Short notice day out.

[London Best]

I don’t very often manage to go rough shooting any more, doing mostly driven days. But around once a season S usually invites me for a walk round his place, generally during the last week in January. It is always a short notice affair, but I was surprised to receive a call at 4pm yesterday to see if I was available today. Well, obviously!

Arriving as arranged at 10am I met up with S and his other guests, R, an old acquaintance, and R’s son A whom I had not met before. As usual on these jaunts, S did not carry a gun.

The higher ground being a little misty, S made an executive decision that we would start with the pond where visibility was a little better. I was sent off to place A just off one corner of the pond and take the other corner myself. The pond is perhaps two hundred yards long by thirty wide at the widest point, maybe fifteen yards wide at the end where A and I were stood. The far end is boggy and can, and indeed did hold a few snipe, none of which offered a shot. The two long sides are overgrown quite thickly in places and are usually good for a pheasant or two. Thirty seconds after S and R started to walk towards us a cock popped out from under a holly about fifty yards from me, stopped, and promptly popped back in again. Suddenly two duck were in the air and headed over me. At my shots, more duck rose and two went past A as I reloaded to look up and see two more heading my way. As I reloaded again, a shout from S and two hen pheasants came to me.......only to be missed both barrels! A pheasant then gave A a shot, also missed. Daisy picked my four mallard in double quick time and I took her over to help A find his duck. As we walked back to join R, who was leaning on a gate watching the dog work, S had gone back up the pond with a bag of feed and flushed another cock which flew over R and was dropped very neatly.

We drove back up the hill and parked in a muddy field. S declared it to be time for elevenses. I glanced at my watch and was surprised to see that an hour had passed since we met. S had brought a pork pie and coffee, also mince pies. I had a bottle of sloe gin.

The rest of the shoot consists of walking hedges, one each side, with two guns heading each hedge at strategic gateways/corners, pushing birds toward the main event which is a wooded bank with a stream running along it’s lower edge. There were actually no further shots, except at squirrels, until we reached the bank. R dropped two squirrels with one shot with his 28 bore, and A shot another from the same tree.
The bank, almost a small wood, can be very good shooting, particularly for the gun placed on the lower side in the field over the stream. Last year ten birds were picked there, and four or six is not uncommon. Birds tend to try to sneak out halfway along the top edge and run or fly away very low. Last year my wife stood there as a stop and it worked very well. Today we placed a fertiliser bag on a stick thirty yards from the top edge of the bank. We need not have bothered, as the bank held only three pheasants. One, a hen, flew back over S’s head as he beat along the bank. They often do this and A had been left behind S for exactly this moment. He was caught napping on this occasion. Another hen flushed from the stream halfway along the bank, flew out into the field but turned and climbed over the bank to offer a beautiful shot to the fertiliser bag! The third, a cock, ran out at the top corner by my position as end stop an took flight to offer a rather inglorious ‘ flutter, flutter, bang’ sort of shot. Alas! Nothing offered for R, whom I had placed in what is usually the ‘pound seat’ at the end of the bank at the bottom.

As we walked towards the next hedge on the homeward leg a pigeon appeared high in the sky above us. Three of us paid it no attention, but A loaded quickly and fired, missing with the right barrel but connecting very solidly with his left barrel. A magnificent shot. In fact, the best shot of the day.  
As we walked the hedges towards the vehicles I concentrated on making sure Daisy worked the bottoms out thoroughly and this provided  a surprising amount of shooting for R and A. Every bird dropped required the dog’s help to retrieve, and the dog and I were invariably on the wrong side of a very thick hedge. There was only one runner, quickly dealt with, but each one fell in a thicket or awkward spot.

By now it was drizzling steadily and we decided enough was enough. Back at the cars, S broke out the coffee again whilst I dried my dog and A and R laid out the bag. We were very surprised to find that we had five Mallard, a Woodpigeon, five Squirrels, and eight Pheasants. 
Thanks to S, Happy New Years all round and away home just four hours and ten minutes after meeting up. Or it would have been, but S had to have five runs, each faster than the last, in order to coax his Hilux up the muddy slope to the road gate. The 110 never spun a wheel!  
Back home, I dried Daisy properly, dried and cleaned the gun, had a cup of tea and a hot shower. Later, I may fall, satisfied, into a bottle of single malt.

[bluesj]

All ways nice to get an unexpected day out.

Missed a couple this season because of work commitments☹️ but still  nice to get the invite.  

[Scully]

Just my sort of day LB! A mixed bag in good company, no one knowing exactly what to expect, but optimistic for a good outcome!

Well done, a good read. Enjoyed that. 👍

[jeffgg]

Cannot beat a good day out in the fresh air with like minded people good report 

[TIGHTCHOKE]

Sounds superb!  

[Spr1985]

Sounds like a great day was had by all involved 👌🏻

[snow white]

That’s what I am looking for instead of being ripped off on driven days 

[Walker570]

Super story, what it is really all about...DO NOT FORGET TO LOG THOSE SQUIRRELS ON HERE.  We need everyone to try and hit the 4000 mark.

[marsh man]

Brilliant report on what sounded a superb day , luckily I can still manage a few hours rough shooting and if I am honest I would prefer a good day tramping about the marshes and the out lying areas that are not included in the main shoot  than standing on a peg , the bag don't really matters as we have often walked all the rough areas out and shot very little , then we have days where the game larder look as if we have had a half tidy day on the pegs, that is the beauty of it , you just never know what is lurking in the grass ahead . 

[7daysinaweek]

I enjoyed that. Thank you for posting up.

atb