Struggling to raise any enthusiasm

[grahamch]

Have just paid my subs for my pheasant syndicate and helped put the birds in pens last week and we now have a rota to check pens, feed etc. 

Am really struggling to raise any enthusiasm to go and take my turn, I think it gets more difficult each year as I get older - do any other members find this happens?

Still keen enough to go fowling and looking to start deer stalking but reared pheasants are becoming harder to justify to myself and find am questioning the morality and sustainability of reared bird shooting. Think this will be my last season. 

 

 

[Stimo22]

Yes I do think it is a age thing, I now do more beating than shooting. It is nice to see the enthusiasm of the younger guns and watch others shoot.

[bluesj]

I've found the same with all shooting, just as happy to take my boy out for a few pigeons or rabbits as do it my self.

I never have really been in to big bag days. I don't shoot game very often but one little shoot I get an invite to we do only 3 drive and I plus most of the others only look to shoot a brace or two on each drive, a bird taken at the limit of you capability tastes better!

[TIGHTCHOKE]

I am just sorting the coming seasons days and paying for them.

Don't have to do any of the work though as the shooting is in Yorkshire.

I do think it's an age thing that comes to most of us, just not yet for me.

[old'un]

Yep, possibly an age thing, I also have been involved with game shoots over the years, it was okay but got a bit to much of the same thing, it never matched pigeon shooting, but even that is not the same as it was when I was 25-30, not sure if its the fact that I have killed a lot of animals during my lifetime or its just a simple fact that at 71 I am slowing down and do not have the same spark, plus since retiring at 58 I could go when and as many times as I wished, I did not need to wait for the weekend to do some shooting.

[London Best]

Strangely, I have gone in the opposite direction. Having spent a lifetime doing most forms of shooting, I am now finding I can’t be bothered carting and setting up pigeon gear any more. I have started to consider letting Fallow bucks walk free, as I am beginning to struggle to handle them, so I wait for a Muntjac instead. I used to love an evening flight for duck, but have lost enthusiasm for even that. I no longer spend all night looking for foxes several nights a week.

But I am keener than ever for decent driven days with a couple of busy drives on the peg.

[Dave-G]

That's been very much the case with me since the lockdowns got me out the habit of going, sort of been there done that if you like, and partly because I'm a night person finding another night person buddy for company and to inject some companionship into it. That was partly the reason for selling my centrefire and reloading kit.

Just this evening though my nephew said he's applying for his FAC and he being a shift worker I'll be seriously happy to take him on board and get him shooting land and mentor him along. I'll need to check I can act as one of his referees but his other ref is an ex bobby who would have been an FLO if the local firearms department hadn't lost his application.

[Jim Neal]

4 hours ago, grahamch said:

Have just paid my subs for my pheasant syndicate and helped put the birds in pens last week and we now have a rota to check pens, feed etc. 

Am really struggling to raise any enthusiasm to go and take my turn, I think it gets more difficult each year as I get older - do any other members find this happens?

Still keen enough to go fowling and looking to start deer stalking but reared pheasants are becoming harder to justify to myself and find am questioning the morality and sustainability of reared bird shooting. Think this will be my last season.

I know blokes who've been game shooting for 60 years and they still can't wait to get out for the next one.  It sounds like you've simply lost your Mojo at the moment.  But it doesn't mean you can't find it again.  If you think back to what got you in to game shooting, how does now differ?  What do you do now that you didn't years ago, and vice versa?

Please excuse the rather direct question but is your syndicate actually a "good" one?  What I mean is, have you got a really well-oiled machine running where things mostly go well (obviously there's always a few hardships, cockups etc)?  Do the members get on with each other and enjoy a good laugh and banter on shoot days and maybe have a few social events throughout the year?  Do you usually get the sort of bags you'd reasonably expect, and get a decent enough % return out of the season?

The reason I ask is that I've heard of and witnessed plenty of not-so-good syndicates, which makes being a member of them not a very enjoyable experience and I think that puts folk off their shooting.  Maybe it's time for a change if you're not getting your kicks as things are?

I'm intrigued by your point regarding morality - can you expand upon that?

There are one or two examples of a lack of morals I can think of in game shooting.  I find distasteful the kind of stereotypical huge commercial shoots shooting 30 or more 300+ bird days in a season, putting down tens of thousands of birds and pushing them in swarms over a line of mostly boozed-up halfwits who couldn't hit a barn door.  Who knows how many birds die out of sight from injuries or get taken by predators due to being hit too hard to make it home?  Many (I know not all) of the participants don't have respect for the quarry and treat it as a "live" clay shoot - the birds are just "targets".

Another morally corrupt practice, albeit very different, is starting up a small shoot next door to someone else, putting out nothing but feeders and shooting your neighbour's birds!

Sustainability is a big subject.  What is sustainability?  One definition might be taking out less than is put in, or at worst equal to what is put in.

