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The Financial Impact The Virus Has Caused On Shooting This Last Season ?


marsh man
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Who could have imagined this time last year where we would be in twelve months time , we finished the season last year as we normally do with two beaters days , three Saturdays in February and one in March were spent roost shooting , one beaters and helpers meal in February and another shoot I go on we had a meal in early March , no one at the time knew what lay ahead in the months to come .

Then the dreaded Virus starting to affect our way of life , some shoots took a chance and carried on as per normal , while others either cut down or gave it a miss for the coming season , then when the virus started to take hold in the early Spring a new way of life came into play called lockdown , this was at a time when people who had booked days had to hand over there deposits and the people who ran the shoots had to start ordering poults , feed stuff and getting holding pens sorted out .

Time went by and the first lockdown came to a end after more weeks than first thought , after a slowdown in infected cases during the Summer we were then eagerly looking towards the shooting season , September arrived and the Partridge days began , this only lasted till late September and we were back on lockdown with the first days cancelled  and shoot owners trying to rearrange the dates later on in the season , little did we know then that we were going to lose around six of the best and busiest weeks of the season .

We now accept that this season is finished with no chance of any more shooting and money coming in .

So what do we do ( if we are still here ) for this coming season , this lockdown is expected to go on well into the Spring or longer , god help us if we get another strain of the virus that the present vaccine can't cope with as today we passed 1000 deaths in one day and over 60,000 infected cases 

This crisis is not only affecting game shooting it is a disaster for everyone involved  in all sorts of field sports , the game dealers have got no one to sell there game to and the traders who rely on game fairs to sell there stuff are in for a rocky road with no fairs last year and our two local ones like the Norfolk show which can attract up to 100,000 people and the Suffolk show which see around 80,000 go through the gate are both cancelled .

I was talking to a chap the other day who knew a keeper on a well known estate in Wales and he was saying a lot of shoots are in serious trouble money wise with one owing several thousand to the feed merchant and I dare say there are a lot of worried shoot owners in UK , 

So if you had a crystal ball , How do you see next season operating ?   

STAY SAFE everyone .

 

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Nice post Marsh man- the ripple effect from lost earnings travel far and wide across all business, and as field sports enthusiasts we might see established shoots collapsing.

As for next season- if we think back to last September the experts told us that we had the virus beaten as long as we keep the schools off longer and carried out testing at the airports . The government chose to ignore this advice and most advice since. If the vaccine is rolled out in a timely manner and proves effective there is no reason why we can’t return to some kind of normality well before the beginning of the game season 2021.

Just my opinion of course.

 

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Excellent post  MM

In support of the shoots I support I have laid over all of my deposits for next season and hope that gives a breather to those organising and running them.

With regard to the equipment/cartridge suppliers then I suggest we all do our very best to maybe buy a new pair of boots, a new shooting jacket, a couple of slabs of cartridges etc etc. Even if they hang in the wardrobe or lay gun/ammunition safes until things get back to normal. 

There is very little else we can do.

Edited by Walker570
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Good honest post from you 3 chaps ,I know of a few shoots my way that has only scraped through financialy this year so you have got to be brave to put more money up front not knowing what will happen. And like you say if the government don't take any notice of advisers then it's frightening if we are going to get through this .Our little farm shoot we only will manage 1 day out of the 4 only small but poults and feed have to be paid for . Stay safe tagether and take care.

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Bloke I train with who has a shoot that he runs for field trials says he is packing it all in.

He missed out of 12 field trials at £1000 a pop each, and 20+ training days at £1000+ a pop each between all the people training. 

 

When not doing the gundog training he also did small walked up shoot days, which he said kept getting cancelled or he couldn't have more than 2 people come down. 

He said even if he wanted to, he can't afford to do it all again next year.

 

 

Considering its very hard to get good ground to run trials on I said the gundog clubs (many of whom are sitting on many many thousands of pounds) should just pay him anyway as its no impact on them. He laughed and said he asked them to pay a deposit before the season because of the risk of putting down the birds and all except one club flat out refused.

 

Next year they will all be trying to find ground again, complaining that there's no good ground! 

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As utterly narked off as I am from my own personal perspective, about losing the rest of my syndicate & rough shooting days this season, at least we are a low-cost low-risk endeavour and we'll survive - unlike many of the commercial shoots, I fear.  Our syndicate took a general consensus last March and decided to go ahead as normal - a major part of it being, as Walker quite rightly points out above, if we go to order our birds next year and the game farm has gone bust then we've been part of the problem causing their demise.

