OJW Posted November 13, 2015 Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 (edited) The day got off to a bang as I forgot to turn the volume on my alarm down the night before, when it went off at 6.30am, right next to my head, I flew out of bed as if someone had set a firework off and the SAS were raiding the place and needed to get my bearings. I was responsible for making breakfast for myself and TGL's father. Bacon and egg sandwiches, next time I will omit the egg as it makes for a messy eat in the car. By the time I had made breakfast, done the washing up, showered and dressed, TGL's father was shouting at me up the stairs that the two guns we were traveling with were waiting outside and to hurry the hell up. We had a leisurely 1hr and 10min drive to the shoot, which was just the other side of Shrewsbury in South Shropshire. As we got closer the land around us started to undulate and look like it would make for fantastic sport. Somehow, as we approached the shoot, our two vehicles were seamlessly joined in convoy by 4 other vehicles containing the other guns. As a southern fairy, I found this silent rural roadmanship from the northerners to be fascinating. We got to the shoot and had coffee, mingled, chose pegs and had a safety briefing. Now onto the drives. Drive 1: The birds here were very well presented and some gained height seriously quickly, taking an almost vertical upward curl. I was peg two and as such expected to be out of the action, however the wind was blowing a storm and as such it dictated where the birds went which worked in my favour. We stopped for 2 minutes silence for remembrance. Drive 2: The birds exploded over the hedge directly in front of me or flew out along the line of the hedge but beyond it to the right. It took me some time to get my eye in but I had some lovely partridge out to my right beyond the hedge. I wore the camera as normal but because I was craning my neck so much, in some shots my barrels aren't in shot, and some of the birds are the same. You only see me connect with a few because of this, but the shoot captain and his wife (who was very excited) were sitting behind me reliably informed me I had 4/5 picked. Drive 3: The wind was really up at this point and the birds mainly broke out way over to my right, about 4 pegs along. That being said we did have a couple of corkers come out over us. I was amazed at the height some birds gained as the drive looked flat and they seemed to be being pushed out of a cover on the same field, the plus side of this is you can see some of the birds landing a good distance behind the guns. I don't think they are visible in my video but the gun pegged next to the line of trees to my far right was taking birds flying way above the tops of the trees, well shot sir. Great pub lunch at a pub which was filled to the rafters despite the fact it was a Wednesday afternoon. If only this indicator was reflective of both all independent country pubs and the rural economy as a whole. Drive 4: Duck drive, fast and furious. I was peg 11 and back gunning, although I was told to shoot as much as possible, I didn't expect to have much over me figuring anything that got to me would have already had 12 shots at it. How wrong I was. The Gopro really doesn't do some of these duck justice. Neither does my filming, I was craning my neck so much and having to reload and fire so quickly that it was hard to get barrels, duck, and the hit or miss in the shot. The pickers up were picking these duck from fields that were miles back, 4 large fields away at least. Of course some fell closer. I shot about 25 cartridge on this drive . Also, sorry Jdog- I had to bend down to get more cartridges out the bag because I quickly realised the handful in my pocket wouldn't be enough! I have been doing my best to keep eyes up as you advised. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the film. As always, I don't put them up because I rate myself as a shot, I just like trying to add content on here I hope people might enjoy. You will notice in some drives I have birds over me but keep my gun broken, this was because I was allowing them over for the back guns. Edited November 13, 2015 by OJW Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDog Posted November 13, 2015 Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 Very testing birds indeed, the sort of day we would all like to be on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
E.w. Posted November 13, 2015 Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 Some nice high birds there good vid thanks sharing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DazzJo Posted November 14, 2015 Report Share Posted November 14, 2015 Enjoyable vid OJ! them ducks soon picked up the height!! Good shooting pal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OJW Posted November 14, 2015 Author Report Share Posted November 14, 2015 Some nice high birds there good vid thanks sharing. Thanks, very well presented birds. Enjoyable vid OJ! them ducks soon picked up the height!! Good shooting pal Cheers pal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fredwalton Posted November 14, 2015 Report Share Posted November 14, 2015 Looks like another good day Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shoot and be safe Posted November 14, 2015 Report Share Posted November 14, 2015 A good write up of your day and as the others have said, the birds looked well presented. Was the gun in at the back (closest to the tailgate) of the gun trailer asleep? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Codeye Posted November 14, 2015 Report Share Posted November 14, 2015 Cracking write up and video , its nice to see a clumber in amongst the dogs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OJW Posted November 15, 2015 Author Report Share Posted November 15, 2015 (edited) Looks like another good day Thanks, I'll keep posting my days up on here and hopefully they will also be good. A good write up of your day and as the others have said, the birds looked well presented. Was the gun in at the back (closest to the tailgate) of the gun trailer asleep? Haha I think he probably was! Also, I think we shoot in the same part of the world, so if you like a vid and want to find out more about the shoot please feel free to pm me. Cracking write up and video , its nice to see a clumber in amongst the dogs Thanks, I'm shooting with Clumbers again on 28th November in Essex so will try and incorporate them working into the video for you. Edited November 15, 2015 by OJW Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Al Posted November 16, 2015 Report Share Posted November 16, 2015 Super video. I love seeing what a proper driven day looks like. It is not something I know much about. Lovely to see great birds and good shooting. Thanks for the clip. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OJW Posted November 16, 2015 Author Report Share Posted November 16, 2015 Super video. I love seeing what a proper driven day looks like. It is not something I know much about. Lovely to see great birds and good shooting. Thanks for the clip. Thanks Al, the birds were certainly cracking, much better than the shooting! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salop Matt Posted November 17, 2015 Report Share Posted November 17, 2015 A fantastic read there, will watch the video later when home and not in the office If you dont mind me asking, which shoot were you on ? ATB Matt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OJW Posted November 18, 2015 Author Report Share Posted November 18, 2015 A fantastic read there, will watch the video later when home and not in the office If you dont mind me asking, which shoot were you on ? ATB Matt Thank you, I hope you enjoyed the video. I don't put the specific names of the shoots on my videos but if you are interested in the details of a day drop me a pm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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