers surrounding me who also do shoots and put down 400+ pheasants that i can steal!

 

If the birds are presenting themselves to the guns i cant tell them not to shoot them! very much doubt we are shooting them out, plenty more for another day and anyway we are putting birds back!!!

 

Alex

 

Had my pheasant shoot today on my shoot, (we put down 120 birds) even though i thought i had lost a load to foxes we managed:

 

48 pheasants,

3 ducks,

1 pigeon.

 

 

Aye.

[Ferretboy111]

Im a keeper for a small shoot, i dont shoot them, the guns do so i dnt care about how many are killed etc link to nickfromsomerset!!!!!! But the guns do care and the person who pays for everything... ts all well and good saying its not the numbers its the quality but if you were paying £1000's of pounds for a shoot to only get a few shots i very much doubt that you would pay that money for long, and if you say you would you have too much money than sense.

 

I have 1 farm which ajoins 2 fields of my shoot which puts down 3-400, the keeper said they had alot of white on the birds they released we shot 2 with alot of white on them both over a year old. They said they shot a few blue monglians aswell which were some of the birds we put down!! Thus equalling it out...

 

I put 120 bird down and got 81 return with still around 30 odd of mine wandering about and feeding still.

 

Anyway, i, like any other shoot/keeper who keeper birds bought by someone else want the highest return i can get from good shots,,, and yes they were good shots.... i want my shoot to be as professional and as good as i can possibly get it through my passion for it all.

 

I think alot of you on here are more clueless than myself when keepering is concerned, at the end of the day yes its only the quality of the birds which count to some people, but no farmer/estate owner is going to pay alot of money for 100's of birds released if the guns only get a few good shots out of it.

 

To me this encourages antis more, as why put down 400 odd pheasants only to shoot 100 of them? seems an awful lot of a waste unless something is truly wrong.

 

I wasnt trying to start an argument about shooting pheasants etc, just curious on why you didnt get such a good return, now i know,,,, through bad shooting and hand feeding.

 

Alex

[Millomite]

In regards to the clueless comments, your 1001 questions on how to keeper would suggest otherwise.

 

How is having 300 birds out in the wild going to fuel the antis? Surely 300 birds surviving and having the potential to survive and breed in the wild is much better, in their eyes, than ending up in the game larder?

 

You make sweeping generalisations. In any other situation could you say you could get another 75% return? No I think not.

 

The guns in our syndicate pay £150. For that they shoot whenever they want, and within legal restrictions, whatever they want. There are 8 guns in our syndicate, thats 100 shots each at pheasant say, plus days on the pigeon, duck, crows, geese, rabbits, deer and some fishing. For £150 quid thats excellent value. A lot of people would pay £150 for a days shooting.

 

I think you have a lot to learn, and in some respects hope you fail at some point, if only to realise it's not as easy as you like to think

[MC]

To be honest and frank,

 

Ferretboy111 is a young lad who has his head firmly screwed on, he knows what needs doing and how to do it. To say he has a lot to learn is probably correct, haven't we all or are you one of lifes know it all's?

 

And to wish someone to fail is just out of order. What is wrong with you?

 

To get a return of 81 from 120 birds put down is excellent and shows his keepering is working. To release 3-400 birds just to let them wander off is wrong, and also I believe illegal.

 

You are not allowed to release birds into the wild where it will upset the natural balance.

 

I would expect any keeper worth his salt to give at least a 40% return, just walking around chucking a few handfuls of grain around is not keepering.

 

And if birds from neighbouring shoots wander and get shot elsewhere then tough, technically a bird belongs to the owner of the land that they are on.

[pin]

I think to attack someone like FB has is un-called for, who is he to pass judgement on a shoot he knows little about?

 

Fine he may be a better keeper, but why not suggest something to benefit the sport than simply snipe at someone from a distance?

 

As has been said the sport has enough enemies without like minded people having a go at each other over numbers of birds returned from a small family shoot. No neighbouring shoots to have birds gifted from, no full time or dedicated keeper, completely different terrain and country, weather conditions and I could go on..

 

Jesus H Christ on a bike.

[Millomite]

To be honest and frank,

 

Ferretboy111 is a young lad who has his head firmly screwed on, he knows what needs doing and how to do it. To say he has a lot to learn is probably correct, haven't we all or are you one of lifes know it all's?

 

Most certainly not, and where did I imply that? All I was saying is that not everyone is as lucky as him.

 

And to wish someone to fail is just out of order. What is wrong with you?

 

Nothing wrong, sometimes lessons are learnt from making mistakes.

 

To get a return of 81 from 120 birds put down is excellent and shows his keepering is working. To release 3-400 birds just to let them wander off is wrong, and also I believe illegal.

 

You are not allowed to release birds into the wild where it will upset the natural balance.

 

81/200 is an excellent return and if it was proved, by tagging, they were all his own birds, I can only commend him. The fact that there is a shoot next door with many more birds than he released suggests that a few of theirs will have been bagged.

 

I would expect any keeper worth his salt to give at least a 40% return, just walking around chucking a few handfuls of grain around is not keepering.

 

Naivety. Do you have an understanding of hand feeding? What you have just said does not indicate that you do. It is much more than chucking a few handfuls of grain down. The hand feeding we do is part of the way we run the shoot. Feeding the birds up on the bracken beds to drive back down to the woods, producing high fast birds. We regularly have 100 birds following us like rats after the pied piper.

 

We have strategically placed feeding rides, which incorporate straw etc. Feeding them by hand ensures they do not gorge themselves and wander, feeding them slightly hungry keeps them holding, and has done on our shoot for years.

 

You don’t know our land, you don’t know our techniques and you don’t know us. Your criticisms are completely unfounded and as such are laughable.

[MC]

Once again I bow to someones greatness,

 

You are obviously very good a keeping your birds, you obviously can't shoot for toffee.

 

My criticisms are unfounded you are quite right, as are yours towards Ferretboy111. And laughable yes quite right we can't be serious all the time.

 

You obviously cannot accept that someone else is better at something than you, are you an only child? Your posts attack someone for doing something well and then you can't take someone else having a pop back.

 

I have worked with ferretboy 111, beat for him and shot with him and never have I found him to be anything like you make out.

 

Knowing someone counts a lot more in my book than just typing on a keyboard. If the guns on his shoot have shot someone elses birds then ask why they wandered? Probably because FB111 is looking after them better.

[pin]

Let he who is without sin cast the first stone

 

FB started this, Millomite is only defending himself

[MC]

I beg to differ Pin,

 

FB111 asked some questions and the world and his wife start having a go about shooting big numbers and his neighbours birds.

 

A good shoot is only as good as the way it is run. Asking questions is how we all learn, shouting people down will always get a reaction that you might not want.