As Lloyd illustrates, the numbers start adding up to eye-watering losses.  In excess of £30k turnover lost for that chap, it's not loose change, it's life-changing.  As a rough example, If a commercial shoot has lost its last 10 days of the season due to this lockdown, you could be looking at between £50k and £100k or more of lost turnover, depending on the scale of the shoot.  Some shoots will be sponsored by the Lord of the Manor and will carry on, licking their wounds, but there's bound to be many that simply fold leaving individuals with a mountain of debt and keepers out of work.  I really do feel bad for them.

There may be a silver lining though, with some big commercial shoots folding.  Game shooting may morph back into something it was many years back - still the big estates doing expensive big-numbers days, but more of your smaller scale working man's type shooting and more farm shoots having informal rough & walked up days.  I think this would both make shooting more accessible for those who enjoy it but either can't afford it or just can't get in anywhere, and also help make the sport a bit more low-key and maybe, just maybe, take a bit of heat off us from the antis who bemoan the practices of releasing game in large numbers in concentrated places "to be slaughtered en-masse".  So maybe there is a glimmer of positivity to be salvaged from it, but I feel the hardest times are yet to come for those who rely on shooting for an income

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It’s hitting the shoots hard at the moment Jim. 
 

Some of those shoots are £1000+ a day per gun, 10 guns and they’ve lost 10 days easy. 
 

Imagine losing £100k!! 
 

It’s not like they still have the stock on the shelves, the birds are out and they still need to be fed as well. 
 

Although it’s awful and hitting the shoots this year, if people start losing their jobs with other businesses going down the pan there is likely to be less people looking to pay to go shooting next year as well. 
 

Shooting is a luxury and if I had to decide between it or paying the bills it’s a no brainier. 
 

The next 12 months is going to be interesting. So far they just keep extending furlough over and over. 

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27 minutes ago, Lloyd90 said:

It’s hitting the shoots hard at the moment Jim. 
 

Some of those shoots are £1000+ a day per gun, 10 guns and they’ve lost 10 days easy. 
 

Imagine losing £100k!! 
 

It’s not like they still have the stock on the shelves, the birds are out and they still need to be fed as well. 
 

Although it’s awful and hitting the shoots this year, if people start losing their jobs with other businesses going down the pan there is likely to be less people looking to pay to go shooting next year as well. 
 

Shooting is a luxury and if I had to decide between it or paying the bills it’s a no brainier. 
 

The next 12 months is going to be interesting. So far they just keep extending furlough over and over. 

If I as a simple pensioner can roll over my deposits to help then anyone who pays a grand a day or more can certainly put their hands in their pockets and help the sport survive, but will they ?    Where it has hit certainly is estates such as Belvoir where they have teams of guns fly in by private jet and the invoice at the end of the week can be 70 to 80 thousand pounds, then those figures do start to hurt.    Personally I feel the whole shooting fraternity should do their very best to support the shoots which have given them so much pleasure in the past. That is really the only way in my view.  Whatever it is not going to be easy. Just a thought. The Chancellor is handing out cash to small businesses. Do commercial shoots class as small business?   Should BASC be pushing this?

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29 minutes ago, Walker570 said:

If I as a simple pensioner can roll over my deposits to help then anyone who pays a grand a day or more can certainly put their hands in their pockets and help the sport survive, but will they ?    Where it has hit certainly is estates such as Belvoir where they have teams of guns fly in by private jet and the invoice at the end of the week can be 70 to 80 thousand pounds, then those figures do start to hurt.    Personally I feel the whole shooting fraternity should do their very best to support the shoots which have given them so much pleasure in the past. That is really the only way in my view.  Whatever it is not going to be easy. Just a thought. The Chancellor is handing out cash to small businesses. Do commercial shoots class as small business?   Should BASC be pushing this?


What deposit do you pay on a £1000 a day peg though? 10%? 
 

Even rolling it over to next year isn’t going to be that much help surely. 
 

The increased feed for bird that haven’t been shot is going to be high as well. 
 

 

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14 minutes ago, Lloyd90 said:


What deposit do you pay on a £1000 a day peg though? 10%? 

Even rolling it over to next year isn’t going to be that much help surely. 

The increased feed for bird that haven’t been shot is going to be high as well. 

Lloyd, I would strongly suspect may shoots will not continue to feed once the season is over.

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2 minutes ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

Lloyd, I would strongly suspect may shoots will not continue to feed once the season is over.

In my experience only those shoots with caring and responsible owners feed pheasants in February, March and April. Many just leave the birds to fend for themselves when the availability of natural food is at its lowest.

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It won’t be just game shooting that is financially hit it will be the non-business local small clay shooting clubs, they will have seen a loss of income due to the now three lockdowns and Tier system. But will still have bills to pay like insurance and rent for the ground. Being clubs and getting no government money it may see some close, if they don’t have the money to pay the next lot of bills when due.

