webber Posted November 23, 2014 Report Share Posted November 23, 2014 (edited) Many of you may recall the report that I posted last year following an excellent days shooting on a syndicate shoot on the outskirts of Hereford. The syndicate host one let day per season; I was again very fortunate to be invited to take the let day this season and to put a team of guns together. By lunch time last year every gun had indicated that they wanted their name put down for this year. It was February when I sent out my invitations to people who I’ve shot with at various shoots for a number of years, the sort of chaps that I’m proud to call friends. This year the shoot increased their price with a bit of a bump, but it was still very reasonable for the days shooting and all of the trimmings. The acceptances soon came back with deposits, but sadly 4 of last years group couldn't make it. I used up the short waiting list that I had and placed an advertisement on Pigeon Watch, the two spare places were soon snapped up by two shooting buddies from Kent. The remainder of 2014 seemed to fly by, and so on Friday I went into work, sorted a few things, just as I was about to leave for home, two customers walked into my small but perfectly formed gun shop with 3 guns to sell and also wishing to buy some cartridges. I bought two of the guns, the third a side by side didn't feel right, so I passed on the opportunity. I left for home almost an hour behind my proposed schedule, and hurriedly collected my gun, and other shooting stuff, and set off around around 1:15, after a couple of miles I stopped at my shooting buddies farm to collect him and his gear for the rest of the journey. As we set off in the direction of the M6 KL played with the satnav until success was obtained. The motorway was a nightmare, as we approached the M6 Toll road I decided to ignore the satnav and Jasons previous insistence that we didn't need to use the toll road. I just thought that it was because he was too tight to spend the brass. About an hour later I would realise why! We drove down the toll road to the services where we stopped for a coffee to go. Back at the car KL produced two nice little brown bags with perfectly wrapped items. Mrs. KL had used her professional skills and produced a nice ham bap, mini pork pie with two mini tomatoes; home made fruit cake and a nice chunk of Lancashire cheese. We exited the services and almost immediately paid the toll, shortly after the satnav turned us around on ourselves and sent us back from whence we had come. Another £5.50 spent and the penny started to drop. Jason wasn't too tight to spend the brass, the M6 Toll was not the route to use, and I should learn to listen to the satnav and friends. As we approached Hereford the traffic calmed. We arrived at the B&B which I had taken over completely for the night, so all of the guns were under one roof for a better start in the morning. Last year we were spread around the village a bit and we had to travel for our evening meal. This year I decided to do a Thomas Cook job, and do an all inclusive price for the guns, all they had to cover was their bar bill. KL and I were the last of the guns to arrive, the proprietor had allocated the rooms, as per last year I was to share with Geoff, but our room was across the court yard so I had no stairs to negotiate. We secured our guns and took the car a short way to the Green Man as it was pouring with rain. We entered a crowded bar and met up with the rest of the guns and a few of the shoot members. We were taken through to a large planked table capable of seating 20 which was ideal for our group of 16. We had roast beef with all of the trimmings followed by individual apple crumble pies with ice cream. We passed the rest of the evening telling various tales of shooting and past shoots. At around 10:30 we headed back to the Bowens, my Rangie being full to capacity thanks to the rain. The clock soon moved around to 6am. and it was time to rise and ready for breakfast at 7am. As last year we were not disapointed as an excellent breakfast was served by the family team. We checked out shortly after 8am. and headed across country for the farm where the shoot has its shoot room. We soon had the wellies on and went across to the shoot room for introductions, a brew and sweep formalities. Kirt this years shoot captain briefed the guns and we set off for our first drive in two 4x4s and a Kubota, the usual gun bus had technical issues. I won't try to do a drive by drive report, I simply can't remember all of the detail, but I do remember that I shot two nice birds on the first drive, and shot no pheasants on the second, but did share a Crow with Lancs Lad on the second; for our effort in shooting the first pest species we won a bottle of wine. LL will drink the wine, I shall receive the bottle and use it to display a shooting figurine bottle stopper that I collect, I'll stick a label on the bottle to record the reason for keeping the bottle. We took Elevensies back at the vehicles; hot spiced Pear Cider, I think that the cake got left in the shoot room. The third drive saw some of the guns stood in an apple orchard with some fast birds