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How late is too late to drive birds ?


Walker570
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Yesterday up at Wappenshall they where obviously struggling for the bag and at 4..30pm set off to have another drive.  We declined to take part as I consider 3.30pm on any day the last drive should start. That gives the birds a good time to settle down to roost before dark, as mich for partridges who need to all get back to coveys to cooch up for the night.

If time is of the essence then don't hang around at refreshment times.

Your thoughts....

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Good man for making a stand. That time may not be too late in September but it will be in a month's time.

I had a day there some years ago and vowed never to go back. Poorly presented birds and carcases all over the place.

I declined to give a tip and explained the reason why to the owner.

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23 minutes ago, London Best said:

That is certainly too late for pheasants once the clocks go back, but is perhaps borderline acceptable for partridge this time of year. 
If the shoot was struggling to make a bag yesterday the outlook is not good for the rest of the season.

There’s more than one reason to struggle for a bag 

fox in drive 

wild dogs belonging to a lost hiker 

bad weather 

or 

it could have been down to the quality /ability of the guns 🤭

 

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we always used to finish at 3-3.30..........when the clocks go sidewards...have tea and buns then walk down to the hides on the flashes for the quack quacks

that was a full day...but with plenty of breaks for the dogs...who worked hard after the ducks at the end of the day

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Late enough in the day but i guess the hosts have to try and make the bag for the guns. Probably more than enough time for the birds to gather up and roost before dark but not really ideal.

We had a let day last season which was a disaster some of our steadiest drives just didnt perform and if it hadnt been for a unreal drive near the end to rescue it we may have had to do an extra one to make the bag so would have been pushing it timewise.

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Don’t think it’s about the bag it’s about the birds they will want to go back to there roost so give them plenty of time to get back that what walker570 is on about and I totally agree with him.

was in mid wales syndicate couple of years ago 3.30 and that was it we had the shots if we didn’t get the bag that was our fault Rob the keep was adamant 3.30 and that was it some guests could not understand it but like pointed out you had the shots 

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Depends on a lot of things including month, weather/light conditions, whether the birds are being driven back home. My pet hate, seen from a picker ups point of view is guns that insist on taking a long lunch, particularly when the clocks go back. Should be shooting through but then I have no say in the matter and am just there to do my job not run the day.

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10 minutes ago, Dave at kelton said:

Depends on a lot of things including month, weather/light conditions, whether the birds are being driven back home. My pet hate, seen from a picker ups point of view is guns that insist on taking a long lunch, particularly when the clocks go back. Should be shooting through but then I have no say in the matter and am just there to do my job not run the day.

Later on that is true Dave. I prefer to shoot straight through with maybe a couple of 15 min pauses for refreshment. This particular day it was obvious from the very first drive they would be struggling to make the bag and that was not my opinion. I had a friend with me who is an occasional game shooter but is fully aware of what goes on and he commented after the first two drives that birds where a bit scarce. BUT that was not my concern , it was that guns would probably not be on pegs until 5pm so the drive would probably not finish until after 5.30pm so even now end of Sept into October I personally believe that is far too late.

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49 minutes ago, snow white said:

Don’t think it’s about the bag it’s about the birds they will want to go back to there roost so give them plenty of time to get back that what walker570 is on about and I totally agree with him.

was in mid wales syndicate couple of years ago 3.30 and that was it we had the shots if we didn’t get the bag that was our fault Rob the keep was adamant 3.30 and that was it some guests could not understand it but like pointed out you had the shots 

several years ago a local shoot captian/owner........hosted a day for the city boys.....they wanted food and 100 bird day..........at the end of the day the bag was 12 birds and the guns accused Richard of not providing the birds..............Richard took his shot counter out of his pocket and politly told them they had 678 shots during the day ...so they must have been shooting at something...:lol:

true story that...think Marsh man knows whome im talking about....(Henham Park area )

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6 hours ago, Walker570 said:

Yesterday up at Wappenshall they where obviously struggling for the bag and at 4..30pm set off to have another drive.  We declined to take part as I consider 3.30pm on any day the last drive should start. That gives the birds a good time to settle down to roost before dark, as mich for partridges who need to all get back to coveys to cooch up for the night.

If time is of the essence then don't hang around at refreshment times.

Your thoughts....

This. If you are having a long lunch then either start earlier OR drive beats that don't involve walking a quarter of a mile or more to drive the birds.

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1 hour ago, Walker570 said:

Later on that is true Dave. I prefer to shoot straight through with maybe a couple of 15 min pauses for refreshment. This particular day it was obvious from the very first drive they would be struggling to make the bag and that was not my opinion. I had a friend with me who is an occasional game shooter but is fully aware of what goes on and he commented after the first two drives that birds where a bit scarce. BUT that was not my concern , it was that guns would probably not be on pegs until 5pm so the drive would probably not finish until after 5.30pm so even now end of Sept into October I personally believe that is far too late.

I agree and above all it is disrespectful to paying guns. Why not be honest at the start and offer a refund or future credit when you are likely to return. Even the best shoots have occasional set backs as I can testify as both picker up and paying gun. My guess is you won’t be back and their reputation in a small community has been diminished!

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8 hours ago, Walker570 said:

Yesterday up at Wappenshall they where obviously struggling for the bag and at 4..30pm set off to have another drive.  We declined to take part as I consider 3.30pm on any day the last drive should start. That gives the birds a good time to settle down to roost before dark, as mich for partridges who need to all get back to coveys to cooch up for the night.

If time is of the essence then don't hang around at refreshment times.

Your thoughts....

Struggling for the bag this early in the season , should be able to do it in one drive this early on. on a well run shoot that is

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I’ve just seen this post. I was on this day too. I thought there were plenty of birds in the drives as would be expected at this time of year. Some of the drives were stacked out with birds and showed several hundred over the guns easily. Considering the time of year I didn’t feel it was too late to finish as there was lots of daylight left after the last drive finished, it was September, I’d guess sunset was around 7pm so to finish at 5 ish probably gave more time for the ground to settle than finishing at 330 in early Jan. I also feel that there was plenty of shooting on the day and as a team we generally didn’t shoot very well (it was pretty breezy so the birds were shifting). I would estimate we shot about 5/1 which is quite a high average for traditionally shown partridges. I’ve shot at the shoot a few times over several years and always felt they always do their upmost to put a good day on for guns. Not connected to it in any way but I do think it’s one of the good ones. I’ll be back. I don’t want to start an argument with the OP but wanted to give a different perspective of the same day. 

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8 hours ago, chesterse said:

I’ve scanned through this conversation and can’t see any mention of late finishing and affecting lowly beaters. Talk about being taken for granted.

Agreed ,people seem to forget that staff on shoots already put in a long day to provide a normal program..

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