GROUSE SHOOTINGGrouse shooting - you have now chosen your days, signed the contract, paid the bill, booked the flight, paid the hotel deposit and are on your way! If you are going to be away on holiday in July and not contactable at the office, home or by mobile phone it is vital that you tell us how we can contact you if your grouse shooting is cancelled.
Our advice when booking a grouse shooting programme is to build some flexibility into your schedule. In other words do not plan to arrive the day before and leave the day after the last day of shooting as it may be possible for us to find an extra day to replace a cancelled day. You can bet your life that this will not be on the same day!
Joining instruction cards with a location plan of the moor will be sent to you in July. As well as giving you the name of the owner, host and head keeper it will also tell you where to meet, at what time and give you an emergency telephone number to ring if you get lost. We always like to attend our let days, to lead out to the moor in the morning so don’t panic!
At the hotel it is vital that you and the kitchen know what time you will need to leave to get to the moor on time. Know the procedure for unlocking the hotel’s gun safe and make sure that the key is available and not in the Manager’s pocket if he is due to arrive at work at 9.00 a.m. The day has been carefully planned and late arrival does not put your host or the head keeper into the best of moods.
On arrival at the moor you will meet your host and be introduced to your loader – you will probably not meet the keeper until lunchtime, as he will be running the beating line.
After drawing for your butt and being briefed on the programme for the day and safety you will proceed to the first line of butts
Once you arrive at your butt you should place your safety sticks in the front corners to delineate the safe arc of fire. Stand facing the front and have a practice swing with an empty gun, to make sure these are in the right place.
Get comfortable and make sure your shooting “companion” is out of your way, preferably on a shooting stick with ear muffs on – butt marker in hand to record the location of your dead birds.
Have a practice change of guns with your loader; relax and stay alert. There is usually no signal for the start of a drive but it is polite to let the other guns get into position before shooting. Check the location of any public footpaths and keep an eye on these throughout the drive. The two end guns must acknowledge the position of the flankers and it is polite to raise your hand to let them know that you know where they are. Also be aware that the flankers will probably be in range throughout the drive.
During the drive on no account should you shoot inside your sticks or swing through the line. Always remove the stock of the gun from your shoulder as you turn to take a bird behind the line, reposition your feet and mount the gun behind the line of neighbours butt.
When the beaters come in range the keeper will blow a horn to signal no more shooting “in front” i.e. towards the beating line although you can shoot “behind” until the end of the drive. It is no excuse to say you haven’t heard the horn – use your own judgement as well. If your view is obscured make sure your neighbour signals to you by raising their gun vertically and holding it away from their body until you acknowledge their signal.
Once there is “no more shooting in front” make sure you raise your barrels vertically and rest them on your shoulder. This is the convention for safety.
Even if a high grouse presents itself for what may be a perfectly safe shot in front after the horn has gone do not shoot it as it may give an incorrect signal to the other team members and someone may make a disastrous misinterpretation of your actions.
Try and remember where your shot birds have fallen and make sure they are all picked up. It is better to wait for a dog to retrieve them, as trampling over the area will destroy the scent.
There are usually five or six drives during the day and lunch on the moors tends to be an informal picnic taken outside if the weather is good or if wet in a lunch hut.
At the end of the day tip your loader and the head keeper - (in sterling) before heading home.
Taking grouse shooting is not quite as simple as picking up the telephone and making a booking. We like to interview all our grouse shooting clients and go through the arrangements in detail before a booking is made. A detailed written contract will be sent to the team leader, which covers almost all eventualities, so there can be no misunderstandings on the day
Why not start the process by contacting us, either by telephone or email? <Back
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