Flashman Posted December 13, 2016 Report Share Posted December 13, 2016 LeadWasp, on 13 Dec 2016 - 4:43 PM, said: It seems it was felled but no-one thinks that is the reason the shoot folded. Bit difficult to say more really - the bloke can't defend himself on here and I'm only going on what I've heard from a variety of sources who know the shoot etc. It's informed gossip really. What a mess, 'keeper's ill, money gone and the loss of a long-standing Shoot. Nobody's a winner here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B25Modelman Posted December 13, 2016 Report Share Posted December 13, 2016 Should or would the guy have had business insurance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeadWasp Posted December 13, 2016 Report Share Posted December 13, 2016 Lots of guns in the same boat by all account but I'm going to be charitable and say that if (my guess here) the poor guy is in a regime of daily treatment he will neither have time nor the head space to deal with anything else. Whilst the various people I spoke to all knew about the shoot folding, nobody was saying anything bad about the man. Just that it had all gone 'boom'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wymondley Posted December 13, 2016 Report Share Posted December 13, 2016 Losing money's not as bad as losing your health. Whatever he may or may not have done wrong, I wish the chap a speedy recovery. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zorba_the_greek Posted December 21, 2016 Author Report Share Posted December 21, 2016 (edited) It seems the man concerned is genuinely very ill. I'll PM the OP. LeadWasp Many thanks for your PM. I will not be taking the matter any further and have written off the money. Lessons have been learnt. Its a real pity that the whole thing came to ahead like it did. Such fall out could have been avoided very easily. Nevertheless wish the Owner all the best at this time regarding his ill health. Edited December 21, 2016 by zorba_the_greek Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnfromUK Posted December 21, 2016 Report Share Posted December 21, 2016 Gents, I have run a shoot for a number of years in the past; I was running the shoot in 2001 when foot and mouth disease struck in a big way nationally - and all countryside activities were effectively banned. We had already committed to the rental, purchase of birds etc. I can tell you that running a shoot is a fine line balance - and we went overnight from looking at a healthy year to looking at a BIG deficit if we couldn't shoot and couldn't sell guns. Naturally, the majority of customers didn't want to pay deposits in the summer when the whole season was in question. The bank didn't want to know. The three of us who ran the shoot decided to take the risk and finance it in the short term from our own savings and 'day jobs', in the hope that restrictions would be lifted before the season began. We were fortunate in that we all had other 'day job' activities. WE were lucky, and foot and mouth restrictions were lifted in time - and we were able to take bookings and end up with a good season - and very fortunately neither we - nor any of the shoot clients, landlords, or suppliers lost anything. I give this example because I know from experience that if you don't have bookings generating cash flow - things go wrong VERY quickly - and it can happen very easily for unforeseen reasons. I know how desperately worrying it is to be in the circumstances of possible closure and therefore I have great sympathy with the owner/organiser - as well as (of course) anyone who has lost out in any way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
achosenman Posted December 22, 2016 Report Share Posted December 22, 2016 I agree. I owned and ran a shoot for about 10yrs. Cash flow is critical, a real catch 22. The amount of money you take in runs into many many tens of thousands. It gets swallowed up just as fast. When I called it a day, I was out of pocket to the tune of £20,000. Looking back, the winners were the land owners, the suppliers and the guns/beaters. Me? I worked like a dog and payed for the privilege. Atb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scotslad Posted December 22, 2016 Report Share Posted December 22, 2016 The last 2 post's are quite right, very few folk make an awful lot out of shooting, more a lifestyle job but if u counted ur hours up u would be well below minimum wage and that's not even thinking about the massive outlaw usually almost all upfornt. Althou i'm not even sure there are as many winners as u make out achseman, beaters are usually working for peanuts well below min wage (again lifestyle choice) and even the game farmers many of them are on very tight margins and only takes 1 bad year (disease, wet weather or floods etc) to send them bust. Really guns should be paying quite a bit more for a bird, why should shoot owners/beaters/pickers uo and keepers all slog there guts out for below minium wage so guns can have cheap pheasants to shoot at, end of day it is a luxory thing to do. Its a shame when things like this happens, and while gutting for the guns who have all last money i bet the owner is going to lose a whole lot of money as won't have any of the income from the later days that he can't host/sell. He's probably in a fairly deep financial hole after paying for the birds, feed etc but not getting much of it back Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
achosenman Posted December 22, 2016 Report Share Posted December 22, 2016 Fair point scotslad. My supplier of poults was also the game dealer. Both him and his kin were driving around in private plate Range Rovers so I guess he was making something somewhere and fair play to him. In my experience beaters are in it for a day out, £15 and three meals all in, not to mention cock day at the end of season. One thing for sure, the birds will clear off without too much persuasion and if any kind of prolonged felling or chainsaw work was undertaken on his main drive then that's done and dusted. We used to rest drives for several weeks during the season and work the birds back into them during the off time. I don't know the full story, but I'm guessing from personal experience this was no scam. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lloyd90 Posted December 23, 2016 Report Share Posted December 23, 2016 Fair point scotslad. My supplier of poults was also the game dealer. Both him and his kin were driving around in private plate Range Rovers so I guess he was making something somewhere and fair play to him. In my experience beaters are in it for a day out, £15 and three meals all in, not to mention cock day at the end of season. One thing for sure, the birds will clear off without too much persuasion and if any kind of prolonged felling or chainsaw work was undertaken on his main drive then that's done and dusted. We used to rest drives for several weeks during the season and work the birds back into them during the off time. I don't know the full story, but I'm guessing from personal experience this was no scam. 3 meals for the beaters? Wish my shoots were like that! They're only small ones and did some soup for lunch first year but now they bring packed lunch so there is money to pay beaters instead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
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.