driven off the top of a small hill. I managed a couple and should have shot much better. Lunch was taken in the shoot room, a choice of beef stew or chicken curry, port and lemon drizzle cake finished the job. The fourth drive was a game crop on top of a small hill, with the sun almost directly into our eyes the drive produced some excellent birds, I managed a couple and kicked myself for leaving my sun glasses in the car. Drive five was ducks. The guns were asked to ensure that the duck were given time to get up and come around before shooting them. The duck however had different ideas, those that could be bothered to take flight did so, but many of them failed to return. I managed two, and noted that the sight was missing from my gun, none the less the guns managed about a dozen or so duck. Tradition dictates that you save the best till last and we were not to be disappointed. We were lined out about half half way down the side of quite a steep valley with the River Wye on our back, a stand of trees rising to the top of the valley and behind those a substantial cover crop. The birds came in clumps and kept coming. I managed two and shared two, there is no doubt that I was handicapped by the lack of my sight. The whistle blew and we returned to the vehicles as we were loosing day light at a rate of knots. We mustered and exchange comments about the drive. All guns were very satisfied. We drove back to the shoot room for a brew and sweep formalities etc. We had out photograph taken with the bag in front of us. The bag was 80 made up of about 12 duck and the balance Pheasant. 1 Crow & 1 magpie. A significant improvement on last years bag, I'm confident that the bag of 100 to which I aspire is certainly achievable. We collected our customary brace and was pleased to be presented with a bottle of the apple juice that is produced on the farm, again I'll keep the bottle and use it to sport one of my bottle stoppers. I'll enjoy the juice at an appropriate moment and remember some of an excellent day. We made our way to the Cottage of Content where the shoot had laid on a nice hot buffet to send us on our way. It was an excellent idea and rounded the day off excellently. KL and I left at around 5pm and headed North avoiding the M6 Toll obviously. A massive thank you to Jason and the shoot team for an excellent shoot and hospitality, even the weather played fair which was far from the forecast. I'll post some pictures when I receive them. webber Edited November 24, 2014 by webber Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ttfjlc Posted November 23, 2014 Report Share Posted November 23, 2014 Excellent write up, enjoyed reading that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDog Posted November 23, 2014 Report Share Posted November 23, 2014 Good effort in posting such a detailed account of your trip and the shooting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maddaftspaniel Posted November 24, 2014 Report Share Posted November 24, 2014 Sounds like you had a good time Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salop Matt Posted November 24, 2014 Report Share Posted November 24, 2014 As said above that made for a real nice read. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kalahari Posted November 24, 2014 Report Share Posted November 24, 2014 I was lucky enough to be there and had a great time. I am still the guy with all the kit shoots like **** but it was very enjoyable. David. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
welshwarrior Posted November 24, 2014 Report Share Posted November 24, 2014 Nice write up well done for taking the time, nice area to shoot as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scrumbag Posted November 25, 2014 Report Share Posted November 25, 2014 It was indeed a very good day even if this "City Boy" did get shown how to shoot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kalahari Posted November 25, 2014 Report Share Posted November 25, 2014 (edited) Right so the Vale of Clwyd is a city!!!! Well St. Asaph (population about 27 is a city officially) I saw you take a left and right first drive of the day! David. Edited November 25, 2014 by Kalahari Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevewall968 Posted November 28, 2014 Report Share Posted November 28, 2014 (edited) I too was privileged to have been there to share the day with a great bunch of guys. Webbers post nicely reflects what was an excellent short weekend shooting trip. Good variety of drives, extremely well marshalled by Kirt and his team who went to great lengths to ensure that each of the guns got their fair share of birds to shoot at. Unfortunately we had to dash at the end and missed the end of shoot buffet at the pub because James, my chauffeur for the weekend, had to rush back to Kent where his wife was patiently waiting to give birth to their second daughter. Baby duly arrived some hours later and rounded off what was indeed a great weekend. Thanks to John for arranging the weekend and the invitation. Steve Edited November 28, 2014 by stevewall968 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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