I think it depends upon what sort of scale of game shooting we're considering as to how easily it can be sustainable.  Certainly with the massive commercial shoots you have to wonder if they can continue to be able to justify themselves for many more years.  Going down the scale, I cannot see any reason why a modest working man's syndicate or farm shoot cannot be considered sustainable.  Typically, smaller shoots have low stocking densities which won't impact upon the flora and fauna of the land; there's usually plenty of supplementary feeding both during and after the season, helping out all sorts of wildlife.  Game covers provide for much more than the released gamebirds, and well-upheld codes of practice on shoot days mean that the quarry is respected and dealt with in a responsible and respectful manner, minimising lost birds and maximising the amount of game meat put in to use as food.

Let's presume we continue to shoot lead for the foreseeable future.  A syndicate stocking 2,000 birds returning 30% at a ratio of 4:1 has deposited 2,400 oz of lead into the environment, give or take.  How much lead has hit the ground after a season of 30 days of 300+birds on a big commercial?  How much lead does ONE keen pigeon shooter expend annually?  What about clay shooters?

To be honest, I'm struggling to understand how you're perceiving there's an issue with morality or sustainability from being in a syndicate, unless there's something seriously wrong with it.  You've got to look at the bigger picture?

Here's another thought, and I know a fair few people who do this:  If you're just a bit bored with your syndicate, why not try to swap days with a few people from other syndicates?  Let them take your gun on your shoot for the day whilst you beat, and then they do the same when you go to theirs.  Getting out on other shoots you could find that either you really should be somewhere else, or that actually your lot isn't too bad after all and you should be happy with what you've got!  It's a win/win

Hopefully that's given you a bit of food for thought mate

[Lloyd90]

Buy a Gundog. 
 

Actually train it to a half decent standard. 
 

Take it out when trained and shoot game over it. Proper rough shooting. 
 

Some of the best says I’ve ever had have been taking a handful of birds over my dog. 
 

I think my best days last season was running my springer for about an hour. I think we took 4 birds with 4 shots. 2 singles and a left and right, one of which was a runner that my dog took the line on and picked a good 150+ yards away. 
 

Fanastic day. 

[toontastic]

On 31/07/2021 at 02:14, Lloyd90 said:

Buy a Gundog. 

Take it out when trained and shoot game over it. Proper rough shooting. 

+1

I have never really enjoyed driven shooting and quite often give up my beaters days, so I can beat instead.

I do enjoy helping out around the shoot pre-season especially dogging in. 

I'm happier shooting rats around out buildings than any other shooting activity. 

[TIDES EDGE]

It is definatley an age thing when I was young I would travel any where any time just to get the chance of a shot now at 69 I am far happier beating or working the dogs .

[Mr grumpy]

On 31/07/2021 at 02:14, Lloyd90 said:

Buy a Gundog. 
 

Actually train it to a half decent standard. 
 

Take it out when trained and shoot game over it. Proper rough shooting. 
 

Some of the best says I’ve ever had have been taking a handful of birds over my dog. 
 

I think my best days last season was running my springer for about an hour. I think we took 4 birds with 4 shots. 2 singles and a left and right, one of which was a runner that my dog took the line on and picked a good 150+ yards away. 
 

Fanastic day. 

Correct sir

[marsh man]

If you started shooting late in life then it's not so much as( age thing ) as you tend to look forward to any new form of shooting and you still enjoy the type of shooting you like best .

By starting young it is nigh on impossible to maintain the same spark 40 / 50 years later , I loved all forms of shotgun shooting and anything to do with field sports , we had a few Hare coursing days when it was legal and I went on them all , also some field trials and again I could always be relied on to be there , fowling was my first love and still is up to a point but the days of crouching down the side of creeks and dykes in all weather conditions in the early hours of the morning have long lost it's appeal , the same as going on the 1st of September , I went on the first morning when I was 13 and went every first morning after that till I was 70 a total of 57 years , I must admit the last two or three early mornings I was turning out was purely through old habits and I didn't really have any intention of shooting any duck , I have paid this years subs but I won't be going till the end of October at least and this season could easily be my last.

I still very much enjoy pigeon shooting but for only short durations , three to four hours is my maximum and I can now pick and choose when I go with now being retired having plenty of time on my hands .

Game shooting I still like to be part of the day , weather it is beating , driving , picking up or standing with a novice gun , standing on a peg play my back up a bit and even on a cock day I avoid standing on a peg and stand well back and do a bit of picking up , what I have found with the older guns is the day is more of a social event than about how much shooting they are going to get and numbers don't get mentioned as much as they once did.

What I now like the most as some have already said, is just to be out with my dog and gun and just go for a nice potter around , if I get one bird and he do a good retrieve then that have made my day , I now let him pick up more pigeons than I used to as he enjoy his day out as much, if not more than me , and not only that the ones he brought back to the hide haven't got to be picked up when we have finished .

