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30th Jan mixed bag day


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  • 4 weeks later...

Cracking day it was too, thoroughly enjoyed it :0)

 

So are we going to hear a bit more about it regarding venue, bag etc.

 

As despite showing interest in the day I never got any further details, obviously if good then would pressurise him next year a lot more for details.

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We all met at 8.30 at the Quidenham Estate, in Norfolk. It is a well set up commercial shoot (and i believe is in the top 10 Partrige shoots in the UK?). Tea/Coffee was provided and the guns gathered in front of the building where the vehicles were parked. After mingling and slowly getting ready the briefing was given by the Gamekeeper. The 20 guns would be split into two teams of ten. One team walking and the other standing. The walking guns would start up to a mile away from the standing line and be spead out about 40-50m apart. They would slowly walk towards the line of guns and would be able to shoot anything in front or behind, on the ground or in the air at any height!!! Once the walking guns got to within 400m of the standing guns a whistle would be blown three times. This was a signal for the standing guns to move forward approx 20m (they were normally standing with their backs close to hedges or woodland) to give them room to shoot any Hares that went behind. This was also a signal for everyone to only shoot behind them with ground game and only at high birds if shooting forward. We would be taken to the drives in purpose built gun buses!

 

The first drive, myself and a few others on here (Chrispti, Buze and another member(not sure what hes called on here?)) were standing. We did not choose numbers, which was a good thing as all six of us friends lined out side by side from peg1-6. i was on peg 2. In front of 1-3 was a small maize cover crop strip. When the drive started we could hear some banging from the walkers but could not see anything. Then after about 10 minutes we could just see some Hares in the distance ontop of a ridge. One Hare was disturbed by the picker upper in the woods behind and bolted straight out from behind the line catching most people out, but heading straight for the walking line. Over the next 5 mins a few hares ran towards the middle of the guns and then towards the end of the line (peg 8-10) A few shots were fired and i think 1 maybe 2 hares were shot. As the walking guns got a little closer, some pheasants and partridge broke out from the cover crops over mainly over me!!! but also over 1-4. I did my usual thing and missed my first bird(bit of a habit!) Chrispti shot a nice bird. Then the birds burst out for a few minutes! At one point i could have done with a loader! I finished with 4 pheasants, 1 nice high shot. I think pegs 1-4 ended with about 8 birds. I think the total was 6 Hares and 10-12 birds( but i could be well wrong!)

 

The second drive we were walking, i think we were about 3-8 in line, i was about 7. Half way along we came to within 100m of a cover strip and a gun at 1-2 shot a hare behind, i couldn't see the shot but knew one had been shot as we had to wait in line whilst he went back to retrieve it. Then about 40m from the crop a hare bolted out of it to my right, in front of my friend (who didn't see it until i shouted him!) he had a good shot and just caught it as it was going back into the crop, a fraction of a second later and it would have dissapeared. The bang spooked a couple of partridge in front of me, which i missed!! Quite a few birds left the cover crop to my left and a few were shot. The gun on the far right had a very nice high pigeon. As we closed to the guns we could see and hear a lot of shots. Speaking to the standing guns, they said that not many hares had come out but quite a few partridge had come past.

 

The third drive we were standing again, pegs 4-9? I was the first of our group, peg 4?. We did not see many hares on this drive but did see quite a few partridge and a few pigeon, i think Buze had a nice high pigeon. I saw a lot of partridge but they were crossing me from both directions, just out of range (my range 45m!) but they curled towards the guns so 1-2,6-8 had a bit of action. After the three whistles a hare broke and headed straight for 3 beside me. It then turned as it reached 3 and ran straight towards me along the line. I willed it to turn right and go behind me but it didn't. it ran along the line and then was shot by a gun further down the line. A blank for me on that drive but could'nt moan as i had a good first drive! But no hare yet!

 

Then we stopped for Lunch back at the main building. I was on this shoot last year and had told all the other 4 in our group how good the lunch was, so i was a little disappointed with the ham, cheese sandwiches (which were cut into 1/4s and doubt there were 20 whole sandwiches in total!!) a few bowls of crisps and some different cakes. Last year we had numerous sandwiches,sausage rolls, quiche, samosa's and a few other bits and the cakes.

