Who runs their own shoot

Timmy k

Member
From other threads I see alot of you enjoy a days shooting, do any of you run your own or do you just buy your days as and when. And if its your own is it for social or economic purposes.
 

Optimus

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
North of Perth
From other threads I see alot of you enjoy a days shooting, do any of you run your own or do you just buy your days as and when. And if its your own is it for social or economic purposes.
I run my own, rear some birds an also buy some.its hard work an time consuming but I do enjoy it.
 

Timmy k

Member
I help a friend out who keepers a wild bird shoot coz his health isn't good. He calls me the under keeper but in truth I'm just the lakky. I enjoy it though. Filling the feeders can be a slog in some of the more inaccessible places but it keeps you fit and I have free run of the pests and get to fish the ponds.
 

toquark

Member
Bit of both. Part of a small DIY syndicate on a friends farm, we shoot about 4 days, plus a couple of invites through the season and a keepers/beaters day in January. Ideally the beating and picking up I do will cover the cost of the DIY job. Bought days are just as and when I’m feeling flush enough, may be a few over a season or there may be none.
 

som farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
somerset
run a small family/friend shoot, usually shoot well over 50%, every one has a good time, been offered money, to let a day, more than the annual cost, but have never done so. We have a very loyal group of beaters, who refuse any cash. We only shoot 2 or 3 days, like to aim for 60 bird days. In reality, it's not a great difference from a syndicate shoot, friends who shoot here, run similar, and we get invited back. The real difference, you can choose who comes, and it's a very good way, of thanking someone, for looking out to us, during the year. 45 years l have been keepering it, no longer shoot, but thoroughly enjoy that side, just as l put a lot of effort, into producing high birds, and always count the shots fired, av is 6 to 1. Long may it continue.
 

Phil P

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
North West
We have our own shoot, it’s basically my brother and a few of his mates running it between them selves with one of the older retired chaps been a sort of game keeper.
They do pay us though for the shooting rights and game crops etc but it’s nothing like they’d pay on a commercial shoot.
I’m not really that into it but did have a walk with them this morning.
Having them keeping an eye on the place when they’re feeding the birds etc is quite helpful as well, it’s stopped a lot of the hare corsing!
They’ve only been shooting mornings at the moment but averaging about 30 birds which isn’t to bad when there’s only usually 8-10 of them.
 
Run a small rough shoot here. Have 12 members and shoot over ten different farms and also some foreshore and marshland which is the highlight tbh.
Only for fun and the subs clear the expenses leaving every year a break even.
Have an annual dinner at the end of each season at a top restaurant and we call it our AGM so we can drink too much and smoke a few cigars without the “hens”.
Always aim to get a day in every week but invariably skip one or two but generally have 10 shoots/season.
Have some great memories from it and it is the highlight of the winter for me.
Work pressures and family problems just melt away when you are out on the marsh with the dogs, the smell of the sea and the call of the curlew.
 

Longlowdog

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Aberdeenshire
I used to run a small shoot on the estate I worked on in The Lakes, a few wild birds and put down a some ex-layers and friends only shooting. I now run my wee 65 acres with wild pheasant shooting in mind but now I own my wee bit of paradise and see my broods of wildies coming along the desire to shoot them has gone. Kinda the same with stalking which used to be my real passion, second only to foreshore shooting. Watching roe kids from birth (several times now) to maturity has taken the edge of my own personal desire to kill them. I still derive a lot of pleasure from putting others onto roe or watching folk shoot cocks only wild pheasant but now I think It is a case as has happened throughout the hunting world where the preservation of the asset for the future becomes more pertinent to folk as they age and realise they have had a good time and it is time to put something back to leave the system better than when they utilised it. I've no regrets about anything I've hunted/shot, and still believe that giving game a value and making it a revenue stream and a source of pride makes it more precious than banning shooting where animals are at the mercy of urban, uneducated thinking and regulation by folk who chase populist votes without concern or understanding of the things they claim to be protecting.
 

ajd132

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Suffolk
I did it for a few years with a couple of my mates helping me. (This was early twenties so about 6/7 years ago) it was good fun but incredibly time consuming and expensive for me at that age for 4 days shooting. My two friends got a day out of it to have who they wanted as they did most of the work. It was great fun but they both moved away so haven’t done it for a while. Now buy a day on an estate I manage which has a small shoot but incredibly good birds for Suffolk.
I would like to get something going again at home but need to find someone keen and local to do the leg work basically as I don’t have time (or inclination to be honest) to do it.
 

Highashgrange

Member
Arable Farmer
From other threads I see alot of you enjoy a days shooting, do any of you run your own or do you just buy your days as and when. And if its your own is it for social or economic purposes.

We have a syndicate shoot here for about 30 years. I personally don’t shoot nor interested but my father did up until 2 years ago. The deal is we provide the game covers (countrywide stewardship). The shoot pay us £500/ac for those areas which is about 7 acres all dotted about. Biggest plot is 0.5 acres and they are sited to suit cropping not shooting such as field corners or wet areas. We also get the stewardship money but we buy the seeds and manage them. We also get a full gun on the shoot which is now £3600/year. Father used to shoot it but we now give our days away to friends mostly. If it’s somebody we don’t know we get the cash back. They shoot 12 times so it’s basically £300/day and generally the syndicate shoot 150-200 birds.

The shoot itself buys the birds, feed and does all the pen maintenance. They have to have full insurance and then we have a separate policy ourselves against them under advice from a solicitor. They use their own shoot wagon and quad bike.

