A day on the woodcock with Wildfowler12 @ dafydd1983 shoot.

[shoot and be safe]

I had a invite from Wildfowler12 (Todd) to a woodcock day on a small family run shoot on the outskirts of Chirk, North Wales.

I met up with Todd at the arranged meeting point and waited for Daf to arrive with the other guns for the meet and greet.

 

We then set off to the shoot, parked up, suited and booted and had the safety briefing from Daf's father.

 

The day was a walked up day with a couple of guns standing in the valley tracks below.

 

The terrain for the first drive was a slight down hill wooded area with plenty of brambles offering cover. We flushed a few woodcock and some attempts were taken but sadly to no avail.

 

The second drive involved us pushing up along a stream, through the valley bottom. Again a few woodcock were flushed along with a fair few pigeons which I had a go at.

 

After the drive had finished, the guns to my left continued up the valley and pushed the stream back down where Todd and I would be standing. Only pigeons flew over as well as the North Wales police helicopter. Don't know which one was closer to the ground

 

The forth drive saw the first woodcock in the bag. It was shot by one of the regular chaps off the shoot and retrieved by Todd's dog. Well done Rolo.

 

We broke for a short lunch, after which it was a long push from the cars down to the bridge.

I was a standing gun again on this one and had a fantastic snap shot on a 35 yard+ high woodcock. I dropped my gun as it fell to my first barrel and I marked it. Within 2 seconds of my shot, a second woodcock flew past but as I had looked to see where my previous one had fallen, by the time I saw it it was out of range. This is the closest I have ever been at a left and a right on a woodcock.

 

As the drive continued the standing guns walked down along the track and as we reached the end, the young gun (12 years old) to my left shot his first, I don't know what was louder, the single shot from the 12 bore, or his father's exciting shouts of joy.

Well done little man

 

After all the guns congratulated the young lad, we then pushed the wooded area back up the big river. This drive produced a good amount of birds and 2 woodcock were added to the bag. One of which was a second for myself I say my second, but there were a number of shots taken at the bird but it only somersaulted after my single shot, the last shot. So in my eyes it was my bird

 

Soon enough we were on the last drive, I took this opportunity to talk with Daf's father about the shoot and surrounding area. His shooting policy is fairness all round. On the regular shoot, they don't draw pegs, but are instead placed on the pegs depending on how much shooting they have had. He is also very safety conscious and is not afraid to tell a unsafe gun, to slip their gun and they are welcome to join the beating line or sulk in your car.

 

It was on this drive that Todd bagged a woodcock for himself. Well done Todd

 

That was the shooting over with and we set off on the long walk back to the vehicles.

 

The total bag for the day.

5 woodcock.

 

Thank you to everyone involved. I had a fantastic day and would like to thank Daf and his father for extending Todd's invite to myself as well.

[dafydd1983]

It was nice to meet you Mark and glad you enjoyed! A little straighter shooting and we would have made double figures easily! All the same a good walk round at the end of the season.