I think now that the years are rolling on I still enjoy the countryside as much as I ever did and the interests in shooting is still there but only on a lot lesser scale .

 

[Gerry78]

On 30/07/2021 at 17:12, grahamch said:

Have just paid my subs for my pheasant syndicate and helped put the birds in pens last week and we now have a rota to check pens, feed etc. 

Am really struggling to raise any enthusiasm to go and take my turn, I think it gets more difficult each year as I get older - do any other members find this happens?

Still keen enough to go fowling and looking to start deer stalking but reared pheasants are becoming harder to justify to myself and find am questioning the morality and sustainability of reared bird shooting. Think this will be my last season. 

 

 

Very good post the same situation happened to me a lot of years ago I was in a small pheasant shoot rearing our own birds doing work days feeding etc I took a bad feeling toward doing all the work for not enough birds being properly hunted I also had a young family with commitments and a job with shift work I ended up packing the pheasant shooting in and just stuck to Duck clubs My wee club (Ducks)a lot more lead back couple workdays fixing hides etc See how you go this season don’t rush into leaving I still get the notion to go out the odd Saturday for walked up pheasants but with me not willing to put the work in that’s not a possibility now unless I book somewhere Hopefully you’ll enjoy the season 👍I don’t think age really matters we all get doubtful sometimes 

[Scully]

If you’re not enjoying it then stop doing it, it’s as simple as that. 
As for morals, if you’re a syndicate member in a driven bird shoot of any size, then you’re in no position to criticise other driven shoots. That’s simply hypocrisy. 

[Walker570]

Well I have sneekily slid into my 81st year this week and as far as I am concerned there are not enough hours in the day and not enough days in the week.  VERY rarely dies a day go by that I do not have a shotgun or rifle in my hand and I have 18 days driven booked for the coming season starting this next week for a traditional over the hedges partridge day.  I do keep to 80 to 125 bird days as to be honest I get as much pleasure out of meeting new folks and seeing some good shooting as I doing shooting myself. I re book each year on one or two shoots...Grimsthorp springs to mind ... a small informal driven day, thre or four beaters and the keeper driving some outside covers to eight or nine guns for 60-70 birds with all the trappings of a normal driven day. Huge fun AND the one thing most of these serious big bag days oes not produce and that is ANTICIPATION  ....to me the anticipation at the peg as to whether I will get a nice bird or two is a large part of my pleasure. If I knew I was going to see a couple of hundred over me then honestly I might just as well go clay shooting.  I am not walking as well as I used to so walked up days unfortunately are gone.

BUT as the saying goes, they will have to lever my hands from the gun/rifle stock on the fatal day.

If you feel like Graham then sell your guns and go play bridge at the old peoples home.

[JDog]

You are a fine example to many of us Walker570. Long may you continue to get out and do what you do.

[WalkedUp]

I wish I had less enthusiasm to shoot. Despite working very long hours self employed and having a young family I find I have a unstoppable drive to be out in the field, shooting multiple times a week. Much to my wife’s annoyance. 

[Aled]

If its any consolation  i do not have the same passion for sea trout fishing as i used to go. At one time I'd be out 4-5times a week until the early hours, i now enjoy my hour's fresh air then head home. Perhaps we have more sympathy with the quarry as we get older....however i am able to go rough shooting and wildfowling and as i enjoy "one for the pot" type of hunting i do still enjoy that. 

Cheers

Aled

 

Edited September 9, 2021 by Aled

[Jim Neal]

I think Graham's forgotten about the topic he started!

[Gerry78]

On 09/09/2021 at 08:02, Walker570 said:

Well I have sneekily slid into my 81st year this week and as far as I am concerned there are not enough hours in the day and not enough days in the week.  VERY rarely dies a day go by that I do not have a shotgun or rifle in my hand and I have 18 days driven booked for the coming season starting this next week for a traditional over the hedges partridge day.  I do keep to 80 to 125 bird days as to be honest I get as much pleasure out of meeting new folks and seeing some good shooting as I doing shooting myself. I re book each year on one or two shoots...Grimsthorp springs to mind ... a small informal driven day, thre or four beaters and the keeper driving some outside covers to eight or nine guns for 60-70 birds with all the trappings of a normal driven day. Huge fun AND the one thing most of these serious big bag days oes not produce and that is ANTICIPATION  ....to me the anticipation at the peg as to whether I will get a nice bird or two is a large part of my pleasure. If I knew I was going to see a couple of hundred over me then honestly I might just as well go clay shooting.  I am not walking as well as I used to so walked up days unfortunately are gone.

BUT as the saying goes, they will have to lever my hands from the gun/rifle stock on the fatal day.

If you feel like Graham then sell your guns and go play bridge at the old peoples home.

That’s the best outlook to have 👍