 

The 4th drive we were walking 1-6, i was 4. We started on the edge of a cover crop, i was expecting quite a few birds to come out. Only one came out in front of me but stayed below the crop. There were a few shots to the right no's 8-10 but i couldnt see them as there were some trees between us. We then cam across a bomb type crater with a small pond in the bottom. i was on the left hand edge on the crater, unfortunately a bit too close as i was putting the birds up and 3 & 2 were having some good action on the pheasants i was flushing. i managed to knock down 1 pheasant in front of no3 after he had 2 shots at the 3 others (so wasn't stealing his bird) that came out with it. I almost trod on a woodcock that went back low through the trees, (strange that a woodcock was sitting so tight?) After picking the birds we went forward and a Hare got up infront of me and bolted away. i closed my gun, raised it and shot! The hare rolled and stopped dead about 35m in front!! If you havent shot or put up a hare before you have no idea how fast they are, they weill overtake a fast partridge and make them look slow! We continued on and as we neared the guns we could see a few hares moving towards them and being despatched.

 

The 5th drive we were standing,our group 1-6, i was 2. i was standing to the side of a muck heap on my right. From the start we had quite a few partridge slightly quartering from right to left. Passing me at about 40m and passing 1 at about 30-35m. These were flying!! About 1m off the ground, they were hard to see coming and it felt a bit strange shooting at a bird so low. I managed to shoot 1 (but im not admitting that my ratio was about 12-1 on them!!) I was very pleased with the shot! Didn't help that no1 was my good friend who normaly gets 48/50 on the clays!! I think he had 4 all good shots. i then noticed something running to my right behind the Muck heap. I raised my gun waiting for it to apppear around the edge of the heap. What i thought was a massive hare came round the heap for me to realise it was a Roe doe!! so obviously didn't fire. The whistle blew 3 times, then a pheasant lifted and was missed by no 4,3 and the walking gun opposite but was stopped by me! I am not sure how well the others did on this one.

 

The 6th drive we were walking. I think i was no 6? We were half way through the field when a hare got up in front on me, i closed the gun, raised it and shot. About 4 or 5 clumps of cotton wool like fur flew out from the Hare, but it kept going!!!! It ran over the hill and shortly afterwards they were 3 shots heard from the standing line! we came up to a small hedge where a few birds rose and were shot. We then got near to the standing guns and the whistle went 3 times. We slowly closed the gap and a hare got up and bolted between me and the left gun ging back. Again i closed the gun, raised it and shot! The Hare tumbled this time, but sat up so i instantly put another head shot into it. i picked it up and we moved forward, the horn went off to finish, we unloaded and a hare bolted straight by Chrispti, almost through his legs!! Typical.

 

We then went back to the main building for a quick tea/coffee. The year before we were each allowed to take 1 hare home. Which again i had told my friends, so i was a bit shocked when the gamekeeper wanted £5 per hare if you wanted one??? Considering he had just taken £5k off of the guns, i felt this was a little petty and penny pinching. But what goes around comes around and instead of giving him the £20 tip i was going to give him, i felt he could keep my two hares instead!! So technically he lost out on £15 by not letting me take a hare.

 

Unfortunately the lunch and the £5/per hare slightly spoiled an otherwise excellent day for me(only because i was expecting the same as the previous year). However did it spoil it enough to not go next year??? If i can find another Hare shoot to go on i may try that but mainly because i feel that shooting this estate 3 years on the trot may result in a reduction of available hares and not so much the other issues. We shot 109 hares last year but with 30 guns, on this estate(same drives) and quite a few estates this year did not do Hare days because of low numbers. I do not know if hares move around estates like deer or how quick they breed/grow but i would imagine the numbers will reduce if continually shot in numbers?

 

I am sure i have missed out lots of things so if any of the other PW members who were there want to add/change anything, pls feel free to.

(sorry for any spelling/punctuation mistakes, its late!)

 

Hope you enjoyed my write up,

 

Neil

Edited by silver pigeon69
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Doesn't sound a bad day at all bob the sound of it it.

Bit like a standard hare day but with the bonus of game birds being able to be shot.

Agree with you on the hare/tip issue

Got 2 back to back hare days this week which are usually big bags and good fun

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Good detailed report! I was just wondering about cartridge choice did you have one that was a bit light for hares and a bit heavy for partridge or did you manage to carry and load separate shells?

You didnt really have time to pick or choose, especially if walking. So we would normally use 36grm 3s, but we decided on 4's as it was mixed.

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Doesn't sound a bad day at all bob the sound of it it.

Bit like a standard hare day but with the bonus of game birds being able to be shot.

Agree with you on the hare/tip issue

Got 2 back to back hare days this week which are usually big bags and good fun

Like i said, it was a really good day, just a couple of small issues as such. Pleae give us a report when you have done them.

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