Challenging times for shooting of all types.

 

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Although they have a legal and moral responsibility to continue to feed the birds, the current situation is unprecedented and an incredible amount of birds will be left over. As JDog says a lot shoots wont throw more money at feeding the birds after the massive losses they have experienced. 

I have 3 let days in January where I've paid 50% deposit (this is the norm), I've offered to leave my deposit for days next season to help, just hope they survive.

Will miss out on 2 syndicate days and 2/3 rough shooting days, all paid for in full, but not a lot of money.

I wouldn't like to be running a big shoot this season, lots of sleepless night I guess. 

 

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Some very interesting points mentioned above , one that Lloyd pointed out was the working man having enough spare money in his pocket after all the uncertainties in the job market at the moment and unfortunately I fear it will get worse before it get better .

All the shoots up and down the country have lost both shooting and income up to a certain degree , on a small d i y walk and stand shoot they have lost a few late days and could work together to try and get back to some form of normality for this coming season , even a small shoot have got to plan game covers been planted and no doubt have to pay for feed and rent .

On a large shoot it must already be a serious worry with what to do with all the game that still need feeding and the budget wasn't allowed for , we are over run with commercial shoots around this way and most farms are connected one way or the other with game shooting , as an example , one shoot I know that shoot over three different places lost 20 days with the first early season lockdown , these were a minimum of 200 birds days , when shooting returned these lost shoots days were juggled about to try and fit them in at a later date , and I did hear that on some days two shoots would be going on the same day , then disaster struck , all game shoots ceased on Boxing day , around six weeks of shooting lost, with the cancelled previous shoots and the ones booked in during the last six weeks of the season lets say a minimum of 30 days at 200 bird days , there well might be more and bigger days but we will say 30 at 200 bird days , this add up to 6000 birds that should have been shot and paid for , now these have got to be fed or left to fend for there selves .

We know this lockdown is going to go on till a minimum of mid February and then if numbers of dead and dying have dropped enough we will be back to a tier system , but in all honesty the time scale when we feel we are getting back to some form of normal is anyone's guess , and I am sure there will be several stings in the tail before we get this dreadful virus under control , even today they had doctors surgeries running out of vaccine and others not receiving there supply , early days yet and hopefully things will get better with vaccinating large numbers of the public.

By the time we expect , or told we should have it under control the decisions will have to be made by shoot owners what they are planning for the coming season , I expect they will be thinking long and hard before the final decisions have been made .    MM

 

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1 hour ago, Lloyd90 said:


What deposit do you pay on a £1000 a day peg though? 10%? 
 

Even rolling it over to next year isn’t going to be that much help surely. 
 

The increased feed for bird that haven’t been shot is going to be high as well. 
 

 

Well I normally pay 50% deposits on my small days and would expect similar for any other days really but maybe some wealthy person on here can enlighten us.

The reaction I have had from the shoots has been positive and grateful.

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My take on it regarding small shoots is 

1. keep on feeding the birds ready for the coming season & then you avoid the cost of buying birds for next season or

2 Stop feeding the birds & have the cost of buying birds for the coming season. 
 

 it’s either spend on feed or new birds. It’s a bloody tricky one.

Edited by blackbird
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I seriously doubt any of the big commercial shoots will fold; they’re big for a reason and not many of them operate on a shoestring; none of the ones I’m aware of anyhow, which is good news for driven shooting. 
Our BIG commercial shoot has all the feed it needs and will feed until there is no need, and all lost days have been rolled over to next season.
The  biggest question is what to do with the unshot birds, but that’s a question which applies to any shoot, but just the big ones. 

On our little syndicate most of ours have wandered and bags were down from day one, which if I recall was 5th December. 
There are literally dozens of shoots locally, from 50 bird days to 500 bird days, and I haven’t heard of any yet which are said to be folding. 
 

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51 minutes ago, Scully said:

I seriously doubt any of the big commercial shoots will fold; they’re big for a reason and not many of them operate on a shoestring; none of the ones I’m aware of anyhow, which is good news for driven shooting. 
Our BIG commercial shoot has all the feed it needs and will feed until there is no need, and all lost days have been rolled over to next season.
The  biggest question is what to do with the unshot birds, but that’s a question which applies to any shoot, but just the big ones. 

On our little syndicate most of ours have wandered and bags were down from day one, which if I recall was 5th December. 
There are literally dozens of shoots locally, from 50 bird days to 500 bird days, and I haven’t heard of any yet which are said to be folding. 
 

I agree we will bounce back next season, as with everything from going to the pub, fishing, holidays etc etc we have lost out on a whole year of life & we all are desperate to get back & live again.

