Partidges

[Ultraxs]

Hello everybody in the next 2 years I am planning on running a partidge and pheasant syndicate on 200 acres.

I was after some information on partidges as I know alot about pheasants but not to much partidge we have a small warm wood which would be ideal for pheasants. But lots of gradual slopes which is more suited to partidges.

 

I was wondering how to go about planning drives for example where do they like to fly ie wind and do they like flying back to release pens and how to I get them to fly to where I want and where I want them to feed etc. 

[Walker570]

Firstly a bit small acreage for partridges in my view but they will release succesfully sometimes in a pheasant pen. The old saying was partridges go with the wind and pheasants will go against it, so particularly trying to drive your partridges on any specific day you may need to alter your drives to match the wind.  On a windy day on 200 acres you may see them fly onto your neighbours too.  They will feed into cover crops and also woods with pheasants.  Partridges are birds of open ground and will cooch up together out in an open field for the night, where pheasants will return to their regular roosting woods NORMALLY.  It is all a fairly loose science.

I wish you well on your small shoot but if it was mine I would spend the money on pheasants alone.

I have run self help shoots for 40yrs and they where both around 800 acres and even then we lost a few over the boundaries and the partridges we gave up on as they where so difficult to organise.   

Hope this helps and best of luck.

[WalkedUp]

We had 200 acres in Wales, 50 partridge released alongside the pheasant. The partridges were seen on first day of the season running 150 yards ahead of the dogs in stubble turnip. They then took off from the hillside and flew on out of sight. We never saw them again or even had a single shot at them. The current shoot is 2000 acres and I still wouldn’t consider partridge due to the lack of extensive standing cover (no winter crops or enough cover crops). You need to be able to bounce them about your shoot so they land back into your land. With pheasants it’s easy, drive them from high on a hill towards a wood or over a valley and they will fly high and as short distance as possible to pitch into some decent cover. 

Edited December 20, 2020 by WalkedUp

[Jim Neal]

Stick an extra zero on your acreage and you stand half a chance.  In reality you're going to be either topping up your neighbouring shoots' partridge numbers or feeding Charlie where you can't touch him.

Of course, you could flip that around! If you keep Charlie well and truly in check on your patch and your neighbours put plenty of partridge down.... if the land suits it you may well pull them in and shoot a few as they head off home again.  If that's the case I'd definitely give it a punt on releasing enough to "play cricket" with the neighbours in terms of what you expect to shoot and see how it goes!

Good luck

[Scully]

I think you’d struggle to keep your birds on that acreage to be honest. Our big shoot consists of just under 3,000 acres of woodland plus three farms of around 400 acres each, the latter of which consist of large swathes of cover crop. 
You will need the permission of adjoining landowners to walk them back in, and you won’t get that if they also shoot game. 
On any drive we do, the beaters can cast out a line of over half a mile to beat over grazing pasture, moors and woodland to bring birds in towards the flush points. 
Partridge wander....a lot; and if you don’t use stops to walk them back in quietly from all corners you will walk them off your land. They are quick to take to the air and not easy to turn. 

[cardigun]

Hi UltraXS,

You are not giving any feedback on either of your partridge questions.  Have you lost interest in your project ?

[steve s×s]

On 22/12/2020 at 20:40, Scully said:

I think you’d struggle to keep your birds on that acreage to be honest. Our big shoot consists of just under 3,000 acres of woodland plus three farms of around 400 acres each, the latter of which consist of large swathes of cover crop. 
You will need the permission of adjoining landowners to walk them back in, and you won’t get that if they also shoot game. 
On any drive we do, the beaters can cast out a line of over half a mile to beat over grazing pasture, moors and woodland to bring birds in towards the flush points. 
Partridge wander....a lot; and if you don’t use stops to walk them back in quietly from all corners you will walk them off your land. They are quick to take to the air and not easy to turn. 

Of course you no why they Wander and fly off, even they know they don't belong here and to be honest nether do pheasants jmho, why not try encouraging our partridge, I know it's not that simple but the red legs are a sad alternative 

[Scully]

5 minutes ago, steve s×s said:

Of course you no why they Wander and fly off, even they know they don't belong here and to be honest nether do pheasants jmho, why not try encouraging our partridge, I know it's not that simple but the red legs are a sad alternative 

They’re there for a reason. 🤷‍♂️