I believe they then all pay a set price per head for food at a local pub although I’ve never been and the guns cover the beaters food as well.

Biggest issue for me is that out of all the guns and beaters (30 odd people) none are farming stock so have little understanding of the countryside so they drive where they shouldn’t at times and I occasionally find spent cartridges dotted about.

All tallied up the value to us is pushing £10,000 per year before seed costs and establishment etc is removed but I wouldn’t miss it if it folded.

Also as there’s 12 guns x £3600 per year of money handed out we stay well clear of being involved because there’s VAT and TAX to think about.
 

Dry Rot

Member
Livestock Farmer
Initially, I rented 600 acres of neighbouring land that was being planted up for forestry and tried to run it as a commercial shoot, but that didn't really work for me so i gave it up. The owners invited me back to do deer control, with no money changing hands, but I refused and offered them an alternative. I offered to control the deer and manage the game in return for the privilege of flying a hawk, running a dog, and catching perhaps 20 birds/season with the hawk. The owners would have several family days each year with plenty of birds as I would ensure that.

That worked well until the land was sold several seasons later and my interests had changed anyway. I had some fantastic flights and indelible memories. I flew a peregrine at introduced grey partridges for a few season until the trees got too big, then a goshawk which was more suited to the ground. One flight at a hen pheasant with the gos was 1,400 metres measured off the plan. Another flight as a partridge with the goshawk had a wild peregrine join in the flight. The partridge escaped! I don't think I ever caught the annual limit but it was huge fun trying! I had a lot of fun trying to catch woodcock over a pointer but the hawk only managed to catch one in three years! I'd catch a pheasant perhaps once in three outings. Frankly, that rather spoilt me for shooting as it always seems such a waste when one falls to a shot and I think of the sport it could have given -- and still escaped! :)
 

som farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
somerset
We have a syndicate shoot here for about 30 years. I personally don’t shoot nor interested but my father did up until 2 years ago. The deal is we provide the game covers (countrywide stewardship). The shoot pay us £500/ac for those areas which is about 7 acres all dotted about. Biggest plot is 0.5 acres and they are sited to suit cropping not shooting such as field corners or wet areas. We also get the stewardship money but we buy the seeds and manage them. We also get a full gun on the shoot which is now £3600/year. Father used to shoot it but we now give our days away to friends mostly. If it’s somebody we don’t know we get the cash back. They shoot 12 times so it’s basically £300/day and generally the syndicate shoot 150-200 birds.

The shoot itself buys the birds, feed and does all the pen maintenance. They have to have full insurance and then we have a separate policy ourselves against them under advice from a solicitor. They use their own shoot wagon and quad bike.

I believe they then all pay a set price per head for food at a local pub although I’ve never been and the guns cover the beaters food as well.

Biggest issue for me is that out of all the guns and beaters (30 odd people) none are farming stock so have little understanding of the countryside so they drive where they shouldn’t at times and I occasionally find spent cartridges dotted about.

All tallied up the value to us is pushing £10,000 per year before seed costs and establishment etc is removed but I wouldn’t miss it if it folded.

Also as there’s 12 guns x £3600 per year of money handed out we stay well clear of being involved because there’s VAT and TAX to think about.
empty cartridge cases, we run a sweepstake for, total head shot, and total empty cartridge's, in the 'bucket', at the end. One of the beaters has a clicker, clicker to cases count, is remarkedly close. Just one way to stop the cases being left about,
Used to shoot, at one place, where they liked the cartridges left, at the stand, to give an 'idea' to a gun, of how many birds, they were likely to 'see'. Not for me though.
 

Longlowdog

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Aberdeenshire
I've fallen out with a few very 'important' people whilst beating on a shoot that attracted royalty and the very rich. I knew for a fact that pick up your own cases was an instruction and I never let a gun leave a peg without telling them to do so. I've also told a multi-millionaire I'd rip off his head and defecate down his neck when he thought the chance to bag a woodcock was worth putting a load of 6s within 5 feet of my head at 15 yards. Shoot etiquette/safety is something that means a great deal to me but it appears to be falling out favour with new guns being raised to shoot on commercial shoots where manners are not even mentioned in the morning briefing. M.H Beaufoy's If A Sportsman True You'd Be poem should be taught to every person before they are given even an air rifle to plink cans in the back yard.
 

No wot

Member
Have small shoot here , a good friend does the keepering , shoot 3 times a yr , put a few hundred birds down (shoot 60/80 qualitybirds each shoot), have about 6 covers (wild bird cover ,mid tier ) & 3 spinners , our family have shot our farm for 70yrs or so yrs , often when I'm at my peg I often think of all the old boys ( that I remember as a child ) coming here and having a great day out, standing where I'm standing and thinking my lad who's 16 will hopefully stand here in 40yrs time thinking the same , (Chris Packham permitting)
 

ajcc

Member
Livestock Farmer
Shoot in a farm syndicate that has three or four “work days” which everyone contributes on. Also all 4 pen maintenance is allocated to four teams .
Shoot is stand the am and beat the pm or vice.versa. Shoot every week for average 60 pheasants. 18 members pay £1 k p/a couple of guys do daily feeding/ keepering . Lot of woods about 10 acres of plots lot of dogs and twenty folk have a great day every week!!!
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 79 42.0%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 66 35.1%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.0%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 7 3.7%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

  • 1,290
  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
Top