Jump to content

Questions to ask when joining a syndicate


Recommended Posts

Are any extra days sold during the season.

Lunch

Do you have to pay or provide beaters

Average bag over the last couple of years.

Approx cartridge ratio

How do the birds fly, any need to High bird cartridges

Usual number of drives per day

Any ducks etc so non toxic can be bought

Is there a gun bus or do you have to take your own vehicle around on shoot days

Rough age of current syndicate guns

Anybody you can speak to for references of the shoot.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Are you allowed to send a competent insured guest if you wish or are unable to attend. And if this does happen how often nothing worse than guns buying into a shoot and always sending guests as it means other guns are always looking after them as they have no knowledge of the area, and takes away from your day if it's regular.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Dress code.

How is the shoot organised re pegs. I have been in a few where its relaxed and friendly so no need to allocate pegs but when the same chaps are on the best pegs each week it gets annoying.

Who is organising? Is there a shoot captain or is it one of the guns.

How many guns?

Length of time its been going (experience) and how long have people been members? Its good to see a low turnover of guns as it shows people are happy with the shooting. If its a lot of money I would be looking for the accounts at least in principle. You need to gain a measure of the honesty of the shoot. Can you be sure the number of birds are actually bought. If its a commercial shoot with limited experience you would perhaps expect it to be working on tighter margins than one with years of experience.

Whatever it is enjoy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

All the above, plus:

 

You want to see a list of proper bag returns.

There is no point in putting down 5000 birds if they just disappear, so how many pens and woods?

 

Are you to help with feeding up or dogging in?

 

Does the syndicate have ALL the shooting rights i.e. game, vermin control and deer?

Nothing worse than finding a farmer has let a 'vermin shooter' on and emptied your shoot of game (known it happen!)

 

Do you have other neighbouring shoots?

If so, is there any friction?

 

Are you expected to pay a beaters tip or are they funded from the shoot?

 

Policy on ground game?

Ours is: nothing to be shot on the ground except foxes, but the onus is on the shooter to assess a safe shot. Squirrels in trees are fine

 

Any problems with antis?

We have the occasional verbal abuse from dog walkers, but our policy is to sleeve guns and be polite in those cases.

 

Any problems with poachers?

Again, I've known a shoot where a lot of ducks were shot ON the pond with air rifles.

 

Any areas not to be shot over?

Cottages on site or adjacent houses where falling shot might be an issue?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wow, thanks guys, lots of things that I hadn't considered... Very glad that I Asked! Thank you

And there's more...

 

The obvious one that's not being mentioned - What is the format? Fully driven, beat one stand one, or occasional walking guns?

We have occasional walking guns (shown on your peg number list) who may only shoot birds going back or wide of the shooting line.

 

Some other questions to ask...

 

Are all guns SGC holders?

All our guns/guests must hold a SGC, so there are no guest 'mates' turning up with no shooting experience.

 

Is insurance by all guns compulsory?

All our guns MUST be insured, preferably with BASC

 

What is the policy on woodpigeons and corvids?

Ours is any quarry after the first game birds have gone over the shooting line.

 

Are low shots behind permitted?

We don't have pickers up so low shots behind on hedge height partridge are permitted.

 

How is the end of a drive signalled? Horn, whistle or a 'Righto'

We use a whistle, but we had a gun (a guest) last Saturday who didn't know and shot a pheasant after the whistle had gone :oops:

 

How is the bag divided up at the end of the day?

We don't pay beaters, but they have first choice of the bag before the guns.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...