Edited by blackbird
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This has a massive impact right through the community from the beaters who rely on the income to the estate owners, those providing accommodation to the local coffee shop where you pop in for a blather when not shooting. Yes some will be seriously effected but I am optimistic and see the pent up frustration of missing this season boiling over into next. It all depends now on the vaccination roll out but we could see an increased demand.

I was due in Canada November but cancelled. Our deposits have been rolled over as are our flights. Fingers crossed we are going to make it this time.

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16 minutes ago, Lloyd90 said:

Sadly so do I 😞 

 

2 hours ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

Lloyd, I would strongly suspect may shoots will not continue to feed once the season is over.

That could apply equally whether there’s a pandemic or not.
I’ve no doubt some do and some don’t, but only know of one which didn’t. 

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Before Christmas I was talking with a commercial shoot owner where I had a day booked for January. He told me that during the November lockdown he had lost 18 x 300 bird days  @ £40/bird. Now, of course, he has lost the rest of his season as well, maybe at a guess another 25 days? He is a one man band. His losses don’t bear thinking about.

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25 minutes ago, Scully said:

 

That could apply equally whether there’s a pandemic or not.
I’ve no doubt some do and some don’t, but only know of one which didn’t. 


Yes but those that don’t feed at the end of the season MIGHT have argued that there is some food around to sustain them ... but there’s going to be so many birds around now it’s going to be ridiculous. 
 

Forget the antis taken pictures of 100 birds dead in a ditch. We could be looking at pictures of birds starved. 
 

I feel for the keepers. Just spoke to my mate, he said he is still feeding despite everything going down the pan. He was counting on the next 2 shoot days to simply recover the money he paid for the birds.  All cancelled now! 

1 minute ago, London Best said:

Before Christmas I was talking with a commercial shoot owner where I had a day booked for January. He told me that during the November lockdown he had lost 18 x 300 bird days  @ £40/bird. Now, of course, he has lost the rest of his season as well, maybe at a guess another 25 days? He is a one man band. His losses don’t bear thinking about.


A few shoots I know of on big ground just lease the shoot to an individual. 
 

Lots of gamekeepers being one man bands etc counting on money. 
 

The ‘shoot’ might still be there next year with someone else in charge, as a totally new outfit. 
 

Very sad state of affairs. Still watching out carefully however. If other industries start going down the pan then where we are off shooting next year might be the least of our worries. 

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30 minutes ago, Lloyd90 said:


Yes but those that don’t feed at the end of the season MIGHT have argued that there is some food around to sustain them ... but there’s going to be so many birds around now it’s going to be ridiculous. 
 

Forget the antis taken pictures of 100 birds dead in a ditch. We could be looking at pictures of birds starved. 
 

 

I think you’re making quite a few assumptions there.
For your end scenario to exist  you’re assuming that most won’t feed past the end of the season, also that most won’t catch up, and also that there won’t be enough food to sustain any birds left to their own devices, and that as a result we could be faced with pictures of starved birds.
Realistically, if anything I’d say we would more than likely be looking at an increase in the survival rate of predators, wouldn’t you? 

Out of interest, I’m assuming you’re referring to dumped birds in your last paragraph above. Could you post the picture, or at least a link to the picture of a 100 birds dead in a ditch? 

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5 minutes ago, Scully said:

I think you’re making quite a few assumptions there.
For your end scenario to exist  you’re assuming that most won’t feed past the end of the season, also that most won’t catch up, and also that there won’t be enough food to sustain any birds left to their own devices, and that as a result we could be faced with pictures of starved birds.
Realistically, if anything I’d say we would more than likely be looking at an increase in the survival rate of predators, wouldn’t you? 

Out of interest, I’m assuming you’re referring to dumped birds in your last paragraph above. Could you post the picture, or at least a link to the picture of a 100 birds dead in a ditch? 


Just a worst case scenario tbh Scully. 
 

As I said my mate is going to keep feeding. But I think it’s a bit unrealistic to think they’re all going to do that. 
 

Some individuals or shoots simply won’t have the money to be able to buy the feed considering the sums lost. 
 

Agree with you plenty of food be about for predators this year. 
 

 

I don’t have those pictures and don’t really and to go looking for them, but they do exist don’t they? 🤷‍♂️
 

Just this season a bunch of birds were dumped near my clubs main shoot. Pictures were taken and posted on the local village groups online and there was uproar. 
 

I was confronted by members of the local big shoot whilst out shooting blaming Oowee and myself for dumping the high number of birds. Despite the fact they had a huge driven shoot on the same land and we had a tiny rough shoot with a limit of 4 birds each. 

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